Life Down Under: St. Patrick's Day (March 17)

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's Day (March 17)

In Australia, St. Patrick's Day celebrations have taken place on March 17 since 1810, when the then Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, declared the date an official day of celebration for the Irish and those of Irish heritage. 200 years later, Sydney is still celebrating with an annual street parade and family day on the third Sunday of March. So this year St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 18th with a parade on George street and continued celebrations at Hyde Park. The Sydney St. Patrick's Day Parade is the third largest in the world. So we did not really celebrate St. Patrick's Day today. I did wear green of course, but the weather was rainy and gloomy all day. I took advantage of the poor weather by researching and start planning my spring break to New Zealand!!
It was Rachel, one of the girls in our apartment building, 21st Birthday at midnight tonight so we had a birthday party for her in her apartment and headed down to the city to Star Bar on George Street.
Tonight was kind of a sad night because my camera broke. I have dropped my camera so many times but this was just one drop too many unfortunetly. My screen cracked and went black. This normally would not be a problem but because the whole camera is touch screen I can no longer change settings, adjust things, and basically use my camera. I am still able to take photos but I just can't adjust anything.