OPPPAAA!!

THURSDAY
After classes a few of us girlies walked to Hyde Park, a favorite place, to feed the ducks. Bad plan. I stopped to take a picture of the pond with the birds and I turned around to see a horde of hungry, ferocious birds walking towards me. I felt like Deborah in “Night of the Living Dead”. No joke. I look over to see some of the girls standing on the bench throwing bread to hundreds of huddled birds. They had to escape by jumping off the back of the bench. And we ran for it. And they followed. The birds here aren’t afraid of anything and so they will fly as close as possible and make you shriek and duck for your life.
FRIDAY
London Study Day!! Today, we waltzed out into the rain towards Westminster Abbey. You’d think that I’d get sick of seeing churches since they all have the same structure and idea. But they are so different and interesting in their own way. Westminster Abbey was cool because of the people buried there. It’s stuffed full with tombs and memorials. Included among this array: Issac Newton, Darwin, lots of kings and queens (Mary Queen of Scots, William the Conqueror, Elisabeth I, etc), Handel, Geoffrey Chaucer… This is also where the coronation chair is located since this is where the coronations take place.
The group went to another favorite place of mine: The National Gallery.
That night after dinner, we went shopping down by Oxford Circus with the girls. We hit up Gelato Mio (again) afterwards. Some of the people here are really in love with Gelato Mio. Like me.
SATURDAY
This is another reason why Annie and I are friends: our dialogue Friday night…
Annie: “Yeah, let’s go running in the morning. What time did you want to get up for that?”
Me: “Uhhh, I want to sleep in, so whenever I wake up.”
A: “Ok, around when do you think that will be?”
M: “Uhhh I dunno probably around ten…? That’s probably when I’m going to set my alarm. We’ll see, though, I’m pretty tired.”
A: “ok…well I might want to get up before then, but yeah let’s not go too late.”
Saturday morning=I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9 am and Annie slept until 10 am. Haha, I love you Anne Spackman.
Annie was originally going to go to London without me, but now I’m here with her and we pretty much own London together. Something that I love doing here is when Annie and I take turns playing and singing; one will play and sing the easy part, one will sing the harder part, then we switch. I’m so relieved that there’s a piano here. Not just for my sake, but because of the fact that there are SO many talented pianists here. We compare and talk music and you can hear the piano throughout the whole centre whenever anyone plays.
Anyways, so Annie and I went on an accidental 4+ mile run today.  It was a good run, as usual. In the afternoon, we went to the British Museum, a fav of mine, and saw some legit mummies and sarcophagususss.

:.British Museum:.
Get what’s so awesome about studying in London: we went on a walk through London for homework purposes. Really. We are assigned to walk through London then write about how we feel about what we saw. I’m thinking that Brother Shuler is going to get sick of me being so repetitious in my papers…”I love London a lot I love London a lot I love London a lot I love…”
On our “Walk of the Scholars” we saw the University of London, where Darwin lived, and the British Library. We then paid a visit to Platform 9-and-three-quarters at King’s Cross Station. Ever since we got here and on the tube maps I see King’s Cross Station, I’ve been dying to go. We must’ve looked like hardcore tourists because a man asked us: “’ello, ah’ve goht a question for ya. Ah you possibly looking for plahtform nihne and three quartahs?” (best written representation of a British accent ha)
Coincidentally, when we got back, people were watching Harry Potter 6. Can’t pass that up, of course.
Since I’ve been at college, my grandpa has sent me and my roommates pizza every once and awhile during the school year. How sweet is he? We were talking before I left for London and he was joking about how it’s going to be difficult to send pizza to me in another country. So when I got an email Friday from him about receiving a surprise around 6 to 6:30 on Saturday, I didn’t think it could be pizza. It was pizza. I can’t believe him. And since I have about 7 roommates here in London, I kept it all for myself and Annie hee hee hee.
SUNDAY
I love Sundays here. Since I live with the same 40-something people practically every hour of every day, I don’t get very much Michelle time. Which can be problematic since I need my space sometimes. Sundays, everyone leaves for church early except for only a few people, so the centre’s quiet and I get the bathroom to myself.
Church was way good. I played the piano for Primary and sat in for the older class. The primary is way small. Actually the ward is way small. There’s probably ten to fifteen kids total each week. WAY different than the Meridian Park mass ward.

