Happy Australia Day!

So, today is Australia Day, for those of you who weren't aware. It's Australia's national day, and is becoming more like the 4th of July in how it's celebrated, with people going to the beach, having barbies (that's a BBQ), and flying the Australian flag. It essentially would be like celebrating the landing of the Mayflower in the US, as it was the day Britain proclaimed sovereignty over Australia. In fact, some people call it Invasion Day. But, most Australians admit that it's just an excuse for a public holiday, which this year happened to fall on Tuesday.

Last night, our landlords hosted an Australian Day barbie in the backyard. They invited a bunch of co-workers over and grilled up a feast of kangaroo burgers, chicken tikka, wild goat sausages, and kangaroo sausages. It was delicious, with a distinctly different taste than what you'd expect from a BBQ in the States. The highlight of the night was when two of the kids who had come over with their parents showed us a koala up in the trees. We could tell it was a koala, but all we could really see was a dark blob. Still, it was cool -- a koala in the back yard!

Today, we did go to the beach, snorkeled around a little, had a nice walk, and mostly tried to avoid getting sunburned. The sun is really intense here, and I've really been enjoying my bucket hat that I got for free at the Tour Down Under. The race sponsors were giving out all sorts of swag, and we did pretty well, snagging lots of SPF 30 chapstick, bucket hats, water bottles, gels, and reusable bags. This is a side note, but people were walking around with bottles of sunscreen, encouraging people to put more on while watching the race. It was great!

Anyways, the beach was lovely -- sunny, breezy, and some pretty good fish out on the reef. We went with Brad and Laila, another couple from the US. Brad is spending a year here doing research for his PhD, and is also working at CSIRO. They're a really fun couple, and it's sort of nice to be able to share our Australian experiences.

We're rounding out our Australia Day experience watching the Australian Open on TV. Murray from Britain is playing Nadal from Spain, so no Australians to cheer for, but still some good tennis.

We figure about the only Australian thing we didn't do today was watch (or play) cricket. It was amazing how many makeshift cricket wickets were out on the beach today. We agreed that we will have to go see at least one cricket match while we're here, but we're going to start with (and perhaps end with) a Twenty20 match. At 3.5 hours long, this is the shortest kind of match, and will probably bring us to our cricket-watching limits. We're assured that these matches are really exciting because players get really aggressive and pack five days of cricket into three hours. My question is, if you can fit all the best bits of a cricket match into three hours, why would you ever want to extend it to five days? Maybe I'll just have to go watch a match to find out the answer, but I'll be sure to let you know if I have any eureka moments...