Celebrating America’s Independence Day abroad

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The closest thing to yesterday’s celebration of the 4th of July was the summer after I graduated high school. I was working at a summer camp in Connecticut. I went into Hartford to watch the firework show with two Australians, an Irishman, and an Englishman. Yesterday, similar to that, we celebrated the 4th as a crew of English teachers from around the globe on the beach of the Han River in Yeoju. Americans, English, Canadians, South Africans, even some Koreans came down to take part in the American summer tradition, a 4th of July barbeque.

I was still wiped from an impromptu teacher’s dinner on Thursday night, full of grilled duck, soju, beer, and billiards, which lasted well into the wee hours of the night, so I took a nap Saturday afternoon while Cass met up with some others to get the festivities underway. At 4:00 I rolled out of bed and headed to the store to pick up some fireworks. Here, they sell roman candles nearly everywhere with the random other assortedfireworks. Except, the roman candles come in the 30 shot variety, not the sissy 10 shot found back home. So, I’m proud to say I spent 20,000 on fireworks- Mom, despite your firework obsession, I don’t think you could ever say that!! Really, I only spent about $17, but it’s funny to say things like that. Armed with my firepower, I got to the river around five, almost 3 hours after the kickoff to see things were already well underway.

The group of about 20 was split between a makeshift game of baseball with sticks and rocks, cranking out hotdogs from the grill, and sitting on blankets playing card games. An American flag greeted all who ventured underneath the Yeoju bridge, our well selected spot for the picnic. It is a cool area in town, we were in the shade of the bridge and right along the river, people were riding 4 wheelers on the beach, fishing, waterskiing, and parasailing- although not northern Wisconsin, this atmosphere was certainly the next best thing.

As with all 4th of July bbq’s the day progressed much like what I just described, people lounging, playing games, relaxing, and drinking. The sun started setting and as the wood for the campfire came out, a random group of Koreans choosing to set their camp up awkwardly close to us, despite miles of vacant beach. We didn’t let it bother us and still belted out a rousing rendition of, quite possibly the most international style, U.S. national anthem we could. If you ever have the chance, have an Englishman sing the national anthem, it’s pretty amusing to hear… good effort, Tom.

The campfire lit, it was time for the fireworks. As if we rehearsed it, nearly everyone simultaneously grabbed a roman candle and formed an army-like front line, holding their lit roman candle to the sky like they were warding off oncoming soldiers from the North. Who says fireworks and soju don’t mix… no one in this group, eh?

People came and went all night, but the one constant was, you guessed it, soju. We gutted a half of watermelon, filled it with soju and passed it around, dubbed, the ‘challis of zeus.’ I’m not gonna lie, it tasted wonderful! I am also willing to say, Jon G.’s wacky contraptions he kept making appear were a constant, as well, but for him, that’s pretty much par for the course.

Surviving things like falling into the river, eating Tom’s brilliant rock steaks (he cooked them on large rocks in the fire- which were awesome), and the remaining fireworks, I only came away with a small burn on my thumb from of a stubborn sparkler that wouldn’t light. That’s a win in anyone’s book. Cass, Lance, and I- the biking home armada- were on our way home when we were hit with a craving for some ‘grill at your table.’ Those you just can’t ignore, either. Apparently, ‘grill at your table’ restaurants tend to close earlier then others, we quickly learned, yet, we were still bound and determined to find some kind of grill restaurant. In fact, we were so determined that Lance tumbled right over the handlebars of his bike when we passed a possible spot.

Around midnight, we lucked out, and found a hole in the wall restaurant, almost literally, that had sam gyup sal on the menu (grilled bacon). With grease splattering, bacon sizzling, and soju glasses still full- it was too difficult to ride our bikes with the ‘challis of zeus’ unfortunately- we sat around a grill in a strange little house/restaurant down a random little side street, talking about our home and families; three Americans celebrating the final minutes of America’s independence day… in Yeoju, South Korea. A great conclusion to a great day.






I also cleaned the memory card out from my camera and found all kinds of pictures from the last few weeks that I’ll post here also. There were a few birthday parties in Yeoju, that inevitably ended up at either a no rae bong or the One Time, the tables outside a convenience store us ‘way gookins’ often meet at. We also had a nice get together for Canada Day, a group no rae bong in memory of Michael Jackson, and visited the city of Chuncheon for its famous Dalk Galbi chicken dish. I’m happy to say, no ‘bundeggi’ (silkworms) were eaten during the making of these pictures.

Most importantly, Cass and I finally took the Korean plunge. There is a phenomenon of ‘couple clothes’ that happens in Korea, you will often see a man and woman with either identical clothes on, or cheesy- I’m mean, cute- shirts that play off each other. Finding clothes that fit me is a challenge here, so this was quite an undertaking, until we walked into the Nike Outlet store, and found some matching Team Korea soccer warmup jackets. They are awesome, and now we are “almost Korean!”

Happy 4th Everyone!

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