Stanley tastes Vegemite - Wed 24th Feb

For breakfast, Stanley had a special Australian food called Vegemite. It is a spread/paste made from plants. It looks like a chocolate spread, but it isn't sweet, it is very salty. Australians sometimes eat Vegemite on toast for breakfast. Stanley got to try it - but it tasted too salty for him.

During the day, Stanley went to work with Elissa. Elissa works at Old Parliament House. Her job is to teach school children how Governments are elected, and how to vote. The building Elissa works in used to be the Australian Parliament. This is where the Australian Prime Minister (similar to the American President) and other politicians would meet to make laws. In 1988, the government made a new Parliament House, which was much bigger, and Old Parliament House is now used as the Museum of Australian Democracy. Stanley got to learn about different types of governments around the world and how people vote in Australia.

When the East family got home, they discovered that they had received a package in the mail from friends in Mexico. It was a box full of Mexican lollies (we explained that Australians use the word lolly instead of candy). Stanley and the rest of the family are looking forward to trying some of these yummy treats! We told him that we'll get some Australian lollies soon so that he can try them too.

Jayde has a part-time job of delivering the local newspaper. After dinner, Adam and Jayde went out to deliver the newspapers, and invited Stanley to come along too. He would have liked to help deliver them, but they were too big for him to carry. He got to sit in Jayde's pocket whilst they walked the streets, putting the newspapers in people's mailboxes. Stanley was excited to see some Rosellas in the trees iand flying around the streets. Rosellas are colourful red and blue birds that he might only normally see in a zoo back home. Adam explained to him that they quite often get galahs and cockatoos landing on the their house as well, so Stanley might get to see some more unusual Australian birds.

There was a bit of a scare whilst delivering the newspapers at one point - jayde realised that Stanley had fallen out of her pocket, and she had to go back and look for him. Luckily, she hadn't gone very far from where he'd fallen out, and he wasn't hurt by the fall.