A Mixture of Light and Shadow!!!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Venetian night


Saturday was a FULL day, this weekend I’m home alone and in charge of the kids, an entire day with children, when the temperature is 98 degrees and after a morning in the zoo and the whole afternoon at the pool was a little bit to much for me. But that didn’t stop me from going to the Venetian nigh, in the lake downtown. I was feeling very bad, sick, sunburn and dehydrated, but even like that I cant regret going down there because I saw the most spectacular fire work display that I’ve ever seen.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Hectors exhibition.


Hector exhibit on Friday night was GREAT, I felt so happy for him. Proud even…his work is excellent, I could see that it was his, it relates to his personality a lot.
Afterwards we went o this very weird concert and ended the night at Kate’s terrace, laying in the hammock on top of a building, looking at the skyline!! That place is just awesome!!

Thursday, July 27, 2006

SHEDD AQUARIUM!!


Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, is without a doubt the coolest aquarium in the world, not only the fish are nice and interesting, but the location and the view from the place are jus AMAZING. From the dolphins show you see the lake and on the back a GREAT panoramic view of the city and almost all the big tanks (dolphins, sharks, whales) you can see them from the bottom as well.
Going there was a really cool experience!!




Monday, July 24, 2006

The more I see of Chicago, the more I like it



Chicago, as any other major city, has a big foreign population, but the difference with Berlin for example, is that here they are divided by neighborhoods, not only the big majorities, like the Mexicans, but all the rest too.
Yesterday, after having brunch at the
bleeding heart bakery, Camilo and I went to Devon St, which is the Indian area and right after it, the Russian – Georgian area starts as well. The place is awesome, not only the restaurants, but the stores and basically the people. They have all sort of grocery stores where we bought fresh coconut and drunk out of it (Camilo never had that before, so, it was kinda cool), jewelries, hair saloons, where you can get all the Indian kind of make up and tattoos, lots of clothes stores and a couple of bridals clothes stores, where we saw how to plan an Indian wedding, what to wear and the most beautiful wedding dresses for the nice amount of $12.000. Which is actually worth it and not very expensive, because everything is handmade. All the movie rentals where Indian and seriously, apart from the few people who knew that the groceries and specially the fruits up there are better, everyone was Indian.
After a long walk we cross from India to Russia, where icons and matruskas were everywhere. We got into a Georgian bakery, (which remind me of Anna and her Georgian love) and saw this very old Georgian guy, making with a lot of patience the Georgian version of the pelmeni. Going back home, we stopped at a
Humboldt park in the Puerto Rican neighborhood, where people just get together and start making music every Sunday, if you have can find the beet and know how to play an instrument, you just walk into the circle and follow the rest. The park is the second biggest park in Chicago, after Grand Park and has lakes and a lot of beautiful trees, so we ended the day picnicking there with all the food that we bought in the other 2 neighborhoods.
GREAT DAY!!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Julians Party!!


On Friday, Madalena’s very good friend, Julian, from Colombia. Had his birthday party at J Bar, it was great, we danced all night long and had a lot of fun!!!It was GREAT to meet people from my country!!!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Chicago Outdoor Film Festival



Yesterday was the beginning of the Chicago outdoor film festival, the movie was Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, I have to tell that I never saw a James Dean movie before, but I’m not very good with old movies. Anyway this was a completely different thing. The festival takes place in Grand Park, downtown Chicago. It was GREAT; everybody was picnicking and drinking wine. The movie was very good although very different from the kind of movies that I normally watch and like, it is a unique kind of humor that now I can understand and appreciate. While watching it, the fireworks at Navy Pier went on and that was AMAZING. Movie, park city lights, great company, good food, excellent wine and fireworks!!! What else could I ask for??

Monday, July 17, 2006

Another GREAT Weekend!!!


Another GREAT weekend!!!
On Friday I finally met Madalina, we had a very good time with her boyfriend and Leila at a bar



Saturday, KARAOKE and later on, Camilo really wanted to take us to an 83 year old ice-cream store, where the Beatles ate ice cream. The portions were HUGE.


On Sunday i went to the beach with Leila, it was very nice but I got sunburn. At night we played a card game called el Alcalde with Kate and Hector. Not even the heat screw up my weekend, but those were the hottest days ever!!!


Friday, July 14, 2006

Cheese Cake Factory!!!



My favorite restaurant in the U.S and here is leila's reaction...

Chicago from the Hancock





And me playing with photoshop!!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

The Nightmare :(

I had the most horrible nightmare ever!
I rented a car with a friend of mine to go on a road trip, once in the trip; we got into several arguments for no reason. When we where far away from home he decided that he didn’t want to continue the trip with me, I got crazy and even try to jump out of the car. He drove me to an airport in the middle of nowhere and bought me a ticket to go back home. I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to solve the problem like adults, but he didn’t want to, so he decided to call the police (not the nicest idea, because even though im legal in the U.S, as a Colombian it isn’t fun to have any trouble with the American police) and told them that I was hitting him and that that car was on his name and he wanted me out of there. I was very scared and very sad, apparently I fainted, so the fireman, and doctors came too, I was panicking, but he didn’t care, he just left me there in the middle of nowhere, with a plane a ticket that I throw away and a broken heart.

The reason why im writing about my nightmare, is because when I was little my grandma used to tell me that if I told my dreams to someone they wouldn’t become truth, which makes me think now, that I should tell everyone about this, so that something so horrible, will never happen to me.
It was SO real, that I’m even scared of the police now…The good part is that i know that friends are NOT like that; they would never let me down, even in the worst moments. It doesn’t matter how but it gets, friends are always there. So I guess I just have to be aware of not going anywhere far with someone who isn’t my friend!!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Liam's Birthday!!!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

In the city of Chicago we dance like this!!

Last Sunday I went out with Leila from France, her roommate Hector from Puerto Rico, his friend Camilo from Texas and Ray from Chicago. We had the most amazing day, we got along so well, that it seemed like we knew each other for ages. But the truth is, we all met less than a week ago!!!



First we went and watch the final of the world cup in an Italian restaurant (which wasn’t the best place to watch it with a French girl…) lol!!
The game was great, it was so cool to see the Olympic stadium in Berlin and Shakira singing there…
the whole thing was perfect.After celebrating the victory with the 100 Italians at the place, we went to the Folk festival, where we danced from Cajun music to calypso. It was SO much fun, afterwards we went to “play basketball” and ended up eating in a GREAT Mexican restaurant.WHAT AN AMAZING DAY!!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

My first 4th of July!!!


4th of July in Chicago was celebrated on the 3rd for some reason that I still don’t understand…Here I am at grand park watching the most amazing fireworks with my 2 new friends Shonda from St. Louis and Marady from Thailand. Both, GREAT people with an amazingly good energy. After the show we went for drinks and ended the night in a very good Indian restaurant eating RED chicken.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

South Carolina!!


These were my great “vacations” in Savannah, Georgia and Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. We were 11 people in total, staying at the same place and it was a very new and different experience that I really enjoyed a lot!! Very “family” orientated.
I got so tan, that I think since Majorca I didn’t have such a great color!!, We ate a lot of good food, new stuff for me, some things from the south and key lime pie in all its presentations including the most amazing ice-cream.
I also biked a lot. In the U.S people DON’T respect bikers, but, because this was an island, things were different and I could bike all around the place! Which remind me about Berlin and was GREAT!!