Making Memories...

This past weekend I had the opportunity to make some great memories with a friend from college, Christina, and a new friend, Mac, from Mexico City. Mac and Christina met on an airplane from Mexico to Minneapolis earlier this year. Christina flew in to Madrid on Wednesday and on Friday we took a bus to Barcelona! We met Mac there on Saturday morning and had a very full day of sightseeing, meeting Italians, watching Spain's favorite sport...futbol (or as we say in the USA - soccer) and laying on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea! Since I only had until Sunday afternoon, I packed my full day in Barcelona with visiting sights from my top list of things to do!  Christina and Mac were very good sports about letting me decide what things to do that day. Thanks guys! We sure got our exercise in for the weekend. I love being a tourist and traveling, but when you have someone or some friends to travel with, see new sights, and make memories...it makes that time all the more better! I believe, it's really the people and relationships in my life (or anyone's life) that matter most! The sights and places in Barcelona would've been nice to see by myself, but friends make it so much better! Even though I met Mac for the first time on Saturday morning, the three of us had a great time (at least, I think they did too)! Here's some of the captured moments from the trip!

La Sagrada Familia

L to R-Mac, Gianlucas and Mateo (the guys we met from Italia! They were fun and nice, they gave us their Barcelona guide map and told us about Fira Barcelona, a beautiful fountain, light and music display you'll see later). I LOVE meeting people from other countries/cultures!! Living in MN, I didn't get that much, but in Spain...yes! 

 That's me, in front of the National Art Museum. Didn't go in it, but it had a great view of the city!

Oh yea, Barcelona vs. Russia Futbol! One thing I wanted to do while living in Spain was go to a soccer game, however, once I found out the price of the tickets, I knew that would probably not be an option. But, thanks to Mac and his generous offer to pay for the majority of the tickets, we got to go!! Muchas gracias amigo!

Mac, all smiles at the game! (until is started raining, but it just makes for a good story and fun experience!) The gorgeous sunset was a nice bonus...thanks God!

More pics to come....it just takes so long to download.

Guys like girls with skills....

...like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills...

so, while I'm in Spain I'm going to try and get skilled at cooking and baking! This week, I made buttermilk pancakes (didn't turn out so well, because I didn't have baking soda) and I also made maple syrup from scratch!! yep...1 cup of boiling water, add 2 cups of white sugar, dissolve then add some maple flavoring (I don't remember how much) and  you have maple syrup! Mine turned out a little more runny that I like.

Tonight, I made banana nut, chocolate bread and muffins! Yum!! My muffins turned out well, however, after an hour of the bread baking, it was still mushy and not baked in the middle (I think my first mistake was putting too much  batter in the pan). So, I dumped the partially baked bread onto a cookie sheet, cut off the done outer edge, scooped out the middle not done batter and put that into a muffin tin. Then I baked those all some more and have sloppy looking muffins and parts of bread...but it all tastes the same, so who cares what it looks like, right!?

Also, a couple weeks ago, I made refried beans from scratch (Vino's family recipe and he coached me through it). I hope with great cooks as neighbors that I'll get some good recipes and tips from them so I can one day be a great cook!! I want to be able to cook (good food) for my husband when I get married!!

La Feria! Fair in Alcala!

The past two weeks Alcala de Henares, the city near my little town, was having a fair. So, I went twice with friends and here are some pics.

mmmm, chocolate covered churros! next to the nasty looking fries and hot dog cup.

Coconut and horchata nuts.
I bought a cream filled, chocolate covered churro!

For many more pics of the events of the last 2 weeks, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/crystalclear7

Photos of the past couple weeks!

Sorry, these pics are a little out of order. Last weekend, we had a fry fest. In between the grease and to make us feel better, we snacked on veggies!

Funnel cake that I made! It was the last thing we made, and everyone was so full, including me, but I still had a couple bites!

A fried peach (kinda like peach cobbler) and a pancake batter fried oreo! These were the best eats of the night!

Okay, if you go back a couple of posts and read "nunchucks" this is who I'm talking about, and here are two pics. I took a series of about 18 pics, just holding my shutter down with the mode on continuous shooting. I also took video, which I'll try to post sooner than later.

La piscina!! My pool I have been wanting for my terrace since arriving, because it's so darn hot! So, I got this kiddy pool at a store. I love that it's Tweety and Sylvester...for those of you who remember, I was in love with Tweety when I was a youngin'. Well, I wish it was not Looney Tunes,  but that's what they had. Plus it came with a ball and ring thing for kids, but the ring floaty works perfectly for a head rest when I lay in the pool! I also bought the chair, I love it! Plus, a lady from a team that came in the spring to IMM gave us 100 euros to use to for all things on the terrace!

A selection of fried foods from that wonderful evening!

Nunchucks!!

So, I always thought that nunchucks was actually spelled numchucks. But, my housemate, Vino, corrected me. How does he know, you ask....well, to my surprise and excitement...he owns a pair, knows how to use them, and keeps them by his bed!! I learned of this last week, and just remembered now that my friends need to know this! So, don't worry about me here at night...if a bad person comes...he'll nunchuck the person to the ground! I just have to remember to not sneak in their bedroom at night, otherwise I'll be the one bleeding and broken on the ground! 

He showed me how he handles them too. It's pretty amazing. I could never do it. I would whack myself every time. Vino used to be a martial arts trainer. I'm safe with him around!! Now, only if I could find a man for myself to defend me using nunchucks, punches and side kicks...I'd be set!! Plus, Monday nights he leads a workout/self defense class here at IMM! I'm relearning what I learned in my self defense class and karate club type thing I was a part of at NCU. I just pray I'm never in a situation where I'd have to use it, because I'm not too confident with my moves.

Sad about crashes in the IMM production studios!

Friday we had a major issue with our server. It's still not fixed. And today, one of the computers died. The one I was working on. Anyways, this will be a long week, of remaking everything I edited last week!! Not much fun, but it needs to be done. I hope to get more pics of last weekend posted soon. Honestly, it will probably be Friday night when I get to it.