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back to our coffee spot, after a delightful breakfast at Grandma's Kitchen, a rockin place where we capped off our 4th of July activities via a big American breakfast complete w/ French toast and scrambled eggs.
Lasterday we did it up right via a TexMex dinner and going out drinking and dancing, the place we went dancing BarBlu was full of Americans complete with flags and doofy chants, obviously because they were drunk we had a few USA chants, and a lunch my friend Matt and I sang the Star Spangled Banner with our little American Flag cake that they made for us.
I'm such a geek though i absolutely went back to my room and played a couple of really great versions and sang along! And it never fails with a good version of the Star Spangled Banner i get choked up and get goosebumps! And I always think back to that time when we went to Fort McHenry and after that doofy video about how it was written as the poem by Francis Scott Key and whatnot they play it and pull back the curtain and the flag was waving....
I just really think we have one of the most beautiful national anthems and I love so many things about our country that you can't appreciate until you're somewhere else.

And I realized that one of the reasons I'm so interested in politics is that i feel like i have a vested interest in things that benefit our country and other countries in our interactions with them. I really just want to have an effect on our country and the world and i liked realizing why.

in other news, i love beijing and love learning this country in such a different way than i learned brasil and noticing the difference response i have to both and it's just such a different experience.
it also made me excited to start my application for Geneva/ Paris/ Dublin which i am leaving to the fates to decide my final locale. I would be content in any of them and i know Geneva's wicked competitive but i could live quite happily without getting it cause my other options are so rocking

that's one other noticable thing about Beijing, i'm not thinking as far ahead as i normally have to. my daily life and all the experiences within it are enough to almost entirely consume my thoughts, which has not happened for some time

in short, i'm living and enjoying and being and staying patient and positive
and i love my friends, they're seriously so great. and there's so many different people and kinds of people that i can learn something from everyone and get so much from being with them
i've found a lot of genuinely interesting and interested people and that's always what i look for in an experience