australia day plus a snake scare

Australia Day, 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain

Australians celebrate by getting the day of work (except for those of us luck enough to be in the hospitality industry, in which case we get holiday pay - 2.5x normal wage!). I will report back after tuesday to let you know how the day goes down!

on another note, i had my first close encounter with an australian venomous creature - a snake (not sure what kind, im going to imagine something incredibly rare and poisonous instead of a garden snake) dropped down from the top of the fence i was sitting against right next to me. screaming ensued. my official welcome to oz!