Updates on the baby

So finally on july 28 I declared that the baby was “officially” moving! I mean, it has been moving for a while, in one of the sonograms you could even see the baby jumping with hiccups! But I hadn’t felt anything... until now. It was amazing! It still is! And I can feel it more and more everyday! I am so excited!
The belly keeps growing, of course. Like I said, next post will be sonograms for sure! And I’ll even throw in a belly profile pic in there for your viewing pleasure.

I have been asked about names, so here’s the scoop on that. There’s a well-guarded list (think Harry potter and the Sorcerer’s stone) that we’ve been updating (adding and crossing names for the last 4 months) and it is now down to 14 names (but we’re still modifying…). The name will remain “secret” until … well, I don’t know until when, but it is for now (so shhhhh!). I will tell you the following story, though. One day a couple of years ago my sister Abril and I discovered that we both had the same name in mind if we ever had a baby girl. There are no grandkids on my side of the family, and two boys on Gera’s side, so a baby girl would be the queen of the grandkids! We agreed that whoever had a baby girl first could keep the name. Some of you already know what the name is, but for those of you who don’t, care to take a guess? (Leave a comment). Don’t worry, I will eventually tell you, you might even get to vote!

freiburg

find more photos here: Flickr Album

We just got back from a quick trip to Freiburg, Germany. My (Mexican) friend Rocio used to live there, and her husband’s family still has an apartment there. She invited us to go with her and stay at her place for the weekend (gracias Rocio).

Freiburg is a small city, very lively and friendly and eco and multicultural (all of it due mostly to the university). We left on Friday night (aug 8) and although we could have saved a bit of money and gone with a “carpool-carsharing” system that is very popular around here, we opted to travel by train. It just made me feel safer than going on a car with a driver i don’t know, and who drives god know how fast, and… what if I get nauseus? Or I have to go the toilette?… so we ended up getting direct train tickets from Zurich to Freiburg, which in the end were not direct, as there was some problem with the train and we still had to change trains in Basel. But we made it in under 2 hours still.

We arrived Friday night and walked around a bit. Rocio showed us around the neighborhood and told is stories about her life as a student there). The next day we woke up early and headed for the Cathedral. There’s a market on the cathedral square every day, except Sundays, so this was our only chance to go. The market was lively, and with lots of local produce and flowers! Not to mention food… mmm. We had some wurst (susages) and spätzle (some traditional german pasta). Then, after going in the cathedral, we headed for a walk of the old town. There are little channels filled with water from the river that run on the streets of the old town called bächle They have been there since medieval times, supposedly to keep the city cool, as a water source for the animals and as a way to put out fires. Now they are mostly to keep the city cool, for kids to play in, for tourists to soak their feet in, and for the occasional foot-in-the-water accident (it is said that if you accidentally fall into a Bächle you will marry a local).

As usual, we walked a lot. This is what you do when you travel: you get on the train, sit for an hour or two, get to your destination and walk for hours! Walk around town, around a lake, around a forest, around a garden… Then you get back on the train and go home. We took it slow this time, since the pace was dictated by my belly and my aching feet. We visited a couple of museums, and a couple of churches (also typical day-trip itinerary). Then we met with Rocio for dinner at a beer garden/brewery. Afterwards we walked some more! (to see the spots we missed and that only a local could show us). Then we spent a bit of time at the Winekost, the wine tasting mini-fest on the cathedral square. After that, we were ready to go to bed, around midnight.

On Sunday we walked to the Schlossberg, a little mountain on the edge of town, where you can get an awesome view of the city and actually experience the back forest beauty. It was a long walk, with lots of stairs and hills. We had to stop several times for me to rest and catch my breath, but we eventually made it (45 minutes, some hills and almost 300 steps to get to the tower PLUS a more steps to get to the top of the 30 m high platform).

The view was amazing an the walk was quite an appetite building workout, so from there we headed to a kebab place, highly recommended by Rocio. Turns out the kebabs were closed, and although we waited for 30 minutes for them to open, we were just too hungry and ended up having lunch down the street. Gera and I were glad we did, because we got to try “Flammkuchen”, a pizza-like dish traditional in the area. It is like a very thin-crust pizza, with a cream sause (instead of tomato) and varied toppings, the classic being bacon and onions. Very tasty!

