Independence (from England) Day

So today is Independence (from England) Day. And I am in England. No one really celebrates this holiday here, oddly enough. It is strange to know that my friends will be blowing up fireworks and my family will be attending barbeques tonight. I think I have gained a greater appreciation for America since I moved to England. The little things that I used to take for granted are beginning to seem like more and more of a necessity now that I can't have/do them.

On the other hand, they do have "tea people" who walk around all the offices and make sure you have hot tea all the time. We don't have that in America. This makes it a pretty tough call as to which country is better.

We went to see the musical Chicago last night in Covent Garden. I have seen the movie about 16 dozen times but it was so fun to see them trying to use American accents (since the production is set in Chicago...). I think the person teaching them how to talk with an American accent was the descendent of half New Yorkers and half people with a deep southern drawl. All the same, the production was fabulous.

One other thing I have noted is that babies are sort of like an accessory here. While in America teen pregnancy or one woman with a herd of children is moderately frowned upon, the British seem to encourage the population boost merely so that they can dress them up and get the latest stroller model. EVERYONE has a baby. I've seen strollers with umbrellas to keep the sun out of little jr.'s eyes and strollers with built in fans to keep jr. cool and ones in seriously every color. I am not sure what to make of this but if I were to give out stock market adivce I would say buy some stock in British strollers today.