My Thanksgiving dinner

As you guys know, Thanksgiving is an American holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Well, I had never celebrated Thanksgiving "properly"... Until this year!

My friend Mariona, who lived in the USA for 10 years, invited me to her place to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. Even though they settled down back in Catalonia 5 years ago, Mariona's family keeps celebrating for the family gathering... And the food! :B I feel so glad I had the chance to share this experience with a friend like her! However, since Thursday wasn't a free day for us here in Spain, we had to celebrate it on Sunday. 

I arrived to Tivissa (Tarragona province, where Mariona's family lives) on Saturday afternoon. When I arrived, everyone was preparing the meal for the next day (actually they had been preparing it for days already!). The kitchen smelled like heaven! We would be 20 of us on Sunday, so there was plenty of work to do. We had dinner, we played with Mariona's pets (Papi the cat and Rita the dog) and we watched movies and series until bedtime.

The next day we woke up and we helped the family set the table. While we waited for the guests to come over, I took some pictures of Mariona's cat and dog. I have to say these two cuties stole my heart from the very first moment... :') I've always been an animal lover but my parents never let me have a pet when I was a kid (apart from hamsters and fishes, LOL). So being with a cat AND a dog was completely new to me!

...Plus I like taking photos of animals :B

Papi is still a young and super active cat! He's never gonna get tired of playing before you do!

Rita is such an adorable, nervous and very quiet dog. I mean, you can see it in her eyes, right? ^-^ I was petting her all the time!

The table, finally set!

Mariona with Papi

Long cat is loooooooong

Typical IG shot

Part of Mariona's family, ready to gobble up!

The turkey, cut in small chunks already (they're smart!) and the stuffing

Mashed sweet potatoes baked with marshmallows ❤ A very strange but legit combination! Too bad the marshmallows were kind of burnt on top, and they tasted like ember! LOL

My Thanksgiving plate! My ration of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry sauce and gravy! Whoaaaa....

After the first dish, the pies came! I was almost full, but I couldn't resist to grab some few pieces of foodporn... *Mouthwatering* ❤

Pumpkin pie

Walnut Softcake

Mariona's awesome Pumpkin Cheesecake ❤❤❤ I just could eat two pieces of it, but I would've eaten the whole pie if I had had the chance :B 

My pie dish with the five pies of the day: Regular Cheesecake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pie, Walnut Softcake and Pecan Pie ❤ I obviously overate that day so I took some leftovers home... Didn't want to leave all these beauties alone, you know!

Before I finish this post, I shall say "Thank You" to Mariona and her family who kindly welcomed and treated me like one of theirs. They were so nice and welcoming that all I can say is, "Thank you" from the bottom of my heart. Hope I have more chances to hang out with Mariona in her place in the future! She's truly a great friend, and despite we started off with the wrong foot when we first met, I'm happy we're very close friends now. Love you, girl! Can't wait to see you again! :)

CL

2013: This year's overview and New Year's Resolutions

So, what about your 2013, readers? :) You guys have New Year's resolutions in your country too? We have em, of course. But I have a different method I have to say ;) What I usually do when the year it's over it's, I write three different kind of 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. 

Then I think about all I've written so far and I think if I've really enjoyed this year. And finally, my resolutions! I try to base myself into the bad things that happened to me as I write them, so I can make them up somehow. Also it makes me think of how things have gone in the past 12 months, and what can I do about the bad things that happened to me (so I don't make the same mistakes anymore)!

You want to find out my resolutions? ;) There you go then, my three lists for this 2013 and this upcoming 2014!



5 good things that happened in 2013

-I made one of the most important decisions in my life: Moving abroad
-I started growing up not as a girl anymore, but as a woman
-I had the best summer ever thanks to my wonderful family, friends and boyfriend
-I met wonderful people here in Korea, and I got the chance to meet up with my Korean friends again
-Someone very important to me asked me if I would be his wife! ;) Hahahaha (I'm not giving more details!).




5 bad things that happened in 2013

-I lost two very important friends
-Due to some problems with some relatives in the past few months, I don't talk to one side of my family anymore
-I saw my parents exhausted of taking care of my grandmothers
-People who I thought I was friends with turned out to be nothing to me
-I'm still fighting for my long distance relationship with Peter (meaning we're not a normal couple yet).

2013 Resolutions:

-Become a grown-up independent adult (I moved to Korea, so I guess I'm on my way! :D). 

