By arosema93
Celebrating the holidays away from home can be tough, especially coming from a tight-knit family. Being in DC for the last few years has helped to prepared me for celebrating on the other side of the world. However, Australia makes it easy on us Americans by not celebrating some of the best holidays and generally ignoring their existence. As everyone already knows, this week was Halloween, but, of course, its not celebrated here. Thankfully I have some American friends here and enough keen exchange students to still throw a party. But all I can help thinking is, “What about the children? Where is the sugar rush that allows every elementary student to make it through the month of November?” Although sad for children everywhere, I’m sure they will survive. Thanksgiving is also a tough one to be away from home for, but many Australians don’t even realize it exists, which makes my job of ignoring it quite a bit easier. Unfortunately, however, without Thanksgiving, Australians have failed to place any restrictions on when it is acceptable to begin stocking stores with Christmas decoration and playing Christmas music on the radios. Christmas will definitely be the hardest to spend away from home though, and will be made even more confusing by the reversed seasons. I wonder if the Salvation Army Santas will still ring bells in full Santa outfit when it is 90 degrees outside. Fortunately, my friends here are like family to me and many have offered to have me come celebrate Christmas with them. And besides, this gives me the perfect opportunity to teach others about American holidays and learn about ones from other cultures. For example, Canberra even has a public holiday that everyone gets off of school for “Family and Community Day”. Sounds ridiculous but I’m not going to complain. While it can be sad to be away from family during the holidays, I think one of my favourite parts of living in a foreign country is the opportunity to celebrate twice as many holidays.