Dan and Amy: Citzenship

It's been a long time since we first arrived in November 2004, not quite long enough that we'd consider ourselves Australian, but the government are willing to.

I wasn't looking forward to the ceremony at all, but I was wrong in assuming it would be as boring as a school prize night. We had Aborigional performers, who lit a fire on stage, along with a brass band and African performers. Very multicultural. The mayor and other councillors spoke with it cluminating in us making a pledge and singing the Australian national anthem. I was dreading the pledge, we elected to go for the non god version and heard very few people chose this godless path! Fortunately about 40% of the people there chose the same option, so we were in good company.

Singing the Australian national anthem as my own was a very weird experience, it was good though and felt slightly emotional. It felt really good to be accepted by another country, almost like I'd tricked them into taking me!

Everyone was given a gift to welcome them as citizens, we were both hoping for koalas, surely anything else would be unaustralian?! Sadly all we got was a pair of bottle brush bushes (callistemon endeavour), we'll try and love them just the same!