It’s hard to believe we’re winding down through our final month here in Australia. This week is Week 12, the final week of classes, and next week is reading week. Then we have exams and go home. It doesn’t seem real that it’s already coming to an end. I haven’t been on to write in a bit because I have been wrapping up my assessments for the semester. I had an essay due in International Relations last Friday and the final portion of my semester assessment for Sustainable Design Principles is due this Monday. That class has been killing me — it’s hard to believe I used to think I wanted to be an architect but this course has shown me that I definitely do not have an interest in that. I have spent the semester designing a (hypothetical) sustainable building for a neighboring town. This has been a challenging task because the expectations of the assignment are not terribly clear. To say the least, I’m glad that this task is almost done. The final assessment for Intro to Electronic Music is also due this Wednesday.

I only have two traditional finals this semester, one for Intro to Environmental Sustainability and the other for International Relations. The first is on June 9 (bummed because it’s a Saturday) and the other is June 21. The exam for Environmental Sustainability is 100 multiple choice questions and the International Relations exam is 6 short answer questions based on the homework questions we’ve had this trimester. Given the amount of down time we have to study for these exams, I’m fairly confident they’ll go just fine.

Aside from preparing for exams and the end of the school portion of our study abroad experience, everyone in the program fully intends to make the most of the time we have left here having as much fun as possible, exploring and re-exploring our area as much as we can. It’s certainly going to be different not living in a tropical beach paradise anymore when we go back. I’ll be moving into an apartment in Lowell by south campus in July and headed back to working my 3 (could end up being 4) jobs for the rest of the summer.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the experience I’ve had here. Studying abroad has truly changed my life for the better and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. If you have the chance, don’t hesitate to go. You won’t regret it.