| My
4th of July in Slovakia
4 July 2004
Happy 4th of July!
It was not a typical 4th of July, but then again, what is typical?
I'm in Slovakia today with Katka, Oyvind, Kristina and Magnus. I've
been here since Friday and unfortunately, I have to leave tomorrow
afternoon already!
To celebrate our freedom of choice, Katka forced me to run a 8km
race with 800m altitude gain. To the metrically challenged, that
means somewhere around 2500 feet of altitude in about 5 miles. That
means it's steep. Unrelentlessly steep. To further celebrate freedom
of choice, I choose to call it quits about half way in the next
town up of Strbske Pleso where I met Katka's Dad who bought me a
beer so together we sat, the Lithuanian-American girl and the Slovak
father of my best friend, drinking beer and discussing national
days in broken German on a beautiful late morning in the High Tatra
mountains. Is that not a fitting way to start the 4th of July?
Since summer has not yet truly arrived in Lithuania (and these days
many are skeptical that it ever will), I took the opportunity to
sit and read Lance Armstrong's biography (who got second yesterday
in the first stage of the Tour de France and has him sitting in
3rd overall .08 out) on the deck before we went to the store for
provisions. This evening, with my mother in mind, I made a big bowl
of potato salad that would make her proud and we cooked chicken
smothered in K.C. Masterpiece Bar-B-Q sauce on sticks over an open
flame (for lack of a grill). It was somehow so American, and so
NOT American, but we (all of us including Katka's mom, dad and grandpa)
enjoyed it. I then served strawberry shortcake for dessert that
had Katka's mom asking me to come back for the 4th of July next
year!
Tonight we'll do the most un-American thing possible, watch soccer!
Or, to be more exact, the final match between Portugal and Greece
in the 2004 European Football Championships.
All in all, it's been an excellent 4th of July. I hope yours is
as interesting as mine!
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