Now the time for the welcome celemony.

My hosts have accepted over 170 students for roughly 15 years. I have already seen 7 students as housemates since March in this year. We were all nicely and kindly welcomed in their house. However, they are also mischievous enough.

What crosses into your mind if you are asked the food peculiar to Australia? Steaks? Fish and chips? or maybe TimTam? Yes, they are all tasty, but I don’t think they are the best answers. I am going to give you more information. Most of people from the other countries don’t like it. It is salty spread. I reckon you imagine the same thing as I do. Yes, that is Vegemite.

    So, what do you think Vegemite has to do with my hosts’ naughtiness?

    It relates to a horrible ceremony. At dinner time of a day in which a new student come to our house, the host brings Vegemite on a table and tells the new student that it is the Australian food. He takes two spoonfuls of it for the new student and himself.

    Then they cross the spoons, saying “Welcome to our house!” and eat them.

    …I think you can imagine what it results in. The student’s face is distorted and he cannot swallow it. The host and the other students are laughing. Some students take vegemite out of their mouths, some students manage to swallow it.

(It was not the first time for me to do that so enjoy the other boys' reactions)

    However, that is not merely teasing. Some students including me are very nervous when they come to Australia. That “ceremony” is for such students to get accustomed to living in the house and to get to know each other. Although I was also anxious and worried in the first several days of my staying, I was able to eliminate these feelings not least thanks to what they did for me such as the Vegemite ceremony. I have less than 2 months left; thus I would like to enjoy the Australian culture till I go back to Japan.