Fireworks!

The 4th of July was a funny kind of day. I spent most of the day cooking special "American" foods (baked beans with real bacon bits , courtesy of my dear sister in law nikki, and BBQ sauce that i had to make myself; deviled eggs with little American flags stuck in them that I actually made myself; and 3 flavors of homemade ice-cream) for the evening party, while other people went to the beach and played (ironically i was afraid i would overheat at the beach--and did not consider the same hazard in my kitchen). So when evening came and the bathing boy came home to pick me up for the party we headed over to some friends' house to celebrate. We ate LOTS of yummy food, played Settlers of Cattan (will I EVER win that game?) and then we decided it was time to shoot of the 2 fireworks we had. Now, that is easier said than done when you live in a city, in an apartment building, surrounded by buildings. National people here shoot off fireworks ALL THE TIME. For weddings, for elections, for whatever. They shoot them in our street so that when they shoot up into the air and then do their pretty little razzle dazzle they are just about level with our 8th floor apartment. But we were a little nervous about where we could shoot our fireworks. Plus there were quite a few of us, and in general, we try not to travel around in big obvious packs of Americans. But for this we made an exception. After much discussion, we trouped down (the 10 or 12 of us) to the corniche, which is a big sidewalk boardwalk along the water's edge. It was swarming with the usual saturday night crowd, because it's the only place kids can go to ride bikes or for people to go and walk where there is a continuous sidewalk. So we ask a guy who is standing there if fireworks are allowed. And of course, he's like, "sure". But we are still nervous. No one wants to take the responsibility of being the one to light the cannon-thing, because we're still really apprehensive that this is not an OK thing to do here. We are being very American and assuming that there are rules against this, and that we will be fined or punished. All of us, except my husband, who fearlessly squats down to light it. Someone points out that he is lighting it, and I point out that he readily jumps from airplanes too, but I wouldn't advise that as a good idea either. . .
The main reason we are nervous is because somehow we have to keep the zillion skating, biking, and running children that are in the vicinity from going toward the firework-cannon thing after it has been lit. This is no small task. So the area seems to temporarily clear a bit, Matt lights the wick, and for about the next 45 seconds or so (?who can tell, time flies when you are gazing up at exploding fire) we are thrilled by our little firework. It seems to shoot up high enough that no sparks actually fall on any of the surrounding people--this is good. After it ends, in typical American fashion, we all clap. This is quite possibly the funniest moment of all because I'm pretty sure that more people stared at us for clapping, than those who looked at us funny for shooting off fireworks amidst a huge crowd of people on a public sidewalk! Apparently in this world, fireworks do not merit applause.

With that great success under our belt, we proceed to firework number 2. About this time I notice 3 approaching police cars with their lights flashing, and I prepare myself mentally to be arrested. Only they keep right on driving by us. It really IS legal to shoot off what the carton described as "flaming balls of fire with returns" in the middle of the cornice. After that relief, we light the second one, then we ooh and aah and clap, i think someone may have hummed some John Phillips Sousa and then we clap again, get stared at again, and gather our very conspicuous group, and traipse away back to the cultural safety of our baked beans and ice-cream. It was way funnier in person than I can describe here, mostly because we stuck out so badly, but for this one day, we pretty much ignored it and let ourselves be as American as we could, just for a few minutes.