i'm going to be one hell of a housewife

I can definitely say I've grown a lot while living abroad for the past two months. I cook all the time now and the things I make actually taste good. I realize that making chicken breast and veggies or boiling ravioli or making brown rice is no where near exciting or hard, but before paris I had never done it before. My mom is an amazing cook and thus ironically it is hard learning how to cook in her kitchen. I'm just glad that I was able to teach myself the basics just by watching her for the past fifteen years. I feel special being able to say that my first set of homemade meals were made in paris. 

(My uncle asked me to send him pictures of what I've "cooked" over a month ago, sorry amu, here you go.)

The true cooking in paris test will be this thursday, thanksgiving thursday. I am honored and so excited to have my cousin sima visiting me next/this coming week! She couldn't get much time off work so I begged her to come during thanksgiving so that she would only miss a few days but be able to spend about a week with me. Surprisingly, it only took a day or two of me begging and a few weeks of her begging her work to be able to come. She's going to be my first and probably last visitor from home so I'm going to treat her like a tourist princess.

I've already have semi-planned our activities for the week, aka where we're going to eat on what day. The week's biggest event is going to be the thanksgiving dinner we are both going to attempt to cook. We've never really helped in the actual thanksgiving cooking part besides placing marshmallows on top of the yams so I'm excited and nervous. I decided to not go crazy so instead of an actual turkey we're going to cook slices of turkey breast which basically look like chicken breast. We're also going to have ham, our favorite part of thanksgiving, and what better country to have ham in than france?! I'm hoping we will be able to make some sort of yam dish, some mashed potatoes, some veggies, some salad, pieces of baguette instead of dinner rolls and an apple tart tatin with ice cream for dessert. Quite a task but I know we can handle it and I cannot wait.

So before her arrival I'm spending half my saturday washing my linens, vacuuming the apartment, cleaning everywhere including bathroom and moving furniture (dorene and I got a remodeling craving while I was vacuuming.) Speaking of cleaning, I also can say that I did my first load of laundy in france. Again, how cool does that sound?

I still have a lot of clothes to fold and dishes to clean before she gets here tomorrow morning. We're going to disneyland paris on monday, random I know but I'm too excited about it. I think "excited" is the word for today. Be back soon, so excited!!

barcelona, day one

Our flight to barcelona had a layover in madrid at the airport dorene and I knew a little too well.  I was actually looking forward to the layover, figuring out what I wanted to eat at the mcdonald’s there (I told you I have a serious problem) and hoping that the zara in the airport had received a new shipment of clothes. Sadly our flight out of libson was delayed and we ended up running to our connecting flight, barely making it on the actual plane.

After we landed in barcelona we took a taxi to our hotel because we somehow ended up exiting the airport right in front of a taxi stop. Once we checked into our hotel and settled in we got on the confusing and inconvenient metro only to randomly end up exiting at la rambla. For those who haven’t been to la rambla or haven’t even heard about it (because I hadn’t until I was actually there,) la rambla is like third street promenade in santa monica on crack.

It’s the street with a huge pedestrian pathway filled with everything from flower booths to weird people in costume posing for money to pet shop booths which sold selling everything, including pigeons. There also are actual shops and restaurants all along the street, including two mcdonalds.

We basically just walked down la rambla and came across the big outdoor market called la boqueria. By outdoor market I mean a hundred booths selling different fruits, veggies, meats, fish, and even eggs next to each other under a huge tent.

It was pretty spectacular and my mouth was watering the whole time, except maybe when I walked by the seafood part that smelled, well, like seafood. The fruits looked perfect, the chocolates I saw beats sees candy any day and the hanging dried pig thighs were surprisingly delicious looking.

We finished walking through the market and then continued walking down la rambla until we pretty much hit the coast. Before we walked down the pier/dock area, I saw a monument surrounded by lions. Apparently, I handed dorene my camera and told her “I’m going to mount that lion and you’re going to take a picture of me.” All I remember is asking her to take a picture, but she still laughs just thinking about what I supposedly said.

Let’s just say, the actual mounting of the lion part ended up being quite difficult. Of course dorene got jealous/I told her it was her turn and she mounted my lion as well.

After our barcelona lion experience, we walked down this modern pier and I couldn’t get over how pretty everything looked from the water to the sailboats to all the different lights.  Dorene couldn’t stop saying how it looked like a backdrop. 

We had our first set of tapas and pitcher of sangria for the night (and yes I said for the night) at this place on the pier. We had fried potatoes covered with sauce, ham croquettes, and “guacamole.”

The couple next to us felt bad for us trying to take pictures of each other, so they asked if we wanted our picture taken. They ended up being two older teachers from seattle who had once lived in los angeles. It left good being able to speak english to strangers, god I hate spanish. Best part was running into them the next day in the Picasso museum and the day after that on a bus. Luckily I’ve mastered the “pretend I can’t see you” look, so we avoided saying hi.

Once we were done we started our walk back up la rambla and stumbled upon a random plaza. The plaza was lined with all sorts of restaurants with a fountain in the middle. We decided to go to the only restaurant with a line because we assumed it had to be that good, and it was. There we (or should I say dorene) had another pitcher of sangria (you have to realize that sangria is cheaper than water in spain), more croquettes, some chicken, and veggies, in an attempt to be healthy.

In this restaurant I learned a big lesson, don’t stare at other people’s food because sometimes they’ll notice and start talking to you. At one point there was an older man sitting behind us and I just happened to notice that his sangria had apple slices in it while ours didn’t. Perhaps I was looking at it a little too long, because all of a sudden, I heard him offer me some. You could tell the guy was bored and alone because he felt like talking to me about everything, from the economy to how to make sangria and how he uses huge buckets to make it when he has people over. I tried extracting somewhat useful information from him like where a good place to eat was or where we could go tomorrow night. He attempted to help but between him being half drunk and lost in translation, I wasn’t able to get much.

