God shed His grace on thee

How do you celebrate America's Independence Day while living in China? By having a cookout (or "a barbecue" to apparently every other English speaker, except those of us from the South) at the home of your Kiwi friends, of course.

our gracious hosts

This is Vernon and Gaynor.
Though they are from New Zealand, they hosted a 4th of July party for all their American friends - as well as some Canadian, Australian, British, and Swiss friends. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed traditional American 4th of July dishes like potato salad and a Kiwi/Australian Pavlova.

all decked out

Making hamburgers

Thanks Aamee & Pop Pop for the flag decor!

I guess the little 5 year old boy in our apartment complex could see that we were patriotic people by the clothes we were wearing, because when he ran up to say "Hello Stacy!" he asked me my Chinese name, and then - "Japan is bad.  Is it or is it not?"  Aaron: "What?  Say that again?"  Kid:  "Japan is bad. Okay, Bye."  I guess he thought we would share his sentiment.


Another classic Chinese moment today - one of our American friends received a text wishing her a "Happy Indecent Day!"  Indecent, independence....tomayto, tomahto.