Clausen's Daily Eclipse

NY

2009-02-24T12:50:00.000-06:00

Chicago Autoshow 2009

2009-02-16T16:56:00.001-06:00

Vanesa's Birthday!!

2008-04-16T14:45:00.000-05:00

My awesome Birthday @ "ñ"!!!!!

2008-04-07T23:28:00.018-05:00

The Party was @ "ñ" and it was GREAT!!! There was a Brazilian band playing samba, and all my friends celebrating with me. I got a lot of presents and beautiful flowers, but mainly A LOT of alcohol, which ended up in an unbelievable “borrachera”. At 12am the band played and sang happy birthday to me and Piero brought me chocolate cake. I really had a blast!!!

Mini Road trip to Indiana!!

2008-03-17T18:22:00.019-05:00

Felipe, Jesse and I drove to the University of Notre Dame in South bend, Indiana to visit Luisa. In our way there we stopped at the sand Dunes, which for some weird reason I hadn’t seen before… We could see downtown Chicago from across lake Michigan and the sand of the dunes was still slightly covered by snow.

We also got to see a pretty impressive sunset!! It was really cool

Once in South Bend we got together with Luisa who took us to a great restaurant called Yesterdays, in Granger, where the desserts are just awesome

Later on she gave us a tour in Notre Dame University, which has a big and nice campus and the coolest part is the Grotto!! Here are some pics.

Drinks @ the Signature Room

2008-03-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

Esme's opening night!!

2008-03-08T21:42:00.005-06:00

@ Picante!!!

2008-03-02T23:23:00.001-06:00

@ 720 with Esme and Gustavo

2008-02-22T00:16:00.000-06:00

Shedd Aquarium

2008-02-18T00:01:00.002-06:00

Trip to La Porte

2008-02-10T00:07:00.004-06:00

Probably the coldest day that I’ve experienced in my life…

Canada

2008-02-08T11:27:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving in Mexico and Texas!!

2007-11-27T13:41:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving this year was Mexican style. Esme invited me to spend the holiday with her Family in San Antonio and Mexico. It was a great experience! I also got to meet her friends and went partying in Austin with them. On thanksgiving day and night I ate more than in the past month all together. We went to the houses of all of Esme’s relatives and each one of them gave us more and more food… I don’t even wanna think how many pounds I gained in that trip, but it was SO WORTH IT!!! That I would happily do it again… On my last day in San Antonio they took me to visit the missions; all of them really pretty! I had such a great time. Thanks Esme and family for sharing a great experience with me.

Partying in San Antonio... Howl @ the moon, Hardbodies strip club (hilarious) and the River Walk

One for all, all for one?? yeah... sure!!

Mexico!!

Ilearned how to make tortillas!! Yummy!

the kids and the cat...

Walter's military clock, so cool!

Partying in Austin and fire in the highway!!

Trip to Yellowstone part 2

2007-11-20T13:07:00.000-06:00

The next morning I stared the day with a delicious and powerful “ranch breakfast” which was more like breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one…

In my way to the Grand Teton National Park I drove about 70% of the length of Wyoming, which I found to be one of the most beautiful states that I’ve seen. In the first part of the drive everything was so flat and infinite that contemplating that landscape I sensed a similar feeling from the one you get when looking at the greatness of the ocean, like if it never ended. It was so beautiful… almost no cars in the rode and suddenly a whole bunch of wild horses make the scenery even better!

After a while driving I finally could see the white peaks of the mountains far away and while getting closer to the rockys the landscape was slowly changing and once in the park instead of horses I stared seeing Elk and Dear everywhere.

The Tetons are absolutely magestic and I got lucky with an amazing sunset as well. The only downside to this story is that while taking a picture with my tripod (which is a little unstable since missing a part of a leg) the strong wind blow it away and my camera broke L. Luckily I was only a few miles from Jackson Hole, a “big” city in the area where I got myself a new camera and also spent the night.

Since the southern entrance to Yellowstone was closed for the season, the next morning I had to cross the mountains into Idaho and bordered the park into Montana. The drive was the most scenic one of the whole trip, amazing mountains and forests covered with snow, totally worth it!

The next morning I followed all the instructions from the people of the night before; had a “mountain breakfast” and after entering the park went straight to this apparently very well kept local spot in the river call the Boiling River. It doesn’t even appear in the parks map and you need a bit of a hike to get to it. It’s a hot spring right in the Yellowstone River, which becomes a perfect natural hot tub when its 100-degree water meets the very cold one coming down in the river.

Of course I didn’t bring a bathing suit to this trip, but since no one was around underwear was the way to go and enjoy the wonderful and relaxing bath while watching the snowfall.

Later on some Local hunters joined me and shared their whiskey and cigars. It was beyond perfect!!

I also visited mammoth hot springs; which is literally indescribable with words so here are some good shots. Also the headquarters and some other points of interest.

After a late lunch in the town of Yellowstone I stared heading back to Livingston hoping to make it all the way to Bozeman, a college town where I was planning to spend the night. But my plans changed when I got trapped in the worst blizzard I’ve ever seen in my life and got of the road twice. With visibility "0" and very scared it took me about 2 and a half Hours to drive the 6o miles back to Livingston and get to the bar of the night before where the news made clear that I was gonna be stock there at least until the next morning.

But the real problem stared when I found out that I wasn’t the only person stock in that town; a lot of truckers and drivers in general had to stop there due to the weather and all the hotels were sold out. I was terrified since I knew that with that temperature even with my sleeping bag I would freeze sleeping in the car. Luckily “again” all the people from the night before offered me their houses and I ended up sleeping in a cozy house, warm and in good company.

The next day, I drove down to Utah along a portion of the Oregon Trail under very bad weather conditions. The roads were very icy and the problem was that I wasn’t driving a four wheel drive but instead a small Chevrolet cobalt with a great fuel economy but not design for going up and down the mountains during the winter. Still the scenery made the danger absolutely worth it.

