Perth-fect Ponderings: The Day After July 3rd and Before July 5th

Does Australia have a Fourth of July?

Yes, it's the day after the third of July.

Back home, y'all are watching fireworks, slicing watermelon, and running through the sprinklers (or running from Hurricane Arthur). In Perth, the morning started off at 37 degrees Fahrenheit and (don't worry, now it is currently 70 and sunny during our "winter), I went to work, and no one seemed to care that it was a holiday. No one seemed to know it was a holiday.

Me: "It's the Fourth of July"

Average Australian: "Oh, isn't that kinda like our Australia Day?"

Yes it is, and lucky I know a few good Australians and fellow Americans that did our best to recognize the U.S. of A.'s independence.

Thanks to my Mom and sister, my desk even looked patriotic. Because I couldn't move to Australia without an American flag.

Kyla, who is just back from a 6 week holiday around America thus making her an honorary American, made apple pies for our celebration.We'll just forget that we had them for very un-American morning tea and were made with just the right amount of Perth-grown lemon juice.

We had red white and blue strawberries & blueberries, tomatoes (that's to-MAY-to, not to-MAH-to) and watermelon for the occasion. Maybe it was those years of running the Born in the USA 4 miler where they give watermelons as prizes or the challenge of consuming a whole watermelon by myself before it went bad, but it's not the Fourth of July without watermelon. Luckily they had it in the grocery store. I wasn't as lucky with blueberries and had to make do with frozen ones. It also does not seem like the Fourth of July when it is "winter" or at least not summer.

In honor of all things American, including Amanda handing in her PhD thesis, we donned our red, white, and blue for some American fun.

Beautiful red, white, and blue streamers for the occasion.

We even rallied a few Aussies for beer pong played with coffee cups. Where's the red Solo cups when you need them? Note: they do have them here in select locations I think. I've always been amused at different regional rules of beer pong in the US: 9 cup vs 6 cup, bounce rules, and re-rack rules. Well, I don't know if it was an Australian thing or a lack of beer pong experience thing (hey, they don't have the whole college party scene), but this was some of the strangest beer pong I've played. You could bounce it without being intercepted, t re-rack whenever (though you did have to dance for it), but one Aussie did know about "celebrity" shots. Thank you University of Maryland for teaching me well.