"That bad?" A light observation that the boy can chose to awnser or diregard at hi leisure. "We don't have anything like this holiday where I'm from, so this is my first time experiencing it."

"I did think I detected the strokes of an artist in these endearing little pumpkins," much of his family had something of an artistic bent to them. "I don't quite know what a marine biologist is... though I can guess it has something to do with life in the ocean."