From there we headed to Titisee, a very picturesque (and touristy) lake, with lots of cuckoo clocks chops, lost of people and a nice place to swim (but we didn’t). After laying down for about 30 mins and walking a bit around the lake for a while, it was time to go back to freiburg, where we would meet with Rocio again for dinner and then head back to Zurich. This time we did experience the famous kebabs, which were good, but I guess our expectations were high after so much build up.

Later we said goodbye to Rocio and Freiburg, and after patching up some postcards with stamps trying to make sure they made it to their destination, we boarded our train back to Zurich. (we initially placed a .45 euro stamp on the postcards, and they needed 1 euro, so we bought several other smaller stamps to cover the missing postage, and ended up covering parts of the text in the postcard and some having about 40 cents too much postage).

I know I promised baby and belly pics, but since my next appointment is next week, I’ll just wait ‘til after it so I can have one more sonogram to add to the post. Unitl next time, don’t forget to comment!

swiss national day

Swiss national day fireworks


(or is it national swiss day??) Whatever the term, it means “Gera’s off work day, all the shops are closed day, fireworks day”
Last Friday (aug 1st) was a holiday in Switzerland. There’s a parade in the morning, they sell fireworks at the store and at night, people go crazy lighting them. So in essence, its like the swiss 4th of July. We heard the best fireworks were at the lake, but that it was crowded and kids play with their “fire toys” disregarding their safety (and other’s), so we opted for another spot: the terrace overlooking the city at the University. We were not the only ones who thought that would make a nice spot, because there were a few people there before sunset, and a small crowd had gathered by the time we left. Nonetheless, it was quiet (as quiet as you can get with fireworks), not too crowded and safe. We got some nice shots of St. Peterskirche with fireworks on the side. From there you could see most of the city very well, but the view of the lake was obstructed by some trees, so even though we got to see some of the “nicer” fireworks, most were the kind lit by people on their rooftops.

On the preggo front, we just bought a stroller! It was a big purchase for us, since we had been researching, debating, comparing, and changing our minds for the last couple of months. We will not be getting a car seat, since we don’t have a car (it sounds like an easy decision, right? Well, we thought long and hard about that one too!) We went with a three-wheel stroller that is supposed to be good for urban living. We bought it online to have it delivered to Dallas. Gera will stop by on his way back from Reno and will bring the stroller with him. Now the question is… do you need to travel with a baby to check a stroller at no extra charge? Or will we have to check it as another piece of luggage and pay the extra $25? We don’t know yet, but we will find out.

I have to say (at the risk of sounding like a total drunk) that I thought being alcohol free for 9 months would be harder. It’s not too bad! The first few months I didn’t even feel like having a beer, or smelling one. Now, maybe I could enjoy one on a hot Sunday afternoon, but that is what Alkoholfrei bier is for! It is not too bad (I like light beers anyways) but Gera said it tasted like yellow water. Now I think I could use some sangria..mmm (is there alcohol-free wine?)

For our anniversary (on July 29th) we went really low-key. Gera got me flowers, and I made a nice dinner at home, and for desert: cheesecake! It looked way better that it tasted.

Did you notice the cool pregnancy counter at the top?

Preggo beer

Anniversary cheesecake (looks better that it tasted)

Anniversary flowers (still blooming!)

Happy Anniversary!

8 years of happiness!

Here's a collection of photos of the weddings in my family. My parents have been married about 5 times, all of them to each other!!! (no, they didnt get divorced, they married once with a judge, then at the church, then through the Catholic, then renewed vows at their 25th anniversary, and... i think i am missing one....) By those same lines, I have married Gera twice!
BTW, all the weddings happened in July (my parent's july 14, Abril/Roberto's July 25, ours July 29).

July 29th, 2000

our "first" wedding, at Gera's house, with a judge. With my sisters Abril & Baba

our first dance 

removing the garter, very funny!

Abril and Roberto, July 25th, 2003

My parents' first church wedding. Lots of family in the pic, my mom is carrying me, and dressed in Blue in the foreground are Baba and Abril.

My parents' first wedding with a judge.(July 14th, 1971)

My parents' 25th wedding anniversary. (1997... date added after abrils comment... sorry sis, blame it on my preggo mind!) 

