Halloween

Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31st mostly by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets.

Halloween spread across Europe over 2, 000 years ago. It was a cultural, religious and Celtic tradition celebrating the end of the harvest season. Although it was not called Halloween at first. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Druid traditions. Then later in the 7 century because of the Catholic Church's influence, it began to be celebrated as “All Saints Day” to honour all the Saints who did not have a special day of their own. So the term Halloween is from 'HALLOWMAS'. ‘Hallow’ means holy or Saint; it is the eve of the feast of ‘All Hallows’ Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve) or "All Saints' Day". Over time the name has been shortened to Halloween. In the 19th century it was brought to North America by Irish immigrants.

In my country we don’t have such a holiday. I can only compare it to New year, because that's then all children dress-up.

About food

I'm not conservative when it comes to food, I like trying new cuisines and dishes from all over the world. I like everything: spicy, not spicy, salty, sweet and so on.
I find Australian food pretty boring, but what is good in Australia that you can find different kind of food here. And also I have to say that lamb and pies are very delicious in Australia!!!

Two-week break

It was great to have two-week holiday! I enjoyed not having to get up early each day!
The first week when the weather was good my daughter and me went to parks with our friends and enjoyed playing outside, having BBQ and just enjoyed the sun and warmth. But last week it was cold again, I didn't like it but still we went to a children's festival, to a theatre for Gruffalo kids play, to a swimming pool and caught up with a lot of our friends.
My daughter and me had very active holiday, so I didn't have much time to clean my house or do homework for my studying!!! Shame on me :))

The Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. According to traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. One of the legends says that Lady Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since and you might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The other one is about Jade Rabbit. An empty-handed rabbit offered his own flesh, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself, so the sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit".

Car and Bike Expo

Last Wednesday in TAFE it was a Car and Bike Expo. My group and I enjoyed it very much. We saw many interesting cars and took a lot of photos which you can see above here. Then we got some information and brosures. Afterwards we had some BBQ sausages and chat to each other. It was very usefull!

Father's Day

It was a Father's Day yesterday. We don't have such a day in my country, but we have an Army Day and we congratulate all men and boys on that day. Women and girls present gifts, prepare tasty food and organize some concerts for them.

My daughter was happy yesterday, because her father came from overseas. My daughter and her Dad spent all day together. She prepared and presented some gifts for him in childcare. One of them was a postcard where she painted her father and herself. It's very fanny picture! The second one was a picture with her coloured hand prints. It was so lovely! The third one was a Diploma for the Greatest Dad in the world! Her father was touched by her presents.

Integration into the country

My feelings about integration are quite positive. Nobody called me names and I haven't ever felt like the "odd one out". Perhaps even the opposite, I remember when I first came to Australia I was pregnant and people were always interested in asking me about my due date and what I wanted. It was so kind. In Kazakhstan nobody ever asks these questions!

Then when my daughter was born I got a lot of compliments about her. I was very surprised how open people are here.

My personal experience tells me that in my everyday life my only language difficulties are with expressing myself in English, but maybe it might be different when I have to try to find a job. Maybe in the future I will face some language problems.