Down the road, I discovered my now favorite town in Montana called Ennis and once in Idaho, in my visit to St Anthony, a new adventure stared when getting the car stock in the most breath taking and snow covered sand dunes, from where I got out once again thanks to the help of wonderful people who pull my car out of the sand.

BTW, that car that I rented worth nothing by the time I finally returned it, the next morning at the Salt Lake City airport, where I caught my plane to San Antonio, TX to join Esme and her family in the Thanksgiving celebration!!
Last night in Salt Lake, beautiful, clean and very organized city!!

Trip to Yellowstone part 1

2007-11-17T14:19:00.000-06:00

I know that every time I come back from a trip I say that it was the best of all. I shouldn’t say that anymore, cause at this point I already discovered that every trip will always be the very best one! Even the ones where I get in trouble or in dangerous situations, the trips always turn out to be just awesome!! So I’ll just say that this was another AMAZING trip.
I flew into Salt Lake city, Utah without a plan, hotel reservation or a clear idea of where exactly was I going first, but sure that I was gonna love everything around there. I only had a car rental reservation, a rode atlas of the U.S and a sleeping bag. Once in Salt Lake I decided to drive south to Arches National Park.

I got to Moab on time for dinner and went to a bar to get some “bar food” after eating I ordered a scotch and what was my surprise when the bartender, instead of bringing it ride away, asked a guy in the bar if he would sponsor me!! to which of coursed I replied: I don’t need any sponsor!! And he said:” here you do! In the state of Utah we don’t sell liquor, this is a club and you need to be a member or be sponsored by a member in order to get a drink." I couldn’t believe it! But finally I got my drink and a couple of sponsors who ended up being very nice people! After all this “new experience” I drove to the desert where I slept in my sleeping bag, outside the car under the most amazing stary sky. It was so beautiful, that I have no words to describe it. and the picture is not the best… although when maximize it you’ll be able to see the stars!

The sunrise woke me up next morning and the colors were just amazing.

I drove to the closest bathroom in the park and found this in the door…

... after spending the night outdoors and with no protection whatsoever!!! LOL!!!

I spent hours exploring the park; hiking and seeing the most amazing rock formations due to the erosion of the sedimentary rock. Arches, suspended rocks and unbelievable boulders. All of these were topics which I learnt about in my physical science class this semester, so it was really interesting to actually understand why the rocks and landscape in general looked like that!!

I went back to Moab for breakfast and later on to Canyonlands National Park where the landscape kept on getting better and better. In the late afternoon I drove to Colorado and finally saw the river in the state that has its name and some amazing mountains.

Next morning I stared driving north towards Wyoming and by night (after stopping every 5 minutes to take a picture) made it to Green River; where at the Wild Horse Saloon I found out how the cowboys have fun!! It was great; life music, a lot of dancing, booze, boots and hats!!

Physical science class!!

2007-11-15T15:02:00.000-06:00

It doesn’t get any better that this. Great teacher, interesting topics and some awesome people!!!

All of US in NY!!!

2007-11-06T15:19:00.000-06:00

We all met there, it was great!!
Camilo came back from Europe after traveling there for a while, Kate from New Heaven, Esme and I flew from Chicago, Alex came from Berlin and Hector was there waiting for us!!
It was like the old times, just like the summer of 2006 in Chicago.

We went to Puerto Rican restaurant, to welcome Camilo back!!

afterwards we went salsa dancing with Victor, Julian (Hectors brother) and some of his friends.

The girls went shopping on 5th, which is always fun… plus we got to see the stunning fireworks at Central Park.

@ hectors studio, who’s last piece involves an awesome starry night!

Some quality time with the guys…

Alex and I walking down Broadway.

We finally went to Alex’s famous “tinny”(really tinny) Italian restaurant, walked around…

Lunch at Chelsea market!

Since Alex was in NY for work as well, I also got to hung out with her work crew at a “business” party!!

Lots of fun!!

My Halloween!!

2007-10-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

Halloween was AWESOME as always!!
This year I met up with Rob and his caveman crew at Hang Up, then we went to Zebra Lounge at Rush, then Howl at the moon and we ended it at Rockit.
It was a GREAT night!!

Halloween with the kids!!

2007-10-30T10:03:00.000-05:00

At Home

@ Liam's school

@ Hannah's school

@ the country club

In the neighborhood

Halloween Show Downtown

2007-10-22T09:50:00.000-05:00

A D's Birthday!!

2007-10-20T20:29:00.000-05:00

A D, who likes Halloween as much as I do, decided to celebrate his birthday with a full “halloweene” day.
First brunch @ Deleece which was delicious. Afterwards we went pumpkin shopping and later on carving.

My first carving pumpkin experience was AWESOME, SO MUCH FUN!! A little bit disgusting and not as easy as I thought but really, really cool.

Our pretty pumpkins
mine is the bat!!!

Chris' pumpkin...

At night we went to the Statesville Haunted Prison, which is about an hour south of Chicago. Literally in the middle of nowhere.
The place was crazy, Scary, creepy, interesting and very cool.

We ended the night eating A D’s favorite pizza and a yummy German chocolate cake that his roommate baked specially for him!!
It was a really cool day!!

@ school!!

2007-10-16T20:23:00.000-05:00

Trip to Indiana with Esme!!

