Happy July 4th Weekend!!

We celebrated July 4th by watching fireworks over the internet. Of course, they were last year's production, but it did not matter. The kids enjoyed staying up late to watch it at night so that it could be as "real" as possible for them. It was a regular day here. Today however - July 6th - is a sort of Thanksgiving day... for the spring and summer. Then they have a Thanksgiving in the fall like we do.

There are many small little things we come across that I think "That would be neat to blog about!" and then when I sit down to blog, my mind comes up blank. One of those things came up in a recent skype conversation, so I'll share it now before I forget again! :) And that is...the interesting plant mix here. As I look outside the window at the computer, at the edge of our yard is a mini forest of mixed greenery...my brother would better know the proper names, but there seems to be a thicket of bamboo all over the place, sprinkled with some other shrubbery, vines, and fern-like things...all surrounding a tall pine tree, a pear tree, and some kind of a birch tree. Then there's these bamboo-looking trees (a tall thick bamboo-like stalk with the leaves at the top like a palm but the leaves more resemble a maple), except I don't think bamboo becomes a tree, does it? Anyway, it just looks interesting...bamboo against a pine tree!

Our weather has seemed to warm up lately...but perhaps it's the increasing humidity. I pasted the following from the SeoSan weather site:

Current conditions as of 3:00 pm KST, 2008, July 6 (1am July 6th CST)
Mostly Cloudy
Feels Like:

83°
Barometer:
29.61 in
Humidity:
81%
Visibility:
7.46 mi
Dewpoint:
73°
Wind:
SW 15 mph
Sunrise:
5:21 am
Sunset:
7:56 pm



Oh, yes! One more of those little interesting tidbits... Grand Openings here can have interesting appearances! John took a picture of a grand opening at the Paris Baguette. Here they used balloons as well as flowers. Other times, they use flowers...lots of flowers...in a way that looks so much like a funeral parlor it's hard to image going inside and celebrating a grand opening or event. In the first picture, James is getting a jar of free jam after John bought some bread, and in the second picture, a lady wanted to take a picture with him.