Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth everyone! There is so much to tell all the time that I struggle to write coherently so here is my attempt at coherence about our fourth of July celebration. We were able to celebrate the 4th yesterday a day early than the rest of America. Haha, but we did it in a great American fashion. I was with a few other Americans (Brian and Sarah from Indiana, Alex who is from New York and the new couple Dan and Lynnae from New Jersey) and I was also with Tom (from the UK) and Jeremy (from Australia). We started by having hamburgers at the Westlake (Xi Hu) hotel. The only other place to really get hamburgers or western food for that matter is McDonald's and for those of you who know of my deep disdain for McDonald's the hotel was a nice treat to have western food. Speaking of the disdain... I haven't had McDonald's yet. Which out here is truly a triumph!

Anyway, after hamburgers, we went to the Westlake Park (I live across from the park and the hotel) to rent boats to go out on the lake. The boats were more like 40 year old golf carts converted into boats. Our boat did not go very fast, I think that I would have been able to swim faster than the boat. It was fun cruising around and trying to beat the intense heat of summer in China on the lake. After crash landing the boat into the dock we went to the amusement park. There is a size-able island in the middle of Westlake which has the amusement park, a temple, a gigantic museum and some swanky private homes. The amusement park should be condemned because of the state of some of the rides, but they proudly display signs that say passed safety checks. The signs of course are engraved metal signs so the date of the check is very uncertain. But, YES lets jump on that metal heap of death! I rode the roller coaster which the safety harness didn't lock until after the ride had started. It was a fun experience of getting whiplash in China.

After the amusement park of death traps we went to the river beach which is more like a dirt road than a beach and played American Football. It was quite fun because the teams were split with two Americans on each side and a mix of British and Australian players too. My team sadly lost, but I scored a touchdown! I was even barefoot and in a dress playing. We had size able crowd watching our attempt at American football. Whatever we (foreigners) do gets a crowd, even if it is just walking down the street. After our game we celebrated the fourth the way that all drunk Americans do... lighting a few hundred blackcats all tied together in a 30 second blaze of glory! There was one little fireworks show down the river, probably other Americans celebrating on a bigger budget than our own. It was a great fourth and I hope that all of yours was just as traditional and adventuresome as mine. Happy Birthday America!