.:Me, Sarah, & Laura coming home from church:.

'Ello

MONDAY
Back to the books. I can’t tell you how hard it is to study when you can easily put on your coat (and scarf and gloves and earmuffs-it’s cold) and go outside and be in London. I have this thing where I adjust very quickly to my environment. So besides a few days of jet lag, it doesn’t feel like I’m a foreigner as much as I thought I would.

Did I mention that I love it here?

So Monday was a school day, but also a Tesco run day to get detergent and see if the rumors are true that all of the hot guys go to Tesco (so far, not so true…). Before classes we ran in Hyde Park, again, in the bitter cold. Whether it’s cold or hot, Hyde Park is hoppin’ with people and their dogs. Annie and I did our laundry and definitely had a laundry room dance party. What else would we do? Everyone in the Shakespeare class went to the Globe (not free for those not in the class…BOOO!!), so the downstairs was basically all to us.
More homework. Then Annie and I were adventurous and tried to get tickets to see John Mayer (why didn’t we know about him coming before the weekend before?). We stood outside for a solid hour waiting for the scalper’s prices to continue decreasing. I gotta say, I was proud of our patience, and they were NOT haha. After everyone went in, we figured we could either wait another hour to maybe have prices get down low enough for us to buy OR we could get out of the cold and go get some gelato. I got the cookies and cream flavor. Mmmm.
More homework. I talk about it a lot because there’s lots of it. I’m not complaining too much, though, because the homework makes us learn more while we’re here. The cool thing about what we learn about is that we actually go out to the places we learn about in class.
TUESDAY
Classes went really well today. We learned about the Bassae temple in Greece and the friezes (marble panels lining the top of the walls of the temple). I was really excited because we were actually going to see them at the British Museum. The Britons took them out of Greece ages ago to put them in the UK and ever since the Greeks have begged for them back. Will they get them back? Unfortunately, no. We started taking the tube to the museum, but there were issues or something so we waited for a bus, which took forever to make its way through the city. A few of us got separated from the big group, so we just got off where we were supposed to and got a bit lost walking to the museum. When we finally found the museum, the group was just getting out of the Bassae room. I was SO disappointed. I’m way interested in this stuff because of the way that Classics influences architecture and interior design. I hope I get to see it sometime before I leave. The up side was that the British Museum is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to, hands down. You know those things that you read about in your history text books? Yeah, they’re here. For example, we took at look at the friezes from the Parthenon temple from Greece. Apparently, the Turks stored their ammunition in the Parthenon during a war and something made it all explode, blowing the ends of the temple into smithereens. What we saw of it was really cool, though. The Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess of war, Athena. Legend is that she was born out of the head of Zeus or someone and she was already fully clothed and grown-up, ready for action. The pediment from the front of the temple was in pieces from the explosion so they don’t have the full depiction of this. The frieze contain a scene of humans riding their horses quickly from one entrance towards the gods lounging on the north side of the temple. I’m not sure what this means, but it’s neat. Another example of how cool this place is that I saw THE Rosetta Stone. THE Rosetta Stone.

On the way home, I was getting on the tube behind my group and the doors started to close on me, so I had to quickly hop off back onto the platform. Abandoned again. Having this happen on top of missing the Bassae room and getting lost and little sleep the night before made me not very happy.
Earlier that day I was craving hamburgers and pizza both so I was hoping for one of them for dinner. We got hamburgers, so that made me feel a bit better.
WEDNESDAY
Today made up for yesterday. We traveled outside of London for the first time. Destinations: Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath.
I can die happy now that I’ve seen the British Museum and Stonehenge. Ok, maybe not, I still have to see Platform 9 ¾. Never mind. But really Stonehenge was cool despite the snow pelting us in the face. We got lots of fun pictures and I can now say that I’ve seen it!

.:Anna, Arrin, Annie, Laura, Brittany, Kira, Me:.
We loaded back onto the bus to travel to Salisbury, where the Cathedral of St. Mary is located. Another beautiful church. The spire extending out of the top is over 400 feet, the tallest in Britain.

.:St. Mary's/Salisbury Cathedral:.

