they're here!

well, almost!
Roberto, Abril, Baba and Ali arrive tomorrow! we're very excited to see them!
They've been traveling a bit before coming here (london and paris), and this coming weekend we will all be going to Venice!!
Then Baba (my sister) and Ali (a friend) will go back to Mexico, but Roberto and Abril will stay 'til the end of the month. We are hoping to be able to take another trip before they leave.
I have made friends with a couple of girls from Mexico. They're super nice and we get along great! I feel like things are going back to normal, after a few months of "settling in".
We are still going to German classes, every tuesday and wednesday from 8-10pm. I feel we've made a lot of progress, and we can manage to make sentences (even if the grammar is not quite there yet). The teacher says we are VERY very good for a beginner class (we're even better than her other beginner class!! nananana). The class ends on july 4th, and i think we'll stop taking classes after that, and maybe just continue on our own.
Its been already 8 months since I got here (9 for Gera), and 10 since we left Bloomington, but who's counting?
oh, and Happy Mother's Day (in mexico it is always on the 10th, here on the 13th)
hint hint: i have not heard from a lot of you... I hope you're all ok, enjoying spring, and having fun in the sun! dont forget to write.

what time of day are you?

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

burning Boog-Spring Festival

the rest of the pics are here.
To signify the beginning of spring, there's a whole parade and in the end, at 6o'clock sharp, a snowman is burned! and depending how long it takes for the fire to reach his head and make it EXPLODE! its how the summer its going to be... Kinda like a groundhog day type thing, except with fire!!
It took 12 minutes and 9 seconds, which is apparently just OK. (not great, not awfull). The snowman's name is Böögg.
Find out more about the festival here: Sechselauten

We also went to a chinese garden next to the lake. The weather is so nice, we are just trying to enjoy as much of it as we can. The gardens were small, but pretty. The lake was packed!! people sunbathing, having picnics, and just chillin'.

Gera's birthday is coming up... dont forget to write.

The gang from juarez is coming soon! (in 2 weeks). I cant wait!
We are all going to Venice together, it'll be so much fun.

Prague, Milano, Zurich, Swiss Alps

All the photos for this trip can be found HERE

I have so much stuff to share! Gera’s parents came to visit us, and the whole time they were here, we were really (and sometimes literally) running around!. They arrived on Friday (march 30th), so after coming home from the airport and resting a bit, we got a chance to finally experience some traditional Swiss food! We went out to a restaurant (zeughauskeller.ch) and had some Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (veal pieces on a creamy mushroom sauce) served with rosti (basically hash browns). We also tried a pork elbow cooked in dark beer and Pork Cordon Blu. It was all very good but quite expensive (Thanks for dinner, suegritos).



The next day (Saturday march 31st) we were off to Prague early in the morning. I have been getting better at the whole trip-planning thing, and usually have a self-made guide with info on things like how to get to the hotel and where to eat (and a map or two don’t hurt), but I was glad to see that Gera’s dad brought a couple of Prague “top things” books.
Prague was awesome! It was classic and cultural, historic and diverse, it had castles and KFCs, (I must confess we ate at KFC and McDonalds!!) and it was very inexpensive. The beer was great (supposedly the best in Europe), and the sights were impressive. We did the typical tourist things around town, like Old Town Square and Wenceslas square (prague experience), Prague castle (a huge complex with St. Vitus Cathedral and a lots of other stuff)(Prague Castle), and Charles Bridge (Charles Bridge) . We also took a day trip to Karlstejn Castle (Karlstejn Castle) (the second most popular attraction in the Czech Republic after Prague). Unfortunately I lost the travel books somewhere in Prague Castle. Fortunately it was out last day there, so it was not such a big problem, but I was quite embarrassed and upset. (note on Prague: a lot of movies are filmed there, interesting… prague movie list)

We returned from Prague on Tuesday (april 3rd), and rushed back home from the airport, grabbed another bag with one change of clothes, and ran back out to the train station to be on our way to Milan (or as I like to call it now: MilanO). We were back in Zurich only for like 2 hours. We arrived in Milan and since we were not carrying big heavy bags, decided to do some sightseeing before going to the hotel. The soccer match was at 8:30 (the main reason for being there was a soccer game between Milan AC and Bayern Munich). The Piazza Duomo was filled with tourists and soccer fans making noise and having fun. We went to the impressive shopping mall next door to sit down for a beer (Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle). It was the most expensive beer I’ve had! 12 euros!. After that, we went to the hotel and only went out again for dinner, which was a bit of a search since we couldn’t find a place to eat because restaurants don’t open until 7pm. We finally gave up and sat down and waited for 7 o’clock to arrive. We had pizza and some traditional rissoto, Gera and his dad went to the game, and Gera’s mom and I went back to the hotel.



The next day in Milano went by pretty quickly too. We went to the Duomo first, and enjoyed the most amazing sights from the roof terrace. We felt like an Italian Quasimodo! We stood in line for the world famous Panzerottis at Luini’s (luini's), and they were delicious. Afterwards we walked to Teatro La Scala (looks very insignificant from the outside), and then to Castello Sforzesco. The castello now houses several museums, but due to lack of time, we walked the grounds, used their “facilities” and called it a visit. Our last stop of this one-day Milano tour was the Pinacoteca di Brera (Pinacoteca), where we got our dose of Italian art. Unfortunately we did not get to see “the Last Supper” (located at Santa Maria delle grazie) because you have to reserve your 15-minute visit waaaay ahead of time (there were no spaces available ‘til august!), but Milano is so close (only a 3.5 hr train ride), we might go there again some day.





Once back in Zurich (home by midnight on wed. april 4), we wondered about sticking to our plan to go to Jungfrauhoch the next day (very early). We were all so tired, we decided it was best to stay in Zurich the next day and then go to a closer mountain for a view of the Swiss Alps. So we enjoyed a late breakfast in Zurich on Thursday (april 5th), a short walk around Old Town, and a very well deserved rest. That night we made fondue (finally! After 6 months here, we eat fondue). It was a bit “alcoholy”, but very good, made from scratch. And of course, chocolate fondue for desert, yummy!





On Friday April 6th we went to a place called Mt. Titlis. ( Mt. Titlis). We took a train to Luzerne, then another train to Engelberg, then 3 cable cars to the top. The views were breathtaking and the weather was very nice (not cold at all, although I did get a chance to wear a beautiful calorimetry Abril knit for me)( Abril's blog). The place was packed with skiers and snowboarders, but we were there just for the sights. They had an Ice cave (where you walk through part of a glacier), and other attractions (like snow tubing and a cable car called Ice Flyer). It was an amazing experience, definitely one to repeat when we get visitors!

Saturday (april 7) we went to the Zurich Art Museum (Kunsthaus). Gera and I had been there before, but they have such an amazing collection, its worth several visits. They had a Rodin exhibit, and we got to see “the thinker” and “gates of hell”.

Sunday was a sad day because Gera’s parents left, and we were all alone again. But we have a month to get ready for the next European tour, when Abril, Roberto, Baba, and Ali come to visit in May (Venice is on the schedule, I’ll keep you posted).

Heute habe ich Geburstag!

Today is my Birthday! happy birthday to me!
We are doing a spread-out celebration, starting with a concert we went to last monday. It was actually FREE since we won the tickets for it (participated on a mexican-swiss internet portal). The perfomer was Julieta Venegas, a mexican singer (and i really like her too!). The venue was really small and we got to be very very close to the stage. We had a great time!
Check out the pics here Julieta Venegas in Zürich

The next part of the celebrations will be throughout next week, when we go to PRAGUE and MILAN!!! yes, how's that for a birthday? (well, it IS a big one). Gera's parents arrive tomorrow morning (friday), and then we'll go to Prague for the weekend and then to Milan for a couple fo days. I am really excited to be going to so many different places, I love it!

As always, I will keep you posted.
PS. the hand is much better! the Sicily blog is posted below, and i think for now I am all caught up with news. Oh, and Abril and Roberto are moving to Minneapolis in June!! (read her blog for more details)

Sicily (part 2 of 2)

Thurs. 22:
The next day we had a full-day excursion to Piazza Armerina and Agrigento booked. I remembered it being at 8am, but after checking my receipt before going to bed, I was sure it was at 8:30. So that morning we woke up, got ready and headed for the breakfast area. We took our time (we had plenty). We went back to our room to get our stuff and head for the meeting point (conference center), and after looking at the receipt again I realized (in horror) that it was at 8AM, and it was already 10 past. We ran (literally!) out of our room and started heading towards the meeting point, but then we realized it was probably better to go to the bus station, since it was closer and it was more likely that if they were waiting, they’d be there. So we ran the other way and ran and ran. We were expecting to see a bus full of happy tourists pass us by and wave. We got to the bus station and they were still there! We got on the bus (all embarrassed to be late), but then we were “saved” by another couple who was even later than us, so we were not the last ones on the bus after all.
This was a long trip. It was like 2 hours to get to Piazza Armerina, where we visited a very old villa, with walls and floors covered in beautifully preserved mosaics. It is thought to have been the Emperor’s Palace (for when he was in town), or the villa of an animal hunter who sold his animals to the gladiator fights (because of all the different animals depicted on the mosaics would act as a sort of catalog “would you like a wild boar with your lion?”).
Then we were back on the bus a headed for lunch. (where the food, quality and quantity, was very disappointing). Then we were just a short bus ride away from the Valley of the temples. It was spectacular! Temples here, temples there, temples everywhere… well, not that many, but several, and they were all very cool.
The return trip was even longer, and we were running late for the Gala dinner, which fortunately was going to be at our hotel, so we didn’t have to waste time getting there. The dinner was at 8, and we didn’t get back to the hotel until 7:30! We barely had time to change and run downstairs.
The food was good (except for desert), and they had some people playing music, singing and dancing. The seating was not assigned, so we ended up seating with some people from Austria (I think) and the infamous Disco Stu/Elvis with an afro.

Frid. 23:
Friday we checked out of our hotel in Taormina and checked in at a hotel in Goradini Naxos (the beach town below Taromina). We had to take a bus there, and we didn’t know exactly where to get off the bus, so we ended up taking a cab from the bus drop off to the hotel. We checked in and looked for a place to have lunch. We opted for a little restaurant across the street, where a little old man was using his charm to push Tiramisu, he succeded and we had some for dessert. We also had some wine with lunch and after a short walk on the beach (it was cold and cloudy, but we were finally face to face with the sea), we went and took a nap. We woke up hungry again, and went back out looking for a place to have dinner. We found a great little place with a very good grilled fish platter and a couple of super nice waiters (I think one was the owner). We liked it so much we went back there for lunch on our last day in Sicily.

