With Esme & the kids in Pilsen.

Taking the kids to different ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago is just awesome. Their reaction to people from other races and their food, the fact that they don’t understand their language and specially the questions that they ask when I take them out of their environment are just beautiful. Even though these are not my kids I feel lucky that I can show them a different part of life, which they are basically not in touch with. Hannah and Liam at this point know more about the world than the average American!! I feel happy for them.

Luke's Birthday

We went to Louie’s Pub for a karaoke night. It was a lot of fun, just like the old times with Christian in Berlin.

Another EXCELLENT trip!!!

Purpose of the trip: Help Kate move all her stuff to New Haven, CT. since she is going to Yale!!
Final destination: New York City


what was supposed to be a “normal” trip; Ended up being an amazing experience full of new places and diversity. “Everybody” was going to NY that week… Helen, Alex, Hector, Esme, Kate and I!! although due to the bad weather in Chicago the ones that were flying out almost couldn’t make it. at the end everyone got there a day later but safe!! Kate and I left Chicago driving in the middle of the worst and scariest storm that I’ve ever seeing in my life. The weather conditions were terrible all the way to Indiana and I couldn’t see a meter ahead of me while driving. We spent the night at Kate’s brother’s house in Ann Harbor, MI. It was great to meet another of her brothers, his wife and their beautiful daughter Sophia.

Since I have been obsessed by trailer parks and never got the opportunity to see one, we drove to Detroit and found the one were the movie 8 mile was made. We actually drove the 8 mile road to get there listening to Eminem. LOL. It was hilarious.


The place was way different from how I picture it and weird because as trashy as the houses were, the cars parked by them were “pimped out”…Well, I guess everyone has different priorities in life…



We had lunch at the Parthenon in Greektown, which Deirdre recommended to us and walked around downtown Detroit.

After a lot of driving we finally made it to New Haven. Kate’s place was nice and very close to campus.

The next day we drove to New York and met up with Bill and Zoë to see the exhibit the shapes of space at Guggenheim Museum.

Afterwards we had dinner at Jasmine; a very good Thai restaurant uptown Manhattan and later on we met Alex and her friend Donovan for drinks at 2A.

The next day Kate and I drove to Cape May in southern New Jersey, very picturesque town!.


The beach was beautiful and we didn’t have our bathing suits :(
It was SO HOT that we couldn’t help it and jumped in the water on our clothes, which “forced” us to sneak into a campground and take a shower as guests after lying to the person at the entrance about picking up someone in order to get in. It was hilarious!!

Later on we took the ferry to Delaware. That was VERY cool, I loved it!!

Atlantic City was our next destination. It was way different from what I imagined yet very interesting. A shocking interaction between a decadent society and nature.

After spending an entire night casino hopping, gambling, drinking, watching prostitutes walk by and surrounded by so much “dirt”; we walked down the boardwalk into the most amazing sunrise above the Atlantic. It was so beautiful!! And the feeling was so weird that it was confusing…

New Jersey and New York state have tons of the kind of tolls where you have to throw change into some sort of cone and where they imagine that you broke your piggy bank for the trip and came loaded with coins. Well, of course we ran out of change pretty soon and due to the necessity and willing to not do anything “illegal” like run the toll, we stared picking up all the coins that people with bad aim throw out of the cone and that’s how we got by half of the tolls. The people in the cars behind us weren’t very happy, but the strategy certainly worked out pretty good and it was cheaper too.

Back in New York we hanged out with Hector and Helen and after a great dinner we walked by the Hudson River, took some amazing pictures and had A LOT of fun!

On Monday after brunch with the "gang", Alex and I drove to Niagara Falls, which was impressive, beautiful. Also very different from how I saw it the first time when it was all covered by ice and snow in the wintertime. I actually liked it way better when everything was frozen and white. In the summer time the Falls are majestic. In the wintertime they are majestic and magical!!

Breathtaking panoramic view of Niagara falls

We continue our journey, stopped for dinner at Erie, PA, drove all night straight and got to Chicago at 6 am on time to go to work, more tired that we could handle, but on time…


Another awesome American road trip!!