-Pass the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) exam (NO! And I never will hahahahaha).

-Save money (Well I got to Korea so I guess... Yes! :B).

-Gain weight (Nope...)

-Stay happy (Still trying to :)



2014 Resolutions: 

-Health and financial stability for everyone in my family
-Be responsible of my own money
-Make up my mind on what to do once I go back home
-Work hard on my research project
-Have a blast in Japan and Vietnam! :)


And this is all for now dearies! :) Hope you enjoyed reading this year's resolutions, and I wish you all the best of luck in this upcoming 2014! Do you share any of those resolutions with me? What do you think of mine? Feel free to comment below ! ^_^




Hugs,

CL

Cavalcade of Magi, Indian Food & Night walk around the city

On January the 6th we have a special tradition in Spain known as "The Three Wise Men", "The Three Kings" or, as we say in Spanish "Los Reyes Magos" (because of the Epiphany). In a nutshell, kids get presents again! Well, kids and not-so-young adults hehe :) Families also gather for exchanging presents and all. Before that day, we have a parade the 5th in the afternoon where kids see the Three Kings and give their wishlists to the King's assistants:

Part of the parade 

My cousin Alex was waiting for the third king to give him his wishlist :) 

The first king Melchior arrived! He's the king twho comes from Persia (although it is said in Spain he's European lol)

Then the second king arrived: Caspar, from India (but we've been told he's just Asian...) 

Balthazar, the third but not least king from Africa :) That's Alex's favourite one! 

During the parade the king's assistants throw candy to children, it's really nice seeing all those kids looking forward to their special king and catching sweets! Hah well, kids and some adults too XD I usually go with my family and we all bring plastic bags to put all the candy! We used to gather around 400 sweets ages ago, but these past few years the number has decreased a lot...>_<

After the parade I went with my parents to go for a walk to Gran Via. Gran Via is one of the most famous avenues in Barcelona, and the 5th at night there's a last minute night market for parents to buy presents. While my dad was looking for a garage I took some pictures of the city... :)

I'm impressed they all look decent, I took them from the car XD

It was kind of late, so before going to the night market we stopped in an Indian restaurant to have dinner. I was so excited to find an Indian restaurant here, last time I ate was in London in 2010 x_x Everything looked (and was) delicious, yumyum :) 

Lamb rolls with spices, coriander and onion 

Two kinds of Naan :) 

Basmati rice with spices and vegetables 

Yumyumyumyum, butter chicken was the best! <3 I saw it in the Spanish version of Hell's Kithen and from that moment I wanted to order it next time I went to an Indian Restaurant :) I wanted to order some Chai later, but I was super full after this awesome dinner!

Then we went straight to the night market :) 

University of Barcelona in Plaça Universitat 

There was a "churrería" (Churros stand) in EVERY corner :) it's super typical having "churros" with hot chocolate these days. I wanted some too, but I was still full haha

FC Barcelona merchandising 8D *Barça pride* 

Chocolate candy 

It's super typical in Spain to give sweet (edible) charcoal to kids as a present if they "misbehaved" last year ;) 

Custard & Chocolate filled big "churros" ^_^ 

Gifts from Catalonia. My land, my country, the territory I'm proud to be born & live in! 

Catalan and the European Union flags together :') 

Cotton candy! 

How they make & fry "churros" 

Three guys dressed up as kings and said hi to the crowd who was shopping 

Apples dipped in caramel, yummy! 

I fell in love with these tiny packpacks ;_; <3 gthyjkjhgfdsdfghjk

I'll be pretty buys these days, so this is just a quick update before the King's Day update :) I really really want you guys to see how was my 6th Jan, but I have an International Relations exam on Wed! >_< Arghhh this is so furstrating! Also I want to go on Sales as soon as possible but I'm too busy now! Luckily I'll go once I finish my exam on Wed WAHAHAHAHA~ I need going shopping, really! Mom made me give to charity all the clothes I didn't wear so I see my closet almost empty now! (Even though it's not...). Well, good news! Peter's package will be here in a week or so! 

Oh, I almost forget! Before I say goodbye, this is a shoutout to a special person called Lynn, thanks for reading! Cảm ơn rất nhiều ^_^ *bow* Hope you keep reading my posts!

See you guys soon! Good luck on your exams and do your best! I'll try to do the same :)

Love,

CL