Speaking of Spanish food

Check out the delicious chocolate mousse cake that my host mom made me for my birthday!

It was so rich and creamy and delightful!

Madrid

I'm here! I've arrived (quite safely, too, I might add)! And the city hasn't changed a bit since I was here last (2008, for those keeping track). It's still hotter 'n snot and the streets a dirty and dust-filled (even though individual people mop the sidewalks outside of their shops/apartment buildings, they never seem to really get clean...probably because someone almost immediately tosses down a cigarette or a used metro card).

I've mostly been recovering from jetlag (hey--it takes me awhile, ok?). But I have managed to visit some of my favorite places (and eat some of my favorite foods)!

For instance, pictured below is the Casa del Pescador (The House of the Fisherman) in the Parque del Retiro (from now on, it's just the Retiro). The Retiro was just one of the many places where former kings of Spain would go to hunt/fish/kill things for fun. Fernando VII was one of these kings, and within the park, he built lots of cute little hunting lodges, such as this one, intended for fishing:

The Retiro is absolutely my favorite place of all of Madrid. It's like Central Park, but better, because there are more even more walking paths and it's quieter.

It's also near a bunch of little shops and restaurants, like La Taberna del Toro, the restaurant in which I ate what is one of my favorite meals in Spain: Gazpacho and Calamari.

Don't they look just absolutely delicious? 

Oba-Mao?

Sometime last year, my brother sent me this video. Some people find it offensive, but I think it's hilarious-- mostly because it is an attempt at adulation by the Chinese, yet fails miserably for an American audience. It also really highlights how, in spite of globalization, there still exist some pretty stark differences between nations and cultures.

Said brother worked in Hong Kong this summer and for my birthday brought me several presents, one of which is the following notebook:

Interspersed inside are pictures of Obama captioned by various Chinese phrases, complete with an English translation. They range from somewhat intelligible (Have something to say, then say! Have nothing to say, go home!!) to downright strange (Pig head 3, go dead!).

Here are some of my favorites:

• "You don't bird me, I don't bird you."

• "Love his mother's who who who!"

• "Color wolf, you give me roll exit!"

• "You ask me, me ask who?"

And finally, the all-time favorite:

• "Dear wang little girl, first eye see you,, I horse up love you."

I almost want to send it to one of my Chinese-speaking friends to learn what the phrases really mean, but I think it's funnier if I don't know.

Surprising Surprises! Part IV

And this one wasn't really a surprise, but then later that evening, the 107 Girls had a housewarming party. So yeah. 4 parties in one day. I was pretty tuckered out.

Here is a picture of their beautiful living room:

It's a little blurry and I don't know why, but I'm assuming it's because the flash was off.

And here's a picture of the preparations for the festivities:

It was quite a fun-filled evening. We had Knolla's Pizza, and on the way friend Aubrey and I discussed the possibility that anyone could ever throw a surprise party for her. She decided that it was impossible, since she was the planner of the group. But then at the housewarming, she was surprised by the appearance of her friend Peter. So I guess it is possible to surprise an unsurprisable person. 

Surprising Surprises! Part III

Of course, since I didn't know about the surprising surprise party, I had already planned my own birthday party for Saturday at 3:30.

And there was no way I could cancel it because we had already baked a dark chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate fudge icing (my favorite!) and made 2 kinds of homemade ice cream: raspberry sorbet and vanilla.

And there was no way my mom couldn't not let me plan my own party without giving away the surprise, so... at 3:30 we had more cake and ice cream! This time with presents!

I was a lot more excited about it than I look in this picture. I think here I was very intent on opening the present. (!)

And this is a nice little panorama shot of the room with Dad's new handy Sony point and shoot digital. We like it a lot, but what we didn't realize was that you have to take a full panorama if you don't want a random black bar to appear on one side.

Surprising Surprises! Part II

After breakfast on Saturday, we had about 30 minutes to get ready for a lunch with the brother's in-laws to plan the Christmas trip. We were going to meet them at the country club. I should have known that something was up when the brother kept telling me to change into something a little nicer than my denim skirt and JCrew tee (I changed into a white summer skirt and kept the tee).

