"When good Americans die they go to Paris.”

Quote by Oscar Wilde.

After spending a week an a half with grandma in Amsterdam while Cristian was in Chile..Grandma was begging me to take her to Paris. For some reason I was sure I didn't want to go.. I just felt it was not the right time for Paris.. Yes, call me crazy but I feel there is right moment for every city and right now in my life, Paris was not on the list. Grandma begged and begged for me to take her. So finally I said yes. When I was looking for tickets, hotels, etc.. I realized Cristian took my passport to Chile. Who does that?? I felt that time was agreeing with me.. It is not time for Paris. My grandma was very upset and Cristian ended up mailing my passport for us to go.

I was going to Paris... So highlights of the trip

1. Food was absolutely awesome.. I used this book "Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris" one of Lina's frequent blogs to look for unique food.

2. Nike Paris. the store was AWESOME it has one of the four Nike ID labs in the world.. Most of the collection at the store was sportswear and just a few athletic wear for futbol and other sports. The ROSA soccer shoes were on display and they were powerful. Their walls were full of Nike ID designs from other people which was so inspiring.. it was a museum of clothes.



3. Patrick Demarchelier's photography exposition, Fashion photographer.. here are some of the famous pictures.





4. and the top attractions of Paris for every tourist..
















At the end it was a wonderful trip with grandma even though we got robbed, fell on the metro, got lost, got into fights.. but at the end "in Paris you learn Wit", - Virgil Thomson

“The stomach carries the heart"

Yesterday I cooked Pumpking soup.. that is right it is pumpKING because it turned out to be very tasty. After doing some research on the food network I wasn't convinced by any of the recipes. I decided to saute bacon, onions, garlic and some roasted bell peppers. Then add the chicken stock with some cilantro leaves. While that was cooking I roasted the pumpking and sprinkled some ginger over and drizzle EVOO. After the pumpking was roasted, I added it to the soup and let is simmer for a 1/2 hour.. then served it with some cheese and VOILA.

Here are some pictures...

He looks Happy!

Point back at the US

When I am about to write the blog I look at the pictures taken throughout the week to recall any specific events that you should know about. My source failed me this week because we didn't take that many, just a few that you will see at the end of the blog. So just as the banking system is poitning back at the US we will do the same at pointing and updating you in how our family is doing back in the US.

To start we want to show you our beautiful niece Hannah. She Look how big and cute.. Isn't she adorable?

Lina is having her baby Shower this weekend and she is showing the cuttest belly. Less than a month ago she was barely showing but now she has a bigger bump.
Just some pictures from these week. We had a beer tasting festival in our room. From left to right the percentage of alcohol increased from 5% to 12%. The last one on the right tasted sooo bad. We found a winner and that is the burgundy Bavaria can. It tasked just like Jeremia Red at BJ'S.

With the lack of Mexican food and avocatos.. we decided to try to make a 7-layer dip and it came out pretty good.

To finished up the week we had another Latino Flocking night. We cooked Arepas (which are corn-based bread from Colombia and Venezuela)
Some pictures from the event: The Cheff, Daibory from Venezuela

The boys. From left to righ Cristian-Chile, Miguel-Venezuela, Josue-Mexico, Bruno-Mexico, JP-Argentina

Yummy Arepas
Me and Gaby

The whole group

Tonight Meik is coming to see us and then on Wednesday we will go back with him to Bremen. As the holidays are approaching we are trying to figure out where to go. I want to either go to Slovenia, Budapest and Istanbul.. and Cristian wants to do either London.. Any voters? Where should we go?

Love,

Kika

Chuck Norris 4- US 0

Hello my favorite peeps! So it looks like this place is agreeing with us. We are feeling more at home everyday. We have developed a great group of friends

and we are enjoying the new life in Europe. I feel like this pretty much every day.

This week hit me hard being away from home. The job at Nike fell through and although I got great feedback from the person that interviewed me saying I was Nike Material I got very home sick. Cristian has been sick this week with the flu, and pretty much he sleeps all day. The weather has not been very nice to pump up the mood. To add to the complain bucket list I lost my touch in the kitchen this week.. the rice burned, the chicken was dry, I bought the wrong milk and the cheese was sweet instead of salty.
As I was researching about homesickness I found a prevention, which is for parents "not to pick the child up before the period of separation is scheduled to end." That prevention technique in my case failed completely. When younger, my parents (mostly my dad) couldn't say NO when I asked him to pick me up at a friend's or my grandma's house, when I promised I would not get homesick.

To put a band aid on the heart or on my separation anxiety I found a way to feel close to home and that is NPR and youtube. As weird as it sounds hearing an american english speaker makes me feel at ease, except from Sara Palin. And watching Letterman interview celebrities and mavericks make me feel in a homy environment.

Last but not least we had close encounters with Chuck Norris. When our door is open we can see into the kitchen where Chuck Norris makes his rounds. Most recently we saw him searching for food so we set some traps.

Round 1: Chuck Norris nibbled at the cheese (we are using goat cheese that it is 3.oo Euros for 100g) in the trap until it was all gone

Round 2: We (meaning Cristian) reset the trap with cheese and Peanut Butter... Same result

Round 3: We tied the cheese to the trap with dental floss and video taped Chuck in action.. same result + the video was all black lack of light

Round 4: We set the traps again before going to sleep ...Same result. We must remember Chuck Norris facts when battling Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

We should also mention that each time we set the trap, we set 2 traps so it actually Chuck Norris 8, Us 0

Next week we are looking forward for a small trip to Bremen to see Meik F.P.

That is all I got for now

I feel like Mr. W.

Love,

Kika

Brown Pride Weekend

I have been avoiding blogging because as much as I want to give you good news about Nike, I don't have any news yet. I failed to blog the first week because I thought I would have better news the following week but that was not the case. So I am just going to tell you that the interview went well and in three weeks they will let me know (I got used to those responses from Cristian's job search).

So now lets talk about our lives in Amsterdam. The past two weeks in pictures:
Cristian and I celebrated our First Anniversary in a Mexican Restaurant.

The food was not very authentic as we can see the guacamole was black and they served us fagitas with potatoes and salad and not beans and salsa.. are u serious?Oxana our roomate turned 24 and she cooked sushi for us.
She loves Jane Austin so as a present we gave her the Jane Austin collection
Dima got a broken window and it took about 3 threat emails and 2 weeks for the landlord to come and fix it
Sandra (Godmother, Cristian's mom's best friend from Chile, high roller and good friend) came to visit us in Amsterdam.
She took us to this amazing Spanish restaurant owned by Cubans for tapas called Pata Negra. Last time we had Jamon Serrano was in 2003, we (as in I Kika) got so sick of eating so much that I was not able to eat Jamon Serrano until last week. We had Pata Negra which is the best of the best of Jamon Serrano. It is the Manolo Blanik of shoes.

Cisco employees were asked not to flock (stay with their own kind) and to be open to hang out with different people. As we can see in the following pictures the latinos took that statement and expanded to Spanish Speakers only. We had our first "Latino Flocking" this weekend. (Cristian called it 'brown pride weekend' but they didn't get it. jaja)

These are all the girls starting from left to right: Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil. Argentina, Italia/Spain, Mexico and Mexico. Left to right: Argentina, Colombia, Chile/USA, Mexico, Costa Rica. The picture does no justice.. let's try this one... lol
Some other pictures

So we finished our Latino Flocking succesfully but I am not sure about these kids..
To finish I will post a video if me dancing because it is funny..Gaby is signing in the back

That it all folks. Love Kika