Happy belated 4th of July, everybody!

Last week was American Independence Day…or as the Brits here insist it’s actually called, “Good Riddance Day.” To celebrate, some of us American students on campus organized a BBQ and mini pool party, complete with hotdogs, burgers, and a kiddie splash pool. Pretty patriotic, right?

It turned out there was actually another event happening on July 4th, and it was an important event to boot. “Laut gegen Nazis” (aka “Loud Against Nazis”) is an on-campus music show / food fest / rally to oppose Nazis, facism, and racism. It’s an ongoing annual event that draws huge crowds, and this year was no different. Thousands of people came to campus to enjoy the bands and show support — and in typical German fashion, it was still going strong well into the night!

We were certainly not going to compete with LGN (and we wanted to attend ourselves) so we settled for celebrating America a few days later…resulting in us having a BBQ and pool party in honor of that classic American holiday, the 6th of July.

And of course, it was a blast. 🙂

Featuring Natalie and Sam, purveyors of good times.

Arjun carefully (?!) monitoring the grill.

The American flag was a popular accessory.

And what pool party would be complete without a little karaoke and live music?

Unrelated to America, enjoy some street art from Berlin. If only the world were actually full of such adorable animals…though I think Australia is wildly misrepresented, since it featured a cute koala and not a terrifyingly huge spider.

This is the final week of classes for the semester, plus another upcoming international holiday — Bastille Day on the 14th. Exams, papers, crepes…what’s not to look forward to this week?

Cheers all, much love from the Berlin boonies!