Aussie Aussie Aussie

We had our Australian citizenship ceremony a month ago now and I'm just getting around to looking at the pictures.  It was a fun evening that we were honored to share with some friends and family who played a huge role in us wanting to stay.

Just before the ceremony I was thinking about why we chose to get citizenship.  There are a few financial reasons it made sense, but really, I think the main reason we wanted to get citizenship was because we could.  Most people only get citizenship once in their lives and they're hardly going to remember it.  It's not common that people get the opportunity to become citizens of another country, especially one as great as this.  So of course we had to.

The word "ceremony" made me think of something grand and formal, but it was not quite the case.  It was held at the Narre Warren Community Centre, a basic room with 110 chairs for the new citizens and maybe 40 chairs for those in the audience.  To begin, a bagpiper walked the local dignitaries out and we looked at each other wondering if we were in the right country.  There were a couple brief speeches by some local representative, we said the citizenship pledge, and then they asked the first twenty people to line up on the side of the room.  The lady quietly read each name, and they came up to get their certificate, take a picture, and receive an Australia native plant and flag.  There was no applause, no cheers, in fact it was so quiet that soon the standing-room-only crowded grew bored and started chatting amongst themselves.  This carried on for 45 minutes, until we finally had our turn at the end of the list.  Our friends were the only ones who cheered and applauded through the entire evening (thanks Karen!). Then we all sang the Australian National Anthem and that was that.
Saying the pledge
Standing in line
Getting our Citizenship Certificates from the Wizard of Oz
Our plants
Our Entourage
So now we can buy property, visit Cuba (oh wait, we could now anyway), and we must vote in every election.  Except we can't vote in this next one because we missed the cut off by 10 days.  And now we eat Vegemite for brekki  and smash cans in the arvo with our mates.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Oi Oi Oi

( I still have no idea what that even means...)
Celebrating our citizenship with our citizen friends
Aussie pressies
One of my two favorite Ameristralians

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