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!

so far...

FIND MORE PHOTOS OF THE TRIP HERE (i'll be updating that album)

It has been a crazy week, filled with shopping, traveling, visiting friends, and eating!
I’ll start with the shopping.
While in Dallas I tried to get over the tremendous jetlag by going shopping. I found some great bargains, but hey, compared to Zurich, everything was a bargain!!! I had to buy new luggage because the bags I brought were wheel-less, and in search of luggage I found a small shopping bag/cart ideal to haul groceries from the store on the bus. It was $3.99!!! I had to get it, so I did. I also got some tops, shoes, and gifts, among other things.

I traveled by plane to Louisiana to visit our very good friends (and now compadres) the Wan-kers (their self-imposed nickname). We were godparents to their wonderful little baby girl. It was an honor and a privilege to get to be there with them and visit and chat. It was great! (thank you for your hospitality!)
Gera arrived to Dallas 4 hours late, after many phone calls and delays. Needless to say, he did not make the 3:15 flight… well, technically he did, only that the flight did not take off until 7:00, after being boarded and then unboarded. The important thing is that he made it in one piece and his luggage was on the same plane. He drove to Louisiana (4 hours) to be there for the baptisim, and then we both drove back together to Dallas yesterday (Monday). Today (Tuesday) I fly to El Paso, and finally get to cross the border and see my family. I am so excited, I am all packed and ready to go.

I had a bit of an eating problem right after arriving from Zurich. The problem? I wasn’t hungry… There were so many fast food places I wanted to go to, but I just wasn’t hungry. Stupid jetlag, it not only messed up my sleeping pattern, but also my eating schedule. After a couple of days of only 1 meal a day (granted, it was a big meal), I tried to make myself eat on a schedule, and it worked! So now I am eating just fine! So far I’ve been to McDonalds, Taco Bell, Sonic and Wendy’s, and I’ve had vanilla coke and root beer. I’ve also eaten pseudo-Louisiana food and cornbread. Today we’ll go to the Chinese buffet before I go to the airport (mmmm, sweet and sour…)

airport adventures

Today I woke up at 6am local time, 12 pm “my” time. Can you still call it jetlag even if you did not fly on a jet? Well, I thought I’d me more tired and wake up later than this, but I guess not. Last night I went to bed at 4am “my” time. I made it to Dallas!

Yesterday was a very busy day. It all went very smoothly… at the beginning. We got to the airport on time, I checked in and now they ask you all sorts of “new” questions now, like “did you borrow something from someone?, where did you pack your bags? How did you get to the airport? Where were you sitting in relation to your bags on the train?”. I went through passport control and through security in less than 40 minutes, not because there was a line (there wasn’t) but because the airport is so big I had to walk a while to get from one place to the other. We boarded and took off. 3 episodes of House, 1 top chef, 1 Fraiser, and 2 movies later (not to mention a pack of peanuts, a chicken meal, and a sandwich and chips) we got to Newark. The flight is 9+ hours and I did not sleep a wink. I was super glad that we were actually 20 minutes early arriving in Newark. Have you ever heard of a plane being early?

Once in Newark I stood in line for Immigration. Those lines are worse than at Disneyland!. I thought I’d be fine with the extra 20 minutes and the not-too-bad fast-moving line but I wasn’t. I started to worry when 45 minutes in when I wasn’t even half way through the line and I still had to go get my bags, go through customs, check the bags in again, go though security and make it to the gate. A guy was letting people with children skip ahead in line, so I asked him about my flight and if he thought I would make it. “Nah! You wont!” “WHAT!” I said. That was all. He did not even try to give me a chance… I was not bumped to the front of the line. The rest of the wait was shorter because people started piling up (I guess another plane arrived) and they opened twice as many stations. I was already prepared to miss the flight, but after seeing the time after my passport had been stamped (that was pretty uneventful), I thought I’d give it a shot. I had 30 minutes!

I ran to get my bags and got a cart to move them because after an accident in Zurich now they were both missing a wheel. I found the bags, loaded them and ran to customs. I saw that people we were just handing off their filled out forms, so I kinda got in front of a guy who was looking for something in his bag (you snooze, you loose) and gave the form to the officer and ran again! I thought: “If I am supposed to stay or have my bags checked, they will call me”. They didn’t so I kept going. I found the line for baggage check-in and it was not too long. A lady was asking people when their flights were, and a couple in front of me had a flight at 3:20, and she said “oh, my! You probably wont make it” and she took them to the front of the line. Mine was at 3:15. I followed them, even though nobody told me to, and when she saw me there she tried to send me back to the line. I showed her my boarding pass:
-Me “Mine is at 3:15!!!”
-Lady “you probably wont make it”
-Me “but I have to try
-Lady “well, the bags WONT make it”
-Me “I don’t care”
Someone took my bags and I took off running

I still had to take the monorail to get to my gate. Follow the signs, follow the signs. I got to security and the line was not too long. I guy behind me told the attendant “My flight leaves in 15 minutes, can you call and tell them to wait?” the answer: “NO”. I showed my documents and was let through. The guy ended up in line behind me and I asked him if they had done anything for him. Turned out we were on the same flight. We started asking people to let us get in front of them in line, and we made it to the front (it was only like 10 or 12 people). I put my bags (and everything else I had on the x-ray machine and walked through. I beeped! I forgot to take my passport pouch off, also my shoes. Went back thorough. This time I was OK. As I was packing my bags again the guy said “if you make it there before me, tell them there’s one more person coming”. I didn’t even put my shoes on properly and started running. I could see the gate. There was no one in line. Did everybody board? It was already 3:15 and boarding had started at 2:40. So I got to the counter:
-Me “did I make it?”
-Guy at the counter “made it where?”
-Me “made the flight?”
-Guy at the counter “oh. We haven’t boarded yet. We’re running a bit late”
-Me “…”
I had made it!!! That was my Amazing Race moment for this trip (so far)

last zurich post of the year!

hello all!
I am super excited!
In a few hours I'll be on my way to Dallas!
i have my bags packed, and my passport ready.
See you soon (some of you at least!)
ciao
jazibe

euro2008

Next year the Euro Cup (soccer championship) will be here in Switzerland, so last year Gera signed up for tickets. They have a whole lottery system where you have to sign uo to "maybe" get tickets. He requested 3 games (the ones in Zurich), and luckily he got 1 (2 tickets for 1 game)! The game is next year and only recently did they make the sorting for the groups, and turns out the game he has tickets for is Romania vs France (on June 8, 2008). The tickets are alredy selling for 600+ euros. I say "sell those tickets!!" ... we'll see....
Only a few more days... I am packing, sorting, and getting nervous. I only have 1 and a half hours in Newark to change planes and go through customs... will that be enough? I hope so.

Christmas decor

This (photo above) is the extent of my holiday decoration. That is all. There will be nothing else. Just that. Cinnamon scented toilett paper! Since we're going out of town, there's really no point.
Also, I made christmas piñatas! (which should actually have 7 pikes, not 4, but who's counting?) I will bring them to our Posada next week. I like how they turned out. Posadas are filled with symbolism, here's a bit to read: posadas.
This is the last post for november. NaBloPoMo is over! and I failed! at least I was not "official" hehe. but hey,20 posts in 30 days is my personal best! I will post a couple more things next week, but then, i am off to Dallas!

remembering

We had such a great time when the gang came to visit last may!
This is just a sample of us being silly.
here's a brief translation:
jazi- Are they here yet? (refering to the ETs, because it sounded like the mothership was landing)
robe -you're mom is going to say you're inviting "spirits" (because they lights flickered)
abril - they DO sound different (then they make no sound!)
gera- yes, they're different!

so much fun!

Today I am having my friends over and we're making pumpkin pie! I'll have some pics for you tomorrow.
later!

blast from the past: wedding

This post is better suited for our anniversary, but since i just found the CD with this pictures (i thought I had left it in Mexico), i will share them now. Our wedding was 7 and a half years and many many pounds ago! (July 29th, 2000- except the civil ceremory, which was a few weeks earlier).
I continue packing, or rather just throwing stuff in the suitcase, i will sort and pack later. I made a big calendar for the wall with special notes and reminders (take out trash, pay bills, etc) to leave everything sorted out when Gera heads out (we really dont want to repeat the cucumber incident of 2002, when we left a cucumber in the fridge during our winter vacation, and when we came back it had exploded and the whole fridge smelled horrible!).
see you soon!

happy thanksgiving!

Last night I made a mini-pseudo thanksgiving dinner from scratch! Although I cooked a chicken insetad of a turkey, everything turned out really good, and it was a first for everything except the mashed potatoes! I made bread stuffing and pumpkin pie (and not from a can!), and everything was excellent. (we suspect that it was the butter in everything that made it so sinfully delicious)
I hope everybody had a good dinner with family and friends, but remember to be thankful for your blessings everyday and not just once a year.
The clock is ticking, only 22 days until my trip!

tamales

this edition of blog brings you more cooking adventures.
Today I made corn tamales. This kind of tamales is a bit different that the traditional pork tamales (red), and they have corn, cheese and cream (and chile slices in the middle). My mom makes them when I visit (they are typical in our native state of Sonora), and they're always a favorite (with refried beans). I made a point to write down the recipe, since it is a made-up recipe, as the original/traditional has fresh white corn as the main ingredient, and i used canned. The photo is from last year's batch (my first time making them). I have only made them once since, but I totally screwed up the recipe and they were awfull, hence no tamales since then.

rosca + cooking

today i made Rosca de Reyes (king's cake). This was a test run, because a rosca is not typically eaten until January 6th. Also, you're supposed to hide a plastic baby toy and whomever gets it has to put together another party for Dia de la Candelaria, in february (12th? 2nd?.. i forget), but I was fresh out of blastic baby toys (hehe) l. The rosca turned out good, but not like a traditional rosca. This one had a bread consistency, and a rosca is more like cake. I will look for another recipe and try it again next week. I've been a lot into cooking lately. have you seen my recipe blog?

some links

some of the crafty/diy links in my collection:
not martha
ikea hacker
craftzine
etsy
ready made
instructables
threadbanger

some of the places i get my tv fix:
tudou
veoh
youtube

henna stuff:
henna page
hrnna tribe

what's up with Huevo

Our dog Huevo was left to live temporarily with my parents in Mexico. He was inside for a couple of months, but soon after i left to come here, he was moved to the laundry room (still inside, but smaller) because he caused allergies. He shares the laundry room now with 3 chihuahuas and the ocasional cat. He has loosened up a lot (he was very scared of everything!), and now goes out runing to the park and plays around with the neighborhood kids. My parents even taught him how to "shake", and before he would never ever let you touch his paws. He seems to be doing great, and I do miss him, but I am sure he is very well taken care of and happy.