4th of July - Blogabond

I love America! I love the 4th of July because it is my Grandma's birthday. She is a wonderful person. I have the best memories of celebrating her Birthday and 4th of July together.
This is my 3rd Fourth of July in China! I can't believe it. The first one in Shenyang was lame. Last year we had enough foresight to bring some decorations, so it was better. Our Australian buddies gave us some fireworks. Last year I swore I'd be in America on the next 4th of July. This winter I didn't go see my Grandma because I thought I was going to fly home for her birthday.

Grandma 1982

Then the swine flu hit. My grandma lives in Ottumwa, Iowa in a beautiful retirement center. With all the fuss about the swine flu, I knew it would worry her to death if I flew home. I would felt so guilty if I picked up the bug and brought it to her retirement center.
So here I am in Harbin. My grandma has been to China. My grandpa was a doctor and when they first opened up China for foriegners he came over with my grandma and a bunch of other doctors and they learned about chinese medicine and taught the "barefoot doctors" Western medicine.
So my grandma toured China's hospitals. They weren't impressive back then, and I must agree that they aren't too great now either. She thought I was crazy when we moved over here with our kids.
So what did we do for the 4th of July?
All week I tortured my students with a power point about the 4th of July. They loved that the majority of fireworks and flags are made in China. They all seem interested in what things cost, so I quoted prices of all the various fireworks for them. The word Philadelphia nearly killed them, so they weren't that excited about the history stuff. There is a big pow wow in Flagstaff and they were very interested in that. Why do the indians celebrate 4th of July at all? Ugh...well the Native Americans are American and the Britsh weren't that great to them either. Then we talked about how Lummi Island is across the water from the Lummi Rez and they make a killing on fireworks and their displays are awesome. I ended the show with a bunch of pictures of traditional American 4th of July food. They go crazy over the food pictures. I used to make the big US jello mold every year, so I have a picture of that. The students are so sharp-where's Alaska and HI? They wouldn't dream of showing a map of their country that wasn't complete. Ugh..It wouldn't fit on the screen...umm, we use a strawberry for Alaska and the islands get a blueberry. They know the picture of the hot dog and when I show the mustard jar, they all wrinkle their noses like that is the most disgusting thought ever. The beverages are beer and lemonade. Lemonade is just starting to take off in China. I'm so glad, I love lemonade.
Then I had them do a speaking activity with used postage stamps. It ended up being so funny. I save all the stamps from letters I get over here, and divided them between the students. One person is suppose to be the stamp collector and goes around and the students try to sell them their stamps. One gal did a good job of detailing her collection, so the next guy really had to one up her. He came up with the funniest story about how Tom Cruise had licked this stamp and it was from the movie mission impossible and had secret codes if you held it to the light. The buyer was just as clever and said, "if it has spit on it, it's used, so I want a discount." The best thing was my last class was on the 4th of July! I'm free!!!!
Back at the aprtment...We made the red jello (not in the mold of the 48 States) and chocolate chip cookies. We actually bought on deep clearance in the States bags of Christmas chips that were red and white striped and green and white striped. Princess got the job of sorting out the red from the green chips. We decided to support America and grabed some McD's burgers since buns can't be found here if we made the burgers ourself. We had Doritos and were going to make baked beans, but then forgot. We bought the can of baked beans 2 months ago at the import store for big bucks, but then forgot about it until dinner when the ayi was cooking. We thought it didn't go with her dishes and in general if she's in the kitchen she considers it quite rude that we try to cook to.
Afterwards, we went to a party with the other foriegners. We found out that in Australia they call jello-jelly. And ice cream floats-spiders. There were 2 other Americans there and one of them didn't realize it was the 4th of July. The English gal told us they were glad to be rid of America anyway. Friendly banter. The coal trucks were rolling all night so we didn't even try any fireworks cause we be covered in coal dust and our eyes would burn, etc. But I must say, that this was the most fun we've had on 4th of July in China.

written by

carseat tourist on July 4, 2009 from Harbin, China

from the travel blog: Life in Harbin as an American English Teacher

Send a Compliment

comment on this...