Proud to be a Meiguoren (American) **sung to the Lee Greenwood tune**
Daniel's Wisdoms:
1) Things are always farther away than they seem on the guidebook map. Take a Taxi.
2) Bring a hair dryer for your clothes.
3) I finally figured out why bike bells are useful.
4) Don't pay attention to the crosswalk sign. Just follow the leader.
5) Bring Lysol and Febreeze
6) I am very spoiled. My standard of living, which until now I thought to be average, is actually pretty awesome. Makes you realize how much you really have. Guess Dad was right all these years.
Happy Memorial Day! I always feel kind of strange celebrating American holidays in China...I guess we don't really celebrate them, just remember them. Anyway, I guess it's appropriate for me to be in China today; it wasn't until I came to China the first time that I really gained an appreciation for how good we've got it in the U.S. I'd never really considered myself patriotic until then. So much we take for granted...Daniel said this morning, "You know, I never really thought that having access to a washing machine and a dryer meant we were spoiled..." I guess two weeks of hanging laundry up around the room to dry does kind of make you nostalgic for the convenience of American-style laundry rooms, or even laundromats. At least we're not having to hand wash our clothes, like most of the people in this country.
It kind of grosses Daniel out that they wash out the mops that they use to clean the motel floor with in the little pond outside...what a sissy. And he refuses to eat street-vendor food, although I'm still working on him there. We've graduated to eating fruit from the fruit-stalls, so he may yet eat some of the rest of this stuff. I was reading in the guide book that one of the cities we're going to at the end of the trip has a night market that has all kinds of street-food, including various species of insects--I don't think even I am up for that, but steamed buns and pan-fried biscuit thingies I can handle.
So I hope everyone enjoys being American today...smell your Tide-fresh clothes for us and don't get annoyed when you get caught by the traffic light...at least most people stop for traffic lights in the U.S. And definitely read the news and enjoy the lack of censorship.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Things are always farther away than they seem on the guidebook map. Take a Taxi.
2) Bring a hair dryer for your clothes.
3) I finally figured out why bike bells are useful.
4) Don't pay attention to the crosswalk sign. Just follow the leader.
5) Bring Lysol and Febreeze
6) I am very spoiled. My standard of living, which until now I thought to be average, is actually pretty awesome. Makes you realize how much you really have. Guess Dad was right all these years.
Happy Memorial Day! I always feel kind of strange celebrating American holidays in China...I guess we don't really celebrate them, just remember them. Anyway, I guess it's appropriate for me to be in China today; it wasn't until I came to China the first time that I really gained an appreciation for how good we've got it in the U.S. I'd never really considered myself patriotic until then. So much we take for granted...Daniel said this morning, "You know, I never really thought that having access to a washing machine and a dryer meant we were spoiled..." I guess two weeks of hanging laundry up around the room to dry does kind of make you nostalgic for the convenience of American-style laundry rooms, or even laundromats. At least we're not having to hand wash our clothes, like most of the people in this country.
It kind of grosses Daniel out that they wash out the mops that they use to clean the motel floor with in the little pond outside...what a sissy. And he refuses to eat street-vendor food, although I'm still working on him there. We've graduated to eating fruit from the fruit-stalls, so he may yet eat some of the rest of this stuff. I was reading in the guide book that one of the cities we're going to at the end of the trip has a night market that has all kinds of street-food, including various species of insects--I don't think even I am up for that, but steamed buns and pan-fried biscuit thingies I can handle.
So I hope everyone enjoys being American today...smell your Tide-fresh clothes for us and don't get annoyed when you get caught by the traffic light...at least most people stop for traffic lights in the U.S. And definitely read the news and enjoy the lack of censorship.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
posted by Mike and Jean Anne at 1:09 AM
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