Last post of the Year + How we celebrate New Year's

Yay, tomorrow's New Year's! ^_^ Aren't you all excited? I really am hahahahaha, I really enjoy this special date <3 Well, I'm gonna tell you guys how's my life going and what I received on my last days of 2012:

First of all, I got Nadya's package not so long ago :) Nadya is from Vorónezh, Russia, pretty close to the border with Ukraine. I met her on Interpals and she sounded like a great girl to talk to! Plus, we have many things in common (we both love photography, Asian cinema, anime...), so we started snail mailing. She sent me this envelope with a Xmas card, several postcards from her city and a letter. Thanks so much dear, Большое спасибо! ^_^ Her package is ready to send next week!

Also, I got this box from Niki in California (USA). She sent me lots of sweets, candy and cute stuff! <3 I was so happy to get her package, I didn't expect this from her <3 So, thanks so much sweetheart, that was super nice from you :D Her package will be sent soon as well.

Finally, Judy from China said Merry Christmas to me via Instagram <3 Haha, she's such a sweetheart, she loves writing to me too! We're snail mail pals too, but letters take a long time to get to China and vice versa, so we take our time. We're always chatting via Kakaotalk though, so we're in touch ^_^ I'd love to meet her if I have the chance to go to China (when I'm in Korea)!

So, appart from that, I'm having really nice days ^_^ I'm spending most of my time with my family, they're luckily on holidays now so we have time to be together. Also, Tyler's back to Barcelona! (Not for long though, he's leaving the 3rd... But hey, he's here now so...! <3)

I'm so hella derp and no regrets, lol

He's gonna spend New Year's at my place with some friends of my parents and my parents. Nothing special tbh but we're not party animals lol~~ Plus, everything's so expensive tomorrow night so, we'll just stay at home, eat the grapes and have some fun. And yeah, you heard right, eating grapes because... That's how we do it in Spain! XD

It's a really weird but unique tradition in Spain: We eat 12 grapes in the last minute of the year. If you never saw it, this video I found on Youtube basically resumes how we do it :)

We obviously need the TV, because that's how we follow the ring bells. It can be weird and fun at the same time hahaha. The thing is, you CAN'T look at your friends, family or people around you, otherwise you're gonna laugh and mess it up! After that, we just say Happy New Year! We drink champagne and we celebrate it. I'm also gonna post how was my New Year's the 1st January, and also I'm gonna make my own video (if I don't die of laughter! Haha) ^_^

So, what about your 2012? You guys have New Year's resolutions in your country too? We have em, of course. What I usually do when the year it's over it's, writing three different lists. One, it's a list of good things that happened to me this past year. The second, five bad things that happened this past year. And finally, my resolutions. So, there you go, my three lists for this 2012 and this upcoming 2013!

 5 good things that happened in 2012

-Went to the US

-Travelled around by myself

-Met amazing people! ^_^

-Became more social

-Re-took my snail mail / postcard swapping "addiction". 

5 bad things that happened in 2012

-Lost some people who I considered special in my life.

-Failed my TOPIK (Test on Proficiency in Korean) exam

-Quitted cardio

-Had some health problems in the last few months

-Felt alone (sometimes).

2013 Resolutions:

-Become a grown-up independent adult

-Pass the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) exam

-Save money

-Gain weight

-Stay happy

So, I guess this is all for this 2012 ^_^ Despite all the bad things in my list, I can say I had a really nice year, so I shouldn't complain that much. How about you? You guys write lists like that too? Or this is just me? Haha. Well, I guess writing stuff like that makes me look back and see what I lived and what I'm looking forward to live. I'm just twenty and making mistakes is part of your daily life, but it's also good to see what you did wrong or what happened so you don't make the same mistakes in the future. OH! I'm glad I re-joined Blogger too, I really missed blogging and honestly I never had done it in this "personal" way. I kind of like it, so I'll be here for a looooooooong time now ;) Thanks so much everyone, thanks for reading every post I write and thanks again to make this possible. Not only followers, but also visits, friends and people who says they like my blog! Really, you guys make my day (and you literally made my year too!)! <3 I wish you all a Happy New Year, hope this new 2013 is full of joy and hope for everyone :)

Love you all! And oh, don't choke with the grapes, hehe~~

CL

St. Steve's Day/Boxing Day: How we celebrate it

Two days ago we had our last family gathering in a row. Here it's known as "San Esteban" (St. Steve's Day), but in the UK is known as Boxing Day. We don't so anything in particular tbh, as always... just family gathering and have fun with them :)

This is how my table looked like, some jamón, white asparagus, cheese and salad as appetizers.