Sat. 24:
I really did not have much planned for our stay in Giardini, because there really isn’t that much to do. We found a book about Catania near the breakfast area, and decided we should do that instead of just staying and doing nothing in Giardini. I had not researched Catania, so I told Gera that as long as he told me where to go, I’d go (I don’t like to feel unprepared and lost). So we took a bus and go there a bit before lunch time. The book we had found was in German, and although we’ve been studying for a few months now, we couldn’t really use the book as our only guide (lets just call it an “inspiration”).
From the bus station we followed the signs to the tourist information office, passing through a Greek Theater on the way. There was a wedding photo shoot (we deduced that much because the guy at the door hummed the wedding march “ta ta tara, ta ta tara”).
The tourist office was very helpful and gave us a map and a route to follow to see all the sights within a walking distance. They also told us a good place to have lunch. It was really good (I had penne pasta with pistachio sauce, gera had a steak with mushrooms).
I did not realize Catania had so many “historical” sights, but I guess for a city that old they must. I did not like it a lot, though. It was dirty and old and smelly (but I guess for a city that old…). It was good that we decided to go and I was glad we (meaning I) had the courage to go even though we didn’t know what/where/how to do once we got there.
Back in Giardini we bought some chips and sodas for dinner and called it a day.

Sun. 25:
Our last day in Sicily went by very fast. Fortunately it was sunny, so we had a great time walking around the excavation area behind the museum, and got great views of Etna. It was also warm enough to dip our feet in the water (although the locals stared at the “crazy tourists deeping their feet in the water”). I was sure to check in the morning the departure time of our flight from Catania to Milan, and I was sure it was 7 o’clock, so we planned what bus to take and when to leave around that. Later that day, after the museum visiting and the feet-dipping, I started to wonder if it was really 7 o’clock, or 17:00… Well, stupid military time! It turned out to be 17:00 (which is 5pm!). It was already 3pm, and the next bus to Catania was not until 4 pm and we were not going to make it. So in a moment of desperation (and there really was no other choice) we took a 90 euro cab!
We made it to the Airport on time, and there were no other setbacks. But we will never forget to double check departure times (for tours OR planes).

Sicily (part 1 of 2)

ok, it took me a while to get this posted, but here it is! (second part coming soon)
sicily pics are HERE
(they are in order when you view them as a set only, and you can view as a slideshow, although you would miss the comments)

Sat. Feb. 17:
Our flight left at 7AM, and we barely made it! You see, we don’t have a car, so we had to take a bus and a train to get to the airport. Fortunately, the public transport system is extremely reliable, but even then, the earliest we could get to the airport was 6AM, and that was before check-in and security, and unless we wanted to sleep there, that was the way to go. We transferred in Milan, where we found a huge statue of Hagrid (Harry Potter character) made entirely out of Legos! (I took a picture). We landed in Catania, and then took a 40 minute bus ride to Taormina (but we had to wait for the bus for more than 1 hour). In an attempt to empty my fridge of all things perishable (we learned a very important lesson once when we left a cucumber in the fridge for a couple of weeks), I had made us sandwiches (bread, ham and cheese, the perishable trio). Abril teased us and said we were going to look silly carrying around sandwiches on the airplane. Well, when we ate our tasty lunch in Catania while waiting for the bus I thought “Not so silly now, huh?”.
After walking from the bus station through a series of death traps, we finally reached our hotel (most of the road had NO sidewalk, and was steep, and there were buses and cars speeding by!). We had booked a hotel online, but a couple of days before our trip, we were “upgraded” to a sister hotel (apparently, someone messed up our reservation). The new hotel was supposed to be nicer and was almost twice the price!! (and we did not have to pay the difference). I did not find it all that “fancy” for a 4-star rating, but it was ok. We checked in, and were back out again within a few minutes. We had only a few hours of sunlight left, and we wanted to walk around. We first went to some gardens right next door to our hotel, and then went to Corso Humberto, basically Taormina’s mainstreet. There, we ate gelato (the first of many!), and had some pizza sold by the slice, which turned out to be microwave pizza!! But it was still good, and we were tired and hungry, so we did not care. We ate our microwave pizza on a park bench and then headed back to the hotel. It was only like 7:30 pm, but we were so tired (we woke up at 4am) that we went straight to bed!!

Sun. Feb. 18:
The next day we headed to Taormina’s main attraction: the Greek Theater. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was out, so it was beautiful. The views from the theater were amazing! We thought about going to the beach, but the cable-car was closed, so instead we went up to the Castello, a small caslte on the top of a hill (more like a mountain!). The book said there were 500+ steps to get there, but it felt like way more. I started counting, but gave up around 70 (not much incentive). It was a nice warm day, and we enjoyed it a lot. The actual Castle was closed, (we knew this beforehand thanks to the Hieftjes), but it was worth the 500+ steps! We walked around town some more, ate some pizza for lunch, this time it was not microwaved!, We also had some more gelato (that stuff was good!). While Gera was at the welcome reception for the conference, I went for a walk with with Kara (another lab-wife, hehe). We got to see the Carnival parade floats. The very small parade was struggling to get by those tiny little streets packed with people, but it was fun and festive! There was a float with a “Mexican theme” where the dancers were wearing zarapes and had painted mustaches, funny! After that, the welcome reception was over and we were done for the day.

Mon. Feb. 19:
Monday was rainy and cold. Gera had his talk this day, so I was by myself most of the time. I walked around a bit in the morning, then went back to the hotel. I went back out to meet Gera for lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by frommers, and had some ok food. He went back to the conference and I went back to the hotel. Later that night, we went to a very nice restaurant with the Hieftjes and the rest of the Hieftje group. We had a very nice dinner and a great time! (Thank you!) And to keep on with tradition, we also had some great local wine.

Tues. Feb. 20:
On Tuesday I went to a scheduled excursion to Syracuse and Gera stayed at the conference (muaha, ha... evil laugh). On this trip, we went first to a Greek Theater and other ruins (greek theaters seem to be all over in sicily!). Then we had a huge lunch (they just kept on bringing out more and more dishes! and for desert: cannoli). And finally we went to Ortyga (an island) and visited the Piazza Duomo, where according to the tour guide, Dolce OR Gabanna (fashion designers) has a house! (Haha, the things I remember)). Oh, and there’s also a very, very old church and some very nice buildings around it. This was an all-day trip, and by the time I got back to the hotel it was almost time to go out again to the Young Scientist’s Ball (a big dinner and dancing party, with a “mascarade” theme because it was fat Tuesday). I had bought and painted some masks the day before, so we were set! Some people had more elaborate costumes, like a guy dressed as what we thought was Disco Stu (the Simpson’s character), but later found out was supposed to be Elvis! (when did Elvis get an afro?)

Wed. 21:
Wednesday Gera went to the conference (again) and I went for yet another walk around town (I tell you, those conferences get on the way of our vacationing!! Haha). We met for lunch (pizza) and then we went to meet up with the tour people for trip to Mount Etna. We were lucky enough to get the same guide as the Syracuse trip, because apparently one other guy was very boring. “Our” guy had a sense of humor and talked about everything and anything and kept saying “Mamma mia!” and “I don’t like it!” (when referring to newer churches or buildings). The volcano’s last eruption was on 2002 ( i think) and you could see where the lava had run down because there was no snow there (since the ground was still a bit warm). The view from up there was amazing, it was snowing too!. Although it was a very short trip (it took us longer to get there than the time were actually there) it was a great experience and I brought some lava rocks with me!. Later that night we went out for dinner, and ran into Bill and Kara (lab-wife mentioned before) also former members of the Hieftje klan. We had dinner together and they told us about their boring tour guide.

An update before the italy recap

Ok, so I am typing with one hand, which means:
a) we’re back from italy (although I can type from italy too! With one or two hands)
b) I had my surgery already

Italy was really fun, but it was cloudy and rainy most of the time we were there. We only got sunshine on the Sunday (a day after we arrived) and on the Sunday we left. We ate lots of great food, and desserts, and wine, saw friends, and had a chance to visit lots of interesting places, like Mount Etna (an active volcano), and Greek/roman ruins (in Agrigento). We did have a chance to dip our feet in the sea, and I was happy about that! I will write more details later (a recap hopefully not as long as the Paris one…).

We got back to reality late on Sunday night, and Monday was a busy day full of house work like laundry and cleaning, and cooking for the week so poor Gera doesn’t have to worry about that (although, I must confess I might have done that more for myself… haha). And today (Tuesday), I went in for my 15 minute surgery. Really, that’s about all it took!. It took longer to get dressed in that awful gown (where your butt shows!) than to get “squishy” removed (yes, I named it squishy!). So I was back home and my fingers were still numb (I had local anesthesia, and by local, they really mean just the palm of the hand!). It hurts a bit now, but I am fine. I will have a few more doctor visits before I can put the memory of “squishy” behind me, I’ll tell you how that goes.

I am having...

… a cyst! Haha. I have an alien growing in my hand, so after a couple of visits to the doctor, I am scheduled to have minor surgery on Feb 27th. For 10 days after that, I will not be able to do housework, like cleaning, or cooking or doing the dishes… I am sooo sad …NOT! Gera will help a lot, and we’ll have 10 days of pizza, sandwiches, brats and other no-fuss, easy-to-cook food (probably use paper plates too! Haha)

We are sooo excited to go to Italy! Finally, its only 5 days away. As for my planning, well, I’ve been better that the last trip (to Paris), but I still have a bit more to go. I am relying on the fact that the place is smaller and will require less complex planning. So far I think we’ll go to Mt. Etna, and Syracuse, besides doing the Taormina sights (ruins and stuff). I have booked a hotel on the beach in Giardini Naxos for the last couple of nights, it’ll be great! Now I need to start packing (OMG! What am I going to wear?). You can count on being fully updated after our return.

Gera is just getting over some serious illness, something like bronchitis or something. He’s been conferring long distance via skype with the other doctors in the family (well, the other MEDICAL doctors, dad, brother and sister-in-law), and he’s way better now. I think he’ll be good as new by Saturday. Now, lets just hope I didn’t get it…

Not much else going on… ah! and you have been saved from the last Paris post! I haven’t done that part yet (and probably wont, at least not anytime soon), so just know that:
“… we said Au revoir to the city of light and were safely on our way back to Zurich. And they lived happily ever after. The end”.

SNOW

here are a few pics of the snow in Zurich.

Photos now on www.flickr.com

what? nothing new since Paris?

yes, internet. I know I have not posted anything but Paris details for the last few weeks (and I still have 1 more installment to go). It is partly because this has taken longer than expected, and partly because nothing much has happened around here since.
But just in case youi were wondering, here's a recap:
=I sent Gera to work one morning with a bag of 20+ tamales for the people in his lab to try. Not many did and the tamales were just sitting pretty in the freezer! (I know this would not have happened with the Hieftje group.) They are going to have work pretty hard if they ever want to get some tasty mexican food from me again!
=The german course is still going on. We are signed up for the next level, from feb 'til july.
=It SNOWED!! finally, some snow in Zurich! We were surprised that the city does not really clear the sidewalks or do the "salt thing". I will post some photos soon.
=The trip to Italy is coming up. We leave on Feb 17th. Sadly we will not be going to Rome after all, but I am sure we will make it there sometime soon! So, Sicily, here we come!
=I've been posting some videos on youtube.com. see if you can find me... or email me to get my username!

Like I said, not much happening.
keep on reading and dont forget to write.

Paris 5: January 1st

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 4: Montmartre, Sacre-Couer, Moulin rouge, cementery piere lachaise, Dinner

January 1, 2007. The first day of the year!
We were ready to roll early (or as early as January 1st would allow), and out to our first stop of the day: Sacre-Couer. Sacre-Couer is a church on a hill in the area of Paris called Montmartre. Montmartre used to be a village outside the city full of painters and dancers and prostitutes. I think it still is, only now is not a village (haha). This is where the Moulina Rouge is, and where several parts of the movie “Amelie” took place. Anyways, getting kinda offtrack here.
We started at Sacre-Couer (sacred heart). The church is on top of a hill and you can get a great view of the city from there, but you have to pay the price: walk up a hill, and then more steps up to the church. It is on a very touristy area, and there’s people trying to sell you stuff, or to get your money. We went in the church and there was a service in progress. Mass on the 1st day of the year, in a very old church, in Paris! (with nuns in full penguin regalia singing in French!) It was awesome!. No photos inside allowed, because of the mass. Once outside, we stood in line for a bit to go to the bell tower and somewhere else inside, but after we found out it was 5 euros to get in, we ditched the bell, and went shopping!
There’s a bunch of touristy shops around the church. The kind that sell keychains and pens and that kind of souvenirs. They also had a bunch of those little French berets and I must admit I bought one! Not the cheesy kind, black with the word “paris” embedded in rhinestones. I got a very nice caramel-color mohair one. (I still haven’t worn it!).
We walked and walked around Montmartre, partly looking for Place du Tertre (where there are painters and people that draw your portrait and sell their paintings and stuff). and partly just because that’s what you’re supposed to do here. We never found the Place du Tertre, We walked until we reached the Moulin Rouge. It has a very long history, but it really doesn’t look like something extraordinary, at least not from the outside. Got a few more pictures and hopped on the metro. We had an appointment with a lizard!
Next stop was Cementery Piere-Lachaise, “the grandest address in Paris”. We got a map from a vendor outside, I had read somewhere it was worth the 2 euros, and it REALLY was. That place is HUGE! You can easily get lost in there. A French couple borrowed our map at some point, they were lost and trying to get to some tomb. We thought “You should have bought the map, dude!.” We scanned the list of famous people, and this time Gera was the navigatos. I was way too busy taking tons of pictures. I love cementeries, specially old ones. I still have to go through those pictures, I might have gotten an unexpected portrait or two… We visited several tombs, but the most memorable one was Jim Morrison’s. There was a crowd around it, so he had a fence around his tomb. The tomb itself is not spectacular or anything. I guess it is more the feeling… He had flowers and little things left by visitors, among them something we noticed right away: a bottle of tequila!
After an evening of walking among the dead, we felt pretty dead tired ourselves and headed back to the hotel for a break. After that, we just went out trying to find something to eat. We were tired of cold sandwiches, and we needed to try some authentic food. So we went to a Braserie near the hotel and ordered a bowl of French Onion Soup (in france they just call it onion soup), and escargot (snails). Gera was very surprised that I was willing to even try them! They were surprisingly delicious! With lots of olive oil and garlic, I guess they tasted like chicken! Haha

Paris 4: New Year's Eve

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 3: Trocadero, Tour Eiffel, Jardin de Mars, Musee D’Orsay, Pantheon, St. Sulspice, New year’s at Arc du Triomph

Ok, so we kinda shuffled our plans around to fit whatever time we had and whatever was open. We did get to see a lot, but there were still a few things that were closed due to the holidays (like the Pantheon), or because most museums close on Tuesdays (like the Picasso Museum).

Anyways, Part of the plan for today was to start the day at Trocadero, which honestly I am not really sure what it is. Its like a plaza with nice buildings, a big fountain with some missiles pointing to the Eiffel Tower. We got there and the view of the tower was great. From there we walked to the base of the tower thinking we would go up the the observation deck (only to the 2nd floor, because its cheaper because you climb the stairs). The lines were looong, to both the lifts and the stairs, so we quickly ditched that plan, said “Au Revoir” to Tour Eiffel and walked a bit in the gardens next to the tower: Jardin de Mars. I bet this is where people have their “picnic by the Eiffel Tower” moment. It doesn’t really look like much this time of the year.

Next we went to the Musee d’Orsay. And the line here too was looong. We were saved from it by the fabulous museum pass (highly recommend it!). We stood in line only about 5 minutes before getting in, and this was just because of the security check. We had an audiotour for this museum, and started following it at the beginning, but after we were done with the 1st floor, we were starving, so to move more quickly we just went with the book guide we had and the audioguide from the museum. We saw lots of paintings by Monet and Manet (the ones I get confused…), and Degas, Lautrec, and many others. It’s a very nice collection, some people like it more that the Louvre. It took us about 3 or 4 hours to quickly glance through the collection (at this point, I’ve lost track of time…).

The pantheon was next on our list and off we were. Sadly, it was already closed. It had closed early because it was Dec. 31, and it wouldn’t open again until Jan. 2. But since we had a veru flexible schedule, we quickly recovered and planned to go to St. Sulpice.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit thet the only reason we went there is because it was featured on “The DaVinci Code”. There’s a brass line that runs through the middle of the church that marks what was the Paris meridian (moved to Greenwich now), and it is used to determine global time zones. Anyways, the church itself has more to offer than that, like frescoes by Delacroix and an interesting architectural history. But time was scarce, and we needed to rest a bit before going out to our New Year’s Eve celebration.

Back at the hotel (around 6pm), the hotel staff had left a little box of chocolates for us with a card signed by the staff. That was a nice touch! We ate the chocolates, drank champagne, took a nap and woke up ready to party. (as ready as we were going to be at least). We headed out for a walk on Champs Elysees, and the crowd was beginning to gather up. We walked for a bit and then settled in on a spot where the Arc Du Triomph and Champs Elysees meet. There were a surprising number of police men, all dressed in what looked like anti-riot gear, with thick vests and helmets and shields. We waited there for the midnight firework show that never came. Well, at least not the official one that the city sponsors. Turns out (we later found out), this was the 1st year Paris did not have any official New Year’s celebrations, because of problems in the past (with fireworks and crazy people, I believe). That explained the police. Anyways, the Eiffel did light up, and there were some fireworks here and there, so we got to have our special kiss on the first few seconds of 2007 in Paris! (one less thing on my “things-to-do-in-my-lifetime list).

At around 1:30 am, the police started to disperse the crowd, so we headed back to the hotel (which was just a few blocks away, strategically chosen for this very moment). We were hungry (midnight munchies!), and the only thing open on the way to the hotel was a Kebab stand. So there you have it, our first meal of 2007: Pitas stuffed with lamb and a huge side of French fries (very appropriate). I did not eat the kebab, but I did eat all the fries. Yummy, soggy and greasy, just how I like them.

Paris 3: walking and walking

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 2: Musee de Louvre, Notre Dame, Siene, Latin Quarter, Place St. Michelle, St. Chapelle, Conciergerie, Centre Pompidu (Museum of modern art).

We did not request a wake-up call, but we certainly got one from our next-door neighbors. They were slamming closet doors and moving stuff around and it did not help that the walls were paper-thin. It was time to get up anyways (8:30 AM). We got ready, all bundled up and headed for the Louvre (again) with a short stop at the corner bakery (conveniently placed in front of the metro stop).

We went back to the Louvre to finish looking at all that straight-from-the-art-history-books artwork. This time we had to go in through the side entrance using our Museum Pass. The glass pyramid at the Louvre was designed by I. M. Pei, the same architect that designed the IU art Museum (just throwing that out there for Bloomington folks, haha). We walked around for hours, and aided by the museum floor map and a Paris museum art book, we found most of the “must-sees” of the Louvre. Of course, the “must-sees” vary depending on who you ask, but hey! if they print it on the map and have special signage for it, it MUST be special. We had lunch at a museum café, and headed out towards the next thing on the list: Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

We walked along the Siene towards Notre-Dame, which sits on Ile de la Cite (an island on the river). Since that was the starting point of another one of Rick Steves’ audiowalks, we decided to give it a try. We looked at the outside of the cathedral and then went in. Inside it was very impressive, with huge walls and stained glass, and lots of people whispering in different languages. It was more “tower of Babel” than Notre-Dame. Outside, we thought about going up to the observation deck to get a view of Paris and photograph the gargoyles made famous by Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame. But discouraged by the extremely long line to get in (we calculated at least 1.5 hrs. and the Museum Pass did not provide special treatment at this location), we headed to the next sight, thinking we would come back to it if there was time later. There wasn’t and we didn’t.

We walked a bit more on Ile de la Cite, to the Deportation Memorial behind Notre-Dame (to honor the 200,000 french victims of the Nazi concentration camps in WWII). Still following the audiowalk, we walked along the Siene to the Latin quarter (name that not because of the salsa sounds, but because way back in the day they spoke latin around here because of the university). There are a lot of little shops and little streets around here. Also lots of cafes. Walking and walking we ended up at Place St. Michelle, where in 1968 students took over the square declaring an independent state (they later caved in).

Following the audiowalk was pretty fun but having no specific map for the walk made it a bit difficult. We got disoriented a few times, specially around the Latin Quarter.

Next stop was St. Chapelle, a very old church located in the courtyard of France’s supreme court, so we had to pass through security to get it. The museum pass saved the day here as well, putting us in front of the line and keeping us out of the rain. Here’s a bit of history for you: this church was built in 1248 for Luis IX, and it took only 5 years to build (very quickly for the times). It has 2 floors, so we had to climb more stairs (we were alredy very tired at this point). On the inside of the top floor, the walls are full of stained glass windows depicting stories from the bible from the creation to the coming of Christ and the end of the world. It was quite impressive! It was a shame there was almost no light outside to get a proper view.

Right next to St. Michelle is the Conciergerie, a prison where people sentenced to the guillotine were kept, including Marie Antoniette. By the time we got there, they were not letting more people in (it closed in 1/2 hour), so we peeked through a window and decided to come back to it. We did, but again, it was closed, so it must have been fate.

The tour ended at Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris, and that is an accomplishment in a city where everything is old!). so we planned our next destination on our own (and based on what is open late). So the clear winner was Center Pompidu (funny name, haha). It houses the Museum of modern art, and a few other temporary exhibit galleries. Free entry with the museum pass. Great!. Getting there involved more walking, so after looking for it walking in the rain, we had to warm up and do another Paris “must”: sit down at a café and have, well, café (café au lait, to be precise). We did, and threw in some sweet crepes (by the way, the coffee was more expensive that the crepes). Armed with more energy and a bit warmer, we were ready to keep looking for the allusive Pompidu, which happened to be just around the corner. Part of the permanent collection area was closed, but we got to see a big amount of modern artwork. The building is huge and very modern itself, with glass walls, and the escalators running inside clear tubes through the outside front of the building. In the “museum timeline”, the Pompidu sits in the end (Louvre, d’Orsay, Pompidu).

We called it a day after Pompidu, headed back to the hotel and ate some carry out Chinese food (from around the corner near the hotel). We had big plans for the next day. the last day of 2006.