Their 1st wedding. (1971)

The progress so far

I am getting bigger by the hour! Or at least that’s how it feels :)
I love my new belly, and I cant wait to start feeling the baby move inside (I am at 18 weeks, and the books say between 17 and 20, so any time now).

I’ve had 4 sonograms so far (2 here at 8 and 16 weeks, and 2 in Juarez at 12 and 14 weeks), and everything looks good and healthy. I was actually pretty impressed with the last sonogram at my doctor’s office. I was twisting my neck trying to see the monitor in front of her, and then she said “move up a bit, so you can see” and she points across the room to the wall in front of me. The whole screen was projected on the wall!! Nice, huh? I got to see my baby as big as a wall, I hope the kid doesn’t come out as big, hehe. She also makes lots of printouts, which is nice.

I have been feeling surprisingly good! My first trimester wasn’t so bad either. I had a bit of morning sickness in the evenings (around 5 or 6pm), and I did feel very tired most of the time, but that was it! No puking or anything, so I consider myself lucky. I did fall asleep countless times watching TV, I just couldn’t help it! Now I feel great! I eat very little but VERY often and I have gained a couple of kilos, which is within range. Also, I think I am starting to walk funny, hehe.

I did some major maternity clothes shopping while I was in Minneapolis, and I think I am all set on that area, although a girl can always use more clothes. I even bought a winter coat that will (hopefully) fit my big winter belly!

I haven’t had weird cravings… I don’t Think… I did eat A LOT of sushi while I was in Juarez (no raw fish though). We went to the buffet every Sunday, and I would eat between 30 and 35 pcs (of rolls). But I have always craved sushi, and I have always eaten that much, so I cant really blame that on the baby. I ate a lot of Taco Bell in Minneapolis, and also craved burgers from Hardee’s.

I will put together some sonogram pics and vids for next post, so check back!

1st Baby Shower

FIND MORE BABY SHOWER PHOTOS HERE
After breaking the news to the family, it was decided (by moms and sisters) that a baby shower was in order. “Isn’t it too early?” was my initial response (I was barely past my 12th week). “well, maybe, but better early than never!” was the consensus. And so the wheels started moving and the planning started. Gera’s mom had already decided on a place and time: breakfast on the Saturday before I was to leave, so that would give them 2 weeks to plan and invite people. Then Abril and I started working our magic and created a bird theme baby shower (inspired by Martha, of course!).

It all started with the cupcake idea and then went on from there: bird houses for the center pieces, bird invitations (which I designed and printed, of course), nests with eggs (Jordan almonds) as party favors, and a whole bunch of other little bird-theme details. We had a long guest list, since it included my friends and my sister’s friends, as well as my mom’s and mom-in-law’s friends. I think we handed out about 50 invites total, and we had about 40 guests… not too bad I’d say.

I must admit I was pretty excited about having a shower… the cake, the presents… hehe. We all worked really hard to put it all together, and I enjoyed the planning as well as the execution. I did the center pieces because I couldn’t wait for my mom (the florist) to get off work… it was just a big temptation to have all the flowers and materials there and not do it. I love how they turned out! Abril did the cupcakes, of course (she’s the pastry chef to-be). Although she (we) encountered “mild” problems with the frosting and the heat, after a second batch of not-so-melty frosting they were done at about 2am. We also did the cake stand for the cupcakes, and even though we ended up putting it together after a few guests had arrived, it looked terrific and made the cupcakes stand out! We got a lot of compliments on the décor, invites, cakes, etc… I was really happy!

The invites requested “lluvia de dolares” (dollar shower/rain), which is a common theme for bridal and baby showers. That way you get to buy whatever you want (since registering is not that common in mexico yet). But I also registered at Target and Babys’R’us at El Paso. I got 2 gifts from the registry, and the rest were half money envelopes and half baby stuff (mostly clothes). There was no time to open the presents at the shower, so I took them home unopened and then waited like 7 hours for Gera’s mom to come to dinner so she could be there when I opened them. Oh… my fingers were itching…. I did peek at one…. don’t tell her, hehe. It was also nice to do it like that because the dads (grandpas-to-be) were there and could be included in the baby festivities. Gera had already returned to Zurich by then so he wasn’t there for the shower, but he was there for most of the preparation, and he contributed ideas and we went together to register. It was great to see him buying baby stuff!

