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mika, "grace kelly"
(yes, i still have lots to tell about my trip, coming soon, i promise)

my vacation is over

(photo: belgian wafles, before going to the airport in El Paso)

I've added a lot more photos to the flickr album


My vacation is over…
I write this waiting for my flight back at the Dallas airport. I arrived just a “bit” early…. 3 hours early … I could not be dropped off later due to schedule issues, but early is better than late, and it gave me a chance to write the blog, so yay for that!.
I had a super great time at home, and I was really sad to leave, but it was time to say good bye and be reunited with Gera, who has been back in zurich for a week.
A big part of our vacations is food. You will be able to see by the pictures on flickr that besides the mandatory family/friends catch-up our trip also consisted of a sampling of all kinds of culinary delights, from junk food like flamin’ hot cheetos, going trough fast-food, traditional Mexican, and mom home-made… and it was all delicious! The bad news is that all that deliciousness really shows! I guess we really need to start the year on a diet (like every year).

As I mentioned before, Dallas was a blur of a shopping spree and an fast-food frenzy. After that, I traveled to Louisiana (dec. 12-17), where I visited friends from grad school. We were honored to be asked to be godparents to their daughter, and that made the trip even more special. In Louisiana I had an amazing time just visiting my friends and spending time with them and their kids. They are a wonderful family and I am lucky to count them as friends. All this time in Zutrich I had really missed hanging out with friends just having dinner and talking. Our Ruston visit really brought back memories of Bloomington weekends. The baptism ceremony was beautiful and everything happened without a glitch (no crying baby!). Gera had arrived by car on Friday night, the baptism was on Sunday and we were on our way back to Dallas by car on Monday december 17th. I was on a plane to El Paso the very next day! (Gera would wait until our family in dallas traveled by car to el Paso right before Christmas to catch a ride with them).

I arrived to El Paso late on Tuesday Dec 18th, and Abril, Baba (my sister), and Paco (my brother) were there to greet me. It was an emotional reunion even though I had seen them (my sisters) a few months before when they visited Zurich in May. They had set out to cross the border to El Paso before dinner (because it usually takes more than 1 hour to cross) so by the time I arrived they were starving and so we headed to Whataburguer (a burguer chain popular in texas). Then we finally headed to Mexican soil! It took us a while to get there because we had to stop at the bridge and find out if I had to return my I94 or not (permit that goes along with my visa), but I was finally in mexico like at 2am! (I had been away for14 months and 14 days).

I am a bit sad to report that my reunion with Huevo was not as I expected. He was a bit hesitant to greet me at first and it took him a couple of seconds to recognize me, but once that little light bulb in his head went on, he was happy and jumping and all over me. He is very well taken care of and is very good friends with one of the Chihuahua dogs my parents have (they had 3 at that moment); they sleep together and keep each other company. While I was there I made them all new beds (sewn by hand!) and gave huevo a good bath (the weather was so nice I did it outside). Guilt was heavy in my heart, so I bought him lots of rawhide bones, and big cow knuckles no chew on. The morning I left I said goodbye to Huevo… I hope his little head understands that I will be back for him someday.

Gotta board my plane now, more later!