Boricua en la Lima

Last Thursday Gabi turned 5. Half a decade old. I can't believe it myself.  She acts like she's so big and I love to see her "mothering" Sebas even though sometimes I have to remind her she's not meant to be scolding him that there's only one Mom for Sebas.  :) On Thursday we took cupcakes to Gabi's school and yesterday we had some friends come over for cake and pinata.  They were both so excited! Especially to have some new friends (and English speaking ones!) come over.  The weather was pretty crappy so we had to mostly stay indoors which means their room looked like a tornado had hit after the party, but I'm glad we are able to have a cool "playroom" for them in their bedroom so that they can have friends over.  The cake was delicious and the company was great.  I'm glad the whole thing is over but I am looking forward to Sebas' 3rd birthday.  But that's a little far away so I guess for now I'm looking forward to seeing ...

This weekend we took a two hour trip to a town called Interlaken in the German part of Switzerland (thank goodness everyone pretty much spoke English). On Saturday morning we attempted to go to Jungfrau  ("Top of Europe") but we were a bit concerned with my mom and the altitude and also the weather was pretty crappy. So instead we took a 2 hour train ride to Luzern . I think the kids loved the train ride even more than they loved the actual town! Although it was definitely a beautiful place. You can tell that it would be sooo much nicer in better weather.  After having lunch in Luzern we took the 2 hour train ride back and then had dinner and went to sleep. I think every night this weekend we were in bed before 9 pm and slept for like 11 hours!  Sunday morning we drove to Bern  but didn't even get out of the car (it was freezing rain and I had started to develop one of my wonderful allergies).  From Bern we drove to Lausanne , had lunch in Lausanne and then dr...

...Those seem to be my son's three favorite words now that we live in Switzerland.  And he seems to make a very obvious effort of pointing out to everyone that there is COW cheese and COW chocolate.  And apparently the cows that make cheese are different from the cows that make chocolate.  Duh!!!  Anyway, since my mom arrived a few days ago and the first weekend she spent it babysitting while we went to Barcelona we decided to show her some of the sights.  On Saturday we went to Annecy where we love to rent boats and go out on the lake (when it's warm).  This time it was for Retours d'Alpage, the yearly pilgrimage to conmemorate the "descent from the Alps" of the cows and if I'm not mistaken the time to start making yummy cheese!  The little town was filled with craftsmen who were either making clogs out of wood, or other wood carvings, or men taking the wool from the sheep while the women started making fabrics for clothing from it right ther...

In honor of Mario Vargas Llosa FINALLY winning the Nobel Prize. I think this was the best day in my hubby's life. We were in Lima during the 2007 Holidays (I was about 6 months pregnant with Sebas). We left Gabi with her grandmother and went to catch a local play when we discovered that MVL was sitting right in front of us. During the intermission these guys were like kids who met Michael Jordan or David Beckham.  Now I don't know whether the day this picture was taken was the best day of my husband's life or yesterday when MVL finally (and deservedly) won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

‎10 years ago...I was at Mariselle's graduation, celebrated Carin's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my nephew's 1st bday, went to concerts for Juan Luis Guerra and Carlos Vives, said farewell to German who was moving to Geneva, started seeing Jose, and worked on Pampers (among others ). 10 years later......I was at Mariselle's wedding, celebrated Ida's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my son's 2nd bday, am going to Shakira (and hopefully Gaga!), said farewell to my friends and moved to Geneva, still married to the man I started seeing then, and now he works on Pampers. :) In short, 2000 and 2010 are two sides of the same coin. I'm blessed to still be close to all these wonderful people after so many years. Hope in 2020 I can look back and say the same.

Barefoot in Barcelona is one of my favorite OPI nail colors! However for this ocassion which called for a celebration (my girlfriend's Ida's bday) I went with Pamplona Purple on a little Swiss Air flight to Barcelona.  No more to say than good friends (some of which I hadn't seen in 9 years when we made the calculations!), remembering previous visits to Spain (I had gone with Ida and her sister in law Keysa to Barcelona freaking TWELVE years ago), good food (and wine of course), and sightseeing around one of the most beautiful places in the world.  And my favorite part was the 20F degree difference with Geneva. Thankfully when we came back it was a little bit warmer here so looks like we brough the good weather for us.  We actually surprised Ida -- they were on a 2 week trip all around Spain and we decided to surprise her on her birthday on the last leg of the trip. Her husband was wonderful helping me keep the whole thing a secret and reserving hotel rooms for us an...

We were invited to Gabi's first birthday party (a kid from school) which we almost missed cause my calendar was off by two hours so I'm grateful the mom actually emailed me the address and CORRECT time about 30 min. before the party started, at which point I ran to the shower and we made it only about 5 min. late which is great. Gabi was super shy most of the party, as were most of the other girls since it was a 95% all boy party! But in Cincinnati she would've been running the joint 5 min. after arriving! By the end of the party though she was hanging out with some friends and totally enjoying the puppet show and asking could the puppet show also come to her birthday party. Still, I can't help to think Gabi is not quite herself yet. That this move has affected her in ways I cannot even begin to understand. I hope my mom's visit this week gives her a little bit of that "home" feeling and that she'll enjoy her grandma's company. She was also p...

