I do not like mushrooms and cheese, Amy I am.

Madrid cuisine is...different.  But in a good way.  I have come to realize that, per the teaching of one of my closest friends, that it is possible to like a food that you hate.  Yesterday I experienced this with mushrooms.  Due to my lack of food vocabulary due to too much subjunctive and not enough vocab, I thought "seta" was some kind of sauce, when ordering at a bar.  I then ended up with a plate of eggs over easy on top of sliced potatoes, surrounded by a mound of "guck."  And being the adventurous individual I am I carefully picked around the "guck" as I ate my eggs and potatoes...however some guck made it through my semipermeable membrane...the result...a mushroom...staring right at me.  It was too late, it was in my mouth, the fungal flavor was soon to overwhelm me, however instead I felt pleasant.  Ok...I like mushrooms now, at least European mushrooms.  To prove this point even more the big man upstairs decided to let me have mushrooms and chicken with pasta for dinner...and once again I liked it.  Sorry Daddy, strike 1.

Have you ever seen a pig leg on the table?  Yup...it is grodie.  Want to know what is worse?  When you find out that this meat is "cured" not cooked and you just hack off however many slices you want off the leg.  A black hoof?  All the better...stick it on some bread and there you have it, Jamon Serrano...a glorious tapa.  So good, so wrong...Strike 2

Anyone that knows me from childhood knows the greenish, grotesque way that I turn when I even hear the damnable term "cheese."  Strike 3, I'm out.  In Spain they possess this wonderful variety of queso called "manchego," so good!  Slap it on that bread with the jamon serrano and seta and it is like a party in my mouth, I cannot get enough of it.

That being said I have learned much about myself and my ability to expand my tastes.  However, when my host family gave me green beans, I still gagged, a lot.  Don't worry Daddy, I am not completely on the dark side.

She's gone postal

First of all...my blogger website seems to be all in Spanish...okay...oh yeah...I'm in Spain!  That's right folks, this Oklahoma girl has finally gone global.  For the next 4 months I will be living in and going to school in Madrid, Spain.  It is definitely shocking, definitely different, but so stimulating!  So to kick this off...the top 10 list of why Spain is cool.

1. Skiing and the Beach (some of my favorite pasttimes...all in one place!)
2. BIG NUTELLA (finally, the best sandwich spread comes in a kg)
3. Nap time (2-4 pm, all shuts down for a siesta)
4. Culture (there is old stuff here!)
5. Night life (or morning life?)
6. Europe (duh, again)
7. The euro (finally, colorful money!)
8. Freedom (the people here can drink, marry however they want, smoke where they want--gross)
9. Tortilla de Patata (google it)
10. Ocio (free time, all the time!)

The Worst Christmas Present Ever

Third grade was my dream year.  I had my wonderful boyfriend who gave me a handmade necklace for Christmas...and lots of candy, I was hula-hooping champion, I got second place in the spelling bee and I had straight As.  It seemed like everything was going my way.  Then Christmas came around.  I knew Santa was finally bringing my the Kiersten American Girl Doll that I was literally dying for and finally Elizabeth, my other doll would have a friend.  Then, the worst happened.  As I crept from my room before dawn I noticed Santa's cookies were half-eaten...Kiersten had arrived!  As I walked further around the corner to peer at the perfect gift my eyes filled with tears and I felt like I would vomit.  On the fireplace was not Kiersten...but this abomination:

I immediately ran into my parents' room in tears of utter disbelief. "Santa haaaaattttteeeeesssss me!" I cried.  My mother, still totally oblivious to the matter said groggily, "Santa loves you, what's wrong?"  As I explained my horrible experience of disappointment and heartbreak to my little world she said "Maybe Santa just wanted you to be practical."  Practical?  Are you kidding me?  I want my freaking $100 doll!

Ok, so maybe I did blow this out of proportion, but how did I know that this would really be the best Christmas present ever?  Later that morning Aunt Becky came over for Christmas brunch and convinced me that this was a good gift.  After all, what do parents know about anything anyway?  The next day we (Aunt Becky, Mom, and myself) went to what I like to call "Heaven on Earth" also known as Joann's.  Here a plethora of patterns and fabrics were opened to my mind as I embraced this new love of a needle.

