Good Day Mate

I like to think that America is one of the best, if not the best, country in the entire world.  However, it was sophomore year of college and I had never been out of the country.  Coming to Virginia Tech really opened my eyes to a variety of subjects and courses, one of which was a study abroad course that was offered the summer between my sophomore and junior year.  I was really hesitant because I didn't know how I could ever pay for a trip of this magnitude.  Oh yeah, the course was in Australia!  Eventually I brought it up to my parents and they, as they always do, laid out the pros and cons of this trip.  Turns out where I got a job which paid for my room and board, I was able to afford the trip and was ready to go as far away from my little home town as I could, literally.
I have always been on vacation with my parents, so navigating through the Charlotte Airport and LAX by myself was absolutely nerve racking.  Fortunately, this old couple noticed me in my Virginia Tech sitting by myself in the Charlotte Airport.  The man said he went to Clemson and even though they beat us in football that past fall, I was relieved to see a friendly face.  God was looking over me that day because they were originally from the states and had moved to Australia later in life.  They took me under their wing and I had someone to help get me through the maze of LAX.
After a thirteen hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, we landed in Brisbane, Australia.  As for the actual experience in Australia, it was a blur.  For one, just the experience being in such an exotic place made time fly by.  There were sixteen students from Virginia Tech and seven from San Diego State and we all became good friends.  I was only twenty at the time and, in Australia, the drinking age was eighteen so that's another reason it was a blur.  Finally, we actually did a lot of work over there.  The class was centered around sustainability and was a six credits so definitely not an easy course.  However, I had so much fun abroad.  I got to camp out in the Outback and watch kangaroos bounce across the weedy terrain, feed a family of wallabys, scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, perform community service on supposedly one of the oldest rain forests in the world, go skydiving, and many, many other things.
Overall the tip was amazing.  It was nice getting to go someplace different and I'm so very thankful for my parents for helping me pay for such a wonderful experience.  Neither of them have been out of the country so I felt selfish in a way, but I know they want me to be happy.  I say it was a once in a lifetime trip and certainly sky diving was, but I hope to return one day and revisit all the places I visited, but in more of a tame manner.