.:inside the Cathedral:.
The main attraction of the Cathedral was the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta. Sorry, picture weren't allowed, but I really saw it.
We were then ushered off to Bath, a cute city out in the country. It’s called Bath because of the Roman Baths discovered there. While we toured these, I was taken aback about the fact that I was walking in an area that used to be inhabited by Romans. The baths were found by ancient people lots of years ago and they considered them to be sacred waters. When the Romans invaded, they also felt this special vibe from the springs so they built their temple by it and created it into a place where people could relax and rejuvenate. The temple is still not fully excavated, but we saw the altar where they held sacrifices to the goddess of comfort/rejuvenation, Minerva. They have her head from the original statue on display.

Right next to the baths was the Abbey of Bath, yet ANOTHER beautiful church.
We walked up the street to the assembly hall, where people would assemble to party, basically. Bath was the place to be if you wanted to socialize in the olden days. Even Jane Austen went to the halls we were in.
Oh, and we saw Nicholas Cage’s house.

Since we got home late, they gave us money to go get food, so me and a few friends went to eat at a Thai Buffet. I stink like oriental restaurants (you know what they smell is) but the food was good.
London has been good to me.

"Just touched down in London town"

THURSDAY
Today was more about productivity over exploration. After classes, though, we went “pubbin’”. What is pubbin’, you ask? Well, let me enlighten you. At our meeting with the professors regarding rules and regulations, we were told to not go to any clubs or night clubs or anything like that. Someone asked if we could go to pubs and we are allowed as long as we don’t drink and if we go earlier in the day so as to avoid drunk people. So several girls went pubbin instead of clubbin and got some yummy fish n chips for lunch.
Since we had TONNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS of reading, that’s what I spent my Thursday night doing, along with getting distracted by Kellan, a buddy of mine in the program. That kid cracks me up, so I can’t get anything done around him. I asked him which countries he has been to since he has traveled everywhere and it was quite a list. I want to travel everywhere by the time I leave this world, and I think London has been a good kick-off (English speaking, lots of culture but also McDonald’s nearby, travelling with a big American group from BYU).
FRIDAY
Fridays are day trip days, so you should look forward to what I have to say about them. Today the whole group took the tube to the Tower of London. You know how you hear about things in foreign countries that are famous and cool but you’ve never been so you concoct this picture of what it could be like. Yeah, that’s what I did with the Tower of London. Since it’s singular, I thought it was this big tower off of the Thames that has one staircase that you go up and an see all of London. Not even close. Ok, so there were towers that overlooked the Thames, but it was a fortress of towers with walls and buildings.
We went into the Waterloo Block where the crown jewels are housed and on display. Seeing those things made the fact that royalty is for real more tangible to me. I’ve thought a couple of times about the fact that we’re in a country with a Queen not a President but it didn’t really hit me until then. The magnitude of the difference between classes was realized also, when I saw how massive and priceless the crown jewels are and how just next door were some stonewall dungeons and torture chambers for those peasants who misbehaved. Anyways, there were moving sidewalks next to the displays where we saw all of the crowns, scepters and orbs used for coronation and other ceremonies. The scepter used for coronations has the world’s largest diamond at the top (351 carats!). The biggest diamond was found in South Africa and was cut into 9 smaller diamonds, the biggest in the scepter, the second in the Queen’s crown, and the rest used by royalty for other crowns and jewelry. We asked the lady monitoring them how much they are worth, and no one has attempted to price them. We also talked to another guard man named George and he was telling us how there has only been one attempt to steal the crown since the 17th century. The man had gotten the crown and was almost to the gate, but was apprehended by the guards before he could leave the Tower. Sorry for all of the stories—I put them in here because I think they’re interesting and I want to remember them. In the White Tower was a special temporary display of all of King Henry VI’s armory. There is also a chapel that has been there for about 1000 years. It was really cool to stand in it and think about how millions of people have worshipped here since the beginning of this millennium. You don’t have that in the States. There was also the Bloody Tower, where the sons of a king had mysteriously disappeared and their bones found years later under a staircase. Since it was a prison and had torture chambers, there are plenty of horror/ghost stories about the Tower. I thought it was a really cool place.
The group then walked down the road to see the London Bridge (oh, snap!) and Borrough Road/Market, where I ate this divinely scrumptious Greek wrap and got this amazing double chocolate and cherry muffin. I want to go back there, it smelled so good.
I was a bum again and did homework again. But we watched "A Knight's Tale" since we were constantly quoting it in the King Henry exhibit. Love that movie.
SATURDAY
It was refreshing to sleep in then go running in Hyde Park. Annie and I spent the afternoon shopping on Portobello Road. Can I just say that I got a bag that was originally 35 pounds for 7 pounds? Golden!! It was pouring on our heads and it was a little taste of home. That night we went to dinner at Kahn’s, this really good Indian food place by the Centre.
SUNDAY
I didn’t have church until 1 pm, but it took us about an hour to get to our ward by tube. I’m assigned to the Lea Valley ward in Walthamstow with Laura Nielson and Sarah Marshall. We walked in 5 minutes late, but they hadn’t started yet. Instantly we were bombarded by head shakes and “hey, are you from BYU?” Everyone is so friendly! I was assigned to the primary/nursery, so I get to work with the adorable British kids with cute little accents. The primary teacher was teaching about how we’re all from different parts of the world and how we all are different, then asked the kids what the one thing is that we all have in common. A little kid named Tiko raised his hand and said in his cute little accent: “We are all Heavenly Father’s children and he loves all of us”. That just made my heart melt! So adorable! When talking to the bishop afterwards, he counted about 20 to 25 different countries that the people in the ward are from. I definitely felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, but then I thought: There’s almost as many countries as there are people, so we’re all unique. It was a very cool experience and I’m excited to work with them for the next 3 months.
After dinner, I got to talk to my family for the first time on Skype. I found out that they adopted a rescued bulldog! She’s so sweet and fat and I can’t wait to meet her.
Cheers! Pictures to come!