2007-10-15T20:09:00.000-05:00

Esme and I took the train to Indianapolis to visit Felipe and Lalo on friday.
I was very excited to take the train since it was my first time in the U.S. But the trains here are nothing like in Europe, they are very slow and not as cool.
Indianapolis on the other hand, turned out to be a pretty city, which I wasn’t expecting…

In this trip I understood why do I always get speeding tickets in Indiana. Well, if any other state has 1 police officer for every 1000 people, Indiana has 1 per 500 hundred people. Which of course doubles the probabilities of getting caught while doing something illegal.
I also found out that people are aware of it, which is why most of them have a radar in their cars. Amazing little device that let you know when there is a police officer, car or laser close by. I am certainly getting one of those!!The next day we went to Bloomington and party Big Time.
It was very cool!

On Sunday night Nicolas gave us a ride back home.
It was a very cool weekend and my first good impression of Indiana!!

Alex's LAST night in town :(

2007-10-03T15:52:00.000-05:00

We went to Dany's!
Shit!! We were SO SAD... not fun :(
The good thing is we would see each other in NY in a month :)

Alex is leaving soon :(

2007-10-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

Colombian Dinner!! YUMMY!!

2007-09-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

Alex and I went to Las Tablas for a Colombian night!!I really wanted her to try Colombian food before leaving Chicago. Based on past experiences, I think that Colombian food out of Colombia never taste nearly as good. Either because they don’t have the correct ingredients or because the cook isn’t Colombian. But in this case and to my surprise the food was excellent. And alex got to try: churrasco, chimichurri, papa choreada, yuca frita, aji,platano maduro y arepa. It was GREAT!!

Dinner @ Le Bouchon

2007-09-25T15:13:00.000-05:00

Great restaurant!!

After a good party night; a good sunday downtown!!

2007-09-24T14:43:00.000-05:00

Night @ Jilly's and Level!!

2007-09-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

Alex and I went to Jilly’s a pretty cool piano bar on Rush, later on Esme, Felipe and Lalo met us and we went to Level where we drank A LOT!
It was a great night!!

Howl At the Moon

2007-09-21T19:43:00.000-05:00

The most AMAZING Dueling Piano show ever!!
I loved the place, totally recomend it!!!

Chicago Cultural Center

2007-09-18T19:33:00.000-05:00

Chris's Birthday!!

2007-09-16T20:16:00.000-05:00

Boogaloo night at Sonotheque!!

2007-09-15T17:26:00.000-05:00

Ozomatli's Concert!!!

2007-09-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

AWESOME!!!
check their link:
OZOMATLI

Back in Berlin...

2007-09-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

Alex and I met for the first time exactly a year ago. We went to Berlin, but I was totally wasted and don’t remember a thing…
the pictures don’t lie…

Here we are a year later at the same place!!
This time I actually know how the place looks like…

Peruvian dinner & German fest!!

2007-09-09T14:15:00.000-05:00

The Riverfront!!

2007-09-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

After the kayaking night, I really wanted to checkout the bars that I saw from the water by the riverfront. Alex was up for it!!
Here in Flatwater, which isn’t my kind of joint although the view is pretty nice…

And here at the lounge in Japonais, which was absolutely cool and I totally recommend it!!!

The kids explore Chicago!!

2007-09-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hannah's first visit to the Hancock!!

Kayaking in the Chicago river at night!!!

2007-09-02T13:47:00.000-05:00

On labor day night, Rob, me and about 30 more people went kayaking in the river, all the way from North avenue to Navy Pier in lake Michigan. It was AWESOME!!
The best night that I’ve had in Chicago and the prettiest view of downtown.
Once we got to the lake we stopped to watch the beautiful fireworks display celebrating Labor Day. We were talking about doing this for a while, but due to my trips we kept on postponing it. The wait was totally worth it. Navy Pier has a firework show every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer, but we got to see the special one for Labor Day on a Sunday. It was really beautiful and a lot of fun. If I’m still in Chicago next summer I will certainly join the kayaking team, since I met some of the members and they invited me. That’ll be a lot of fun and GOOD exercise too!!!

With Esme & the kids in Pilsen.

2007-08-31T12:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2007-08-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2007-08-21T17:17:00.000-05:00

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 :(

2007-08-21T03:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-17T19:36:00.000-05:00

Nashville, The music city!!!

2007-08-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

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…

medieval times with the kids!!

2007-08-08T00:41:00.000-05:00

Kate's Birthday & soccer game

2007-08-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!!!

The Chicago Fire...

Now I understand why Americans play American football and the rest of the world plays soccer... Americans SUCK at soccer!! It was a lot of fun though and that was what Kate wanted; the birthday girl ruled.

At Sonotheque...

2007-07-23T00:32:00.000-05:00

YUP!
it was FUN!

Esme's Birthday!!!

2007-07-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

New York, New York!!

2007-07-17T15:36:00.000-05:00

New York was AWESOME!!
Kate, Esme, Hector and I went on a road trip to help Hector move all his stuff to NYC. It was great!!

I’ve been to NY many times, but in a way always as tourist. This time, even though I don’t live there yet, the experience was different. It was from a very local point of view and I loved it. NY is a wonderful city, a real melting pot. So European and so American at the same time… just to walk down the street and be able to listen to so many languages makes me happy. To be aloud to get hungry at 11:30 pm and find good food in a good place makes me happy. Being a night owl in a city that never sleeps is a good match…
we did tons of stuff and had lots of fun;

midnight cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (from sex & the city),

café tacuba concert in central park,

brunch at Pastis, which I Totally recommend.

Went up to the rooftop of the amazing Gansevoort hotel to get a great view of Manhattan and NJ. While some enjoyed the awesome glass surrounded swimming pool with underwater music.

Hector lives across the street from a bar that I liked a lot called the spotted pig in West Village where I got to smoke INSIDE a bar in the city of NY! We went to a street market in Tribeca and enjoyed the perfect weather.

