Happy 4th of July

I wish Murgatroyd had been here for our 4th of July party held after church in our apartment. The fifteen BYU females wore bright red lipstick to celebrate the day and sang and acted out songs from HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.

Murgatroyd could have rocked it tonight.

They sang all the patriotic songs from that elementary school program that my boys sang years ago, ending with THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND; THIS LAND IS MY LAND, FROM CALIFORNIA TO THE NEW YORK ISLANDS.

We ate McDonald hamburgers (a half block away). What can be more American than that? Frankly, they tasted delicious. The kids brought treats. I made tons of ice over the last few days, because they miss ice. They miss air conditioning and clothes dryers.

We played Charades and that electronic game that you pass while the clock ticks and you have to describe the words that come up? My synapses aren't making connections I can't think of what that game is called. We've played it with family. Does it start with an "O"?

Tell me what the name of that game is!

Fireworks exploded from our our mouths and then we exclaimed at the ones we loved: AAAH and OOOH that was a good one, look up at the sky. It's been a lot of pretending today.

I asked Tom to find a flag store, but that didn't happen. So he called The American Embassy and they had them for us, paper ones, large enough to hang in the windows and little ones perfect for our Vienna travel journals. These are coming up as works of art. I'm keeping one too, and frankly find it difficult to keep a written journal and a blog at the same time. Have never been good at multi-tasking. The students are ALIVE and PASSIONATE and they make me happy.

We sang no American patriotic hymns at church, but I suspect that's because our English speaking ward members come from Ghana, the Phillipines , Nigeria, Australia and Korea. Americans are just a small part of the community

Tom and I ran into the Gay Pride Parade yesterday, and we without our cameras. The cross dressing was the most entertaining: guys in red high heels and black skivvies and capes pulling other guys in leather collars and leather shorts. I liked the ones who looked like women with huge wigs and purses and petticoats. The parade ended at the Ratshaus where the big Wien Fest is being held this month. Large screen productions of operas every night and lots of eating tents.

We went home and watched Law and Order on Channel 131.com without advertising. It was heavenly. And very American.