Back in Zurich!

OMG!
Where to begin?
I have been on an extended vacation since may 21, and so much has happened….
I will start with the biggest news of all: (since the cat has now left the bag and the beans are all over the floor…)

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!

Yes, you read correctly. This is not a drill. (or a joke like last time).
It is the real deal!
After almost 8 years of marriage, we finally decided it was time, and although it was a bit sooner than expected, we are pregnant and glowing with happiness!
The baby is now 15 weeks old (so if you’re counting, I am almost 4 months pregnant), and it is due on … get this… December 24th!!! Talk about a Christmas present!

The timing worked out great with the trip, since we were able to tell our families in person (we had bought the tickets way before we were even pregnant!). It was a big secret, and only Abril and Roberto knew (we told them on week 8, after the first sonogram). We HAD to tell someone, and they were bound to figure it out as soon as I got to Minneapolis and turned down a beer… (or as soon as they saw my big fat belly, which I’ve been proudly displaying since week 9!)

We told the family in Mexico a day after our arrival, during a nice father’s day family dinner and needless to say, they are all CRAZY about the news, but most of all my mom (this is the first grandchild on my side of the family!). Gera’s mom was super excited also and she had started planning a baby shower within 24 hours after breaking the news. Then it was decided (by moms and sisters) that it was uncertain when and if they’d see me again before the birth (more on that later), so they all got together and organized a big baby shower for June 28th.

I have tons more to tell you: about the trip, the baby, the baby shower, the future… but this is such big news that I will leave you wanting more. So check the blog often, I have plenty of material to keep you entertained for a while.

Don’t forget to write or leave a message. I’d love to have a collection of messages to add to the baby book (yes, I already have one!)

ps... i found my ring the same day a posted last time... it was under the couch. :)

before my trip

(gera and eurocup tickets)

So this will probably be my last Zurich post for a while, since I am going to Minneapolis on Wednesday and then to Mexico, and wont be back in Zurich for 6 weeks! (can you say “va-ca-tion”?)
I have some stuff to tell you about before I leave, so here it is:

Remember the EURO cup tickets? Gera signed up for the raffle to purchase them, and he got a pair of tickets to a game in Zurich on June 9th (france-romania). This was last year, btw. So this year we find out the tickets are re-selling at high prices, which makes us start thinking about maybe not going and just taking the money. AND THEN we find out that we wont even be here for the match anyways (Gera goes to Denver to a conference, more on that later), soooo … I sold the tickets on ebay for a nice sum. (yay for us!). Too bad we wont be here for the EUROcup festivities (some trams are all festive and “football-y”), but on the other hand its good we wont be here for the chaos. We already received the tickets and are currently on their way to France.

I am super excited that I will be reuniting with my grad school friends in Minneapolis. Somehow most of us will be in the area so we plan to get together and have a good time (like old times!). (sorry Kate you wont get to be there )

Gera and I went to a FIFA youth stars soccer tournament. It is held here every year and it was free! It was even within walking distance from our house, so we enjoyed a couple of fast-paced games (they only lasted 40 mins) and who knows, maybe we got to see a future soccer superstar.

On a sad note, I am currently desperately searching for my wedding ring… I don’t know where I left it… I’ve looked in all the usual places. I’ll keep you posted. (on the other hand, it took me almost 8 years to misplace it, as opposed to Gera who lost his less than a week after our wedding).

Well, I am going back to packing. See you soon (some of you) and keep in touch!


(abril sent Gera a knitted poop for his birthday, it was hilarious!)

constance & Gera's Birthday

photos HERE

Last weekend was Gera's birthday, and to celebrate we went to the city of Konstanz in Germany (almost on the border with Switzerland). We have been wanting to go there for a while because we knew it would make a nice day trip, so this was the perfect occasion.

I must start by saying that this was probably the worst trip we've had in all our time of Europe sightseeing. It started badly and only went downhill from there. Dont get me wrong, Konstanz was a very nice place, and the Island of Mainau nearby was very pretty too, and we couldn't have asked for better weather... but... it was just a bad trip.