I even had some time to go shopping, which for me is a must in that city. We walked across Brookling bridge,

went to china town which smell will always suck and I would never stand…
went partying,

Met Kate’s brother and wife (great people) who took us for dinner to a very nice place that I forgot the name.
Coming back was another adventure; just the girls headed back to Chicago with a huge time constrain, since we left 6 hours behind schedule and Esme was suppose to make it to work at 8 am on Monday morning. We had to drive all night long with the fewest stops possible. At around 9 pm, already in Pennsylvania, we stop at Wendy’s for a quick dinner. What a bad surprise when 2:1/2 hours later at a gas station I found out that my purse was missing!! I left it at Wendy’s and we had to add 5 more hours to our already tight schedule. We figured that the only way to make it was speeding all the time and even though I certainly shouldn’t get in more speeding trouble in the U.S, so we did!!! Everything went fine until we got to Indiana (where I literally will get arrested if they catch me speeding again) Esme got her first speeding ticket. That sucked, but the good news is that we made it to Chicago pretty much on time, she didn’t get fired and I got my purse back!!
What an awesome trip!!

Danny's

2007-07-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

The south is GREAT!!

2007-07-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

I went to Hilton Head, SC at the end of June. The weather was awesome and all the people I met were really cool.

I spent 4th of July in Savannah, GA, which is a very beautiful town. I saw the fireworks and walked a lot.
The people were amazingly nice and helpful. Some days later I drove to Charleston, which was even prettier. This town definitely made it to my top 5 in the U.S.

I went to a great bar called A.C’s Bar & Grill and there I met a whole bunch of people that were really cool. I had a very good time.

I continued my trip to North Carolina and went to Sunset Beach, a very small and nice town filled with nice people.
I met some people who were fishing and let me fish with them. I caught a baby shark and I couldn’t have been more exited. We put him back in the water though, but it felt good to fish one of the animals that I’m the most scared of.

In this trip more than any other I discovered how true it is that if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you and vice versa. I met so many great persons and learned so much from all of them… that is an invaluable gift from life. That’s is exactly what makes each of my trips so wonderful and unique. It wouldn’t be the same if I just saw nice places, but didn’t get to know the people in them. Apart from that; In my opinion; the people from the south are by far the nicest in this country. Not only are they nicer, but also much more gentle, well behave and cultivated. This is again just a generalization; maybe I’ve just been lucky and met the right people… in any case I will go back to all those towns sometime.

I had nothing but great experiences. Hopefully next time I actually make it to Atlanta, which was in this itinerary, but I kept on extending my stay in all the other cities, again due to the people, which certainly I don’t regret!!!

Mariachi night and Angel's opening!!

2007-06-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

Strawberry fest

2007-06-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

Rob and I went on a bike ride to Long Grove; where they were celebrating the 25th Strawberry fest. It was really cool and I like the town a lot. It was like a fairytale type of town, with tiny coffee shops and pretty restaurants. We had a great time and ate all sorts of berries. Specially strawberries, of course!!!

down and UP

2007-06-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

One day I told someone that I was SO SAD that I knew I couldn’t be sadder… the person respond: “you can always get sadder” and it was true, It could always get worst…
On Thursday I learned that it doesn’t matter how sad or down we are, there is always a way to bring us up and make us go even higher from where we were to begin with..
It was wise to tell me that there was always something worst… but it was wiser to show me that there is always something better!!

At the Pub with Esme, James and Erik!
”shit happens, but good things too”

Sonia’s graduation party at a Colombian restaurant with vallenato band!!! AWESOME!!!

Manu Chao concert!!!

At “ñ”

Portland, OR

2007-06-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

Portland was great!I met up with Paola and we had a very good time. The first night while having a drink at a pub, we were surprised and entertained by about 300 “naked bikers” it was absolutely hilarious. The temperature was good, although a little chilly for a midnight naked bike ride.

We visited the Classical Chinese garden, which was very beautiful and peaceful. Also the Rose Garden, which was amazingly gorgeous. Without a doubt the best that I’ve ever seen. Not even in the palaces in Europe did I see anything as pretty!!

Even though our schedule was kinda tight, we had enough time to go shopping.We spent our last night at the Portland City Grill, having the best views of the entire city at sunset.

Friends weekend

2007-06-05T11:22:00.000-05:00

The past weekend was fun, Barbecuing, Lincoln Zoo, friends, Smoke Daddy, good music, la creperie, memories, breakdown :( and the absolute highlight: horse races

I went to Arlington Park on Saturday and it was fantastic. Michael, horseracing aficionado, made sure that I understood all the rules and strategies for betting. I was ready to win and I did!! but the Ingrid way,,, I bet based on the name of the horse, number or the color of the jockey’s outfit. I had a lot of fun. I experienced short and strong shots of adrenaline. GREAT!! In between the 10 races a wonderful rolling stones tribute band entertained us.

A summer of sequels!

2007-05-31T14:17:00.000-05:00

Even though I’m not a big sequels fan, I gotta say that both; Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean, At world’s End were great. Actually, I can’t wait to watch Spiderman 3, and Ocean's Thirteen, cause apparently Hollywood still sucks at second parts, but is getting a lot better at third ones.For the ones who haven’t seen pirates yet, don’t forget to wait until the end of the credits to see the real end of the movie, which happens 10 years latter.

I loved the movie regardless. Although I found the wedding scene between Elizabeth and William a little “cheesy”, but definitely Keith Richards being in the movie, made up for everything that I might have not like as much. (Which wasn’t a lot!)

Memorial day weekend

2007-05-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

BBQ by the lake on sunday

At Angel's "Gallery" Place!! Loved it!!!

Puerto Rican concert at elastic.

Cadillac Ranch

2007-05-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

Esme and I went to Cadillac Ranch and it was a lot of fun. There were so many people line dancing, it was very cool. the dances were a bit more complicated than I thought, cause there are many steps and a lot of different dances. The environment was very nice as well; people wearing boots and huts…We met a guy who told us the couple dances, but we still need to learn the single ones. By the end of the night we were dancing as if we’ve done it forever. It was a lot of fun, especially to be able to dance Johnny Cash (who I love) songs. :)

The worlds largest...

