Our second house party was Friday night in honor of Cassie's birthday (girl in the picture with me). It was quite a scene. Her friends started arriving one by one around 8 PM, threw out a great spread of food and wine, and continued talking, drinking, dancing, and getting more and more crazy into the wee hours of the morning.
It was really an interesting mix of people - lots of them in artsy fields - musicians in bands, graphic designers, film producers, photographers, etc. The majority of people I met last night (and in general in Australia so far) have traveled abroad for at least one year. Most go to the U.K., Europe, or Asia (in that order I'd say). Being part of the commonwealth, it is easy for people to get a one year working visa to travel between the U.K., Canada, and Australia. When Australians go on vacation, they go 'full-on'. They go for months at a time, not days or weeks like most of us in the U.S. I suppose it is partially because Australia is so far from everywhere else, but also the people really want to truly experience different places, not just see them. I have found Australians to be very well educated about other countries, politics, and world events, much more so than most Americans of the same age. Another observation has been the fact that most dating couples live together and if that falls through, they go back to live at their parents' house. Not many people live independently.
A core remnant of the party was still going strong when I crawled into bed this morning at 8 AM. They took a nap for a few hours and were up, singing, dancing around, and planning today's festivities by noon.
