Happy Birthday to the USA

In honor of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Paul and I did what is required to be a good member of US society by going to our local 4th of July celebration at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. The AmVets post puts on an annual fireworks show here in Bloomington, and this was the first year it was at the fairgrounds rather than at the university stadium parking lot. The fireworks were to begin at 10pm, and living about a 10 minute drive away from the fairgrounds, we left at 8:45 in case there was traffic. Well, after an hour of being reminded of why we prefer living in the country to living in Chicago or another big city, we managed to get to the fairgrounds and park. Walking up to where the action was, we were treated to the aroma of fresh fried dough, kettle corn and BBQ.

Despite the long line of large and tattooed men, as well as pregnant women, already ahead of him, Paul, being Polish, could not resist stopping at the Polish Sausage cart (he's on the right in the dark).


Here he is with his prize - juicy polish sausage topped with "everything", which appeared to include sauerkraut and onions among other things. The glow of the yellow neon light from the cart adds to the ambiance of the dish.


Of course, Paul isn't the only one who enjoyed the bounty of the Polish Sausage cart. I was treated to something called a "potato blossom". I don't seem to recall such a delicacy being served in Poland, so this must be a New World creation. More convincing of its US origin is the fact that it's a potato (or probably several potatoes) cut into a spiral, deep fried and smothered with ketchup (or plain if you're too dainty for the red stuff). While the neon yellow glow is not the most flattering light on me, I did want to share the image of this fried treat, in all it's glory, with those who may not have seen it before .



As we enjoyed our rural fairground fare, an 80s cover band played such hits as Van Halen's "Jump" and other Hair Band classics. Finally, at around 10:30 the fireworks began. It was actually a much bigger pyrotechnic show that we expected. There were several times when the audience started clapping because they thought it was the grand finale, but then it would start up again. Pretty impressive, though the paper this morning said they spent $25,000 on the show and only raised $17.000 in donations. They've been short like that two years in a row. Whoops!

What was cool is that we were pretty close to the show, but not so close that we thought we might get hot ashes on us.


And finally, when the show had ended and the line for the Sugar Shack food cart (pictured in the background below) had died down, we ordered our dessert - FUNNEL CAKE! Does it get any better than funnel cake? We think not.


Let the French keep their baguettes. Real Americans take their bread fried and loaded with powdered sugar!

In other news, Indiana ranks 17th in the country for its 2010 level of obesity.

July Happenings

July is a tough month for us. Paul left on the 6th for an 8 week internship in Munich. It's a great opportunity and Munich is a beautiful city. Of course we miss each other, but at least I am going to visit for a week around our anniversary. Since Paul can't take any vacation time, we're just doing 2 nights in Mittenwald near the Austrian border - it's just an hour from Munich by train!

Before Paul left, we went punting with our friends Karen and Richard. Richard is Paul's roommate in Munich during the internship.

I didn't get pictures in the boat for fear of dropping the camera, but I did get a snap of Paul in his punting hat at Magdalen College:


And here's me and Karen with our cool punting hats as well:


You may think that the 4th of July is not celebrated in England. Well, you're right, except that it's also our friend Mikki's birthday and the local pub owner in South Hinksey threw her a party - fireworks and all!

We brought some birthday balloons to the party - had one casualty on the way, but 2 of the balloons made it! Paul looked so funny biking around with balloons that I just had to take a picture! As we were biking through town, I noticed a lot of people looking at the balloons and smiling. Guess balloons just put people in a good mood!


Here's Mikki with John, the owner of the pub in the background: