A Kick Ass Kick Off to 2007!
Note: I wrote this awhile ago so a bit out of date. This blurb goes along with pictures that Lisa sent!
Happy New Year!!!!
Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!! I can't believe they're over already! Time goes by very very quickly!! For the first time ever, I spent the holidays away from home. It was nice - I finished finals on a Monday, had the Christmas Ball on Wednesday, and then Lisa came to visit on Thursday! The second year is really great - so much more relaxed then the last year when they make us work so hard til the bitter end, then have to re-energize for the obligatory but always tons of fun social event, and last year, I had to fly back home that early the next morning! Instead, this year I relaxed in Barcelona with Lisa, my flatmate Lindy, and some other IESE friends through Christmas. Christmas was awesome in Barcelona! We made a Christmas brunch complete with yummy mimosas and breakfast burritos with homemade guacomole that yours truly made (my fave!). After watching Lindy open the gazillion gifts she had from home, we each opened the few we got for each other. We then took a nice stroll through the city to the seafront. It was blue skies, sunny, and mild temperatures! Back at home, we popped in a video and ate some more!!!
Since being on break, I've been catching on movies and best of all, American TV shows!!! Spanish TV just plain sucks. Programming is bad and everything is dubbed...boooo!! Luckily right next to our flat is this great video store called "Monkey Business" but I just like to call it "Funky Monkey". My faves are "Grey's Anatomy", "Lost", and "24". So addicting...I love them!!!!
Then after Christmas, Lisa, Lindy, my friend Elizabeth, and I flew to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is a really nice town that seems frozen in the past. A lovely historical district that if only it would spend the time and money to fix it up a bit it would be a truly fabulous city. It has a homey, cozy feel to it because it's run down. We got to meet a lot of our IESE friends there who showed us around. We also spent some time in Porto - a 3.5 hour train ride up north and this is a really beautiful town that y'all should check out. It reminded me a lot of Prague - beautiful churches and towers; bridges spanning the river; small hills. We got to tour a port cellar and had a port tasting. Yum! Who knew that there is white port as well as red port. I also found the place where I would like to have a wedding someday - at the port cellar. Beautiful view with a cool terrace. Just need to find the guy! The food in Portugal is SO GOOD!!!! Everything we had (minus the casserole of a bottle of olive oil) was delicious! Why can't Spain have food this good?!? We ended up spending New Year's at our friend Felipe's parents' mansion of place. We stayed until 6:30 in the morning and had to leave for the airport in 2 hours!! Imagine rounding up drunk people with less than 2 hours sleep to pack and catch a flight!
In a more intimate setting, there are many stories to tell - one about Lisa and some observations about Portuguese men and how they differ from Brazilian men, surprisingly...
We make it back to Barcelona to rest up and pack for the next leg of the journey...Switzerland!! Our friend from school, Andreas was nice enough to have us over in his Swiss chalet! We fly into Geneva, take 2 trains and a telecabine to his chalet in the village of...Bellwald! Yeah! Switzerland is amazingly beautiful - snow-capped mountains and beautiful lakes. We were there from Jan 2-6. There were about 10 of us there - Lisa, this Dutch-Russian girl Lena and I were the snowboarders. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that agreeable - snowstorm (great for powder but bad for visibility) and fog! We took lessons from our cute Swiss instructor, Pascal. I LOVE snowboarding! I had a blast! In usual Carol fashion, I have stories about mini-crises including the battle with ski lifts, climbing near vertical slopes with the snowboard, having my snowboard stolen and taking the wrong board, and a major crisis where I thought I was going to freak out and start crying on the slope! Luckily I didn't and I survived!
Hanging out in the chalet was really fun! We took turns cooking at night, drank, and played games! We played Charades, King Elephant, Spoons, Rummy, and the Bowl Game! We also celebrated Ms Leeza's birthday early on our last night since we won't get to see her on her actual birthday. I was about to surprise her with this lovely lemon cake that Andreas made with tealights when she asks me, "Is it someone's birthday?". Hahaha...it's yours, silly!!!
Now this is a REAL tragedy - the day we left was the BEST day to ski...no clouds, blue skies, and sunny. My aim is to go snowboarding at least 2 more times; one of which will be in Andorra for the annual IESE ski trip February 9-11. Any takers???
From there I jetted off to Bologna, Italy to visit a friend. Bologna is a lovely town and it was cool hanging out. I saw an art exhibit of Annibale Carvacci who is from Bologna and is an artist from the 16th-17th century.
I came back the other night completely travel worn and exhausted but it was all worth it! Spending time with good friends, exploring new towns, countries, and cultures and eating good food and laughing a lot! Over the break, I've been hanging out in places where Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Italian were the official languages. I am really fortunate and grateful to have had these experiences!
How was everyone's holidays? What's new?? Please drop me a line when you get a chance because I would love to catch up! I've been so out of it the last few months! I talked with Mia and Irim on MSN and Kari on Skype so it would be nice to talk live with you sometime! Let me know!!!!!!!!!