Cheers from London!!

TRAVELING
Let me recap my adventures of arriving in London. Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30 AM (Oregon time) and flew to Chicago where I hung out at O'Hare waiting for my next flight. I was bummed that I couldn't leave the airport for a bit because, being an aspiring interior designer, I wanted to explore the architecture that started modern design. Oh, well, at least I finally got to see the awesome light tunnel at the airport. I met up with Annie, Cam and Jenny and we set off, over the big pond, to the motherland. My personal screen had my constant attention since it told us where we were and how far we had to go. 3,600 miles later, we landed at Heathrow Airport, where we were interrogated by the cranky border patrol. I almost thought that I wasn't going to make it into the country because they would find my nervousness suspicious.
There are a few things that I quickly learned when I stepped out of the airport:
1. they drive on the wrong side of the road. My dad's only request before I left was for me to find out why the British still drive on the wrong side of the road. Well, for the information of both my dad and everyone else reading, it's because of Napoleon and the French, according to my stake president here. When they were deciding which side of the road to do things, they thought that the left hand side would allow most right handers the comfort of holding a sword and being able to attack from the right side, like in jousting. When Napoleon came into power, he obviously wanted to do everything opposite of the Brits. Thus, the rest of the world is different, not the British, Either way, it freaks me out.
2. There is no law stating that pedestrians have the right away.
3. I've never used a different currency before. It's different and will definitely take some getting used to.