(9am) It all started when we arrived to the tram station only to see our tram leaving... ok. we'll just wait for the next one.
10 minutes later we're leaving on the "new" tram, when Gera asks "did you pack our passports?"..... "no".
We get off the tram at the next stop and WALK home to get the passports (and our stash of Euros, which we had also forgotten). By now we missed the direct train we wanted to catch, but we could make another one that left 30 minutes later but it was not direct. (9:37) Since we still had to buy the tickets, we BARELY made it to the train... (on hindsight it could have been worse).

We finally arrived to Konstanz (11am) and started walking. Kosntanz is the type of town where there isn't much else to do but walk, so we walked for a couple of hours, until we were tired and hungry. We stopped to eat at a restaurant we found on our way (which turned out to be very good, so there again, things could have been worse).

So with our bellies full and our bladders empty, we headed north towards the island of Mainau (a green paradise). According to the guide I had printed, you could walk there. so we walked and walked. And since we had crossed a bridge at one point, we thought we were ALREADY on the Island.... but something was off, and the map of the island did not make sense... weird. But we kept walking along the shore line and came across a couple of bathing areas. Nice. Kept walking. At one point we came to the conclusion we were NOT on Mainau yet, and somehow we were lost.

We walked some more trying to get to a bus station, or a ferry port. We eventually got to a ferry port, where they had a map and there we realized how much we'd walked and how more we still had to go. We boarded a ferry (after buying a one-way ticket) thinking it would take us to Mainau (or to Konstanz where we could catch a ferry to Mainau). We just wanted to stop walking... Turns out the ferry took us across the lake to another town... so we quickly got off the boat, bought another ticket and got back on. Then we ended up again in the same place. Then we took a bus and after changing buses once, we were finally in Mainau. (5pm) Only 3 hours after setting out on foot).

Mainau was a very nice place, but after going through so much just to get there, it was nothing more than a glorified city garden. We were charged 1/2 price for the entrance because it was so late (another good thing). Once there, the map we had made perfect sense! We saw some plants, tulips, fountains and butterflies. It was all very pretty but we were so very tired... and then we were looking for an ice cream place and found none... Another thing that happened here was that Gera lost his return train ticket (he had it in his pocket, and then he didnt). Finally we left Mainau and took a bus back to Konstanz's main station, but since we werent sure the bus went all the way to the city center, we got off at a point were we recognized the area and could walk. Then we saw the bus keep going in the same direction as us... oh well...

So we ended up doing some more walking, but that gave us a chance to find an ice cream place. (7:40pm) We got to the train station and after Gera bought another ticket we found out that the last direct train to Zurich had left like 45 minutes ago. There were no more trains to Zurich for the day (!!), only as far as Wintherthur (about 20+ minutes away). (8:00pm) Oh well... by now we just laughed at all the misfortunes... We arrived in Wintherthur and the direct train to Zurich was delayed!! OMG! will it not stop?! so we took a "regional" train that stops at every single town... so it took forever to get to zurich....
We arrived home at around 10pm. We were tired and hungry, but as I write this i i am grateful that we had good weather, good food and good sights, because things could have been a lot worse!


(the red line is what we walked, the green is the bus we took, the blue is the ferry)

On Gera's Birthday we just stayed home, resting and eating. I made him pancakes for breakfast, and a very yummy General Tso's chicken for dinner. And of course, the 3-milk cake he requested, that was the best!

no news...

more photos HERE
There hasn't been much going on around here. After the excitement of buying our tickets to go to the US, there's been a lull in activities... but here's what we've been up to:
Gera's IU advisor + wife (Gary + Susan) came to town and we got to hang out with them. We went to dinner to a very cool restaurant with an awesome view, and the next day I did some tourist-guide action with Susan. It was great to see them again (we hadn't seen them since Sicily last Febreuary), but it was a quick visit, and it was over before we could say Luxemburgerli (traditional merengue treats from Srpüngli, a local chocolate/pastry shop).
I've also been meeting with my friends and making new ones. I met Rocio a few weeks ago, and we quickly hit it off. She is also from Mexico, and also from the North (like me). We went to her house for birthday cake and had a great time.
The Spring festival known as Sechselauten was last weekend. I've written about it before (where they burn a paper snowman to predict the summer season). Unfortunately it was raining that day, so we skipped it and just watched it on TV. It took fo-re-ver for the snowman to explode... maybe because it was wet?
Gera's birthday is next sunday, so I will have lots of pictures to share with you then. I think he wants to go out for drinks saturday night, and just have cake and relax on sunday. Whatever we end up doing, I will document to share with you.

