Ok, so I’ve been even more slack updating my blog recently, my bad.
I’m currently sat at Chicago O’Hare waiting to go back to England, so thought I’d take this opportunity to start updating. Starting with Last Sunday.
So as you may be aware, Sunday was July 4th, or to the American’s, Independence Day. Unlike all our big holidays, such as St George’s day, they actually give a shit about it, it’s kind of like one of the UK’s Bank Holiday’s, except that it’s actually there for a purpose. On form again, the weather decided to be completely and utterly crap. It rained for most of the day, putting our plans for the evening in jeopardy, we were all going to go, as a group to get some food, and then watch the July 4th Fireworks display that was going to take place on campus. As a result, we had most of the day to ourselves, to do what we want. I don’t actually think we did anything, as the weather was so bad. So we all waited until about 5pm when we’d learn what was to happen that evening. Good news, it turned out that the fireworks would be going ahead as planned, as the organisers had deemed the weather to have eased off enough to get the fireworks underway and looking quite simply awesome.
Instead of going to get food, Eric, one of the ‘organisers’ for the group, had ordered in 10 dominoes pizzas for us all to share as well as a variety of soft drinks. We all had a kind of July 4th party, with the English celebrating getting rid of the Americans, and vice versa. Eventually, most people got pretty bored, and wandered off... to quote Jonny:
Jonny “Come on Guys, let’s go watch a DVD”
Me “What DVD is it Jonny?”
Jonny “Sex in the City”
Me “Well that’s not at all gay now is it!”
Jonny “Why would you say that... It’s only a girly programme”
Jonny, you fail! But all is OK as you know a man in South America =P (all will be revealed in a later post)
So with Jonny “the not very gay” watching Sex in the City, the rest of us had a pretty awesome evening playing Pool with Jon Roper, his daughter Caitlin and her friend Rhys, until the time for fireworks drew near.
It must have been around 9.30 when the show started. Fireworks in the UK have NOTHING on these fireworks. The organisers must’ve spent an absolute bomb on them, as the display was fairly long for a fireworks display and the rockets were absolutely amazing. Of course, as it was a major US holiday, we all had to stand for the Star Spangled Banner. How apt, I thought to myself, We’re here on American Independence Day, and to celebrate, they’re singing a song about Britain bombarding them with rockets and such during the War of 1812, whilst singing along to an old English Drinking Song. Sometimes Americans confuse me big time! Lol
I must confess to going slightly OTT with photos of the fireworks, sometimes a camera that has sports mode on it isn’t the best idea ever, as you do tend to get a fair few rubbish ones compared to some really good ones. I took around 700 photos on 4th July, hence why there’s no photo’s up on Facebook yet, I still don’t have the willpower to go through them all. Rest assured though, I will get them up soon. In the meantime, here’s a taster:
Conclusion of the July 4th. Why the Hell can’t we do something like this in the UK. American’s have a great sense of patriotism, for having such a short history, whereas the UK, for all the history we have, has literally NO patriotism in comparison to the American’s. Were America to have a Patron Saint (forgive me if they do, I’m currently not aware of the existence of one), I’ll guarantee to you that they’d have a national holiday to celebrate, unlike in the UK, where things operate somewhat along these lines for St George’s day.
“Oh look today’s St George’s Day today, should we do something?”
“No, If we did, we’d piss off all the immigrants who are taking advantage of our country’s immigration system, and would complain that we’re being patriotic.
“Oh yeah, we can’t be proud of our country, in case we upset their community now can we”
“Exactly”
Come on UK, let’s get our sense of National Pride back, doesn’t mean we have to follow our has-been football team fanatically, all we need to do, is be proud of our country, and her great traditions. Remember, we did once have the Largest Empire in the World.
In the words of that great traditional British Song:
“Rule Britannia. Britannia rules the waves. Britons never, never, never, shall be slaves”
Let’s not become slaves to the minorities and lose our sense of national pride and patriotism.
Until next time =)
Au Revoir
x
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