Check out the best blogs from the past three years of the World Traveler Internship about one of our favorite destinations – Australia.

2009 World Traveler Interns – Lindsay Clark and Chris Danner

Morning Ponderings at Kata Tjuta – “We gotta stop complaining about being too old to stay up late or remember what we did yesterday. We’re babies on this planet, babies I tell ya!”

Oz is Hardcore – “If the crocs in the mangroves don’t snatch you off the pier, then maybe the box jellyfish will whip you with the world’s deadliest sting while swimming at the reef.”

The Truth about the Australian Outback – “There are camel herds here. Did you know that? Wild camels, wondering around in packs like they own the place.”

2008 World Traveler Intern – Pat Blute

Saving Coin in Sydney – “While I’ve been out and about, I’ve been using this great little thing called the ISIC card.”

2007 World Traveler Intern – Rachel Rudwall

Listening to the Didgeridoo – “Well, it just so happens that the Tjapukai dancers needed two volunteers to join them on stage, and a girl named Monica and I were the lucky selections!”

Kangaroos in Australia – “After our time of relaxation, cave navigation, and kangaroo stalking, we ventured onward to the tropical paradise of the Whitsunday Islands.”

I have an awful memory, which is why I spend half my days scribbling notes and lists in order to actually remember things.

Lindsay Clark in India

And as my mind sifts through the chaos of this summer, sometimes all I can remember is, whoa – that was wild and nothing else! Therefore, I made a list of things I did over the World Traveler Internship that were either new or incredibly exciting for this absent-minded, globe-lovin gal.

1. Drank kava in the Fijian Highlands in a special ceremony sat in by 20+ people just for me, fit with singing and schoolyard games
2. Tandem skydived from 10,000 feet
3. Dove in a cage surrounded by great white sharks
4. Visited a new continent: Australia
5. Dune bashed in the desert
6. Laid eyes on Mt. Kilimanjaro and flew next to her
7. Volunteered at a township in South Africa
8. Belly danced with an actual belly dancer
9. Came within ten feet of a male lion
10. Hiked Table Mountain from bottom to top

I never really know how my travel experiences have affected me until I return to my starting point: home. Flying through various destinations and worrying about logistics sometimes takes away the mind’s energy to process what it’s witnessed until it’s back on familiar soil. And since each trip is different, every time I return home, it’s a brand new feeling, a new form of culture shock I can never predict.

Volunteering in Fiji

Coming home from Italy, I felt pissed off at my hometown for not being as historical and visually stimulating as Florence. After Semester at Sea, it pained me to be away from the people I grew very close to on board. And with the conclusion of my Big Journey, I think I felt more stable and purpose-driven, albeit more confused, than any previous homecoming led me to feel. I think it all depends on the nature of the journey and where you are in your personal path with self-awareness. Because that’s one major reason I travel: to become more self-aware.

And now with the winding down of the World Traveler Internship, I have a whole new set of emotions and passions driving me. For once, I’ve welcomed the comforts of home excitedly. Man did I love sitting around! And for the last month, I’ve spent about 90 hours a week working on my Web site, on personal projects and anything fathomable to get me on the path towards being a freelance travel writer. It was the World Traveler Intern program that assured me I love being thrown into a new country with a mission of documentation. I’ve learned how I love to travel, where I want to travel and how to deal with the rigors of this oddball, unconventional, thrilling profession.

Anyone with a smidgeon of wanderlust would adore being a World Traveler Intern, but I can promise you an aspiring travel writer, photojournalist, basically anyone wanting to experience and express as a career will be numbed by how cool it is to have this job. Throughout the trip, I sporadically stopped and smiled, so appreciative of the opportunity and fully aware of how lucky I was. And now I look forward to seeing what lucky souls will receive the honor next year. I’m certain they will have the time of their lives and return to their home bases more alive and wanderlust-ful, because as any traveler knows, that obsession never goes away. Travel begets more travel.

And now I apply the heaviest of connotations, the deepest of meaning to these next two words, directed at the lovely people at STA Travel: Thank you.

You can continue to follow Lindsay’s travels over at her Web site – Nomadderwhere.com.