What I'll miss

Hey there,

It’s now less than 2 weeks until I leave, and the closeness of my departure day has me thinking a lot about the things I’ll miss most from home. There’s things that are a given like family, friends, certain foods etc., but there’s a few other things that I personally will really miss:

1. Being near the beach

Even in summer I don’t usually visit the beach a whole lot, even though it’s literally less than a 5 minute drive, but I’m so used to it just being there – seeing it when I drive around, feeling the breeze when walking down Main St, being able to go and sit there whenever I want. Oxford is basically in the middle of nowhere, and is over 5 hours from the nearest coastline, so I’ll miss the freedom of having it there whenever I want to go or see it.

2. Having my own room

This might seem like a bit of a stupid one considering I CHOSE to live on campus and therefore have a roommate, but I wanted an authentic college experience which included doing this. I’ve never had a problem rooming with people before, but rooming with someone for 4 months is a whole different ballpark. I know I’ll have my own sections of the room and all that, it’s more just not having my own homey space to go when I want alone time – I’ll always be around people, which for an ambivert like myself can be hard sometimes. Hopefully I’m given a roommate that I get along with and understands boundaries and I should be okay.

3. 1 day at Uni

I’m pretty lucky at Deakin in that all my classes are generally available almost every day in the week, so often I’m able to fit all or most in one day. Also, attendance isn’t compulsory at Deakin and lectures can be streamed or watched later online, so I can easily limit the amount of days I have to hike up to campus. In the US, though, attendance is generally compulsory and classes aren’t always as flexible, so my classes this upcoming semester will likely be spread across multiple days. While it means I may only have class for a few hours each day, I’ll just miss having weekdays that are completely free from commitments.

4. Driving my car

I love driving and I love my car, so I’ll miss having the freedom to jump in it and drive to wherever I want whenever I want. I’ve got hopes that I’ll be able to go on some road trips and hopefully I’ll be able to drive at some point, but I’ll likely have to rely on public transport or friends to get me places most of the time. Having to look up bus timetables will throw me back to being 16/17 and running down my street to make the bus (where the trip would take 4x longer than it would by car – rip).

5. Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat Cheese

My. Word. This is my favourite feta around. I’m so badly going to miss being able to chow down a few of these cubes with some Savoys for a solid salty snack. Unfortunately they don’t list any US stockists on their website (they’re an Australian brand) so it looks like I’m going to have to go without :(

6. Australian cash

I don’t always use cash in Australia because I mainly use my card, but I’ve already got my hands on some US cash and it feels soooo weird (because it’s paper). Also, don’t even start me on the absence of different colours, that’s going majorly confuse me.

7. YOMG burgers

I love going for a good burg sesh with my friends at YOMG to have my all-time favourite Yo-My With Cheese (add bacon, remove ketchup). I find it hard to believe that I will ever find a burger that matches up to a Yo-My, so it will be a dearly missed part of my life for 5 months.

8. People understanding my bogan dialect

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t always have the most formal or appropriate way of speaking (around those I’m comfortable with). I use typical Aussie slang, I swear too much, and I talk really fast. It’s going to be weird not having people understand what I mean when I say, “my word!”, “let’s go for a Maccas run”, “lets chuck a mainy” or “yeah nah/nah yeah”. I remember an American friend once pulled me up on my use of “that’s weird as”, asking “weird as what?”. It’s a whole different kind of language barrier where you speak the same language but have different phrases, and it’s going to be simultaneously entertaining and frustrating to constantly consciously altering my language.

9. Item prices

I’m yet to travel to a country where taxes are not included in an item’s price and it’s (essentially) mandatory to add a tip on top as it is in the US. It just makes everything seem way more expensive than it should be and it’s already annoying me. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but the idea seems irritating right now.

10. Australian reality TV

Conveniently two of my favourite Aussie reality TV shows have just started as I’m about to leave – Australian Survivor and The Bachelor Australia (and soon to be The Bachelorette Australia). I’m pretty sure these shows aren’t on any US channels, and generally Channel 10’s online streaming site Ten Play doesn’t allow visitors outside Australia onto their site, so I’m going to have to be creative with how I can keep up with these shows. It’s not the end of the world if I can’t, but I wait all year for these shows and really hope I can somehow watch them.

This list could go on but these are just a few of the things closest to me that I’ll really miss about home. I would have added vegemite to this list (a staple in my everyday diet), but you best believe I’m taking a tube over with me (and it’ll also give me the chance to show non-Australians the correct way and amount of vegemite to apply to toast). I know I’ll experience times of homesickness, missing these things and my friends and family, but I’m sure all the fun I’ll be having will be able to compensate and get me through it. Only 13 days to go now!

- Emily xx