Australia Day

G'day mate! The Australian accent is my second favorite accent ever (next to an Irish one). This is a pretty laid back and fun holiday to celebrate. People in Australia celebrate the day with parties, parades, concerts and BBQ's.

Australia is the smallest continent but the 6th largest country (about the same size as the US). Australia day celebrates the day (in 1788) the first fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney, establishing the Colony of New South Wales (official on Feb. 7,1788 ).

Eira-lynn and I made an Australian flag out of construction paper and sang the national anthem;

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share:
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Eira-lynn got a kick out of the different words they use. We loaded up the "boot" of the car for our trip to NC (the trunk) we had morning (and afternoon) tea with "biscuits" (cookies). We watched Bindi Irwin on you tube to hear the Australian accent and I also taught her how they say bloody (meaning very, as in bloody well done, or bloody hungry). That was probably a mistake. She won't stop saying it.

I actually looked up where to buy kangaroo meat the other day to make something for dinner tonight, but they don't sell it around here (big surprise) and the cheapest I could find it online was $42 including shipping. Apparently, Australians don't even usually eat kangaroo so I looked around for something else. Since Australia is surrounded by water (it's basically a big island) they eat a lot of seafood, and have a ton of fish and chips (french fries) restaurants, so we went with that.

I really would like to visit some day.