I am going to Minneapolis!!

(Holding a package abril sent me for my birthday. Thanks sis!)

It is set, I have plans, I have tickets! I am going to Minneapolis in May!
Abril lives there, so I will be spending lots of time with her, when she’s not at school, cooking away… but we’re starting to make plans of all the things we’ll do together, like the good ol’ Bloomington times! Gera has a conference in Denver, but after that, he’ll also fly to Minneapolis and we’ll all be there together. I cant wait. Even though my trip is only 6 weeks away I have not taken out the suitcase (like last time). I am waiting for the weather in Zurich to get better, so I can take all my summer clothes out too (right now its rainy and cold).
Gera’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I have been experimenting with a recipe for his birthday cake, he wants “tres leches”. This 3-milk cake is a regular white cake cooked with extra eggs to make it harder, and then soaked in a mixture of 3 milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated, and whipping cream, all topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries (or shredded chocolate). It is YUMMY!. The first try was quite good, but the cake part was a bit too hard, but I think the secret is on the milk mixture and as long as that is good it all tastes great!

happy birthday to me!

see more pics HERE

i just celebrated my birthday and it was great!
A friend of mine hosted a baby shower for a german friend of hers, and I helped a bit ('cause i love doing crafty party planning things!). Then we went out for drinks to a nice cozy bar in old-town zurich.
Thank you everybody for your birthday wishes. (and generous presents)

Abril made this video for me. Love you sis!

Fussen Germany

Fussen Germany
Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein castles.

find photos HERE

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to Germany (gotta love living in Europe!). We went to a town called Fussen (4.5 hrs by train), to visit the (very famous) nearby castles of Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein. Prince Ludwig II (prince of Bavaria) had a “thing” for castles, and he built a few. Then he was later declared crazy, and a day or two later was found dead (along with his psychiatrist, go figure). Neuschwanstein caslte was never finished, but it was opened to the public only a few months after he died (can you say “ka-ching!”?). It is grand and majestic, and was the inspiration for the Cinderella castle at Disney World! The other (less grand) castle of Hohenschwangau was a sort of summer residence, and that is where the prince grew up and lived.
The day we arrived was snowy and rainy, and we almost regretted going. But the second day was great and sunny, and everything looked so much prettier with all the fresh snow, we were happy we made the trip.
We took a trail up to a bridge where (according to the guidebooks) you could get a very nice view of the castle. Everythingwas white and beautiful, it looked like Narnia. We had to ignore a few warning signs and closed paths to get to the bridge. Because of all the snow the day before, some paths were closed, but people were just going through (under the fence), and so did we!. It was totally worth it!

henna

i did some henna on myself.

a blast from the past

heres a video from a year ago in April. We went to Mt. Titlis to see the Swiss Alps up close, and we had fun with a bit of snow tubbing.

valentine's day

(note: yes, i am a little behind on posts... sorry. I will be better this month)

more photos of valentine's day HERE

We didn’t really do anything special for valentine’s day this year. We had no plans. Previous years we would get together with Abril and Robe and take turns cooking a nice dinner. One year even Gera cooked! This year Gera called me at noon and asked if I wanted to go have lunch with him. How sweet! We met at a Kebab place near his office, and he was waiting for me at the bus stop with a single long-stem rose. We had our romantic lunch at the kebab place and then took a walk around there, through some vineyards. It was a very nice day and I enjoyed it very much. For dinner I made heart-shaped calzones (they turned out very cute!), and had some chocolate covered strawberries. I hope your day was filled with love and kisses too!

