Xmas in Cali!!

Christmas was GREAT; I didn’t hate it or got depressed!!!I arrived to Paola’s on the 22nd. On the 23, I did my last shopping and we went out for dinner with Paola’s boyfriend and her mom to and really cool restaurant.



The 24th was all FUN!! Paola and I went to Laguna Beach, which I loved. We had lunch at in and out and then we went back home to start cooking the most delicious AJIACO (typical Colombian soup) and we had a great dinner!!


We opened presents kinda early cause we were tipsy and tired. Anyway Paola and I had screw up Xmas the day I arrived, cause we couldn’t wait and gave each other our presents.



This year I got a lot of nice things and basically stuff that I really wanted.My mom gave me a very nice portable DVD player, which I was dying to have, Paola gave me a blue purse that I couldn’t find in Chicago, Chris gave me a RED I-Pod which I really wanted and a webcam so that I could communicate better with my mom thanks to her new computer. Baby Pooh got me a snow globe, which was one of the best present, cause I’ve been wanting that for YEARS and for some unknown reason I never got a real one with music and everything… I also got a scarf, movies, a sushi set, a coffee press, portable speakers for the I-Pod and money which I didn’t used to appreciate much as a present but if people don’t know U much, instead of giving U useless stuff its better to get this (very American) gift cards. Today we just chilled out and went for an AWESOME BBQE at Bill’s place. Everything has been great, now I’m just waiting for Chris to get here tomorrow and start our adventure on Route 66!!!

My first Football game!!!

Yesterday was a GREAT day. I really wanted to go to a football game before the end of the season, but I thought that it ended with the Super Bowl on the 4^th of February, so
I had some time left. Well, it does end on the 4^th of February, but I found out that the normal games in Chicago were almost over and then come the playoffs and then the final. So, yesterday was pretty much my last opportunity to go to a game this year. Since it was the second to the last home game and that the Bears are having an amazing season, the game was completely sold out. Chris and I decided to go to soldier field (Chicago’s football stadium) to scalp the tickets. The first scalper asked for $300 a piece, which obviously we weren’t willing to pay. However there actually wasn’t many guys scalping tickets so we didn’t have many options. I decided to try and ask one of the people at the entrance if there was any chance to get in without a ticket, to which he respond NO. After asking some other people, I finally talked to the security supervisor. I told him that I wasn’t American and that I was going back home the next day and that one of the things that I wanted to do the most in my short visit to the U.S was to go to a football game. I tried to buy the tickets but the game was sold out and that all I really wanted was to take some pictures of the field and get out. He looked at me and asked if I was serious and I said YES, and he said; “I’ll do that for you” so we waited for his replacement and he personally took us in, to the first level of the stadium and told us that we could stay until the end of the game. We couldn’t be closer to the field and I couldn’t be happier!! It was a great experience and it was a great game. Even though I don’t understand that sport completely yet, I definitely liked and appreciated it way more than the boring baseball.

The Chicago Bears

The game is seriously aggressive, but fun!!

The hotdogs come in paper bags…

This is how big the stadium is and how close we were to the field!!

WICKED

Last night, as the second part of his VERY BELATED birthday celebration, Chris invited me to see Wicked and we had a great time. The play was awesome I really liked it. The theater was very nice as well. It was at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre and afterwards we walked around and saw MORE Xmas lights and the Macy's Holiday windows, which this year tell the story of Mary Poppins. it was a COOL NIGHT!!!

Xmassy Weekend!!!

This past weekend was great and very Christmassy.






On Friday, Chris and I took the Xmas CTA, which is one of the normal “L” trains, completely decorated with LOTS of lights, elf’s giving candy canes in the wagons and a real Santa in between the trains. Afterwards we went to Grand Park to see the Christmas carolers singing Latin songs. Then we saw the lights on Michigan Avenue. It was very nice, but very cold.


On Saturday, we saw 2 great plays; Rudolf the red nose reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Both of them were awesome!!


We also bought and decorated Chris’s Xmas tree. That was FUN too and the first present under his tree is for me!!! J


On Sunday, we saw the “real” Charlie Brown movie, which is great and made me appreciate even more the play of the night before. At night we got together with Alex, Leila and Stephan at Navy Pier and saw all the lights and Christmas activities. We ended the day drinking Glühwein at the Christkindlmarket's, which is a German Christmas market.








The weekend was really nice and I enjoyed it a lot!!

The First BIG Snow