Exchange student finds food, sun and a laid-back spirit in Australia

There's a symphony outside my window loud enough to drown out highway traffic.

Unfortunately, it's produced entirely by frogs.

Lucky for me, the frogs living on my new host family's Australian farm are also the favorite snack food of one of the world's most deadly snakes.

In fact, my host family saw one out in the yard right after I moved in. A snake, not a frog. Unfortunately, no one was quick enough to catch it and it slithered away into the nearby swimming pool.

It's safe to say I won't be relaxed while basking in the pool here any time soon.

I'm currently finishing the fifth month of my yearlong Rotary youth exchange in Victoria, and got the chance to experience the Christmas season here about 20 minutes outside St. Arnaud, population 3,000.

Everyone's been too busy with holiday preparations to stop and think much about snakes.

With no Thanksgiving celebrations back in November, this is the only time to really stuff ourselves and put on the kilos here in Australia. And let me just say, Christmas dinner really did the job.

For the main meal, we had ham, turkey, bread, potatoes, asparagus, carrots and cauliflower. Dessert was a plum pudding with custard and cream on top.

Plum pudding is a dark-colored dessert with different kinds of fruits mixed in that's quite different from pudding I knew back home. Here in Australia, it's a dessert much like an extremely moist cake.

On the whole, Australian Christmas celebrations include a lot of unique traditions.

We had traditional "bon-bons" to pull apart: They are covered in Christmas-themed paper and pop when you tug on them. Inside are toys and paper Christmas hats.

"Carols by Candlelight" are also a big part of the season. Even in a small town like St. Arnaud, Christmas carols are sung by candlelight so the town can come out and see the singers.

Then there's Boxing Day -- Dec. 26.

No one here really seems to know where Boxing Day comes from, though I've heard a few theories. There's the religious one: It had to do with the church and donations given the day after Christmas.

But that still leaves the origins of the name a mystery.

I heard another amusing theory that the name came from boxing matches between relatives in response to the stress they've caused throughout the Christmas season.

Then, of course, there's the thought that it's the day you roll out of bed still in your boxers and unwind from a hectic Christmas.

No matter it origin, Boxing Day is just another excuse to relax, eat more food, shop for Christmas sales and get an extra day off work.

Even though I'm happy with my current suntan, I did miss a white Christmas. It didn't feel much like the holiday without freezing temperatures and a few inches of snow. I know I'll curse that next year when I'm out in the driveway shoveling, though.

It wasn't as warm here as I expected, and several Australians told me it often cools down around Christmas. I actually had to put on a long-sleeved shirt when I went outside in the evening.

Of course, Illinois was mentioned on the news when they reported on the Midwest snowstorms, so I guess a chilly night isn't too much to complain about.

Since the holidays, though, the weather's really heated up.

We've been swimming in the dam once or twice a day to keep ourselves cool when temperatures get up to 100 degrees and above, (our friendly brown snake is still nowhere to be found), and I've got the tan to prove it.

Here in rural Victoria, a popular hot-weather activity I've learned is yabbying.

When the surrounding dams have water in them, blue-green lobster-like creatures called yabbies, or crayfish, are in residence.

When cooked and peeled, they resemble a shrimp without the hard tail at the end. The meat in their claws is also edible and tastes a lot like a sweeter version of lobster.

I've met quite a few people who normally hate seafood but swear by yabbies. Many people think it's the best type of seafood, particularly because it costs nothing but the time it takes to get out and catch.

That involves forcing them to clean house. They hate a messy pond.

While yabbies are vegetarians, they're caught with a net baited with raw meat. They don't eat the meat for food, they just want it out of their dam. They don't want the meat polluting their water.

The raw meat used in our nets was leftover kangaroo meat we weren't barbecuing for that night's dinner.

Yes, that's right. Those cute, cuddly, bouncy animals that are a part of Australia's coat of arms are also a frequent meal option. Pre-packaged kangaroo steaks are sold in the meat section in supermarkets, but my host family chose the far more rugged option of shooting, skinning, cutting and barbecuing their own kangaroo.

It's easy to cringe from the other side of the world while looking at photos of the cute marsupials, but it's no more vicious a pastime than deer hunting back home.

Kangaroo meat is also one of the leanest, most tender types of meat available. It is often put into dog foods as a lower-fat meat option.

And I guess I'm a bit biased after trying the meat. Our dinner of kangaroo meat and yabbies dipped in Thousand Island dressing was probably one of the best meals I've eaten.

In a few weeks I'll be headed to nearby southern beaches and, hopefully, eating more seafood there. Soon after, school holidays will end and I'll be back to work at the secondary college as a year 12 student for five months.

I'm beginning to adopt the laid-back, worry free, Australian attitude that allows people to live in a climate of suffocating heat with deadly animals and still say, "No worries, mate, she'll be right."

I wish all of you reading this from home in warm clothes next to a heater an Australian-style 2008. Appreciate the cold, enjoy the outdoors, spend time with your mates and remember to stay worry-free.