Livin' the Aussie Life

Yesterday, as I looked over my schedules for work and school, I became very frustrated. Here I was living in an amazing country (no, continent!) on the other side of the world and nearly all of my evenings were already full of classes and shifts at the boarding house. When was I going to find the time to actually go out and do anything? It really doesn't help that the majority of my friends are also residents working similar hours and it is often nothing short of a miracle to find days, especially on the weekends, when we are all free. I am beginning the last leg of my stay here in Australia and part of me feels as though I could've seen so much more in a one month visit than I will have at the end of my year here. (For those of you who have been keeping up with this blog, I'm sure you realize how ridiculous this sounds considering how much I've gotten to do, but bear with me and my little pity party...)
As I was bemoaning this fact to my fellow resident, Michelle, she countered with a surprising question: "Isn't this why you came to Australia? To live here?" It took me a second, but I realized she was right. I hadn't come to Australia solely to be a tourist. I wanted to experience the real Australia with real Australians. I hadn't come for a quick jaunt through cliched Aussie tourist traps but for the day-to-day grind with all of its simple routines and minute eccentricities. To see what the everday life of an Aussie is really like. To pick up random Aussie slang and become familiar with the local haunts and treasured hole-in-the-walls. To form friendships and listen to my 8th graders tell me about their lives in the country or explain that there is no such thing as a period in Australian punctuation, "it's a full stop."
Sure, I still want to visit said tourist traps and take entirely too many photos of the Opera House, but at the end of my year here, it will be all of the little experiences that will be the most meaningful. Instead of madly racing about attempting to squeeze as much as I can into these next four months, I need to simply let each day unfold for itself. For example, I got to watch my first dragon boat race last Sunday with no scheduling or spending on my part. I just happened to have a friend who had a friend who was competing and things just fell into place. I was able to experience a brand new sport and Aussie pasttime without having to do a thing.
Now, that's not to say that I'm leaving everything to chance. I did just book my fall break trip to the Great Barrier Reef several days ago and am eagerly anticipating my first snorkeling experience and subsequent trek into an actual rainforest. And I'm hoping to take a minitrip to Central Australia in June to see Ayers Rock and the Australian outback. But overall, I 've decided to just take it as it comes. Between homework and my thesis and work (and additional work at the Junior School), attempting to find time is almost a full time job in itself. And seeing as how my visa only allows me to work 20 hours a week, that simply will not do. :)
Cheers!