Paris 2: Our first taste of Paris

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 1: airport, arrival, hotel, Arc du Triomph, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tullieries, Palais Royal, Musee du Louvre

Getting to Paris was easy. We traveled by plane and it took us longer to get to the airport and wait for boarding than it took to actually get there (1.5 hr). We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport about 1 hour later than expected (it was quite foggy in Zürich, so there were delays). Thanks to my handy dandy research, we knew we could buy the metro pass and the museum pass at the airport, so we headed towards the tourist info office. They had network problems so we could not buy the museum pass, and the metro pass had to be purchased at the metro ticket counter. There we waited for about 20 minutes, requested the metro pass (for 4 days) and getting ready to pay, we each got money our of our wallets, and the guy at the counter said to Gera (in a thick French accent) “Here men pay for everything, don’t let her pay again!”, half kidding, half serious. Our first impression of Paris. (fnny). We hopped on the RER and had to transfer at a station so we could get to the hotel. Of course, at the transfer we got on the metro going the opposite way we wanted to go, and then had to transfer again, and the second time we got it right. As we exited the metro station, our first sight of Paris was waiting: the Arc du Triomph stood there, triumphant and colossal, it was amazing!

We started walking in the direction of the hotel (located not on Champs Elysees, but on the opposite avenue). We walked for a few minutes when all of a sudden Gera and I stopped and simultaneously smelled the air: fresh baked bread! We both turned and the bakery was just behind us, on the corner. We got a couple of croissants and a couple of pieces of some sweet-flaky-chocolaty pastry (what would become our usual Paris breakfast). We continued walking for a few more minutes until we started to realize that we must had passed the hotel already, so we turned and headed back. Turns out we were supposed to turn on the same corner where the bakery was. It was fate saying “Look here!” with the sweet smell of carbs, but we did not listen.

The hotel was small with paper-thin walls, but very nice and clean (I will be writing a review for it later at tripadvisor.com). They gave us a room (strangely, there was no sign-in protocol) and a few minutes later called us to very politely ask us to go back downstairs with our luggage. They had given us the wrong room!. The 1st room was tiny, and we were sure they would not give us a bigger room, so we were scared to see what our actual room looked like. It WAS actually bigger than the first! The downside: it was on the 4th floor, and on the 5th floor they were renovating or something, so the construction noise woke us up early in the mornings. That and our VERY noisy next-door neighbors.

Once we were settled, it was already past 4pm, so we headed out towards the nearest attraction, ready to start crossing things off our list. We walked towards the Arc de Triomph, crossed the roundabout (through an underground tunnel) where 12 major avenues meet, and waited in line to buy the museum pass. There is no elevator to go up to the observation deck, only 280+ steps. We started climbing and I “almost” made it to the top without stopping, but when we had to stop, we HAD to stop. My heart was racing and I couldn’t breathe. Gera kept saying “we’re almost there”, but my boots felt heavy and he quickly quieted down once I told him “the batteries on the camera are dead!”. (haha) There were not exactly dead, but very very low, so we only got a few shots from the observation. We bought expensive batteries at a little store on Champs Elysees, and I never forgot to pack fresh batteries for the rest of the trip.

We kept walking on Champs Elysees, and walked, and walked. It was long, specially because we were so tired from climb up the arc. We eventually (finally!) reached the end of the avenue, at Place de la Concorde, where the big Egyptian obelisk is. We stopped, enjoyed the view and continued walking. We still had to cross a big garden (Jardin des Tuileries) to get to our next destination: Musee du Louvre. Across from Place de la Concorde there’s a huge ferris wheel and some food stands. We went on the ferris wheel and bought some crepes and some churros at the food stands. We continued walking and finally got to the Louvre, which is open late on Fridays.

We figured we should get the Monalisa out of the now, because it wouldn’t be so crowded so late at night (we were right). We went in through the glass pyramid (no line) and headed straight for La Giaconda. Walked across grand halls full of spectacular statues; magnificent stairs, and painted ceilings, the building is an artwork by itself. We finally found her, swimming in a sea of tourists. There were guards surrounding her and they seemed to be very angry at everybody. They kept shouting “NO PHOTOS! NO PHOTOS! MONSIEUR, NO PHOTOS!” and people kept ignoring them and snapping shots here and there, which explains their temper. I was good and did not snap a single shot, but there were some very bad people who even committed the museum capital sin: flash photography!

We tried to follow Rick Steves’ Louvre tour on the MP3 player, but it was a bit frustrating because we kept getting lost, so we gave up on that (note to self: next time print the maps that go with the guided tour). We saw some more art, like the Venus de Milo and old roman statues and we were ready to call it a day. And what a day it was, our first day in Paris.

Paris 1: Planning

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

The planning: audioguides and passes

Gera named me the “official travel planner” of the household. I am usually pretty good at researching our destination and finding out places to go, visit, eat, etc. This time I was not so good. I left everything ‘til the last minute (or rather last 2 days). I was in a “planning” frenzy on dec. 27 and 28th. Where’s the hotel? How do we get there from the airport? Do we take a cab? Metro? Do they have metro passes? Do they have tourist passes? What are we going to do once we get there? This and a whole lot of other questions had to be answered, and I only had 2 days.
So I started just figuring out the basics, and it all came together in the end. I found out about the Museum Pass, an awesome pass that allows you entry to over 60 museums and monuments (including the Louvre), and it cuts you to the front of the line (very useful!), We also decided to buy a Paris Visite card, for unlimited use of Metro, Bus, and RER (train), so we could hop on and off without having to buy a ticket first. In retrospect, a couple of 10-tickets packs would have been enough and cheaper, but this worked too.
The other great find was a collection for Audioguides from Rick Steves’ website. They are downloadable (free!) and it’s like having a personal tour guide in the streets of Paris. There are other mini-guides on the internet, so I got a bunch, but most were just short descriptions of some monuments and stuff. Having an iPod would have made things easier (on the screen you get a picture of what the guide is describing, and you can view maps that way too), but just a regular mp3 player worked ok.
So armed with a couple of maps Gera printed, and some printouts from internet guidebooks we were on our way to paris (bright and early, as usual).

quick update

Christmas photos here!

