Happy Australia Day

Today is my first Australia Day as an Australian citizen.  Ruth and Danny were kind enough to invite me over this afternoon for a BBQ, which is a very traditional way of celebrating.  It was also an excuse for them to christen their new barbecue.  We had a lovely spread of food, including some kangaroo while listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.

In the evening I headed down to the Vibe Hotel Carlton to help out Clinton with the 22 Chinese Language Assistants he had picked up from the airport.  Okay, I really went because I got a free dinner.  In any case, the funniest thing was that as we sat down to dinner, Clinton introduced me and the Language Assistants broke out into applause.  A chatted to a few of them during dinner, and one girl said the 12 hour flight from Beijing was her first time on an airplane.  They will have two days of orientation and then go off to their respective school placements and home stays around the state.