I got an Illinois drivers license!!!

The “impossible” seems always possible for me!!! LOL!!!
Just kidding, but it does feel good to be able to get my way most of the times.
In order to get the license, I had to take a written and a driving test and I was kinda nervous because from country to country all the rules change a lot and even though I’ve been driving here for a while now, I wasn’t sure if I knew the theory. Well, luckily enough in the written one I got every single answer good and the person who drove with me actually congratulate me! That’s why I look SO HAPPY in the picture. Now I’m just hopping that I manage to get my way out of the police next time they pull me over for speeding… and they don’t take also my brand new American license.

Kate is leaving :(

The last days with Kate in Chicago were pretty cool!!

We watched Sweet smell of Success at the outdoor film festival in Grant Park, it was a pretty good movie, but that might have been the hotest night in the entire summer. So, afterwards we decided to play in the water in Millenium Park, which was not only a great idea, but TONS of fun. It’s always refreshing to see the little kid hiding inside of all of us!

Kate’s going away dinner party was fun as well!
At Helens house friends and good food!!

Esme, Kate, Luka (who got back from Europe), Laura and I went to a pretty cool party at an Art Gallery in Pilsen. They had live music all over the place. People were playing bongos everywhere. It was a lot of fun!!

We finally went for dinner to the House of Sushi and Noodles, by my photography school. I REALLY wanted to try their all you can eat sushi for $11.95. They offer different types of sushi that I never tried before, named after the states… pretty American huh?? Very taste and cool environment!!

Morton Arboretum

Nashville, The music city!!!

Nashville is even better than what I expected it to be and going there with Alex was a great idea! We left Thursday early in the morning. In our way there we stopped in Louisville, KY for lunch and got to Nashville right on time to start partying!! Every single bar in that city had a band playing and as much as I love live music that alone was enough to make it a great trip. The music was also really cool and in general the environment was awesome.


We bar hopped all night long, went to real fun bars like Tootsies (my favorite), with 2 different bands playing; one country and a rock one. And Robert’s western world where some guy taught me how to dance Honky Tonk, it was GREAT!!

On Friday we went to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery (the oldest in the country), which is in Lynchburg a very cute town about an hour south of Nashville.


The distillery is located in a dry County, meaning that even though they produce every single bottle of Jack that U might buy anywhere in the world, its illegal for them to buy alcohol in their own town. I thought that was hilarious!!


Coming back from Lynchburg we stopped to see the Parthenon; very impressive. And ended our day at the Blue Bird Cafe. A very especial and small “auditorium/bar”. Where they have more selected bands playing and the crowd doesn’t dance but remains silent and sitting listening to the music. We got there and that night’s concert was sold out since Monday. Some people that we met while waiting in line told us that the performer was Jeffrey Steele, the biggest songwriter in Nashville and who was VERY good.


With that information I couldn’t wait to see him, but they closed the door in front of us… I told the doorman (Charlie) that we drove from Chicago for the concert and we couldn’t go back without seeing him. Finally he agreed on letting us in, using the back door because the other people in line couldn’t see that we were going in and they weren’t. It was a funny process but totally worth it because the concert couldn’t have been better, the guy was absolutely awesome, he played for 4 hours straight. At the end we stayed until they closed the bar with the people working there who gave us tips of stuff to do the next day and where to get good coffee in town. I also got to throw some fire works.

On Saturday we went for breakfast at Dido, (Charlie’s excellent recommendation) in the Hillsboro Village, great area and a very unique shopping district. In the afternoon we visited the country Music Hall of Fame, pretty cool museum. I learned a lot, like that my favorite Johnny Cash song, The Gambler, was actually written by one of my mom’s favorite singers, Kenny Rogers. We also saw Elvis Presley’s gold-leaf covered Cadillac,, Bob Dylan’s autographed lyric sheets and a lot of other artists that I didn’t even know about.

At night we went to another great bar, the Full Moon Saloon where we saw the Travis Mann Band. Great performers! On Sunday we went to the farmers market and shopping for cowgirl boots for Alex and had a safe and easy trip back home.I really liked Nashville. Another city that confirms that I like the south better…