Th fourth of July in China - our 1st holiday away from home

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The 4th of July was our first holiday away from home. I can't lie. We had some tears of homesickness because we were missing being with family and friends. Going up north or going to Middlebass or even just staying home for parades and pool parties - we couldn't do any of those but our family and friends did! Talking on the phone this weekend was tough! Everyone was having so much fun doing all the things we should be doing and made us miss everyone that much more.

The good news is... we made our own 4th of July - China-style!! Thankfully our new friends, the Hannas, had a barbeque and invited all of the new GM team over to celebrate. We had burgers and dogs, watermelon, baked beans, you name it. The only difference is, we paid probably double what we would have paid in the US for "western" food. Who cares! We had to do it. The Chinese twist... in addition to our American BBQ traditional entrees, we also had dumplings, duck and "1000" year old eggs. Bryan and I were not brave enough to try the eggs. They are duck eggs that they ferment and then bury for a few months. They are jet black and what used to be the egg white is now a black jelly. Some of the US guys did try it but no one could actually get a whole one down!! It was quite fun watching them try though!

There were a few kids at the party who ran and played! While the adults are all US citizens, we had people from Poland, Japan and China (who now just happen to be US citizens on an international assignment in China). Quite the diverse crowd for sure!!!

The one important thing I learned is that the Chinese REALLY take fireworks seriously. Our host, Ian, wanted some fireworks so he had one of the local guys take him to a fireworks store. They had to visit a few since this isn't firework season in China - fireworks season is February for the Chinese New Year. But, he was successful at finding a few. He purchase a "box" of 25 fireworks that go up in the air and a few smaller "roman candles". We go to open the box to get the 25 fireworks out and they are all packaged together with one wick to light!! You basically put the box on the ground with a 100 meter clearance and light it. Then they ALL go off! The box is of course in Chinese so thankfully we had someone to translate it for us. Ian did receive a warning that it might be illegal to set it off in a residential area but local security gave us the thumbs up. The last thing we need is the Pudong police showing up, right! They go to the 3rd floor balcony and light it. We got REAL fireworks!! Loud, up in the air, colorful, 25 popping fireworks! It was so great!!! I guess the box was worth the effort! If that was the small firework, I can't wait for February to see the big ones! Yikes!!

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