July 4 and Daniel Dae Kim

I’d heard the U.S. Embassy’s National Day event was the biggest national day in town (each embassy has its own—I went to Ireland’s on St. Patrick’s Day, for example, and ours is on Independence Day, of course), so I figured it was worth two hours of standing and braving my swollen ankles.

First of all, yes, it was huge and beautiful with tons of Korean political VIPs. And it was fun to hang out with some other embassy spouses whose husbands or wives were busy escorting those VIPs.

But the evening’s goal became clear once I found out a certain Korean-American VIP was also present: Daniel Dae Kim, of Lost and Hawaii 5-0. Apparently he was some sort of cultural liaison for the embassy… or maybe he just wanted to come.

Either way, with my friend and fellow embassy spouse, I decided I would definitely get a picture with the actor. I’m not big into being star-struck, but why not take the opportunity? So we waited and watched. And when we saw him (see stalker-ish photo above right), we grabbed our moment (and then apologized to him for starting a chain of others also asking for photos).

He was very down-to-earth and nice, actually. I introduced myself and told him I’d just seen an episode of Hawaii 5-0 the other day and enjoyed it (true). I figured he hears enough about Lost.

We chatted for a little while, and he seemed like a normal person, which I appreciated. He was polite and asked questions about my baby—he congratulated me and thought it definitely looked like I was carrying a boy (also true).

In addition to meeting Mr. Kim (No relation to my husband’s family that we know of. In case you don’t know, “Kim” in Korea is like “Smith” in the United States), the evening was fun, despite my swollen ankles. It was great to dress up and hang out with my neighbors, and an excellent diversion from waiting for my baby’s grand entrance!

I also ran into an extremely sweet Deputy Chief of Mission (an embassy’s second in command) I’d met a few months ago at another national day event. He’s from a small country; I’m not sure if I should mention which. But the last time we met, he approached Joe and me out of the blue—we were in the middle of a conversation with someone else and in a food line—just to congratulate me on the baby. He was glowing with excitement for me. He and Joe did exchange cards, but really, he had come up to talk to me. It kind of made my night.

But last night, we saw him again and chatted for a few minutes. What stuck out this time was that, as we were saying goodbye, he said, “Congratulations on your independence.”

Whoa.

I’ve always celebrated July 4 with barbeques and fireworks, but I never thought about Independence Day as a reason to congratulate Americans. It genuinely is something to be proud of even today, despite the fact that the U.S. declared its independence more than 200 years ago. Sometimes it takes a tiny little offhand comment from another person’s point of view to make me remember to appreciate what I have.

So, congratulations, Americans. Be proud of your independence. Happy July 4!