'tis the season

--- aun no esta disponible en español----

check out the pictures for this post here

Not much happening on this side of the world. Its been 2 months since I got here (wow! Two months already!). I got a big burn on my hand when making flan (not happy about that, so I’ll just get it out now). Stupid oven doors, why do they need to get so hot?! Nothing serious, it will just leave a very bad scar. I’ve created a new blog just for my book reviews (can I really call them that? Think not). You can find the link on the menu at the right, just below Abril’s blog link. Now I will not have to submit unwilling souls to the torture of my reading habits. I think I will also make a separate blog for entries in Spanish, but maybe later.

Lately, I have been enjoying the pleasures of youtube.com, watching ANTM like there’s no tomorrow! (America’s Next Top Model is a model reality show, for those of you who live under a rock OR have a life… whatever fits you best). I am now fully up to date with the who-is-who situation, I’ve got a favorite and now I am just waiting for this user to post the season finale (happening sometime this week I think). Anyways, I was thinking… is this legal? I mean… to publish videos from a network? What about copyright issues? Nah! Screw it! I can now watch regular American TV shows! Haha! I’ve also kept up with reading all about Gilmore Girls (at televisionwithoutpity.com). Now if I can only get GG and Survivor at youtube.com… now we’re talking. Will look into that.

Eragon (the movie about dragons) is coming out soon (dec. 14th here) and we’re ready to hit the movie theater for the first time in Zürich (we haven’t been to a movie in so long!). Also looking forward to a couple of other movies Gera keeps mentioning, but I forget the names. One’s about a labyrinth and one’s about Vikings (I think). I’ll report on that later.

Christmas is coming up and we’re trying to decide what we’re doing. This will be the first Christmas we spend by ourselves. I think I will make tamales instead of turkey (A) we ate turkey at a Mexican xmas dinner last week and B) I don’t know how to cook turkey). Gera’s cousin from Mexico is traveling around Europe, and she’ll be stopping by around those dates (she will be our first house guest!). Gera already got me my Christmas present: memory for my computer! I haven’t gotten anything for him yet. I haven’t put up any Christmas decorations either… I just haven’t gotten into the spirit.

We went Christmas shopping this past weekend and got some goodies for our family in Mexico. They will be spending Christmas apart as well for the first time since we became one big happy family 6 years ago (camp Molina will be in Juarez and camp Gamez in Dallas). [[Abril says its 8 years and not 6]] That means this will be the first Christmas Abril and Roberto spend apart (that suck more than my xmas situation!).

The pictures I posted for this week are mainly of our day of shopping. We walked all the way from home to the main central (like 1.5 hours), and then did all our shopping in one afternoon. The weather was awesome! We’ve heard from several different sources that it is unusually warm for this time of year. NO SNOW yet! Not even a hint! I already broke out my new snow boots though. I didn’t want to get them all dirty with muddy snow the first time I wore them so I am wearing then BEFORE the snow (clever girl, huh?).

There are also a few pics from a Christmas dinner we went to on Monday of last week. It was hosted by a group of Mexican women (and a few men) that get together about once a month to cook and eat and talk. We were invited very last minute, but it was very fun and we met a bunch of mexicans (most are permanent Swiss residents), and ate delicious turkey. They had a gift exchange and I got a Santa mug and a set of scented candles (sticking to my secret-Santa philosophy of “always give something you would like to get yourself”, I gave a pair of Alpaca gloves). I am also signed up on an “international” henna community gift exchange. I will be sending something henna-related to someone in France. I am really anxious to see what I get.

We also went to a Zürich city welcome session, where we got a mini-tour of the downtown area, a brief explanation of the services the city offers AND some food and wine. We were divided into “language” groups and we went with the Spanish-speakers. We met people from Chile and Brazil and other places (yes, I know Brazilians speak Portuguese, but these Brazilians spoke Spanish). The pictures of the event were posted here (latino.ch), but I’ve added them to the photo album liked above).

As always, don’t forget to write and say hello! And remember to make plans to come visit!