The main course was, as always, the typical "Sopa de Galets", so I'm skipping that part. We also had seasoned ham with mashed potatoes and applesauce.

 Mom prepared it, it was delicious ^_^

I always have so much fun with this part of the family. Since my dad doesn't have any brothers or sisters, I never had anyone play with when I was a kid, so sometimes it gets pretty boring. However, I have 9 cousins in my mom's side family, and we've always got on well :)

8 year-old Alex, 28 year-old Alberto (yes, he's 29 lol) and me XD I love them <3

18 year-old Sara. She's the cousin I get along with best. Isn't she pretty? 

 My uncle wasn't paying attention it seems...

As we've always done, we played Trivial Pursuit after the dessert. It's our favourite board game so far (with Taboo), and we make groups of 4 or 5 people. We can play and play for ages, but some of my relatives had to work the following day so they left. It was a great day after all, I always have so much fun with my family. I'm gonna miss this so much once I go to Korea :\

Well, I'm going to write a snail mail post soon, I got tons of mail yesterday and I should start replying as soon as possible :) Next Christmas-related post it'll be about New Year's, and our curious and unique way to celebrate it in Spain. Keep an eye on my blog and have a nice 2013 everyone! <3

Love,

CL

Christmas Day: How we celebrate it

Yesterday it was one of the best days I must say :) I woke up around 12am and we got ready for going to granny's. OH! Small reminder, in Spain we have lunch later than in the rest of the world (around 2/3pm instead, and we have dinner around 9/10pm), so don't get scared if it was 12 and I hadn't eaten yet XD 

I took a selca with mommy when we were waiting for dad to pick us up from the garage. Yeah, we're not really alike, but we're sooooo simmilar when it comes to 

character. 

This is how granny's table looked like. She prepared yummy salad as appetizer  \(´ ▽ ` )

Then it came the typical sopa de galets I explained on the last post! Is just soup with those pasta shells called "galets". There's the tradition in my family to eat it with cheese on top, so it melts~~ It might sound weird to you but I swaer it's super duper yummy! <3 ( ^▽^)

The second dish is what we know as "carn d'olla": A typical Catalan dish consisting of the leftovers of the soup (chicken, hen, pork, ham, beef, bones...) . We mix it with potato, "morcilla" (Black pudding) and chickpeas,  

Third but not least is my granny's roasted chicken with raisins, plums and pinenuts~ There's no need to mix it if you don't want to, but it's highly reccomended!

Then "turrón" as a dessert ^_^

Later we went to my auntie's to visit the other side of the family (the ones who are coming to my place today!). They were like... 15 or so haha, we're such a big family! We played Buzz! and Just Dance for Wii together, it's a huuuuuge tradition :)

My 8 year-old cousin Alex begging me to play Wii with him XD (His older brother Victor on the back lol People says he looks like Iker Casillas XD What do you think?)

My cousin's husband had his inspi-moment and took a photoshoot to this red candle (?)

So that's what my Christmas Day consist in :) Today it's"San Esteban"/St. Steve's Day (aka Boxing Day in England). Is just another family meeting for us in Catalonia! My mom's side is coming to my place this time, so I'll take lots of pictures today too :) Hope you guys had enjoyed it, and plz don't hesitate to tell me what you think of the pictures! <3 Thanks for reading and visiting and hope you had a great Christmas Day!

Love,

CL

Christmas Eve: How we celebrate it

Merry Christmas everyone ^_^ Hope you all get lot of presents and yummy food! Good news too, I'm on holidays already, hehe~! I have several things to tell you but, I want to dedicate this post to this special Christmas week if you don't mind. Here in Catalonia/Spain we have family meals 3 days in a row: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St. Steve's Day (aka Boxing Day in England). Many people has asked me what do we eat those days, and well, those 3 following posts will show you how we celebrate it and what do we do! This is the first one, I'll publish the next tonight, and the last one tomorrow :) Hope you like them!

Well, this is how my living room looked like before my relatives arrived. 