2007-05-21T21:30:00.000-05:00

I find very funny that Americans (very competitive people in general) LOVE making the worlds largest… something, whatever. The important thing is that is the biggest. In Texas I saw the biggest cross, although everything is big in Texas, in Chicago the tallest building and here is the largest boot!!
I thought this was hilarious!!

My Blog's second BIRTHDAY!

2007-05-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

And I still love it!!!
I really hope my life keeps being so much fun so that i still have stuff to tell :)
Thanks for sharing with me these two years of wonderful experiences :)

what a cool animal!!!

2007-05-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

Life is GOOD!!!

2007-05-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

These past two weeks have been great. A lot of fun stuff going on, friends, Art exhibits, “fishing”, parties and a very nice trip to Michigan.
Oh!! And I’m done with school and I did real good!!
I’ve been so happy lately… it feels great. It is always good to go back to the happy girl who enjoys life more than anything else and who doesn’t have enough time to do all the wonderful stuff everyday has to offer…
It feels good to be back!!!

Esme and I went to Holland, Michigan for the tulip fest and it was great. We saw a very nice parade, lots of tulips and the oldest windmill in the country. At night we went to Saugatuck, a pretty cool town on Lake Michigan and saw people line dancing in a “country” bar. I loved the place!!

Looptopia

It is the first time that an American city has an artistic and cultural dust to dawn showcasing. Just like the lange nacht der museen in Berlin or the cultural fairs in Rome or Madrid; on Friday night Chicago’s Loop became an open door cultural center. It was awesome. We saw some art exhibits, installations, life music, lights and we also made a tail for a communal mural and painted in another one. It was very cool.

Brazilian night at sonotheque;
what a great bar, I highly recomend it.

Luka's goodbye party!!

Dinner party at my House!!

ARTropolis Chicago at Merchandise Mart

It’s warming up!!!

Fishing in Lake Michigan!!

Hector's Birthday at "ñ"!!

ALASKA

2007-05-07T00:50:00.000-05:00

My trip to Alaska was absolutely AWESOME!!! It was without a doubt the best trip I’ve ever taken in my life.I flew into Anchorage, rented a car and spent a week just driving around, meeting GREAT people, visiting wonderful places and enjoying the amazing beauty of nature.I went to Denali National Park and saw Mt. McKinley, which is the highest mountain in North America and it’s totally impressive.

The weather was wonderful, on the high 60’s. Even though there was snow everywhere and everything was still frozen, the weather was warm. The days were already getting longer; the sun was rising around 6am and setting at around 10pm, which gave me A LOT of time to have daylight fun.

At night I saw the northern lights and a meteor shower, both of which were absolutely AWESOME!!! Alaska is a place where no matter where or what you look at, the view is completely stunning. The camera couldn’t even capture all that beauty.

I went to

Talkeetna, a very small town 130 miles north of Anchorage on the Parks Highway, which might be in my top five favorite places in the world.

There I met Seal, a really cool guy who lives in a house in the woods that looks like a gingerbread house. We climbed up to the top of the control tower at the airport, which obviously was illegal, and had some awesome views of the town and a clear starry night. We got along REAL good.

The next day I drove to

Seward, taking the Seward scenic highway, which was very beautiful. Seward is situated at the “door” of Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula. It is a fisherman town with mystic weather and great people. I stayed at a hostel owned by a couple from Switzerland, who like most of the people that I met, went to Alaska some years ago, loved it and never left…

At the hostel I met Kyle, Diane and Justin and together we visited a dog sled kennel, where Joe, the owner and musher showed us his 15 wonderful Huskies 3 of which made it on the Iditarod this year. It was great!!

I also took a wonderful cruise in the Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Fjords National Park where I saw all sorts of wonderful animals and wild life: Orcas and humpback whales, Bears, goats, sea lions, seals, otters and bald eagles. That was certainly one of the highlights of the whole trip.

The cruise lasted about 7 hours, but I could have stayed on that boat forever. I also met Jim and Sabrina, a very nice couple from Homer, a town about 2 hours northwest of Seward, who offered to let me stay in their house even though they weren’t there. I was able to get into their place and spend a night there because in Alaska no one locks their doors.

I am not sure if it is a law in Alaska to be a nice person in order to live there or if I was just the luckiest girl with all the wonderful people that I met. In any case, I saw their priorities were less materialistic make them more authentic, natural, laidback, adventurous and appreciative of natural wonders.
After all these great experiences on the peninsula, I drove back north to Talkeetna and spent the last days of my magical trip to Alaska there.

I ended up staying way longer than originally planed but I could have actually stayed there forever.I am definitively going back, hopefully sooner than later. click HERE to see more pics.

My Birthday celebration!!!

2007-04-17T00:28:00.000-05:00

We had SO much fun!! it was GREAT!!
thanks a lot to everyone and we have to repeat it!!

Whisky Fest Chicago!!

2007-04-13T14:18:00.000-05:00

It was fun to go to an event like this in the U.S. I’ve been to a couple of whisky tastings in Berlin and Bogotá, but those were different "more serious". This was more like a convention where 90% of the people there were men. Afterward I attended a Laphroaig tasting, which was a lot of fun and good flavor, directed by Simon Brooking Master Ambassador of Laphroaig. After trying many different options, the answer is still the same; Laphroaig 15 years old is the absolute best scotch “whiskey”!!

My Birthday trip to New England!!

2007-04-12T17:38:00.000-05:00

My trip didn’t start “very well”. 2 hours after leaving my house, around 4am, I got pulled over by a police officer in Indiana who gave me a speed ticket for $360. :( It was early and the highway was totally empty, I wasn’t trying to break the rules, but I certainly was going fast. I guess I still have the German idea of no speed limit in the highway, which clearly doesn’t apply here.
16 hours after the “incident”, we arrived to Chris’ parents house in Massachusetts.