Fast forward 11 years and I have created countless projects of varying shapes, styles, and sizes.  Halloween costume?  Shoot, I can make a Hershey bar or a Sailor Scout costume.  Dresses can't seem to fit right, not a problem...I will just alter the pattern.  A duffle bag?  Don't make me laugh.  As for saving money at the tailor?  Probably in the millions (ok, maybe hundreds...or tens).  This gift has allowed my creativity to blossom.  From my sewing machine I am able to create new things for myself and others that I am actually proud of; I can even design new varieties of clothing if I so desire.  Here is my latest creation, a comforter/quilt that I made of my high school t-shirts:

Who would have thought that a doll disaster would actually be one of the most rewarding and creative gifts I could receive?  Maybe this year I will get something even cooler...or maybe just some Ugg boots.

Spare Change

Old

Friends, Family, Faith

jaded

experiences and circumstances

"tragedy" and new life

colors and crispness increases

seasons change

snow, if for a while

pencils breaking, hands shaking

end, New.

Life can change abruptly.  When you start the semester everything seems like it will break, and then the leaves begin to change color and it all changes.  I wrote this poem to describe a fall semester.  Things often have a dual meaning, which is reflected above, because in the end change has to happen to make room for new life. It really is amazing how inspirational college can be for poetry, I believe this fits a lot of people, whereas in my previous blog that poem concerned me on a personal level.

Cinematography?

Lately I have been dabbling quite a lot with iMovie.  This experimentation has allowed me to let my creative juices flow even more than before.  It seems the possibilities are almost (iMovie 8...cough, cough) limitless with a flip video camera and good software.  This video is from Spanish class.  It is a trailer about a book we finished reading, Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  The store has one central moment, the death of Santiago Nasar.  In the novella Marquez immerses himself into the story as another character (think The Great Gatsby) and ultimately is affected by this story of twisted fate.  For this film I did all of the editing and added the music, "Requiem for a Dream," as well as did a bit of filming and less-than professional acting.  It is black and white because the entire story is set in the past as a memory.

The Christmas Spirit

Everyone has their favorite tradition about Christmas that brings forth the spirit of the season.  For some it is the claymation videos, for others it it trimming the tree.  As this seasons begins I am also reflecting back on my favorite traditions.  It really is no secret how obsessed I am with not only Christmas music but the movies as well.  The best part of this is when they combine into a whole new idea.  My favorite joining of a song and a movie is The Christmas Shoes which airs on lifetime.  Here is the trailer:



Though this is not necessarily the high budget How the Grinch Stole Christmas or the classic 
Miracle on 34th Street I believe that it conveys the message of the Christmas season better
than anything else: "Give all you can, receive all you can." Now, this does not always mean
material things, it is also the little things that make it all worthwhile, making your dad a really 
ugly tie but he will wear it because it makes his little girl feel better or a mom cherishing the
pinecone her son painted at preschool.


Too often I think people get caught up in getting in the "Christmas Spirit." But, what I 
like so much about this movie is that the characters show the spirit year round. In my opinion, 
just because it is Christmas does not mean that you should do all you can for someone,
it should be a 24-7 job, and this movie particularly passes on that message. This family, 
although they are suffering strives to help anyone they can and make the world a better
place. In the end, it is a little boy that spreads this message to a crowded department store. 
That is what Christmas is all about, not just the season but the feeling that should go 
year-round.

Gobblepalooza

Black Friday is my favorite holiday.  And yes, it is a holiday.  Every year it is a family tradition that as soon as you finish gorging yourself with turkey and cranberry sauce, you break out the ads and get creative.  That's right, I said it, creative.  From the ads to the methods this holiday is all about being different and thinking outside of the box.  My favorite ad from this year was Old Navy, courtesy of Crispin Porter and Bogusky.

It is no secret that the best ads get the best crowds, but here I think Old Navy had the best sales, $5 performance fleeces?  Hell yeah!  Anyway, this ad was the most creative in my opinion.  Taking the "rock on" symbol and making a turkey was genius.  Though not totally original, I am pretty sure I did that in preschool, it is incredibly clever with the concept.  Also, making the theme like a concert truly represents Black Friday, it is like a rock concert.  Hot, crowded, and drugged (on caffeine, that its).

My personal creativity comes in later with picking the route that nobody else will and the art of actually getting into as many stores as possible before keeling over in exhaustion with the 2 hours of sleep and tryptophan in my system.  Still, I manage to score the bargains and the adrenaline rush, not to mention the jet lag of shopping.