 My mom insisted in putting those bling bling stars as a decoration lol

 Jamón, jamón as an appetizer...! Yumyumyum sooooo Spanish, isn't it? :)

Then we started with the real Xmas Eve meal :) Enjoy the pictures!
(Note: THIS IS NOT WHAT EVERYONE HAS, of course. Every family varies the meal depending on what they like or their traditions, so don't take this meal as a fixed one ^_^). 

Sopa de Galets farcits (Filled-pasta shells soup)

 Lluç amb llagostins i cloïsses (Hake with prawns and clams)

 White chocolate and macadamia nuts cookies I baked! They don't look that good tbh, but I swear they were super delicious ^_^

We had turrón and chocolates as a dessert. Turrón (aka nougat) is basically a typical Christmas sweet made of honey, sugar and nuts. That's the original one (the ocher), but there are many different kinds! The one which looks toasted is made of marzipan and egg yolk, the light ocher in the middle is made of almonds and the one in the top of the dish is chocolate. 

So yeah, that's how we celebrated it :) Obviously, everything was delicious (mom is the best, wahahaha <3). Hope you like the entry! Today (Christmas Day) I'm going to my granny's so you'll see how we REALLY celebrate Christmas in Catalunya, that's gonna be a real traditional Catalan Christmas meal :) I'm really looking forward to it, granny's a master! <3

Sorry for the short entry, I'll explain more stuff tonight and tomorrow, alright? Enjoy and hope you're all having a great day <3

Love,

CL

Tons of mail and parties

It's been a week since I didn't update this, and I've received many things from many parts of the world too ^_^ Let's start then!

This first letter comes from my dear Ruth Ann from Arizona (USA)! She always uses cute stuff hah, I really like her letter paper! <3

My first letter from Alice in Taiwan! <3 She's studying Spanish at the moment, hope I can help her out! :D She sent me some organic Taiwanese tea, yay! Glad to find new tea bad swappers! <3

My deary Ola from Poland sent me a kind of Xmas pack with some pamphlets and cute stuff ^_^ Thanks so much cutie! She's always teaching me Polish on her letters but honestly it's too much for my head hah XD I will mail your stuff back after Xmas, alright? :D

I finally got Erin Elizabeth's letter, YAY! ^-^ She's from Australia, so it took a lot of time to arrive sob... but it was definitely worth it :D She's such an artist, isn't she? I loved her doodles omg, I wish I could go back to drawing and still be this good ;_; I envy her sosososo much! 

Tiffany from Califonia (USA) sent me her second letter! I just loved the envelope, it's super duper cute ;A; Again, why we don't have such cute things in Spain?! I've always loved her handwriting hah, looks so classy :) 

I finally got Susan's leter, yay! She's from the Philippines but she's always lived in the Netherlands. She went to Rome not so long ago and attached a postcard with the letter. Thanks so much ^^^

Last but not least... Joy's letter finally came ;A; It took a month to arrive sob, but it's finally here! I never waited such a long time for a letter from Singapore, that was really strange. Anyway, I finally got it, and that's what it matters: D

Thanks everyone for the letters, I have to buy some letter paper to reply everyone, so plz be patient! I guess I'll send it all after Xmas, maybe the 26th or the 27th...? 

So...! New things happened to me? Well, yes indeed! Xmas holidays are coming soon (030)! Today I finally finished my Chinese Thinking project (YAY ME!), but I have lots of things to do after this winter break, so I wouldn't call it a "break" at all -_- Well, moving on! Last Friday Raquel threw a farewell party, since she's going (well, she went) back to Galicia (her hometown) with Tyler. So, we celebrated a party at her place c:

(Phone quality image, forgive me ;_;)

We had a really nice dinner, I prepared ddeokbokki (that red paste you see on the right) and Yehua brought Siau Mai(dfghjkljhgfd I love dim sum ;_;). Oh, and I also baked those muffins you see right here, they could look better but... They were delly anyway ^_^

The next day (Saturday) I invited my buds to come to have dinner to my place, since my parents left the whole weekend. Tyler, Raquel, Esther and Luke came, and we made burritos and nachos (again!). They were super delly dfhyjuhygfdg (Why am I so good at cooking?!??!! lol). Also, Luke brought Russian Tea cakes, the best thing I have ever tasted ;A; PRAISE THE LORD!

