Patricia Schmid: Celebrating Independence in Winter Park

The last two weeks busily went by with working on SEO suggestions for some magazine websites. I also started to do the monthly web reports for the publishers, which I have done for some of the magazines every month now.

Last week was also a short week. Due to the Independence Day celebrations, we had the 3rd of July off as well. I felt very lucky that I was able to be here during such an important public holiday.

After Memorial Day, it is my second public holiday here. Living in the south of Germany means I usually have about 14 public holidays a year plus our normal vacation entitlement. Compared to American holidays, I appreciate this even more now.

On July 3, I visited the oldest town in the U.S., St. Augustine. Founded in 1565 by the Spaniards, many of the remaining buildings are over 300 years old. It was a beautiful city and a great place to visit. The streets and buildings were already decorated red, white and blue for the upcoming celebrations.

In the evening I joined the crowd in Altamonte to watch one of the many fireworks, the "Red, hot and boom-fireworks" at Cranes Roost Lake.

Winter Park had an old-fashioned 4th of July celebration with patriotic music and entertainment. Hot dogs, watermelons, drinks and even accessories in red, white and blue were all given out for free. Many people also dressed up in the colors of their country.

Later, I was invited by a colleague to watch the great fireworks of Orlando's Lake Eola from her balcony—a spectacular view, where you could see all the fireworks in the periphery, too.

Those parties are always great opportunities to learn more about the people and the culture here. The last two months I have learned that some of my expectations and prejudices about the Americans are simply wrong.

When I came here, I expected I would have to explain quite often that Austria is not Australia and what the difference between it and Germany is, but none of these things happened. Austria is not a big country, so I would have understood that. But many Americans I met have been to Europe several times and speak at least one other language.

I have to admit, I would have some difficulties to find some of the American states or cities on a map immediately, but the people here know much about Europe, many even know where there ancestors came from.

Slide show: Patricia Schmid: Celebrating Independence in Winter Park