We got to the club and walked towards the Tapestry room. I kind of noticed a bunch of people standing around, but didn't really pay much attention to them until they shouted, "SURPRISE!"

That's right, a surprise going away party thrown by my friends and family who lived within Kansas or within a 100 mile radius of Kansas (or thereabouts). I guess my mom planned it while I was at Spanish camp, and friend Aubrey made the decorations.

Apparently, there were a few close calls where I might have learned about it...most notably when Aubrey made me send some text messages for her since she was driving and I saw a text about a birthday gift, or when I visited friend Rob's house and the invitation was laying out face-up on the dining room table. Thankfully, though, DNortonLand breeds oblivion, so things like surprise parties remain, well, surprises.

This is the kid's table. Note the dude serving fajitas in the background. Best surprise party ever!

Surprising Surprises! Part I

Friend Adro says I am delinquent, so I guess it's time to venture into DNortonLand again.

Parties are quite fun.  Not a huge part of DNortonLand (Library parties and book club parties--maybe), but every now and then, we can throw down like the best of them. Saturday was one of those days.

It started off with a simple breakfast party of some of the brother's friends--to discuss a trip to London for Thanksgiving. (Anybody else find Thanksgiving in London ironic? maybe not as ironic as the 4th of July, but still...). Delicious egg casserole, Baked French Toast and Fruit Salad--we all had fun. Good food and great conversation--that's what makes a great party in my book (especially the food, although I think a real party person would reverse that order).

This is us (well, minus me, since I was taking the picture):

I suppose that it wasn't technically a party in DNortonLand, since they're all Kenneth's friends, but we'll count it, because I said so. 

BTW: T-Day in London 2010 is happening. BOOM!

Bella: Puppy Extraordinaire

I love being home, mostly because I love sleeping, and I can sleep a lot when I'm home. Except for when my parents are dog-sitting the neighbors 4-month old puppy, and she comes into my room at 7:40 in the morning and sticks her wet snout on my neck. She's a very cute dog, but seriously, she needs to learn some boundaries.

She really likes the stairs. It's like she's guarding a mountain fortress or something. She'll just sit there, with two legs hanging down.

Sometimes with a bone, just chillin' out, waiting for someone to try to pass her so that she can try to lick their face.

Or ruin their picture. She likes to move around a lot. Oh, Puppy!

Back in Action!

Spanish camp is over and I can speak English again!

Sorry for the Zorro obsession last week. Actually, I'm not sorry at all because Zorro is awesome! I was giving a presentation in a class over him and it was just so much fun that I had to share. He's my favorite superhero, mostly because he actually seems real. His skills, though honed from hours of practice, are those that someone might actually have had and developed, you know, back in the mythical California that exists in the Zorro legend. If you're looking for a connection between DNortonLand and superheroes: Zorro can exist in DNortonLand, but Batman, Superman and Spiderman are too fantastical even for that.

Flying back from VT, I stopped in Chicago to pick up my passport and visa at the Spanish consulate, so I won't be an illegal immigrant to Spain. YAY!

After the Consulate, I had some time to kill in downtown Chi-Town before I headed back to O'Hare and back to Wichita, so I decided to make my brother jealous and hit up his favorite restaurant in Chicago: Cereality.

Unfortunately for my evil little sister self, the restaurant actually looked like this:

That's right. Operation Make-Kenneth-Extremely-Jealous failed miserably because the restaurant was closed for renovations. BOOOO!

Zorro (IV)

The TV Show!

Zorro (III)/Telenovela

Christian Meier as Don Diego de la Vega

http://www.zorro.com/news-znov.html

2008--Telemundo--Telenovela--Beyonce Theme--Priceless! 

Now if it would only come out on DVD.

Zorro (II)

Mock biography of my favorite hero!

Zorro (I)

¿Mejor película del mundo? No sé. ¿Mejor personaje del mundo? ¡Definitivamente sí!

Telenovela

¡Ridículo! ¡pero ridículo!

Los jueces/The Judges