(pic not mine, lol)

It's made of Pecan nuts, butter, flour and powdered sugar. I swear you all ti's the best thing i have ever tasted ;_;~~ Sob... Thanks Luke, love you lots! <3

And well... Speaking of me... I have to be honest XD I met Esther this weekend for baking cookies, we were supposed to bake this and bring it to class, since she's leaving to Japan soon and Xmas is coming. So, turns out she read "3 cups of baking soda" instead of "1/2 teaspoon baking soda"... Result? BIG FAIL X_X  Like, hard.

We cried so hard, and the worst of it all was, we didn't even notice they were horrible! We didn't want to taste em until the end and well... We failed ;_;~ I want to make it up somehow, but since Esther is going to Japan tomorrow (YES, I'M SUPER EXCITED EFRGTHYJUKHGFDSDFG MY BESTIE IS MAKING MY DREAM COME TRUE ;A; So proud of her, hope she has lots of fun!) I'll make some hazelnut brownies for Christmas. I don't trust my oven, but my baking moral says I have to make it up for this mess ;_; Let's see how it works!

Hmm I think I'm not missing anything, am I? Oh yeah, NEW YEAR'S WISHLIST! I fell for this Mango dress... I want it for New Year's night! ^_^

Get out Kate Moss, I want that dress c:

My dad starts his holidays tomorrow (sdgfhjlokjhgfd jelly) so I'll beg him to take me to the mall and buy it c:

Argh, I'm so excited but nervous at the same time! Xmas is coming, but that means spending money, preparing stuff, cleaning up the house when my guests come... Stuff like that ;_; Hah well, hope you're looking forward to my following posts, I'll be describing how we celebrate Christmas in Catalunya/Spain! :) How do you guys celebrate it by the way?

Lots of love and have great winter holidays you all! <3

CL

Pre-Xmas incoming and Medieval Market

This week I gome some awesome mail, yay ^_^ First, I got Anna's letter!

She also sent me three vintage postcards fghjkl,jmnhgfd I just loved them ;_; Mom saw them and she wanted to have one and I said NO C: IT'S FROM ANNA... (giggles) lol I really liked them sweetie! That reminds me I have to send her some stuff she's been looking forward to! e_e I'm gonna send it with Petey's package, yay~

My second letter came from Insa in Germany!

I got some Xmas tea with her letter! (lol the pics look horrible, I took them in early morning, I don't know what I was thinking x_x) I tasted it on Friday with Raquel and Tyler and I loved it ^_^ It was Rooibos with a touch of orange and cinnamon <3 I love spicy teas! It was my first letter from her and as you can see we have sooooo many things to talk about XD I'm glad!

This third letter is from Alexis in Texas (USA)! Yay ^_^

Thanks for the stickers and the HK memos~ She's always so sweet and punctual with her letters, I always appreciate that :)  Hope she gets my letter back before Xmas!

So, my weekend (as always) started on Friday :) I had Nachos Day with Raquel and Tyler, hell yeah 8D~~ We made burritos and we bought nachos&some dippin sauces. Ugh, we were suuuuuper full but happy!

However, the best part of the weekend was yesterday. I organized and International Meet-Up (thingy lol) and we all went to Vic ^_^ We were finally 10, so it was better than expected: Yehua, Qing Ling (China) Jill (Taiwan), Natsuki, Hanae (Japan) Tyler (US), Lucas (half lol c: USA/Spain), Esther (The Netherlands/USA/Spain/Narnia c:) and the Spaniards: Raquel, Àngel and me.

It was really nice, the weather wasn't as cold as expected! ^_^ It was super crowded (just like every year), but it was full of nommy food and cool things to see~

Cute floral tiaras~~ ^_^

We stopped for lunch in a park. Tyler and Lucas became Amurrikan buds (hah)!

Jill is so incredibly pretty <3

Esther & me <3

Tyler hates photos, but he can't leave without a decent picture of us~ ò_ó

I had so much fun with them, hope we can do something together again :) About me, I think I might get busy anytime soon, we have to do things well before winter holidays, don't you think? I'll catch up with mail soon, start some projects, study a little bit... I'm kind of scared though, things aren't as cool as they seem ;_; Plus, the results for my exchange program thingy won't be out until Feb 1st! ugh, someone give me patience! Well, we have to be positive though, family gatherings soon, cool moments, some money too... (I need money ;A; I'm so desperate lol), so hey! Let's smile and face  December, things will be back to normal (aka back to relaxing) in two weeks :) 

Thanks everyone for reading <3 I really appreciate the time you take to read my blog, really! Anons and comments are more than welcomed!

Love you all,

CL