A Familiar Face in a Far Off Place

There’s no such thing as too many fudge fingers.

While keeping a blog has been a nice way to share my experiences with my friends and family, and sometimes even strangers, it does not compare to having someone physically by your side to brighten the journey. This is a truth that I discovered this week when I was blessed with the company of my first, and only, visitor, Emily Crook.

Emily and I have been by each other’s side since August 26th, 2017, when we moved into Sharp 301 and became the most dissimilar dynamic duo on RPI’s campus.

Emily, with her luscious, brown curls, tall stature, and carefree personality, perfectly contrasts my thick, blonde locks, compact build, and rigid character; yet, from day one, we were able to bond over our similar interests, like physics, knitting, tea, and, most recently, vegetarianism.

Me, Emily, and Sophia Cahillane outside of Sharp Hall

After committing to studying abroad, I was sad knowing that I would be abandoning Emily for our, often snowy and frigid, Thursday-night walks back from symphonic band rehearsal, and I couldn’t imagine not being able to tease her every day by asking how her “yahh-gurt” was for breakfast.

About one month before my departure, walking back from another patience-testing sociology lecture, Emily began a conversation by saying, “So, Gretch. I have something to tell you.” As would happen with most people, I began running through every possible scenario in my head as to where this may lead. Was she transferring to another college? Did something happen in her current relationship? Or, even worse, had I offended her earlier that day when I tried to stop her from eating the black bean soup with bacon hidden in it? My mind was reeling with so many unfavorable circumstances, that I could not have even imagined what was to come next.

She continued: “So, I was going to wait to tell you this until later, but I’ve been talking to my mom, and I have to book flights and everything, so I thought I should tell you that I’m coming to visit you in Australia for Spring Break.”

(Unfortunately, I did not take this photo.)

Within seconds, we were screaming for joy, running across campus like madwomen, already rambling about all of the plans that we would make for a time that seemed so far distant in the future.

Let’s Get this Party Started

Between my first day in Australia and the day of Emily’s arrival, my life feels like a blur, going through the prescribed motions of being a tourist, while trying to keep up with my obligations as a student and researcher. This was a balancing act unlike any I had tried to perform before, but, fortunately, a few well-deserved weeks of rest after New Zealand allowed me to recharge before the whirlwind of a week that was about to begin.

It all started at 7:00 AM on Monday, March 4th with a Hollywood-esque reunion in Sydney International Airport; devoid of makeup and smelly from our respective travels, we certainly did not resemble movie actresses, but our incessant hugging and spinning belonged in a Hallmark feature film.

After a quick wash up back home and a brief tour of campus, Emily was already off on her own touring Hornby lighthouse and the surrounding beaches just north of Sydney, while I finished up classes for the day. Meeting back at the house around 6, we then packed a quick veggie burger dinner and walked down to Coogee Beach for a perfect, but a bit windy, evening by the water.

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  The Art Gallery of NSW

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On the morning of day two, Emily made her way into Sydney for the “I’m Free” tour of the town, while I had my long day of Chinese class. The highlight of the day was to come later, when we traveled the 3.5 mile Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk to Bondi Beach. Upon our arrival, we grabbed a delicious take-away dinner from Nudefish Poké to enjoy another meal by the beach.

Wednesday’s plans had been in the works since the day that Emily surprised me with her plans to visit. Knowing that this may be the only time that we would be in Sydney together, we thought that it would only be appropriate to see a show at the Sydney Opera House during her stay.

With only a few attractive and reasonably-priced options for the week of March 4th, we decided to see The Internet, an LA-based R&B band that neither of us had heard much of. I spent weeks on Spotify cramming their soulful lyrics into my head, but this did nothing to prepare me for what we were to experience that night.

Entering the Opera House Concert Hall, I was shocked by the venue’s small size; with the location’s world-wide prestige, I imagined a much more overwhelming interior. To add to that, the acoustics were mediocre at best, nothing compared to RPI’s EMPAC concert hall, but I can’t say there was much to be heard over the screaming of enamored fans.

Although most of the band’s songs were unfamiliar to me, Emily and I danced our way through every tune, having the time of our lives. Our climax was reached with the song “Girl,” a song that mostly repeats the word “girl” over and over again, making it easy for newbies like us to catch on.

As two of the first people to skip out of the Opera House, we had enjoyed the show, but needed to get home to rest up for our big trip to the Blue Mountains on Thursday!

With an 8:00 AM departure, breakfasts, lunches, and snacks packed, we were on our way to Katoomba for a day of hiking. Little did we know that the day would involve much more stair climbing than any traditional “bush-walking.”

We meet again, Three Sisters.

We made our first wrong decision by climbing down the “Giant Staircase,” so named because it descends (or ascends, depending on how you are looking at it) over 800 steps into Jamison Valley. Naive as I am, I didn’t possibly imagine that we would have to climb up those 1000 feet if we traveled out of the park a different way. Our thighs were not thanking me the next day, especially after climbing over the height of the Empire State Building.

Grabbing a well-deserved seat at a local cafe in Leura on our way out, we took a quick rest before taking the train back to Sydney. After a scrumptious pasta dinner, we headed out to The Soda Factory for an International Women’s Day Eve Beyoncé tribute night, arguably the best music that we heard all week.

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  The Soda Factory

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  Emily Hanks and the Band

On Friday, Emily headed out for a final beach trip to Manly Beach while I caught up on some work and cleaning at the house. In the evening, we reunited for a music festival, called SummerFest, at the University of Technology Sydney. While the music was quite awful and the food not much better, we danced our way through the event, not caring about anything else but the fact that we were together for another night.

With Saturday, the final day had come, and we had big plans awaiting. Since our previous trip to Bondi, I had been pressuring Emily to get a tattoo as her “souvenir” from Australia, with no better time or place to have it done than at Bondi Ink. Although she was hesitant at first, within a few days, our roles were reversed, and, with almost every hour, we were discussing the tattoo again: where it would be placed, what would it be, when would we go.

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  $10 Tempeh, eggplant and tumeric rice – yum!

That morning, we took a long bus ride down to Bondi to schedule her appointment for that evening. Then, not wanting to waste any time, we trekked back to Glebe for a delicious and inexpensive lunch at the Vegan Day Out and an incredibly successful shopping trip at the Glebe Markets. Sure, Emily may not get many chances to wear a burgundy, full-sequined cocktail dress, but when it’s only $5, there is no way that that can be passed up!

Running back home around 3, we packed a quick salmon and asparagus dinner to be enjoyed once the tatting had been completed.

Less than four hours later, Emily’s upper forearm was adorned with a beautifully-sketched sakura flower, a tribute to her birth in Japan and middle name, “Hana,” which means flower in Japanese.

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For me, whenever I look at this, I will be reminded of this amazing trip that we had, forever grateful for the few nights of sleep that she sacrificed for a week that I will never forget. I miss you already, Em 🙂

Now, if only her flights can stop being delayed, so she can make it back to school on time for the second half of the semester!

What’s Next?

Now that fall is in the air, the weather is looking bleak, so that means no more beach days for me until my trip to Cairns at the end of March. For now, I’ll be focused on my studies and trying to get acclimated to the new time difference, since Australia does not observe daylight savings until a month after the US. And even then, since it will be Fall here, we will be moving backwards, shortening the time difference by yet another hour.

I recommend not trying to think about it too hard. It’s already given me too many headaches.