This was my first 4th of July actually living abroad. I have enjoyed the 4th abroad a number of other times, but this was the first with my home no longer being America. Previous 4ths I never thought about the 4th of July because I was either on vacation or on a missions trip, and I just didn’t think about it. However, living abroad has made my friends and I think about every possible holiday that we are missing, but we try to celebrate here in our own way.
Now let me tell you, it was not the same. We didn’t have sparklers; we didn’t have stars and stripes everywhere; we didn’t have fireworks, and we didn’t have BBQ. What did we have? Each other. We took a weekend getaway and escaped to an island to soak up the sun. We had a great time, but it wasn’t like 4th of July in America. If I am honest, I don’t think it ever will be, and that’s because people in other countries don’t celebrate America’s independence. They just don’t totally care about it, and I don’t blame them.
Here I have accumulated some thoughts about how I feel being so far from home on America’s birthday.
- You realize that unless you are American, 4th of July is just another day of the year. Some friends of mine encountered 4th of July decorated cupcakes and such but those were at American owned restaurants.
- A 4th of July without sparklers isn’t really 4th of July at all. I mean we didn’t get any cute Instagram sparkler pictures, so now the question is did we even celebrate the 4th?
- The same goes to fireworks. I think all of us were bummed about not watching fireworks.
- I am not much of a hotdog person, but not having a nice BBQ’d hotdog with all the fixings made the day less all around American.
- I never realized how much I loved celebrating the 4th until I didn’t get to celebrate the 4th the true American way.
- This weekend was still incredible because I got to spend it with some of my favorite ladies who happen to be some of my closest friends here.
I already have ideas for the 4th next year. First thing on the horizon is to make sure that I have all the stars and stripes articles of clothing in order for me to be truly American for the day. I also am going to suggest the squad goes tubing down the Nile because um, hello that is hands down an all American day. Cheers to America’s birthday and celebrating being American wherever you go! I’m proud to be an American and I’m not ashamed of it. I might not like all the choices people are making in America at the current moment, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about being American. Not to mention I am over here serving the American Government through the Peace Corps.