Another reflective moment by Kelly Rehan

It's often easy to lose touch with reality (to some degree) when you live in Oz.

It occured to me that I'm over halfway through with my 9-month stint in Australia. Today I thought about my initial expectations about this whole thing and compared them to what I've actually done and learned so far.

Here are my findings:

1. I never EVER thought I'd travel like I have this past 4 1/2 months. Sounds crazy, but I thought I'd explore primarily NSW and possibly make a trip out to Melbourne. Travel, however, is a fixture of the Australian lifestyle--just like work, really. Through meeting Aussies and embracing the culture, my plans naturally changed.

I never in my life imagined I'd snorkel the Great Barrier Reef or see a wild koala close up along Great Ocean Road. Lots of "greats" during my time here so far. I've even been to New Zealand--now that's one place I couldn't have told you a thing about a year ago.

At heart, I'm a home body. But at the same time, I call many places home. There's Sioux City, Iowa, of course. And Iowa City. And Chicago. And now Sydney and Wollongong Australia. While I feel an enormous sense of comfort in these places, I'm thrilled beyond words to discover that I can and love to travel.

Besides my visits to New Zealand, the East coast and Melbourne, I have trips slated for Tasmania in August and (hopefully) Perth, Western Australia in September or October. I will undoubtedly be flat broke when I return to the States in November. I'm fairly sure I will be eating nothing but ramen noodles during the entire months of October and most of November. But I will have 100% certainty that it was beyond worth it.

2. It's often downplayed, but the primary reason I'm here is to earn my Master of Journalism degree. Ultimately, I hope to pursue my doctorate and teach at the university level. This goal, thankfully, is still in tact. I had exceptionally high expectations for this academic program because my experience at the University of Iowa was so fantastic. While some areas of the program have been disappointing, I am blown away by most of my professors. One in particular has only strengthened my desire to teach. Strangely, I am among her first-ever students. I can only imagine how impressive she'll be in a few years.

3. If you've known me for about 5 minutes, you'll figure out that I'm pretty anal. I like knowing what's going on--I always have a plan and I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my life. I've always hated this about myself. I feel a certain jealously when I meet someone who just lets life come to them instead of trying to intercept it before it actually happens. Before coming to Australia, that carefree attitude was part of the picture I had in my mind of the typical Aussie.

I can't really say if that impression is entirely true (which it probably isn't), but I hoped it would rub off on me anyway. And in a sense it has. My responsible self says I should just go back to the States and get a job to pay off the mountain of debt I've accrued the past few months. But I don't know if I necessarily want to go back. Am I still looking for jobs four months in advance? Absolutely. Am I wracking my brain over what I'm going to do with my life? Every damn day. But am I going to go back to the States just because I think I should? I'm not so sure. I guess I'll just have to wait to see where I'm pulled in a few months.

Who knows? Maybe I will extend my stay in Oz. Or maybe I've been here too long and am simply losing touch with reality.