Someone shared this link with me on Twitter recently and I come to find out that Switzerland is actually number 2 on that list .  Now it's not surprising that it would rank so high, but it got me thinking...are they really considering all the important factors of being considered one of the world's best countries?  Here are some factors I think they were missing from their analysis which might not tip the scale so much in Switerland's favor: - Weather: I know there are some people who absolutely LOVE cold weather, can't wait to get out the skiis and whatnot.  But me being a Caribbean bred, I can't help but think that a place that is cold more than 50% of the year should not be all the way at the top! By the way same applies for Finland which came at overall #1. - Food: Part of living in a great place is finding great food.  While Geneva has so far offered us pretty good fare "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" as U2 would say, mainly a...

Well Jose was pretty much out of commission for most of the weekend so we didn't do too much except grocery shopping and go out to eat! The higlight of the weekend was going to the park yesterday after Sebas' nap to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.  I'm not happy at all about how cold it is these days but yesterday afternoon was awesome.  We just lay there on the grass soaking up the sun as the kids ran around chasing each other and tumbling and whatnot.  Once we got back home a couple of kids were out playing ball in the street and then once Sebas, Gabi, Jose and I joined it's like they started crawling out of the woodwork to play ball.  It's pretty interesting to see that happen everytime we go out in the street to play ball.  Gabi met two of the neighborhood kids who are Swedish so she was so happy that she met a girl who spoke English, she wouldn't shut up talking to her and meanwhile the girl is telling her to please keep her eye on the ball.  G...

I survived the 10 day relatively unscathed. of course I wish i could give the kids to jose and run out and get a pedicure but I guess he still has jet lag to overcome. today we will attempt the "fete de la pomme" here in the village and then perhaps the zoo/aquarium. and early to bed hopefully!

Nothing new to report except that I'm into Day 5 of single motherhood (half way through) and really looking forward to the day Jose comes back.  Normally in Cincinnati I would have lots of things to do with the kids over the weekend (zoo, aquarium, friends, etc.) but here (especially on Sundays) there's just not that much to do.  I tried to coerce them into going into the park yesterday (the beach seems to be out of the questions now that we're fully into Fall-like weather) but Gabi is a little lazy these days so she just wanted to stay home pretty much all day.  We ordered a pizza which arrived two hours late so everyone was about to gouge the other person's eyes out from starvation.  I've never seen the kids each with such gusto! The rest of the time was spent trying to break up fights between the two kids -- they fight over EVERYTHING these days! Mostly because Gabi doesn't want to share with Sebas and because Sebas wants whatever Gabi doesn't want to sha...

Saturday was my birthday. Can't believe I'm 36 now.  On Friday night Jose and I went to this really great restaurant called La Cantine .  We went by bus and it was really cool that part of town where the restaurant is, it sort of felt like I was in Boston (on a nice weather day).  For some reason I always order something to eat and then regret it because it's never quite what I was expecting -- this was especially true when I ordered a shrimp cocktail at an italian restaurant and got something totally different than what I expected. However, at La Cantine it was the first time where I actually got what I expected and absolutely LOVED it.  I got this "pot" that was sort of like mashed potatoes on the top layer and duck on the bottom layer.  It was absolutely divine. And Jose loved his risotto as well, I tried it and liked it too and I'm not even a risotto person. We'll definitely have to take my sister and husband to that place when they come visit in Nove...

Gabi's official first day of school was today. We dropped her off after enduring what has become crazy Geneva traffic post-back-to-school.  We are definitely going to be taking the bus more often! In any case, Gabi was super excited (and I think a little bit nervous too) about her first day. It was only half day and the nanny tells me she did great, I can't wait to get home and hear all about it! On another random note, we had a parent reception on Wednesday and it's the first time I have ever seen wine served at a school function! But I guess I'm a catholic school girl after all.  :) Tomorrow I turn 36. Eeek!

This weekend was officially our last summer weekend as the weather is getting noticeably colder and Gabi starts school this week. So we went to Montreux – a beautiful town on the opposite side of the Lake where supposedly the biggest jazz festival happens every year and, as we later learned, was also home to Freddy Mercury for years. We arrived Thursday evening just in time for dinner and to get a glimpse of how beautiful the town is. However, Friday morning was chilly and rainy and I had to work so we just did a little bit of shopping around in the nearby clothing & toy stores. The kids were pleased with that of course, and Sebas, as usual, left the toy store with only Toy Story related items. He also left the clothing store with either Toy Story or Cars related clothing. That one has a one-track mind! On Friday afternoon when the weather cleared up and I was ok to stop working, we went to Chateau Chillon , a beautiful castle that served as the main fortress for the surroundi...

