celebrating countries and stuff.

monday was canada day, which i'm still not actually sure about. is it like the canadian version of independence day? i should maybe google that. but my roommates are canadian, and a few of my friends are canadian, and so. canada day party: (photo taken from sammie's instagram.)

and then, of course, the fourth of july. which started out slow and rainy and i felt like i had celebrated canada more than i had celebrated america? but i ended up going downtown with my roommate and one of her good friends and all was right after that, because fireworks.

the rain had stopped, but there was still that poor air quality that caused the smoke from the fireworks to linger around and at first it looked kind of neat.

but then it started building up as more fireworks went off and eventually it was so smokey, you couldn't even see the batman building.

before.

after.

the view from the bridge (where we were) was mostly clear, but the view from the riverfront (which is on the left side in those photos and where a significant number of people were) was terrible, from what i've heard.