Last night, we celebrated the 4th of July here at good ol’ Camp Cupcake (‘Camp Cupcake’ being the mostly affectionate but somewhat derogatory nickname of this installation). The whole camp partook in the celebration, including the 350 or so British servicemen. Celebrating the 4th of July in such company easily qualifies as one of the strangest and most awkward events that I have participated in. But to make matters worse, during a public speech to kick-off the event, one of the more senior US leaders included the following remarks in his speech “ heh...so ah....are there any Brits out there? ...yeah! That’s right! How do ya like us now!?!”. I kid you not; these words were actually put out over a loud-speaker. The Brits seemed to take the whole thing in stride and tried their level best to ignore these and similar remarks of equal and even lesser taste. Happily, everyone seemed to keep things even keeled for the duration of the party. However, by the end of the party some silly things were starting to come out. I overheard a mostly intoxicated British Army Captain give the following toast: “well...God save the bloody Queen and that bloody George fellow” I wasn’t sure if he was referring to George Washington or George Bush. In either case it didn’t make any sense as George W has long since passed away and George B is no longer the sitting President. So although the evening was beginning to get very entertaining (lots and lots of funny stuff being said!), I decided to split.
Anyways, for those of you in the States: Happy two-hundred-&-thirty-third birthday to you.
At least you had the foresight to not toast Margaret Thatcher. I mean, she's was Chancellor to a rival University, after all.
Posted by: Amit at July 7, 2009 06:52 PM