Lenzerheide

photos HERE

Less than a week after I got back from Juarez, Gera’s lab organized its annual ski trip (Jan 21). We didn’t go last year because we were in Sicily at the time so this year we had to go, before all the snow melts!
We went to an area called Lenzerheide, near the city of Chur. We knew we didn’t want to ski, since Gera has a bad knee and I am too afraid to do it alone, plus you need to take classes and it would be more time consuming and expensive. So we decided to try sledding instead! The weather was great, sunny and not too cold. We took a 90 minute train plus a 30 minute bus to get there. We payed for the ski lift and rented a couple of sleds. They were heavy, wooden, with no breaks, and no steering.
We got to the start of the run, and we, well, just started sliding down… I had no idea what I was doing, and I kinda just started gaining speed. We got to a point with a very sharp turn, and I couldn’t make it! But before I fell off into the woods, I jumped off and the sled kept going, until it was stopped by a tree. That was the only accident we had. After that, I was more careful and we got the hang of it: you have to steer and brake with your feet. The run was long, 3.8 km long! And when we reached the bottom, we got back on the lift and did it all over again. I think in total we did it like 8 times, but we also took a walk, and had lunch at the cafeteria. We thought about having some fondue to make it more swiss, but they didn’t have any…
It was a great day! We were so tired by the end of it, we could hardly walk. And the next day I felt like I was hit by a bus!

december trip recap

Sorry it took me a while to finally get this posted,…

the pictures are still HERE.



I will not bore you with many details of the 26 days I spent in Juarez, so I will split up my vacation into categories and talk about that in a more general way.

Family
I was super happy to see my parents, I don’t think I had ever spent so long without seeing them. My mom just started a new job as head nurse in a new fancy hospital in Juarez, and she is super busy getting her nursing degree AGAIN! (when she went to nursing school it was just a technical career and no degree was given, so she is studying it again! Way to go Mom!). She was a bit sick and hospitalized in November, so I was glad to see that her health is great and she is as pretty as ever! My dad is planning his first ever trip to Europe this july! I am super happy for him and most of his Christmas presents were trip-related (Ger and I got him an awesome day-trip bag). I hope I get a chance to travel a bit with him when he’s there.
We spent Christmas at Gera’s house. We ate turkey and had cheesecake for dessert. We were all together for the first time in years (by “all” I mean Gera’s parents, brothers, and nephews and my parents and siblings). Then we spent New Year’s at my parents’ house. We had tamales and carrot cake. Roberto’s plane left early on January 1st, so we had to celebrate midnight like an hour later, so they could be at home and in bed before midnight.

Friends
I had lots of time to visit with friends, and go out to parties. I even got to go to a Quinceañera!! Of course, the time spent is never enough and I was very sad to leave, specially because I left my very pregnant friend STILL pregnant (we were hoping she would pop while I was there). She had her baby almost 2 whole weeks later! Since I don’t have a car (nor a driver’s license, hehe) I spent a lot of time at home, and pretty much depended on friends to come pick me up (or on my sister to come home from work so we could go do something), so even though I did go out and had fun, I also spent a lot of time at home alone watching TV (hey! contrary to what you might think, the world does not revolve around me, and everybody has a life!)

Food
We ate a lot! We got fat, we knew that would happen and were ok with it. I fulfilled all the items on my list, except 1: yoghurt ice cream from a special place in Juarez (it was cold and I never really felt like ice cream…). Everything else was crossed off, sometimes even more than once! (Taco Bell, Arbys, dominos pizza, McDonalds, Sonic, Wendys, Hardees, Birthday cake, steak, shrimp/seafood, Barbacoa, tacos al pastor, tamales, sushi, carne asada, flaming hot cheetos, blue moon, root beer, vanilla coke). It was, as I said before, a gastronomical fest, and we enjoyed it all. Gera of course ate other things as well, like lamb and buche, which I really don’t like. Now that we’re back in Zurich, we’re eating better and going out for walks 3 times a week. I think we’re almost back to our initial weight, which was high to begin with, so we’ll keep going until we are thin, fit and fabulous!

Shopping
I’ve said before that stuff here is expensive… so when I went shopping in Dallas (and El Paso) I was going crazy with the super low prices!! And I wanted to buy everything! Of course I limited myself to things I needed, like clothes. Oh, and a luggage set, and a small shopping bag with wheels. And shoes. And Christmas presents. And hair products. I was concerned that my bags would be too heavy, so I really did not go overboard. Really.
The bags were not too heavy, and I even got to bring back a couple of mini blocks of Valveeta cheese (there’s no yellow cheese here! Its killing me), a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (for wings), and a few packets of cornbread mix (thanks Adri!).

currently loving

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!