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

End of exams, shopping&food to make it up and less snail mail

Ican say I'm officially free :) Yes! Haha, I finished my International Relations project and I took my exam, so it's done. I'm pretty proud about that last one, and the results weren't bad at all either so... YAY me ^_^ Now it's time to rest for a bit until the new semester starts. 

One of the things I did once I finished exams was GOING SHOPPING. AGAIN. YES. I know, I shouldn't (???) but I just needed it >_< Good thing is (and turns out to be my legit excuse) I didn't buy ANYTHING from the newest collection haha, so everything are still from sales. Sales usually last a month in Spain, we have one round in January and a second one in July (for my birthday, YAY 8D). Anyway, I'm gonna show you what I bought this last week :)

I got this beige jumper in Pull&Bear (internationally speaking, it's just a Zara sub-brand). It was 9€ only and I fell in love with it, but honestly I hated those little pearls on the shoulders, so I decided I would cit them once I got home (since they were sewed). So that's what I did 8D 

This robot blouse is from Zara, and I knew it had to be mine since the first time I saw it <3 It's so geek and adorable I couldn't resist  it! x_x 

This is my first maxi-bag! Haha~ I really like it, and it's also from Pull and Bear. It was 6€ only! (and the original price was 30€, so I guess that was a good deal 8D). I can use it to go to uni too, it's so big it even fits my folder hah :) I'm proud of this purchase, definitely!

Last but not least, this sleeveless shirt from Pull&Bear too! It's the first time I get something spiked, and it was 8€ so I said, why not? :) One of the things I really want now is a spiked white headband ;_; I've been looking for it EVERYWHERE! I guess I'll check eBay if I'm lazy enough to go look for it to the city centre XD 

Also, I've been meeting my friends recently!

With Lukey this afternoon: We had (lol well, I had) a Caramel Frappé and a chocolate cake c:

With Raquel on Thursday: Typical Chen Ji menu, homemade noodles and xiaolongbao <3

With my cousin and auntie at Caelum (a cafeteria in Barcelona where nuns bake all the pastries) last Tuesday: More chocolate cake (melted with strawberry jam) and Jasmine Tea. Speechless <3

With Alex: Last weekend at George Payne's Irish Bar. Huge plate of nachos and BBQ chicken wings <3 What else do I need?

Good thing is... I have a b-day party meal tomorrow with some friends of mine ^_^ We're going to a Japanese restaurant and then to a Japanese bakery! I'm so happy awww, can't wait >_< <3


Also, I've been getting less and less mail those days. It's easy to see that I had to break up with several penpals of mine :\ But well, at least I got some cute things I really appreciate :)

I sent Alice (Taiwan) a pack with old coins my grandpa gave to me, so she "repayed" me sending tons of kawaii stationery and note pads ^_^ Thanks sweetheart! We can barely find such things in Spain, and the ones we have are pretty expensive >_< She also sent me a New Year's postcard, but I'll leave the picture for another post :) Also, she sent me fake money and the typical red envelopes ^_^

This is my first and last letter with Hannah (Macau). Her first letter got lost in the way and it took like 2 months to get her second letter :\ Also, because of the Korea thing. I'm happy I finally got it though! She also sent me a typical red envelope explaining why they're so important for Chinese New Year's ^_^ 

However, I got many postcards those last few weeks! I realized I should keep going with my collection over letters... :\ They're just random swaps whenever I have postcards available, so I guess it's easier to control rather than having tons of mail due to send asap. I'm still trying to save and I'll do my best from now on :)

Last weekend I was still on exams, but my mom was in a good mood or something (?) and she bought some quality beef to make some raclette at home. Raclette could be defined as "the European version of samgyeopsal" somehow haha, but instead of using an iron, we use a stone. Basically, it's stone-grilled steak at home :) My dad got one for his birthday and we use it once every month or two months.

