Monday, July 5, 2010

How an Expat Spent the 4th of July

Yesterday was my first holiday outside of the United States living as an expat.

First of all, I hate the term "expat."

It's short for expatriate, which is the term used for those who are temporarily living in a country other than their country of origin.

And expatriate sounds a lot like expatriot, meaning someone who no longer wants to be an American.

And that is NOT me!

So I entered the holiday with great trepidation, knowing I was going to be pretty homesick for sparklers, cookouts, watermelon, and apple pie. Not to mention the lack of family.

Ian and I slept in on Sunday (we go to church on Friday nights here in Vancouver,) and headed for the downtown area. There was a Jazz Fest wrapping up that day, and we parked ourselves on our picnic blanket, chowed down on a picnic lunch, and enjoyed some awesome music for awhile.

Also, there were alot of hippies there. And a little bit of yuppies. Also, there were only white people. I think jazz fests need to be added to the "Stuff White People Like," book. It was surprisingly undiverse.

If that's even a word.

We headed to this downtown area to get Ian some schwarma (uh..Middle Eastern wrap, kind of like a Turkish Donnaire,) and me to get some McDonald's. Because I wanted to be American.

But then Ian gave me a bit of the schwarma and a I was all "forget America, I love the Middle East!" all over again.

We hopped onto the train and went to a mall to see Toy Story 3, because, we figured, that's American!

But the next showing wasn't for an hour and a half, so we went home.

And there were no fireworks.

Or, apple pie.

And I was pretty gloomy.

Yup, so that's my story. Not exactly as peppy and up beat as everyone else's 4th of July, but I guess that's just how it is!

Hey, I can look forward to 4th of July 2013....the next time I'll be visiting the states!

5 comments:

Resisting Perfection said...

Sorry your 4th didn't exactly live up to your hopes. I bet it is hard to be away from the US on such an important holiday. I never thought about the word expatriate being so close to expatriot.

Michal Renee said...

Sounds more fun than my 4th..I did get to see fireworks but everything else was very boring! I'm sure your trip will turn out to be very exciting in the end! I hope it will be. :)

Callie said...

Not even an apple pie? That's depressing. Well, let me wish you a Happy Independence Day! We didn't really get to enjoy the typical festivities either, because the weather was bad and there weren't very many fireworks. Otherwise I'd send you a picture or something! Ha!

Ria @ Life as a Wife! said...

OH! What a memory :) You will never forget it! Thanks for the sweet comments on my blog!

Jessica said...

I wondered how you would spend the 4th since you're outside the states. I'm sorry it made you homesick :-( I bet the schwarma was delicious