If it's the 4th of July it must be . . .

. . . Brussels, Belgium or Agra, India or Alexandria, Egypt or Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm developing this tradition of spending the 4th of July in all sorts of odd places. Last year it was in Bratislava, Slovakia as part of the seven week marathon march from the Middle East through China and then Eastern Europe before heading to Spain. The year before it was in Alexandria, Egypt as part of the 2008 Faculty Internationalization Initiative trip - great memories of sitting on the dock of the bay. In 2004 it was visiting the Taj Mahal with my father. He's determined that he wants to revisit India this summer, and even though I'm poor as a church mouse I'm going to go with him. For one thing, neither of us are getting any younger and you never know when the past becomes the past - and, secondly, as is well-documented, India is my favorite place. So, I'm looking at possible itineraries with the utterly invaluable Rochelle and the one which seems like the best fit passed through Brussels on 3 July, so I'm thinking about carving off a couple days. Beyond passing through the Brussels airport I've never visited Belgium, and my great friend David Kite tells me that the country is wonderful (he spent time there in graduate school). I have no great overwhelming desire to spend the 4th of July overseas - and I'm not completely unpatriotic (especially when they play the national anthem at baseball games - although that may relate more to baseball than the US) - but it does seem to be a habit of mine.