Table set :) Mom also cut some veggies to grill with the steak (potatoes, green pepper, leek, onion, artichokes...). Olive oil, black pepper, salt and... Yumyum ^_^ 

*Drools* 

My pieces of take, sliced potatoes and chopped artichokes 

Strawberries and Greek youghurt with sugar as a dessert! ;_____; <3

Well, and I guess this is enough for this last week I couldn't update :) I'm happy and relieved now! I should get ready for my 2nd semester but cmon... The weekend just started! I also want to go out at night with my friends (what a pity temperatures are dropping down tomorrow ;_____;!!!). Well, let's see what I can do! I really wanted to update the blog hah, I feel like I've been abandoning it these days and that's the least thing I'd do! Oh and, as you can see, I've changed the theme again XD Sorry about that lol but I don't feel like it looks professional... I want to change it but I don't know how ;_; I'm bad at those HTML thingies tbh... I guess I'll do something if this blog ever becomes popular! lol I realised my mom reads my posts too, she stalks me and tries to understand what I write, and she refuses to use Google Translate (good mommy!). Haha if you ever read this, thanks for reading mom! :D (lol this is lame -__-). 

Can't wait to go to Korea so my life will be more interesting XD Today I've accepted my exchange place by the way! Now it's 100% official I'm going to HUFS! Yay :)

Have a Happy February you all! <3 I'll try too hah (I promise nothing ;D)

Love,

CL

Relaxing, dad's b-day and two letters from the States

I'm so happy I'm finally free...! :) I feel so relieved now that my exams are done, I had a really nice weekend so I guess I can't complain at all. I started Breaking Bad, which I wanted to start a long time ago. I liked it so far (2 episodes lol!), and I got the feeling I'll like it more as the serie goes by :) On Saturday I celebrated my dad's 50th Birthday. We celebrated it at home, we made a special dinner with the family and stuff. I cooked one of his favourite things as appetizers, Chinese dumplings (aka jiaozi)!

I made spring rolls too, but they didn't end up as I expected. They were super crunchy but visually they were kind of derp, haha.

 AtleastItried.jpg

Tomorrow I don't have class so, I'll try to make Vietnamese spring rolls: Gỏi cuốn. I miss the ones Lynn (Peter's mom) prepared me, and since I still have rice paper sheets, I'll try to make them as accurate as possible! It's not a difficult recipe, so hope it looks good ^_^ NOMNOMNOM~ On Thursday I'm meeting a friend and we're going to the best Chinese restaurant in the city. I just want to get full of Xiaolongbao and delly soup noodles! ^-^ Finally on Friday I'm meeting another friend to have a coffee, it's been a long time I wanted to see him, so yay! :D I like this feeling hah, it seems I'm socializing more these days! (Yay Claudia, you're doing your best!).

Also, I got two letters this week. The first one comes from Idaho, in the USA from Michelle. I swapped postcards with her once, and we became penpals not so long ago :)

She loves tea just like me so, I'll send her a teabag! I really like swapping teabags with my penpals haha, it gives me the chance to taste different kinds of tea (since in Spain is not a big thing...). For example, today I tasted Genmaicha for the first time! Katherine from SF sent me a bag and I love it now :) It's basically Japanese roasted brown rice tea. It's weird at the beginning but then I loved it! Let's see if I can find it somewhere in Barcelona, I kind of want more right now ;_;!!!

This one comes from Tiffany in Cali, USA. She's such a kind girl to talk to, I loved the letter paper and she's so pretty too! ;_; Isn't it cute?

Well, it's time to go now! But as always, thanks for reading and everything ^_^ Today it's been a weird day, we had the exchange program conference but honestly it wasn't worth it. They didn't give us much info and I'm kind of frustrated about it. I guess I'll just apply for HUFS (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) or SNU (Seoul National University) and let's see how it goes! Glad I went to buy stationary and postcards with Raquel later haha, it's a way to relax and go back to real life instead of obsessing over my unsure future. I also bought Xmas cards for swapping with my friends, it's the first time I do that but I love the idea ^_^ So, if anyone wants to get one, don't hesitate to drop me a line!

Take care you all, winter is coming!

CL