17 August 1945

Today is Independence Day in this fine land, which meant last night was the Independence Day party in our neighborhood. It was a little more low key (read: shorter) that last year's party, but really we didn't mind. We had fun getting to hang out with our neighborhood friends and we got some free bread.

The main part of the program were these old guys making really long speeches about getting to know your neighbors and reading the Independence Day Proclamation. All speeches ended with everyone yelling, "Freedom." We were initially criticized for lacking conviction in our freedom yelling, but we pointed out to our friends that it's not our freedom or our country. We were just trying to be good neighbors by coming out to the party.

Of course, during the speech he pointed to us, asked us where we were from and told everyone how lucky they were to have Americans living in their neighborhood.

After his speech he got to get some rice and fixins from the traditional food tray.

The yellow rice in the middle is shaped like a volcano, and there are some friend potato cakes and chicken around it. Unfortunately we didn't get to eat any of this food.
Next Friday or Saturday (or maybe Friday and Saturday) night there is a bigger party for the bigger neighborhood area. More food, more fun and I'm willing to bet (since I'm 8.5 months pregnant and white) even more stares.