Forty-five minutes and one shared dessert later (he insisted we try the profiteroles he ordered for dessert, we each had our own fork, don’t worry) we were able to escape his company and started back up la rambla, headed for our hotel. All in all it was a great night, I mean how can a night with two dinners not be great?

lisbon, day two

The second day in lisbon started off amazingly well. We decided to have breakfast in our hotel’s restaurant because the buffet looked absolutely fabulous. We opted for the cheaper continental breakfast but it was by far the most delicious continental breakfast I have had yet. We had the best coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice, I really missed fresh squeezed orange juice while being stuck in fake orange  flavored france. We had great meats and cheeses and croissant pastry things. I miss everything tiara park related.

After breakfast we bought tickets to our first hop on hop off bus experience. It’s hard to get around lisbon using public transportation so we knew it was time to buy our first tourist double decker bus ticket.


The first stop we got off at was near the cathedral we had visited the day before during our tour. There we found the pastry shop we were looking for, the reason why we got off the bus, pasteis de belem. Both my cousin and the tour guide told us this shop was a must eat. They are famous for a dessert made especially in lisbon, a custard tart. I love custard and tarts so I was really excited. It was absolutely delicious.

After our fabulous tart tasting we caught the hop on hop off bus and headed towards this very old castle in lisbon. I don’t have the slightest idea how old the castle is or what its’ significance is but it was built on top of a hill and heard that it has great views. Of course we got lost trying to find our way there, even confusing some random portuguese church we came across for the castle.

Luckily, dorene and I give up as often as we ask for directions (almost never) and eventually hiked our way up to the castle. The view from there was gorgeous, the castle itself not so much.

Most of the castle had been destroyed but we were still able to climb up some old steps to a second level. Dorene made me play princess for a photo since she was too lazy to climb up the steps herself but insisted that she had a great picture idea.

Yes, I know, you’re shocked that I’m wearing a tank top in the picture above, at the end of october, in europe! It was super sunny and warm that day, we even wore sandals out. It was pretty amazing. Oh how my poor feet missed fresh air and sunshine. The keychain I bought from portugal is sandal shaped symbolizing the fact that it was the one day/place I got to wear flip flops in europe! Super cute idea, I know.

Anyway, we took a bunch of picture at/in the castle remains and then worked our way back down to the main part of town, somehow.

We stopped by mcdonald’s for a late lunch. I got a happy meal and dorene got a tolberone mcflurry. I have some sort of crazy obsession with mcdonald’s while abroad. It’s kind of a big problem. dorene’s mcflurry ended up being toblerone with some ice cream, it was a little ridiculous but at least it was a cool new flavor. I’m still obsessed with the crumble flavor in france that is basically an amazing shortbread cookie with caramel and ice cream. I can’t even begin to describe how perfect it really is.

Sorry for digressing about food, I tend to do that pretty much all the time. After our true portuguese lunch, we decided to make the most of our day long bus pass and went on the less popular bus route. Lisbon hosted a world fair I want to say about twenty years ago, so they have all these pretty, modern buildings and such throughout the eastern part of town. We didn’t get off at any stop on the new route because it was getting late and well there wasn’t much to do, but at least we can say we say almost all of lisbon and have photographs for proof.

Once we were finally done with the new part of the lisbon tour, we decided to buy some super bock, portuguese beer, and had a mini happy hour in our luxurious room. Of course I got green bock while dorene tried other kinds.

We had big plans for that night, we decided to go to a fado show. I’m guessing you’re either wondering what the hell a fado show is or you’ve already opened up another tab and are googling the word fado. Actually, maybe I should be googling fado because I’m still confused as to how/why this whole sad portuguese singing is still popular. Our hotel booked us reservations at “clube de fado,” a restaurant with what we were told had authentic fado singing.

Once we got to the restaurant, we ordered salad for appetizers, (dorene indirectly convinced me that we needed vegetables in our diet), two different beef dishes and green wine. My cousin had warned me that green wine in portugal was basically white wine but I mean, who wouldn’t order green wine when given the chance.

Long night short, clube de fado, was an almost total fail, hence our sad faces below.

Our salads sucked, it was basically a small plate of lettuce and awkwardly shredded carrots with some onion all sans dressing. I don’t think the portuguese understand the word salad and the whole fado singing, so boring. The restaurant would turn off all the lights and all the waiters would leave for fifteen minute intervals while some lady would sing songs in a depressing tone while accompanied by a couple string instruments. 

The green wine tasted, well not great, and dorene ended up catching a live fly in her glass at the end of the night. I persuaded her to tell the waiter, hoping he would comp something (I was still pissed about my salad) but instead he just opened another small bottle. Keep in mind that at that point we were done with dinner and about to leave so it didn’t make sense. The only good thing that night, surprisingly, was my beef dish that had some sort of cream sauce and fries, but I mean, how hard is it to mess up something with beef, cream, and fries? Am I bitter much? Yes.

We managed to leave the fado prison and were waiting for our taxi when we saw one of the fado singers and the “band.” For the fun of it, I decided to make the singer feel cool and asked to take a picture with her. Apparently, she’s already too cool for me.

Once back at our hotel, we packed and started saying our goodbyes to our five star room. Tragically, we had to check out super early the next morning to catch our flight to barcelona, but we will always remember the fact that “oh lisbon, you were so good to us.”