I am freeling really free!

Long may this one wave too

Fireworks blur over Algiers Bay

Americans in Algeria celebrate two Independence Days in July, our own Fourth and the Algeria Independence Day on the Fifth. My luck -- the 5th fell on a Thursday this year so I still have a six-day work week.

The city is criss-crossed with streamers of Algeria's dramatic flag. But I left the newspaper early on the 4th for the U.S. Embassy pool party and barbecue. The embassy grounds here are sprawling -- beautiful rose and astors and exotic flowers in purples and reds, trees that drop the temperature by 20 degrees and the ambassador's residence which is an old Moorish castle.

My foreign service friend Eddie, celebrating in her new post in Tegucigulpa, Hondurus, and me in Algiers, had the same thought about these embassies versus Sarajevo's more humble building. These are places where embassies have existed for a longer time and where rich companies have donated decorations and other offerings. It shows.

I had the best hamburger at this barbecue since one I ate in Uganda. Actually, I don't EAT hamburgers in the US, but outside the country, they taste so like home. And other people brought amazing pot luck selections -- brownies and chocolate chip cookies, baked beans and cole slaw.

I spent the 5th at the old St. George's Hotel, a 19th century neo-Moorish beauty of an old hotel in the middle of the city with a fantastic pool An American acquaintance working at the Bardo Museum is staying there and we swam, got sunburned and ate lunch poolside. Hamburgers again.

The fireworks came right to my balcony tonight.