Snow day

At first I honestly dreaded going back to school. Early mornings, cold weather, little kiddies. Three good reasons not to leave the comfort of my bed. But then upon walking outside, I get the wonderful blast of cold air accompanying the fallen snow. And it was beautiful! This Californian girl doesn't usually like the cold, and I have been heard saying that snow never visits me, I visit it, but it's been snowing all day and it's amazing! The crunch of snow under my feet, the little flakes falling and sticking to my face, the fluffiness of the snow that has piled up on the banks of the river and the bridges and the cars and the sidewalks and the trees.. oh the snow on the trees...! I'm in love!

Photojournal: Barcelona 23-28 December

And so, with all trips, one must eat, and one must eat well. And so we did. Multiple dishes of patatas bravas, paella, and tapas. It's pretty safe to say that that was all we ate.Casa Batlló and Casa Milà were next on our list of to-do after settling our grumbling tummies. Rick Steves said that Casa Milà was more worth our while so we went to see it instead of Casa Batlló. Either way, Gaudi's works were amazing.Christmas day and what do we do? Picnic in Gaudi's Park Guell. I choose to sit and eat with the others overlooking.. well not much other than dirt, trees, and birds (we didn't find the mosaic lizard till after lunch. In fact, for a while there I honestly thought we were at the wrong park. However, our trusty friend insisted that it was right so we stayed.) Faishin on the other hand insisted to stand and make faces at the sandwiches I made.You can't tell here in this picture, but this wall was actually rather slanted. Perfect for sitting and lounging as we did here.Merry Christmas from the group sans Faishin atop Park Guell. I think Ralph got tired of taking four consecutive pictures that he started to get... creative.The beautiful artwork of Antoni Gaudi.
Alas! We've found it! The lizard!The Magic Fountains of Barcelona rival those of Las Vegas' Bellagio.
And who in their right minds would wait in that long a line for dinner? Well if you knew it was for Les Quinze Nits you would too! (Ahem! Mark! hehe)
And then finally, our wonderfully exciting trip to Barcelona comes to an end. =) It definitely was better the second time around and not after a whirlwind tour of Europe. Now I'm eager to go back with the same people for another exciting trip to Barcelona.

Photojournal: Strasbourg 19-22 December

Off to Strasburg to find a big decorated Christmas Tree!And along with the tree we find four very jolly and musical santas.But some santas seem to be mixed up with dangerous past times...
A la porte de les marchés de noel à Strasbourg, la capitale de noel!
Trying hard to peek into the window, tiptoes and all.. Amanda has it easy..
les marchés de noel

Homesickness part 2

If you look around my rather cluttered room, you'll notice a lot of things. The dozens of books that line the walls. The clothes hanging on my makeshift closet. The rice cooker that doesn't fit in the kitchen downstairs. The many snacks in my snack drawer. And the occasional pictures from home and my adventures elsewhere.

Earlier today I thumbed through my cousin's pictures of the wonderful family gathering that they had during the holidays. In our family there are at least nineteen grandchildren ranging from their thirties with their own kids to just entering high school. Ten of them were home without obligations to take a remake of one of our old family pictures. And as I sat and looked through them, another wave of sadness washed over. While being in France for the holidays I was missing out on Santa coming to my uncle's house, Disneyland with the family, cramming as many cousins into our families’ several houses as possible, staying up all night talking, taking hundreds of pictures all within a day, pretending to work at my auntie’s store while we all caught up and joked about each other’s lives, and most of all just being with family. It’s not everyday that you have so many family members together in the same five-mile radius.

And whenever we were able to get together like that there would be mayhem. Meals would be a production, no one would sleep till hours after we’ve already climbed into bed, showering and getting ready would take hours and you would be with at least two others in the bathroom while brushing your teeth, everywhere we went would require a caravan of sorts to get us places, plans would be made, calls to cancel other plans would also be made, people would be sat on, cousins would be tickled, and somehow everyone of us would end up at the bottom of a dog pile at least twice within the week.

And so it occurred to me that although I have hundreds of pictures of my family, that perhaps my room isn’t filled with pictures of them for several reasons. As I look through these pictures I keep getting sadder and sadder from being so far away from home. Perhaps it’s just easier to make it through my stay in France without the constant reminders of home.

Homesickness

As of late, I’ve become very very homesick. And for many many reasons. I love Europe, and Christmas here was amazing albeit not traditional, but there were so many instances in the past few days that made me really choke up. A good chunk of my family is at home, several people flew in from all over the place, while I’m here in Europe (ahem..). One of my best friends from high school came out to visit and her ability to be homesick after just a few days is infectious. On several occasions the subject of dimsum and Chinese food came up while eating some delicious Spanish food and suddenly my food wasn’t as interesting as perhaps xiao long baos or xiu mais. And I’ll reiterate, I love love love Europe. I loved my Spanish Christmas. I love that my high school friend flew out here to visit. I love the friends we made in our wonderful Spanish hostel. But I miss home.

I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my old dog. I miss Californian weather. I miss driving whenever I want to rather than having to wait for the train or the bus. I miss hanging out at my auntie’s flower shop and having to fight for the little heaters she has. I miss her 7am calls to help her at her store. As much as I love Europe and the fact that I’m LIVING in Europe, I really do miss being home.

Only, I realize, once I leave here, I’ll really miss Europe too.

Winter break

Many apologies for not keeping up with my postings!

Just got back from Strasbourg and now I'm off to Barcelona, Spain in the morning!

I promise to update once I get back from all this traveling!

cold weather and thanksgiving

You know it's too cold for a southern californian when you can see your breath and there's dew on the cars and condensation on the windows. But when there's ice? Now that's just a new level of cold. When I was in the Bay Area it was past too cold when there was ice on my car. Now, well... let's just say it's cold.
On a lighter note, Thanksgiving came early for us expatriates here in France. Tuesday night we had a nice American Thanksgiving with some French influences (mainly bread and cheese and wine). Steph made a delicious turkey dish, some mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and carmelized apples. Yum yum! I contributed with a pumpkin pie that came out rather well without a measuring cup! I should have taken pictures of it prior to eating it, or even leaving to Steph's place, but I was in a rush. Things take a lot longer to get to when you have no car. Très triste, je pense. Aside from that, there was plenty of bread and cheese for all four of us, plenty of wine to keep us toasty, and plenty of food for seconds. And to think that for a moment I thought that there might not turkey on thanksgiving! What's thanksgiving without turkey and pumpkin pie?? And Charlie Brown too =)

I don't have the pre-dinner pictures, but here's some from after dinner, the food coma stage.

a peanuts thanksgiving didn't fully work so we resorted to the halloween and christmas peanuts specials insteadwhat was left of my pie after we all couldn't eat anymoreour obligatory family portrait

our less serious family portrait..splish splash..

and now for christmas decorations and christmas music!