Independence Day

As some of you may know the Fourth of July is quite an important date in the States. And this year they even announced to start showing Transformers at that date... ;-) ...btw: don't miss that movie if you like action, hot girls and special effects (that was actually the description I got from an American teammate at Siemens...he went to see it on the 4th of July)...and talking about movies: Die Hard is a great movie as well...
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the amount of celebrations that were going on here. I mean, it's probably their most important holiday, but I would say that the Zürifäscht around the lake of Zurich which happened to be last weekend (they do it every third year) is a bigger celebration than that...probably even the fireworks can compete with the Fourth of July fireworks in NYC...I mean, I'm comparing Zurich with New York City here! Considering that the fireworks in Zurich were done at two consecutive evenings with the fireworks coordinated following the rhythm of the played music (on one of the occasions they even did it with a live band), I really think that they can compete in NYC in that category...anyway: I still went to see the fireworks in NYC after a nice party in Belmar (New Jersey shore) the evening before and a relaxing BBQ with the usual mix of Siemens-interns and Brazilian au-pairs in the afternoon. In NYC they had closed a part of the FDR Drive (a freeway through the east side of Manhattan) right next to the East River where they did the fireworks. As the freeway is elevated, we had quite a nice view from there...yet, I was quite surprised by the lack of music there...as I was told, there was music at some other places like the Liberty State Park, but well ok...we had one of the closest spots to the fireworks, so I can't complain too much... ;-) ...needless to say that I also took several pictures and some videos...I had to throw away a large part of the pics but the rest can be found on my Web Album as usual...also make sure to check out Michael's pictures of the BBQ and the fireworks on his blog...and while your at it you can also have a look at the picture he took (when he started to work at 6am...as usual...on a Monday...nuts ;-)) of my workplace. There on the right you can see the two machines I'm working with and on the left the workplace of my supervisor with two monitors...and as you can see, I'm one of the few interns at Siemens with a spot next to a window... ;-)
Getting back to Independence Day, it really seems that I did the classic kind of celebration for that holiday...BBQ with friends and fireworks...as I was told, that's what most Americans do as well...I still would have expected bigger public celebrations...especially in a big city like NYC...

And one more thing...I just want to try how nicely it works to embed videos to this blog and how could I do it better than with the trailer for the next major blockbuster...check it out and make sure to click on the video and check the other trailers here as well... ;-)

Update: As nicely as it worked to embed the video, I'm getting annoyed by the trailer playing each time I open the blog...so, if you didn't see the Simpsons Movie yet, go see it now! It's worth it... ;-)

PS: I went to the Niagara Falls this weekend...pictures and more details will follow so stay tuned... ;-)