Happy New Year!!!!
Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!! I can't believe they're over already! Time goes by very very quickly!! For the first time ever, I spent the holidays away from home. It was nice - I finished finals on a Monday, had the Christmas Ball on Wednesday, and then Lisa came to visit on Thursday! The second year is really great - so much more relaxed then the last year when they make us work so hard til the bitter end, then have to re-energize for the obligatory but always tons of fun social event, and last year, I had to fly back home that early the next morning! Instead, this year I relaxed in Barcelona with Lisa, my flatmate Lindy, and some other IESE friends through Christmas. Christmas was awesome in Barcelona! We made a Christmas brunch complete with yummy mimosas and breakfast burritos with homemade guacomole that yours truly made (my fave!). After watching Lindy open the gazillion gifts she had from home, we each opened the few we got for each other. We then took a nice stroll through the city to the seafront. It was blue skies, sunny, and mild temperatures! Back at home, we popped in a video and ate some more!!!
Since being on break, I've been catching on movies and best of all, American TV shows!!! Spanish TV just plain sucks. Programming is bad and everything is dubbed...boooo!! Luckily right next to our flat is this great video store called "Monkey Business" but I just like to call it "Funky Monkey". My faves are "Grey's Anatomy", "Lost", and "24". So addicting...I love them!!!!
Then after Christmas, Lisa, Lindy, my friend Elizabeth, and I flew to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is a really nice town that seems frozen in the past. A lovely historical district that if only it would spend the time and money to fix it up a bit it would be a truly fabulous city. It has a homey, cozy feel to it because it's run down. We got to meet a lot of our IESE friends there who showed us around. We also spent some time in Porto - a 3.5 hour train ride up north and this is a really beautiful town that y'all should check out. It reminded me a lot of Prague - beautiful churches and towers; bridges spanning the river; small hills. We got to tour a port cellar and had a port tasting. Yum! Who knew that there is white port as well as red port. I also found the place where I would like to have a wedding someday - at the port cellar. Beautiful view with a cool terrace. Just need to find the guy! The food in Portugal is SO GOOD!!!! Everything we had (minus the casserole of a bottle of olive oil) was delicious! Why can't Spain have food this good?!? We ended up spending New Year's at our friend Felipe's parents' mansion of place. We stayed until 6:30 in the morning and had to leave for the airport in 2 hours!! Imagine rounding up drunk people with less than 2 hours sleep to pack and catch a flight!
In a more intimate setting, there are many stories to tell - one about Lisa and some observations about Portuguese men and how they differ from Brazilian men, surprisingly...
We make it back to Barcelona to rest up and pack for the next leg of the journey...Switzerland!! Our friend from school, Andreas was nice enough to have us over in his Swiss chalet! We fly into Geneva, take 2 trains and a telecabine to his chalet in the village of...Bellwald! Yeah! Switzerland is amazingly beautiful - snow-capped mountains and beautiful lakes. We were there from Jan 2-6. There were about 10 of us there - Lisa, this Dutch-Russian girl Lena and I were the snowboarders. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that agreeable - snowstorm (great for powder but bad for visibility) and fog! We took lessons from our cute Swiss instructor, Pascal. I LOVE snowboarding! I had a blast! In usual Carol fashion, I have stories about mini-crises including the battle with ski lifts, climbing near vertical slopes with the snowboard, having my snowboard stolen and taking the wrong board, and a major crisis where I thought I was going to freak out and start crying on the slope! Luckily I didn't and I survived!
Hanging out in the chalet was really fun! We took turns cooking at night, drank, and played games! We played Charades, King Elephant, Spoons, Rummy, and the Bowl Game! We also celebrated Ms Leeza's birthday early on our last night since we won't get to see her on her actual birthday. I was about to surprise her with this lovely lemon cake that Andreas made with tealights when she asks me, "Is it someone's birthday?". Hahaha...it's yours, silly!!!
Now this is a REAL tragedy - the day we left was the BEST day to ski...no clouds, blue skies, and sunny. My aim is to go snowboarding at least 2 more times; one of which will be in Andorra for the annual IESE ski trip February 9-11. Any takers???
From there I jetted off to Bologna, Italy to visit a friend. Bologna is a lovely town and it was cool hanging out. I saw an art exhibit of Annibale Carvacci who is from Bologna and is an artist from the 16th-17th century.
I came back the other night completely travel worn and exhausted but it was all worth it! Spending time with good friends, exploring new towns, countries, and cultures and eating good food and laughing a lot! Over the break, I've been hanging out in places where Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Italian were the official languages. I am really fortunate and grateful to have had these experiences!
How was everyone's holidays? What's new?? Please drop me a line when you get a chance because I would love to catch up! I've been so out of it the last few months! I talked with Mia and Irim on MSN and Kari on Skype so it would be nice to talk live with you sometime! Let me know!!!!!!!!!
posted by Chica Chan @ 3:02 PM
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