Snippets of Americana

Allow for me to paint you a little picture – which is necessary because I don’t have any photos for this (but it is too good to not write about).

Last night, all the long-term volunteers through a surprise birthday party for one of the Americans who was celebrating her 21st birthday. It turns out, there are some standard traditions here about birthdays, and since the drinking age is 18 here, the usual American traditions are not all that important anyway. First, parties are often themed. In this case, it was “All Things American,” which I must say was a bit disturbing. Now they know that we Americans are much like everyone else, but when it comes to stereotypical American – these are things costumes, songs and ideas that depicted the USA: cowboys and Indians, boots, cowboy hats, bolo ties, the Beach Boys, American flags, Lee Greenwood, Delta Delta Delta, country music, Chicago Cubs, basketball, baseball, NASA, smores, chili, milkshakes and of course, George W.

It was all pretty scary.

And in lieu of the Australian Word of the Day, I would like to share with you some of the other Australian Birthday traditions: The birthday boy/girl is asked to make a speech, which is followed by a roasting of him/her by all of her closest friends. They have their own version of a birthday song, which I never quite got and at least in this case, there were letters sent by friends and family (even a video actually). All in all, a good time had by all.

Blessings and G’Day!