It's been getting cooler than I would like it to be which sadly means the days of summer are coming to a quick end. I guess that's another thing I'll miss about Cincinnati, having warm weather way into September and even being lucky enough 4 years in a row to have awesome weather for my daughter's birthday part in late October. I've told we will have no such luck here, which also means I gotta find a place to have a birthday party for a 5 year old who unfortunately only has 2 friends so far! Hopefully that changes pretty quickly once she starts school next week. But anyway, we went to Geneve Plage (or Geneva "Splash" as Gabi likes to call it now) on Saturday and then to Excenevex Plage on Sunday just trying to soak up the last few rays of sunshine while it's still warm enough to wear a bathing suit. Gabi is officially a different color now and Sebas is a slightly less pale shade of pale. It's too funny how to people who look so much alike can have ...

We traveled to Madrid on Wednesday morning and drove about 2 hours to Salamanca to a house my father was renting for the week.  We had a nice time walking around the town of Salamanca and eating.  However after about 2 days I couldn't have any more jamon iberico -- total overdose!  I am now in full iberico detox mode. As well as in wine detox mode.  On Friday we traveled to La Alberca, a town about 1 hour from Salamanca. This is where my sister's wedding was on Saturday afternoon.  We had a wonderful time and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  We are back home exhausted but happy to be "home" for a few more days.  On Friday Aug. 27th we are going to Montreaux just for the weekend.  Then afterwards no more travel until October!!!! Also Gabi is in summer camp this week again so at least she's happy she's got stuff going on. Especially because she made a few friends during the wedding and I would've felt back if she went back home to be b...

This weekend we went to Disneyland Paris.  We took of Wednesday night after work, spent the night in a beautiful little town in France called Auxerre, and then drove the rest of the way early Thursday.  We literally spent every waking hour at Disney.  We would be there when the gates opened and would be there until around 9 pm when we couldn't take it any more and then we'd go back to the hotel lobby for a beer (or a milk depending on your age) and then hit the sack to do it all over again the next day.  However, I felt that this time was so much more fun than the last time.  Maybe because Sebastian is a little bit older and he therefore enjoyed it a lot more (although he was terrified of most rides in the beginning and then he started losing the fear as time wore on) or because the park is smaller and we were able to do a lot more (met a bunch of the characters, saw the different parades, rode the rides a bunch of times, etc.).  Or maybe because this was t...

No beach pictures this weekend!  We did have a nice time at the pool Saturday afternoon and got to the beach ready to go un Sunday around 10 am, but Gabi got bitten by a bee while building a sand castle and I didn’t know if she’d be allergic or what given it’s her first time so we decided to leave for a clinic not knowing if we had to remove the stinger.  The only clinic that we’ve been recommended is close to our house so even though it’s a 40-45 min. drive to the beach we came all the way back to the clinic as we didn’t want to risk it.  Turns out the stinger wasn’t inside, so she just got a prescription for an anti-biotic, and anti-inflammatory and an anti-histaminic (so many ANTI’s!).  By the time we got out of the clinic and the pharmacy (there’s only 2 pharmacies open on Sundays and they’re both pretty far from home) we were starving and it was too late to go back to the beach.  We had to make do with the food at home (it was the Swiss Independence Holiday so practically NOTHING ...

Gabi finished her summer camp on Friday -- her teachers were already sad despite the fact that it was only a week long! By Friday I had decided I would sign her up for another week in August.  She was super sad on Friday morning that it was all ending and started to say she missed her Cincinnati frieds after she found the bracelet her good friend Andrea gave her as a farewell gift.  I felt so bad for her -- 4 year olds shouldn't suffer from being far away from friends and family but I guess living on the other side of the ocean it's inevitable.  So at least she was happy she's going back for one more week before school officially starts on September 1st.  So she's got one "boring" week this week, next week is Disney, then Spain, then summer camp, then one more "boring" week and then school starts.  Hopefully that's enough activity to keep the homesickness at bay! Alberto came to visit us yesterday he's in town today for meetings and then h...

Gabi had a blast. She says she made 16 friends but doesn't remember any of their names. Her teacher is half Venezuelan and the assistant also speaks Spanish. They did so many cool things she can't remember. All she knows is shes grown up and pretty soon the jonas brothers are going to show up and start singing like in high school musical or something like that. Tomorrow is water day can't imagine it being any more fun than it was today but I guess it will be!!! And as proof she wont remember anything. I take it as a sign that things were so overwhelmingly fun there was no way to keep it all straight in her head. Today we finally got our drivers license, a DVD player that plays US movies so they can watch something OTHER than toy story, and a cd player for sebas' lullabies so he's off going to sleep all by himself. Thanks to the music to quote ABBA.  And gabi? She went to sleep before any of us did, including sebas. Cant wait for school to start in September. :)