Finding Independence at Friday’s on a Wednesday in July

What do you do when you are living in another country and want to celebrate your home-country’s independence from a country that the country you are living in still isn’t independent from?

You go to TGIFridays of course and celebrate with a bunch of other Americans. Apparently TGIFridays is the American safe house on American holidays. Even though I haven’t eaten at TGIFriday’s since I was in college, it was weirdly nice to eat at the one here in Melbourne. the clutter and Americana shit on the walls is identical to your local Friday’s…..so once you have been in one, you have been in them all.

I dragged some of my Aussie friends with me, and it was great to be in a restaurant covered in red, white, and blue, American flags, balloons, and most of all…….. crawling with Americans.

Highlights:

No fireworks…no BBQ….(after all it was 55 degrees F)….
but just some awesome answering of some easy-ass trivia questions..
read by a Friday’s employee with 7 pieces of flair….
answering the question “name 4 mid-west states”…..
which is a really difficult question for a foreigner apparently.

The mutiny nearly occurred when HomeboyQuestionReader asked “how many states are in the union?”
when he said “nooo…actually there arent 50″….all of the Americans nearly beat his ass with the microphone. “4 of your states are a part of the commonwealth, so there are actually only 46 states”…..with that remark i kindly shouted/told him he needed to check his facts from a site other than Wikipedia because he was trying to tell a rowdy, drunk, group of Americans that we had 46 states? shaaawhaaa??? and the Commonwealth? WTF? we then all schooled him in the mini-history lesson that the point of July 4th is because of Independence FROM the Commonwealth, ya jackass. The sad thing is that he phrased the question totally wrong by saying “a part of the Commonwealth”…because Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia officially designated themselves as “Commonwealths”, back in the day….although they are now in fact states…(i had to research that shit when i got home)….but its just a little technicality. seriously, i thought people were going to start throwing things at the dude when he was trying to stand firm on his 46 states thing. he finally gave in to the mob and agreed that we have 50 states, damn it.

Watching my Aussie friends have Buffalo Wings and Potato Skins for the first time was pretty cute….i never realized they don’t have them in Oz. Made Jessica Simpson sound a lot less stupid hearing them ask, “why are they called Buffalo wings?”

all in all….it was fun to bring people to my Mini-America….even if it only was Friday’s….

And if for some reason, you are not sure what the 4th of July really means when you are living overseas, it can also translate into Make Cupcakes For Your Co-Workers Day: