The 4th of July has been a hard holiday to miss. You might not think about it being that important of a holiday, but when you think about it, there are only 2 holidays that are specifically American holidays where we celebrate our country and we we came from. The first being 4th of July and the second being Thanksgiving. I missed Thanksgiving when I studied abroad in Spain and it was really hard to miss that holiday but CIEE Alicante had a Thanksgiving Dinner for us and that totally made it feel like Thanksgiving. I’ve never not been home for the 4th of July before. And there isn’t much you can do to celebrate the 4th if you aren’t in America.
Normally, my mom and I have a cookout. Sometimes my aunt and cousins are there too. We grill hamburgers and hot dogs, make potato salad, have watermelon, lemonade, and of course we always watch fireworks. Fireworks are my moms favorite part, so we’ve been to see most of the ones in the area from Clinton to Sylvan Beach to Old Forge. I love fireworks too actually. You only get to see fireworks once a year, maybe twice if you are lucky. So fireworks are special.
Here in China we had to work on Friday July 4th. It was a normal day. On Saturday all my friends and I got together in Hongyadong. We ate Subway for lunch, sat around at a cafe on the river, talked and played Uno. Then we went to the Chinese market below us and got to explore an old part of town. It was a pretty good day actually. It was nice for all of us to get together and spend time celebrating in our own way.
It was sad hearing about everyone’s Fourth but whatcha gonna do? I’m in China for another 6 weeks and even though it was sad and I miss everyone, I’m not going to waste my time here sulking and being sad or depressed. That’s not me and I’d miss out on life. I hope y’all had a great 4th of July and that you appreciate what it means to be American and how important appreciating that is. Not everyone is as lucky as us and you would not have the things you do if it wasn’t for our ancestors.
Here’s what I showed my class because I now know that Disney has the best fireworks and I want to go watch them one day before I die.
My Adventures in China 