On Saturday we went to Vermont, had lunch in Burlington (pretty cool college town), walked by lake Champlain and headed to Montpelier, the capital, where we saw the smallest capitol building in the U.S.

Sunday was a GREAT day!! In the morning we drove to New Hampshire and went to the Parker’s Maple Barn, where we saw the whole process of how to make maple syrup from tabbing the trees to boiling the sap and getting the correct amount of sugar in it in order to become good maple syrup.

We meet up with Chris’ parents for lunch. Cyan, his mom, made arrangements to take us to this wonderful restaurant called the Pickity Place. Which is in the house in which the drawings for the little red riding hood were based. Everything was about the story that I used to love when I was little and the food was totally organic, made with vegetables and herbs that they grow in their garden. I totally loved it!!

After lunch we made our way to Maine, we went to York Village, saw a gorgeous light tower

and spend the night in Freeport at a great bed and breakfast with a fireplace in our room, which I absolutely loved!!!

On my Birthday I woke up to a delicious breakfast; pancakes with Maine blueberries and Vermont’s maple syrup. Freeport is a small and beautiful town FULL of outlet malls, so the next activity of the day was to go shopping!! (Poor Ingrid)!!

Lunchtime was in Portland and lobster in the menu! American style of course, which means you eat it with your hands, the side are French fries with ketchup and the best part is that they give u plastic bib as u can see in the picture.

At night, back in Massachusetts, we got together with Chris’ parents for a nice dinner. It was a GREAT Birthday and I got lots of presents too!!

On Tuesday we went to Rhode Island. First Providence, where we saw the capitol building and walked around, it was nice although that city isn’t that “cool”.

Then we made our way to Newport did the cliff walk along the eastern shore and saw the Mansions. That was a really nice city!! In our way home we stopped in Hartford, Connecticut where they have the prettiest capitol building that I’ve seen in the U.S.

For the first time I actually wanted to see the building in the inside, but it was closed already so I had to tell the security guard a big story and he let us in. it was super cool because we were the only ones in the building. Finally we went to Albany, NY. It was a pretty cool trip; I got to see a lot of new and beautiful places!!!
Click HERE to see more pics!!!

one year in Chicago...

2007-03-19T21:25:00.000-05:00

We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves strong.
The amount of work is the same.
Carlos Castenada

The Florida Keys

2007-03-06T22:15:00.000-06:00

My trip to the keys was great. Even though I don’t really mind the cold weather of Chicago, it was fun to get away for a while and get a tan! I stayed at the Hawk’s Cay Resort, in Duck key, which was awesome. I also visit Marathon, Key Largo, Bahia Honda state park and Key West ,where I went to the southernmost point in the continental U.S, which is only 90 miles away from Cuba and Hemingway’s house.

I also had the opportunity to go to a key lime pie factory, which is my VERY FAVORITE dessert and ate it fresh. I really had a good time and the weather was over 80 degrees everyday.
Click HERE to see more pics.

Mardi Gras

2007-02-24T14:35:00.000-06:00

We left Chicago at 9 pm on Friday and drove south. 18 hours later we got there. After experiencing a horrible 5-hour blizzard, the worst weather I’ve ever seen. Along the way I saw over 80 cars in the ditch. Around 2am, during the thick of the storm I even lost control of the car, causing the car to spin around 4 times before ending up in the ditch too. Luckily no one else was on the road at the time and neither us, nor the car were damaged.

New Orleans was GREAT!! The whole experience was really good. Not only Mardi Gras and all the parades and parties but the opportunity to see it from the local perspective. Ian, our host, (Chris’ friend whom I met 2 years ago in Berlin when he spent New Years at my place), was outstanding. He welcomed us with fresh crawfish and shrimp and introduced us to all his friends and roommates; all GREAT people.

Even the dogs in the south are nicer…

We went to at least one parade everyday and unlike in Germany were they throw candy out of the floats, in New Orleans they throw beats and all sort of different objects; like stuffed animals, cups, footballs and baseballs, but mainly A LOT of beats. Ian made clear that the main point of Mardi Gras was to get as much stuff as possible and so we did.

I tried all sort of southern specialties; all of which were absolutely delicious. Jambalaya, red beans n’ rice, po-boys, gumbo, turtle soup, pecan pralines, crawfish, Cajun and Creole recipes. And LOTS of king cake, which is only for Mardi Gras and has a little baby inside and who ever gets it has to buy the next cake.

The city it self is awesome too. A great mixture, just the way I like it. Strongly influenced by the French, mixed together with touches of Spanish architecture and the flavor of the Caribbean all reflected on the Americans. The people couldn’t be nicer… everyone says hello and exchange smiles, which is one of the things that I miss a lot about my country. The coffee for a change was delicious, strong, just like at home.
It was a great experience. One more place of this country that I visit and fall in love with.
I could never thank Ian enough for such a good weekend and for being an excellent host.

HERE are more pics!!!

Valentines Day!!

2007-02-15T14:19:00.000-06:00

After a delicious dinner at Handlebar with Hector and Sebastian, we got together with Sonia, Kaily, Barb and Angel for drinks at Danny’s Tavern and my valentines day ended up being GREAT!!!

How evil are you?

2007-02-13T18:59:00.000-06:00

Please take the test and let me know how you did, cause I was kinda scared with my result...

You Are 78% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

How Evil Are You?

Games Night!!

2007-02-12T16:58:00.000-06:00

It is amazing how much I enjoy playing board games… on Saturday, Esmi, Kate, Sonia Hector and I spent a good 5 hours playing Texas hold’em at the beginning and then for most of the time a REALLY good game (new for me) called apples to apples. We had so much fun, it was a GREAT night!!

