Christmas

I cannot believe that Christmas is over and we are barely in march. Its not the fact that I will have to wait more than half a year until its Christmas again……. But I haven’t had a nice, cold, and cozy Christmas since last, last year. My mental image of a perfect Christmas is most likely very different than the perfect Christmas of many Brazilians. I can´t spend Christmas nor new years in the beach getting the perfect tan. Eating fish and ice creams every day instead of indulging on cookies, brownies, and turkey is not something I am used to.

Every Christmas I normally go to Northern Mexico and for new years I go to several places in the US like Las Vegas and Denver for example. I like to see my family members and spend quality time with them doing copious amounts of activities and cooking together. My grandmother as well as my mom, makes the BEST Christmas treats and cuisine. We have a lot of cookies, brownies, cakes, turkey, salads, gravy, and pies. When the weather is cold it makes it much more easier to enjoy these amazing stuff because you don’t end up all sweaty and full yet with your bikini on.

http://www.ukgermanconnection.org/kids/domains/thevoyage.com/local/media/images/kids_square/squarephotos/plaetzchen_square.jpg

Cooking

         Although cooking is more of a hobby to me than it is an actual possibility for future employments, I enjoy practicing a lot in my free time. I am Mexican and the rules are very basic in my home town: if you don´t cook you don’t get married until you do. It’s very weird to think that nowadays those old school rules still apply. But in my case they do so I had to grow up learning how to cook in one way or another. I mainly know how to cook Mexican food but that is not my preference. I enjoy cooking Italian cuisine and all kinds of pastries.


         Considering the fact that I love pastries Christmas is my favorite time of the year. They make all sorts of foods and sweets that are decorated in the cutest ways! Making pastries out of ginger and cinnamon is the best in my opinion because it gives it the perfect Christmas tough especially when you add frosting.

Here is a recipe I found of one of my favorite desserts!

Apple-Cranberry Crisp

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

5 large Jonathan apples, peeled, sliced

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, sliced

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

3/4 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish.

2. Mix first 3 ingredients in bowl. Add 1/2 cup butter and combine using pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.

3. Mix apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla in large bowl. Transfer to prepared baking dish. Dot with 1/4 cup butter. Crumble topping evenly over fruit.

4. Bake until apples are tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Cool slightly.

5. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream, as desired.

Makes 12 servings.

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/dessert/apple-cranberry-crisp-recipe.html

Horseback Riding

Horseback riding ha been part of my life for a long, long time now. I don´t like to do it seriously though simply because I don't have the time and the dedication for such a sport. I used to do it a little when I lived in Mexico, and later on in my life I went horseback ridig much mor often in Venezuela. Here in Brasil I am only able to pactice it during special trips or very once ina while. I don't have horses here like I used to have back in Venezuela but I still get to do it at clubs. The reason why I practiced it a lt in Venezuela is because my Mom's best friend used to have a huge farm that had more than 9 horses and we invested in horses of our own.

Beyoncé

Beyoncé is the only one I´ve seen who can dance amazingly and still manage to sing at the same time without stopping to have a breathe. I went to her show in Ferbruary and that was the main thing that took me by surprise the most. In all of her videos her voice is always so perfect and her body is so curvy yet proportional. But I never thought that when you looked at her live she would still be able to pull it of just as much as in her videos. Her voice wasn´t nearly as computerized as I thought it would be, and her body wasn´t completely photo shopped either.

Out of all the videos she has done I think my top 2 would have to be SWEET DREAMS and BABY BOY. They are very different because she made them in very different stages in her life. But each one of them involves her dancing in very weird yet admirable ways. In SWEET DREAMS she wears this tight tiny dress and then dances with two other ladies. There are sort of mirrors everywhere and the effects and dance moves are unbelievable. In BABY BOY my favorite part is when she is wearing sort of Arabian mixed with Indian. She does a type of dance I don’t recognize in the sand and she looks really astonishing .

The Beach

One of my favorite locations that exist in this world is the beach. I have been to plenty of beaches but I must tell you that the ones of my preference are the ones located in the Caribbean. I haven´t had the chance to visit all of the Caribbean but to the ones that I have been to have so far been almost impeccable. Cap Cana in Republican Dominican among the rest is one of the best. Others include Puntacana, Curacao, Aruba, Puerto Rico, and other places that I haven´t seen before.

The reason why I believe that Cap Cana is one of the most beautiful places and locations to visit is because my aunt has a house in there and it is far more than simply clean. The beaches have everything that you need. For example SPAs and restaurants. Since Cap Cana is placed in the middle of the world the climate is very tropical and sometimes nice and sunny. In the condominium that my aunt lives in has copious amounts of activities you can do as ell as clubs you can joins. You can do paintball, boogie riding, Horseback riding, golf, and still hit the gym all in the same day. You can take long walks in the beach and for breakfast you can go to the restaurants. Donald Trump has invested a lot of money in this residential and that is why it has many, many things involved in it.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/413151692_4e31cc9afe_b.jpg

FINAL EXAMS!!

Today I decided that for my blog I am not going to write about things that I Do Like but instead I want to express myself in a negative way. I am going to write about something that I truly don’t like at all. FINAL EXAMS! They always ruin everything, my weekends become stressful, and my chances of passing a certain class decrease.


At the end of each semester we are all forced to do final exams for each class so that the teachers can see how much we have truly learned during the school year and if any progress is shown. I personally would much rather not take these exams and do some kind of a project or a presentation in which all of our progress is shown and the teachers can truly see how much we know. In exams I tempt to stress out, memorize everything right before the test happens, and later forget everything. I don´t show all of my potential either due to the amount of stress. ? Isn´t December supposed to be a happy month where everyone is all excited about the holidays? Well, at Chapel it´s all very different, at least for the students it is.

We become total anti-social people during the last weekends for we have to study loads and loads of information that we were supposed to know but we don´t cause teachers didn´t have time to teach us!

Circus Classes

I always liked circuses, since I was a little girl I loved to go and watch them.....not because of the monkeys and other  animals but because I found it amusing to see pretty girls dancing and doing the coolest things I since those days my dreams were always to one day become somewhat like them. When I lived in Venezuela I looked for classes but never found them because the idea of taking circus classes seems a bit crazy. However I when i came to live here in Brazil I found circus classes at the Companhia Atletica. At first I felt uncomfortable about atetending those classes because I thought it was just like juggling and those things. When I went to the classes I saw how the students were learning to do a lot of different jumps that are similar to the ones in cheereleading, flips, and flexibility activities.
This was perfect for me and exactly what I needed when i needed it! Since I was doing cheerleading, circus classes would truly help me because I would be able to practice my jumps, stunts, and flips more. I was amazed at how much talent one of the teachers had at olny the age of 17. He as well as the other teachers had a specific talent that they were willing to share to us so that we can be inspired by their acts. I think that my special talent is my flexibility. Due to my ballet, cheerleading, and other dancing activities my flexibily got very developed and managable so that I can always go back and be even more flexible.
In the future I hope to be even better at what I enjoy duing so much. I practice 2 days a week for an hour and a half and since I started I can see some clear improvement and less fear toward hights, falling, and breaking my bones!