by where I live

where we live

The Centre is amazing. It's so old, we're not allowed to jump for fear that we'll crack the plaster ceiling. And it's hard to sneak around because everything is so squeaky. We're set in an ideal location, just a block away from Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. We're also a short tube ride away from downtown and all of the cool stuff there. I'm very excited to be here.
SATURDAY
Annie and I had our first authentic British breakfast complete with scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage on toast with fried tomatoes and freshly squeezed OJ. We got lost walking around after going almost all of the way down Portabello Road. Yes, Portabello Road is all that it's cracked up to be, no we couldn't find the bookstore from the movie "Notting Hill". I made my first purchase since it's so stinkin cold: cute, fuzzy earmuffs. (side note: it hasn’t been this cold for the past 18 years and it hasn’t snowed like this in 30 years, or something like that) I also found this awesome store called Poundland, the equivalent to Dollar Tree in the States. We got near the end of the street and decided to turn off of a side street to work our way home. We got lost because of this, but in a good way. We found this really pretty cathedral in the middle of a nice neighborhood, a nice surprise. That night, we went to try to get tickets for Peter Pan at Leicester Square. Not the way to do it, we found out, so we ended up walking around then went back to Queensway to eat at Bella Italia.
SUNDAY
We traveled to the Hyde Park chapel to have church. We spoke with the Stake President of the Hyde Park Stake, who was really great to talk to (not just because of his sweet accent). I was assigned to the Lea Valley Ward and apparently it will be an adventure to travel to the building each week. Not much to report since I slept for about 3.5 hours (jet lag…blahhh).
MONDAY
Our first day trip day! Our mass of Americans hopped onto the tube to visit the Museum of London. There were only 3 rooms open, but it was cool what we could see. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t listen in history class when we covered the Motherland. The group then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral in the same area and had the whole tour. I’ve never been inside a Cathedral before, and I’m wondering why I haven’t. Probably because they have few old Cathedrals in the States. I was so humbled by the elaborate design and the intricate statues. We climbed about 240 stairs up the Whispering Gallery in the dome of the crossing where you can look down over the whole main room. It’s called the Whispering Gallery because you can whisper towards a person 30 meters away along the wall of the dome and they will hear you. The craziest part was going down into the crypt. We saw the tombs of Florence Nightingale, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Christopher Wren (the one who designed and built St. Paul’s and many other great buildings), along with many others. A little creepy walking down the halls surrounded by dead people, but also very interesting. After getting cookies from Ben’s (mmmmm perfection), my new friends and I went to Big Ben and the London Bridge to be tourists and take billions of pictures. We even had some people recording us (again, creepy) haha.


St. Paul's

Annie and I with the London Eye

TUESDAY
First day of classes! So far, so good. Except I’m going to have to get back into the study mode, again, like every other semester. Only this semester, I’m in a foreign country which makes it a bit harder to get down the nitty gritty. Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll work hard in my classes, especially the ones outside in London  I LOVE how it’s set up here: I wake up, put on some sweats, run downstairs to breakfast, run back upstairs to get ready, look at the clock and exclaim: “Oh crap class is starting right now”, and run down a flight of stairs to class. It’s fantastic. Class is over by 1:20 every day and so we can explore the rest of the day (or study, I guess). I love my classes, too. I’m taking Greek & Roman Mythology where we have to find evidences of Classicism wherever we go in London; Classical Civilization; British Literature where we are reading some classics from each time period and then going out to see them in London’s theatres; a cultural class where we are learning about different cultures then going out to their synagogues or mosques here in London. Then there’s a one credit class that’s called London Walks (no explanation needed, in my opinion). This semester will be the ultimate learning experience, in my opinion.
Tuesday night, we went to the Apollo Theatre to see Wicked. Student cards are magical and should be taken advantage of because we got front section tickets the same day of the performance for only 25 pounds! Amazing performance, even the second time around. The accents made it a different experience than seeing it in NYC, that’s for sure. To sum it up, Annie after the performance said, “That was the best 3 hours of my life!!!”


“Dahncing through lahf”

WEDNESDAY
After classes, we took the tube to Trafalga(r) Square and the National Gallery. Either I’ve been young and naïve or I really haven’t seen any famous art, because it was so amazing seeing the originals! Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Seurat, etc etc etc. Last night we took a break from studying to get some Gelato. It was a first time thing for me and I’m hooked, people, hooked.


National Gallery


I have a feeling that this week was just a glimpse at the experience that I’m going to have here. It feels like I’ve been here forever, even though it’s only been a week. I’m taking full advantage of my time here and I hope you all will love living vicariously through my trip here in London.

Late nights and random dance parties? Um, yes, please.

I'm back at the Y, which means several things:

• I'm living with all girls, again, which has its pluses and minuses (mostly pluses).
• I'm out of my rut of unproductive hiccup (see previous posts).
• I'm surrounded by married people and small children.
• I'm eating more mac n' cheese and less veggies.
• "Y'all" and Ebonics have leaked into my everyday vocabulary.
• My stress levels have increased several degrees.
• Once again, I don't know what to do with my life.
• bloody noses, cracked heels and elbows, sniffles (where's the rain??)
• Everyone's Mormon, which makes life great. There is a plethora of weird people in Oregon.
• I miss my family. A lot.

There have been upgrades this year, that makes it a whole new experience for me:

• I have a car, which means I can go places. Whenever I want. Wherever I want. FREEDOM from/in Provo, Utah!
• I live in an apartment complex with a pool and workout room. Personal workout sessions became so much easier.
• Boys aren't leaving on their missions, but are actually getting back.
• New phone so I can actually communicate with people.
• New and improved camera=more blog posts with better quality photos!
• dishwasher. the end.