Miller Party!!

2007-02-09T16:17:00.000-06:00

Miller Party at the Green Dolphin, it was very cool. Life Music (which I love) and a lot of free beer …

Subterranean Monday's open mic!!!

2007-02-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

I totally recommend it, very good performers. The only bad thing was that someone broke their window last night… so, even though we were inside everyone was wearing jackets and scarf’s cause it was freezing inside the bar.
Subterranean is at:
2011 West North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
Wicker Park

Super Bowl!!

2007-02-04T22:47:00.000-06:00

The game stared up GREAT! But at the end the Bears didn’t win L. We had an awesome time anyway. It was fun for me to se the American passion for football, similar but definitely not as intense as ours for soccer.
After the game we went to the planetarium to take some pictures of the city supporting the Bears. The lake was totally frozen and the temperature was miserable, but the pics were worth freezing my fingers until I couldn’t feel them anymore and I had to run back to the car.
One more great American experience in Chicago!!!

VIEW FROM THE ADLER PLANETARIUM AFTER THE GAME

Cold, Freezing, Run!!!

GO BEARS!!

2007-02-04T14:49:00.000-06:00

Sonia's Birthday!!

2007-02-04T11:23:00.000-06:00

We went to Las Tablas and had a great time. After not eating Colombian food in a while, I stuffed my self with empanadas, arepas and patacones. God!, those things taste good!!
On the other hand, last night was the COLDEST night ever. Being outside was literally painful. The temperature was –21, Wind chills near 30 below and this is in Fahrenheit…, which is –34 in centigrade!! That is a ridiculous number… there is even a wind chill advisory.

” The National Weather Service in Chicago has issued a wind chill warning for tonight and early Monday morning... for portions of northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana generally along and north of a line from LaSalle... to Kankakee Illinois and Hebron Indiana.

With bitterly cold Arctic air in place across the region this
afternoon... temperatures will struggle to the zero to 5 above range before plummeting well below zero again tonight. Continued gusty northwest winds will combine with these frigid temperatures to produce dangerously cold wind chills... ranging from 25 below zero this afternoon... to as cold as 30 to 35 below zero across the warning area overnight and early Monday morning.

Though wind chill readings will rise above 30 below zero a few hours after sunrise Monday... bitterly cold weather conditions will continue with wind chills remaining colder than 20 below. A Wind Chill Advisory will therefore remain in effect from 9 am Monday through 9 am Tuesday morning.

A wind chill warning means the combination of very cold air and strong winds will create dangerously low wind chill values. This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia or death if precautions are not taken.

If you must venture outdoors... dress in layers and cover all
skin. Make sure you wear a hat and gloves. Limit outdoor activity to minimize exposure... as frostbite can occur in 30 minutes or less.
Check on elderly family members and neighbors. If you need
assistance in the city of Chicago... call 3 1 1.”

Chicago is Cold!

2007-02-03T00:10:00.000-06:00

Skiing in Wisconsin

2007-01-30T15:07:00.000-06:00

Pan's Labyrinth!!

2007-01-25T02:50:00.000-06:00

DANCING IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL!!!

2007-01-23T17:31:00.000-06:00

First Day Of School!!

2007-01-17T17:28:00.000-06:00

Route 66

2007-01-16T00:34:00.000-06:00

After an awesome Xmas in California, on December the 27th, Chris picked me up at Paola’s and we stared an AMAZING adventure. Coming back to Chicago driving on the Historic Route 66, which connects L.A with Chicago. We spent 10 days on the road, 2,448 miles (3,939 km). Discovering great places, crossing borders and waking up to a different landscape and weather everyday. From the Pacific Ocean to the Mojave Desert, crossing the southern Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains.

We stared in Santa Monica Pier and drove until Rialto, CA, where we spent our first night in a teepee at the Wigwam motel. That was pretty cool!

We ate our Grits on Route 66, then arrived to a “bottle forest” where we talked to the artist for a while!! At the end of the day, we made it to Needles, the last city in California before crossing the Colorado River into Arizona.

On the 29th we crossed into Arizona and went to the city of Lake Havasu to see the famous London Bridge, which was falling down in London in 1962. The British government put it on sale and Robert McCulloch bought it for $2,460,000. The bridge was dismantled, and each stone was carefully marked. Everything was shipped 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California, and then trucked to Lake Havasu City. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was finished.

Driving through the desert was great. I thought that the landscape couldn’t be better until we stared seeing snow!! In the desert!!! Those two things in my mind couldn’t be together… I loved it!!!
One of my dreams was to go to a ghost town, so we went to Oatman where we even saw a “cowboys show”. It was pretty cool, although kinda touristy. That night we arrived to Williams, which was covered on snow and very cold.

The 30th we made it to the Grand Canyon, which was on my top 5 places that I wanted to visit the most in the world. I couldn’t be happier and that place… no words at all to describe it. but here are some pictures that could help…

After that amazing experience we went to a Navajo reservation and ate delicious Native American food!! Later on we arrived to Flagstaff and ended the day in Holbrook.

We ended the year with some more amazing landscapes; we went to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. Both, absolutely awesome places.

Once in New Mexico we stared hitting bad weather, although luckily enough the storm was ahead of us and we only had to deal with the huge amount of snow on the roads. New Mexico isn’t used to get so much snow, so they don’t have the equipment to deal with it. The streets in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe (where we spent the night) were covered with snow and it was almost impossible to drive on them.

2007 and we are in one of the prettiest cities I’ve seen in the United States. Santa Fe, the oldest Capital City in the U.S. its unique architecture makes it a very special city. We had a very good breakfast at Café Pasqual’s.