The Holiday season is over, and it all happened so quickly. One minute we were wondering what to have for dinner, thinking how sad it was we were all scattered about, the next thing I know, its January 4th!
We had a great xmas dinner, watched a couple of movies, opened presents and voila! christmas was over. Then we headed for Paris for the New year celebration. That was a quick trip, and is suddenly all becoming a blur (better type up the blog for that before it becomes too blurry!).
Now we just go back to the usual routine, but with a few new year's resolutions in mind.
I am still working on the blog for the paris trip, I will probably post it in istallments, since its turning out to be too long! Pics will be coming soon too.
Happy new year!

feliz navidad!

merry christmas everyone!
have a great dinner, eats lots of food, and enjoy the company of friends and family (dont take it for granted, hehe). big hughs to all! ** jazi&gera

nochebuena & tamales

find pictures HERE

Ok, so I have been kinda busy, so no posts in 2 weeks, sorry (if anyone noticed…)
Tomorrow is Nochebuena (Christmas eve), and I’ve been getting ready for it. We’ll be eating tamales!! I just finished making them today (yes, ahead of time, because they take long to make, and wanted to have everything ready to just chill out during the day). I made some corn tamales (my own recipe that I kinda just threw together), nothing like my mom’s, but pretty close!! They are my favorite, and now I can have them whenever I want. (mmmm, corn tamales, with cheese, cream, and chiles). For desert we’re having pumpking roll (Adri’s family recipe!). I had a hard time finding canned pumpkin but finally found it at a “gourmet store. I will post pictures and stories about our holiday dinner next time.

We had a great time at Gera’s lab holiday party. It was a potluck and I brought flan. Everybody liked it a lot! We had to walk all the way back home (for an hour and a half!), at 2 in the morning because the night buses only run every hour, and we never caught one. It was super cold too. I slipped on an icy sidewalk, fell and scratched my knee pretty good (more like pretty bad). I was ok though; no internal bleeding or anything (haha).

This past week we’ve been hanging out with Claudia (Gera’s cousin who’s visiting for the holidays). We’ve been walking around and trying to show her what little of Zürich we know (she’s our test run for upcoming visitors, hehe).

I’ve managed to watch the whole season of survivor on Youtube.com. I haven’t had time to look for something else to watch, but I did find a few episodes of Gilmore Girls and How I Met Your Mother.

We’ve managed to visit the Grossmünster when it was actually open, so we got to climb up one of the towers. You can see the pics postedin the album linked above.

It’s December 23 and still NO snow. In fact, it was actually sunny yesterday and today. So there will not be a white Christmas for us. I can only imagine how bad it’ll be once it really starts to snow around here. For now I plan to enjoy the weather that’s not very bad at all.

the churches!

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Find photos for this weekend here


Another week has come and went (or is it gone?), whatever… point is: time flies.
I got my Christmas gift from gera early this year (well, actually, every year). He ordered more memory for my little 12” PowerBook G4 (that had been struggling to keep up with updates and new software and what not). It works much better now. Thank you Gera!
I managed to put some packages in the mail with a non-english-speaking clerk. Nothing major really, but an accomplishment in my book.

I got my secret-santa gift in the mail (I mentioned something about this last post). The site that organized the swap offered another henna-related gift when you signed up, and I got BOTH my henna gifts in the mail the same day. Of course I was not going to wait ‘til xmas to open them. From my secret santa I got a bunch of little henna-related things, like a small henna design book, and some henna powder, a marker-tattoo kit, bindis, some incense, lavender soap (what does that have to do with henna?, beats me!). Anyways, the incense had to go outside almost immediately! It was stinking up the place, Waaay too strong (it was some of those blue boxes with red letters that are sold at “international” markets). The rest of the stuff was ok. From the henna elf (the swap organizer) I got several goodies too! A CD with designs (I contributed one design, and it was used for the face of the CD! Awesome!), some crystals to beautify the henna, some henna powder, applicators, and glitter. It was a great day full of little presents!

We have almost done all the “touristy” things available around the city, except “the churches.” We decided we should do that on Saturday, so we armed ourselves with an umbrella and headed out. Our first stop was Augustinerkirche, and it was closed. We then headed to the Groomünster, that had just finished service and was very crowded. We couldn’t even get in, and the tower we wanted to climb was closed due to the services. (special services.. we could’t figure out what religious holiday was being celebrated… something to do with advent?) so once again we were disappointed by “the churches.” We moved on to St Peters Kirche, a church with a clock with a face that is 8.7 m in diameter (28 ft), the largest in Europe. That one was open, and there was a choir rehearsing, so we got a mini-concert for free! It was beautiful. As we were sitting there, listening to the music, our friend Carmen recognized us. What are the chances! We met her in Bloomington, she’s from Germany, and was on a day-trip in Zürich with her sister. We went for coffee to (once again) a Starbucks (hey! they are everywhere).

I finished watching ANTM, and moved on to the Amazing Race (AR). Today I just finished with AR (season 10), so now I'm looking for other shows. youtube rocks! Do i need to say that once again my reading has been reduced to zero? think not.

Other mini-notes: Gera’s cousin from mexico (whom I haven’t met) is arriving on thursday (tomorrow). I still haven’t decorated our home for xmas. Maybe by the time I get around to it, it’ll be easter! Gera’s lab xmas party is on Friday, and I am bringing flan. What else? Well, I’ve been thinking about new year’s resolutions… exercise it at the top of the list! What is on yours?