Here we are: this is the last post that I will write in Australia.
Mind you, this is not the last one that will be about Australia. Because man, I still have 34 shades of Sydney to go haha… What a stupid challenge xD ! No seriously, I am cool with that: I have my whole life to achieve that set of drawings and I am far from being short of ideas. ‘just a bit concerned about time management though..
This post will not be the last one about Australia also because I still have unpublished or not yet completed drawings on hand. Actually, there are even drawings related to Australia that I really want to make but that I have not even started yet.
C’est pour dire les copains!
I am leaving, but it is far from being over. It is only the beginning actually. (et c’est là où je sors ma cape de super héros et je survole Gotham city avec une musique stylée en background) (ok il est vraiment tard là).
One year exactly has passed (remember? “The time is very important!”) since I left Geneva with my blond hair and my teddy bear pyjama. Although I am not blond anymore (finally!), I am still wearing my teddy bear pyjama right now but I will abandon it here. I made up my mind: not enough room in my suitcase and this thing now just looks like a kind a musty fungi as my best friend has pointed out during one of our Skype session (merci pour ta franchise Vic). Tu as fait ton temps fidèle pyjama: Thank you for keeping me warm during these two harsh australien winters (je crois que j’ai oublié ce qu’était un hiver européen et je vais vraiment prendre lourd en rentrant).
Honestly, I won’t even try to make a review of the entire year in this post even though people keep asking my top ten/top five/top thirty-four-and-half of my experiences here. And I am always like… “mm, let me think about..” and finish up with “..Sorry, I have no clue…”
The true is that I don’t have any particular and sensational events that I could show off about such as “a skydiving jump in the sunrise” or “kissing an alligator while wearing a flamingo costume” (le truc qui n’a pas de sens) or stuff like that. I would say that it is more an accumulation of small little things, small events and small steps that I took.. all of that taken together, have turned the whole exchange into something very special to me.
Or I do have few of those “crazy” experiences that people love to hear about like: Yes I held a koala, yes I fed kangaroos, yes I tried to surf (don’t get excited about it, it is not my cup of tea). Now that I think about it, except the Great Barrier Reef that I didn’t manage to see, I did pretty much most of the things you are expected to do in Australia when you travel around. I mean, the big things obviously, because when you look at the map of the country, you understand right away that one, two or even five years wouldn’t be enough to visit everything in Australia.
Anyway.. for me, these experiences to check or tick were definitely not what have been the most important or memorable thing (okay, holding a koala was quite cool 😉 (and Uluru and hitting the road and Bali and the Opera House…^.^)
Non mais pour de vrai.
I have been more focused on learning to live here (or surviving I must say) on the mundane, rather than trying to have the hottest picture of me (especially because I have been dressing like a obo during the year LOL).
I guess that is one of the reasons why I started this blog one year ago; so that people can just keep themselves updated on what is happening here if they are interested in and I am kind of avoiding the famous question at my return that would go like:
“Alors.. c’était comment? Raconte un peu !”
Damned, je la vois venir gros comme une maison. Aussi gros que celles d’avant mon départ du style que j’ai entendu 1000 fois: “Alors? T’es prête pour l’aventure ? T’as peur des requins un peu, et des araignées ? tu sais j’ai lu un article sur les animaux les plus dangereux du monde qui disait que.. Si non, t’as trouvé un appart ? Tu vas faire du surf ? Tu vas kiffer des surfeurs un peu ? etc, etc»
Questions auxquelles je répondais pratiquement toujours non. Étant donné que « Nan, je suis pas prête, nan j’ai pas peur des requins et nan j’ai pas d’appart. » « Mais par contre j’ai pris mes billets d’avion. »
Just to be clear, I blame nobody because I do the same and I will continue to do it because, what else can you say to someone who is about to leave for one year to the other side of the world with no apparent -in my case no actual- preparation?! Carpe Diem? Te fais pas bouffer par un serpent? I am going to miss you ma poule? Oublie pas de rentrer?