Later on, in Santa Rosa, one of the highlights of my trip. The Blue hole, also known as the "Nature's Jewel," it’s a spring water deep (25m) natural hole where I swam when the temperature was below freezing but the water temperature was 60 Fahrenheit. What a GREAT experience. We also visit the grave of Billy the Kid. That night we made it to Texas and slept in Amarillo. We stayed and ate at the Big Texan, where if you can eat a 72oz (4 and a half pounds) steak, you get t for free!! The food was great although we didn’t even try to eat such a big chunk of meat, but we did see a guy who tried to eat it and failed so he had to pay $75 for it!

On the 2nd of January, we went to the Cadillac Ranch, drove to Oklahoma City and spent the night in Tulsa, where we went to “The Center of the Universe” where you hear an eerie reverberation when standing in the middle of the brick formation in the sidewalk. Which can only be heard by the person speaking. Weird and cool!!

The next day we drove through a small part of Kansas and into Missouri. In St Louis we saw the Arch and after crossing the Mississippi River we were back in Illinois. Stopped at Springfield to see the capitol and after a long and Awesome trip, on the morning of the 4th and after crossing 8 states, we made it back to Chicago. It certainly was one of the best and longest road trips I’ve made.
More pictures HERE

Xmas in Cali!!

2006-12-25T11:20:00.000-06:00

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!!!

2006-12-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-14T16:37:00.001-06:00

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!!!

2006-12-11T17:36:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-02T20:39:00.000-06:00

My first Thanksgiving!!

2006-11-28T14:12:00.000-06:00

On the morning of the 22 we were supposed to fly into Richmond, VA, but when we got to the airport, we found out that there was a mistake when purchasing the tickets and we basically didn’t have any. After doing some research, Mike and Deirdre decided that we were gonna fly into D.C and drive from there 97 miles to Richmond. Sounds like an easy and good plan!! But nobody knew that highway 95 (which is the way to get from D.C to Richmond) was also the only highway connecting the east coast, so the traffic was terrible. That, plus the fact that it was the day before Thanksgiving made us spend 5 hours driving only 20 of the 97 miles that we were supposed to.
Getting there was miserable; we stayed in a hotel and Liam almost drowned in the swimming pool, I jump in on my clothes to get him, but I had my cell phone in my pocket and it died. We finally got to Richmond the next morning and celebrated thanks giving with a HUGE dinner that was delicious. I ate so much, that I couldn’t move afterwards.

It was a great experience!! The next day, Kyle and Mike took me to downtown Richmond and showed me all the monuments, the capitol building and the White House of the confederacy. The tour was really interesting and pretty!!

Partying at cabaret

2006-11-17T00:18:00.000-06:00

The Circus

2006-11-16T14:39:00.000-06:00

Road Trip from NY to Chicago!!!

2006-11-14T11:20:00.000-06:00

On Thursday the 9th of November I flew into NY, to meet up with Chris who was there for business. We went for lunch to SEA, a GREAT Thai restaurant recommended by lonely planet. We walked around Soho, which is without a doubt, the coolest area of New York City. I really wanted to see the Prada store at the EX- Guggenheim museum building, because it was a project from Rem Koolhaas (one of my favorite architects) and as everything else that he has done, it was AMAZING. Finally and to end my short visit to NY we had tea at Teany, Moby’s very cool Vegan restaurant and teahouse. In the late afternoon we left to Pennsylvania, more exactly to the Amish Country, where we stayed at a typical farm, right in the middle of the Amish community. While arriving we saw MANY carriages late at night. I tried to stop one to ask for directions, but they wouldn’t stop. We wonder; what were all those people doing out so late at night?. Next morning we found out that Thursdays of November are weddings days.

We had a great sleep in the silent of the countryside, so we woke up late and missed the opportunity to milk the cows. Breakfast was awesome, a lot of typical dishes and the best part we prayed and sang before eating. What a beautiful tradition!! After that Chris and I went to play with the hail in the barn, but I felt down and hurt my face pretty bad.

We went to some Amish stores and markets and saw the famous quilts. What a GREAT experience!!

Our trip continued to Harrisburg, were we saw the Pennsylvania capitol building followed by Hershey, but we got there kinda late and everything was closing down, so we only got to see the entrance of the chocolate world, that day ended up in Pittsburgh, AMAZING city.

We rode The Duquesne Incline, historic cable car railway, which Jennifer Beals takes in the movie Flashdance, (one of my favorite movies and main reason why I wanted to visit Pittsburgh). Finally we had dinner at Georgetowne Restaurant on top of Mt. Washington, while enjoying the most gorgeous view of the city at night.on Saturday we spent a big part of the day at the Andy Warhol’s Museum, which was very cool and we made t-shirts and postcards.

Before leaving we went to the junction of the three rivers, better known as the golden triangle and despite the bad weather, had a lot of fun.

Cleveland was our last overnight stop, we got there on Saturday night and went swimming for a little bit at the hotel, where for the very first time chris wanted to stay in the water and I didn’t, so know he claims he likes water better than me!! JA JA JA!!

On Sunday we walked around the city, had lunch at a “Latin” place and went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which was SUPER COOL!!

Our last stop was Toledo, a small city where Deirdre went to college. She told me about Tony Packos, a famous restaurant where she used to eat often during college, so we stopped there for dinner before getting home. The trip was really good, we had a great time.

BABEL

2006-11-09T22:53:00.000-06:00

The new film from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the director of "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams".

AMAZING movie, I highly recommend it!!

A Colombian Night!!

2006-11-06T21:37:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I went to a Colombian restaurant - Bar called Las Tablas. GREAT place. They had the best Colombian music that I hadn’t heard for a long while. The owner of the restaurant, Sonia’s friend, is from Barranquilla and danced with me “Colombian style” which was great. I also drank Aguardiente Antioqueno; it was almost like going partying in Bogotá!!! We really had a great time. I have to go back to try the food!!