Among the forest of bullet points I hope you picked up on my excitement. Even though I'm taking pre-recs for my major and the stress is piled on thick, life is excellent. Fresh start. New people. Chill roommates. I couldn't ask for anything else.

Liesel's first road trip=OR to UT

Lake Oswego

Sunday afternoon, I got this urge to take pictures. and I got too busy. So Monday, I call up Annie and we decide to head to the LDS Temple to take some pictures of the beautiful grounds, but renovations set us back. So we started driving towards Lake Oswego. We happened upon downtown Lake Oswego, where quaint shops and dozens of boats scatter the lakeside. Here's the shoot!

two hundred thirty three years

Hello friends. Long time, no blog.
In light of celebrating America's birthday, I'd like to say a few things that have been on my mind.

What makes America so great:
1. Abundance=what makes me angry is when people don't realize how good we got it. I think every ignorant person should spend a day in a third world country for a month in order to gain some appreciation. Poverty in America is a good week for some countries. Sure, we see those sad commercials on TV about how you should donate money to this and this organization to feed these starving kids, and we feel remorse for not doing charitable things, but then our featured presentation comes back on our plasma screens in our air conditioned home and we forget about it. We got it good. If I'm hungry, I have the ability to go down to Freddies in my car to get whatever food my little heart desires. If I'm dirty, I can hop in the heated shower and get sparkly clean with my Herbal Essences and Dove soap. We got it good. And I think that if Americans realize this, then our current national economic crisis probably wouldn't have happened. We would have stayed within our means and avoided overspending in our consumer-driven world.
2. Freedom=I don't really like reading international news, but it's like the bad car crash. Once I look, I'm disgusted, but at least I know what happened. I read about the bombings, which I'm sure are made PG through editing and careful selection. I read about the evil men and women gaining power and using it for their own advantage. They take civilized people's choices away. I'm so so immensely grateful to not worry about getting on the public bus at school and it being bombed. I'm grateful for being able to choose. Clothes. Religion. Who I vote for. What I say. Where I work. etc etc etc. Being a religious person, I'm so glad to be able to choose who I want to worship and find for myself the truth in all things, instead of having an international sect that has become too corrupt and government involved. I believe that God made America so that truth is able to come forth and remain incorruptible.
3. Safety=This kind of tags along with the freedom bit. We have national security and we optimistic Americans step in when something bad happens, unlike other countries who just take it and pray that they're not next.
4. Capitalism=I'm worried about this one; it's slowly but surely being taken away from us. I hope it stays and we Americans can take advantage of it. Competition is what makes the economy go round and international trading to be successful. We can choose where to buy our towels and where to eat dinner at. We have the ability to strive for the American Dream through healthy hard work and determination to make it in this world.
5. Stability=Every 4 years, we elect a new President. We have systems and protocols that are followed by the book (or are supposed to be). There's no wondering when our civil war will end or who the next tyrant will be who dictates how the country is run.
6. Checks and Balances=We have people who are watching people who are being watched by other people. Keeps our government in line, for the most part.
7. Dreams=We have schools and institutes that enable us to become who we want to be. I just finished this great book called The Book Thief that's about Nazi Germany through a German girl's eyes. She was in school and grew up becoming a certified Hitler Youth. She didn't necessarily believe what Hitler did, but she didn't really have the choice to be anything else. If she wanted to become a teacher, she had to teach what the Furher wanted. If she was a doctor, she was put into the army to tend to the injured. I'm also grateful for the ability to be a woman and have the opportunity, if I so choose, to go to school and study whatever my heart desires and go into any occupation that suits my own needs and those of my future family. I can become an accomplished pianist, or a heart surgeon, or an elementary school teacher. Whatever I choose to be!

I'm the American who likes to go to the neighborhood parades, and get decked out in red, white and blue, and post flags everywhere I go. I like the traditional, early American patriotism, where everyone closes shop for the 4th and sets the neighborhood on fire with fireworks bought down the street. I don't ever want to forget what it took to get our nation to where it is today and what sacrifices everyday heroes had to make to get us here. I love being an American.