Enfin,
although I said that I would not give you a review, I’ll be happy to release the breaking news right here right now:
Believe it or not, I have officially succeded my one-year exchange at Macquarie University which means that I have completed my bachelor degree of University of Lausanne!!! I wasn’t worried too much but receiving my results that came out on yesterday was still a bit of a relief 😀 After 5 years of twists, I have now a double-degree of computer-sciences-applied-to-humanities-and-geography, bitches!
And… I have been accepted to the media design master offered by the HEAD!! ADVENCED!!!!
Et puis.. j’ai des nouvelles binocles (“Putain on le saura…”)! Mais j’adore mes nouvelles binocles. Elle sont super chouettes!
In short, throughout all these challenges and victories, this exchange has been a life-changing experience.
This exchange has been a life-changing experience even though I have been homesick the first eleven months (haha) (I do this not-so-joke everytime people ask me how I think about Australia xD).
It has been a life-changing experience, even though every unit that I took at Uni has been challenging and every assignments that I had to do for my Unit have been a “f*cking nightmare” as would say my father, well-known for his patience and calmness ♥.
It has been a life-changing experience, even though I am still struggling with English (and I probably always will) and finally, this exchange has been a great life-changing experience despite the fact I have been missing you a lot.
Ça m’a changé la vie les mecs! Mais pas pour les raisons que les gens s’imaginent (ah bah c’est sûr que c’est pas moi qui vais vous envoyer du rêve avec toutes les soirées Erasmus que je n’ai pas faites haha)
Now that I am standing on “the top of this mountain”, that I can admire the beautiful view and celebrate all my victories of the year, I can say that it was definitely worth all of these efforts and I don’t regret anything. “Noooon, rien de rienn, nonnn je ne regrette rien” (même pas mes cours d’anglais hard core qui m’ont fait me lever à l’heure des poules pendant un mois ! Enfin ptet que je regrette un peu mais comme ce qui est fait est fait j’ai envie d’dire..)
Bref, thank you for following my adventures; it has been a real pleasure to write for you, to draw for you, to think about you, to be accompanied by you throughout this amazing journey and to receive all these feedbacks on this blog. I hope you didn’t go mental with my mix of French and English (j’avoue que j’ai abusé vers la fin xD)
I am so happy of finishing the year on such a positive note! That is a wonderful reward!
This drawing has been inspired from the cover of one of my favourite comic books “Lou! Tome 3 : Le cimetière des autobus” written by Julien Neel. I chose this one to illustrate this packing-one-year-article because I could utterly relate to what Lou is going though in this volume and since this drawing took me ages to achieve, I feel like it is the highlight (almost the little master piece) of this exchange (even though I messed up again with the shadows and perspectives). I also feel like the title of the post is so much in tune with this exchange that is so much in tune with this drawing:
“This, My Dear, Is What They Call an Adventure”
Just so you know, about what I said when I was half-way through my exchange, remember, that I wasn’t ready to come home and stuff like that…
I just wanted to let you know that..
I am ready to come home now ♥
Enfin après le Japon quand même!
See ya physically and digitally in three weeks ♪ ♫
And just below, this is my song of the year that it has been played for ever on repeat especially during the very ups and the very downs. I discovered it last year with Nina and Stephen, when I visited them in Basel to see the Gauguin exhibition that was held at the Beyeler foundation. Such a cool song! Whenever I listen to it, I feel like I am such a strong human being (I am!) with so much potential and that life offers so many opportunities to grow! Bodhisattva of the Earth Baby!
Signée : Elsa King Lioness
PS: OMG, it is 06am30, I can see the sun rising and I can hear the dawn chorus. I will take a picture just to prove you that I am telling the true. Punaise, I am going to be a wreck tomorrow I cannot remember the last time I wrote an article that late. It must have been during my high school years when I was chatting on msn and writing about my life on skyrock..
Sunrise & Gumtree (photo prise depuis le perron de ma maison)
Pour finir (pour de bon cette fois), voici un auto-portrait que j’avais publié sur Instagram, trois mois après mon arrivée. J’avais pas encore mes nouvelles lunettes mais je prenais déjà cher à l’Uni 😀
Légende Instagram de la photo: “Aujourd’hui cela fait trois mois jour pour jour que je suis arrivée en Australie. Bilan : je parle toujours pas anglais mais mes leçons de guitare se passent bien. 😄”
– published from Singapour Airport.
