Food, Booze, Food, Booze

Dear Friend,


last week was crazy! I'm still recovering from all the partying, eating and drinking. Firstly it was Christmas: food, food, food and a couple of very nice presents. =) Then, I organized my cousin's birthday on the 27th… beer and cupcakes galore!  To wrap the year up good, the New Year's Eve party was in my house. I slept probably about 5 hours a night and spent most of the time in the kitchen (cooking and eating). Anyway, I'm pretty tired but immensely happy as well. I've got a feeling 2012 will be a great year, and I'm up for everything that comes my way! 

those are the cupcakes i baked for my cousin's party. the oreo ones were pretty great! =)

Oh, I god a hair cut! A very extreme one, I must say. ahahah One night, I went to bathroom to brush my teeth, caught a glimpse of the scissors and it was like they were calling me "use us, Mariana! you're hair is tired of you!cut it off" , so I did it. Of course, it was kinda dodgy, but the next day I went up to the hair dresser and he fixed it up for me.

this is me and my new 'do', this morning, a bit hangover and half asleep. 

I guess those are the latest news for now. Can wait to hear about your Holidays! 

love, Mariana. 

What a week! Busy, busy, busy!

Dear friend,

This week I also made my first plate of 'Brigadeiros'! Yep, that's right. Only after living here for over 3 years I got to make it. And boy, I made a mess in this kitchen! My adapted recipe did not work as planned and I ended up burning the first batch, oops! The second turned out fabulous, although due to the previous experience, its consistency wasn't perfect because I didn't cook it all the way (I couldn't burn it again!). I made it for a potluck/end-of-class gathering this past Wednesday. 

This was also my last week of class, which means finals. You probably can imagine how stressed I was. Two exams and lots of projects to hand in. I couldn't wait for it to be over. As I've told you, I'm changing my major. I am very excited to start fresh, and for that I really need to organize myself for the semester to come or I'll go crazy. It's going to be a hell of a semester and I want to give my best and dive into it. For now I am looking forward to my week with evenings free again :)

The next couple of weeks will be busy but definitely fun.  The kids of the family I live with will be home on Winter break and we'll get ready for Christmas. That's the only time of the year I feel homesick. I just can't get used to spending this holiday away from home, but hopefully, since the house will have lots of guests - my host mom's sister and husband plus her parents - I won't feel it so much.

Here's life's present for me this week that I'd like to share with you:

Let me know how your week went :)

Love,
 — Bela

the beginning

Dear friend,

this week felt so long it could easily fit in a month. As you know, I recently moved back to my parents house and felt an immediate urge to change things around here. I cleaned up drawers, threw away tons of old magazines and gave kilos and kilos of clothes to charity. I find real pleasure in organizing things. It is like opening up the windows on a sunny day after a week of rain. The energy flows, you know?
Besides that, I also had a sort of spiritual experience, by "revisiting my past" . But I already told you all about it!
The weekend was pretty calm. I didn't care so much about going out. I am on a diet so, it is preferable to stay away from 'petiscos e cerveja'. Instead, I stayed in and worked on my sketchbook. < geek alert  >
Today, I woke up abruptly from a nightmare around 7 am, picked a book from my nightstand (The Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino), and read a couple of chapters until I felt asleep again. Later, I watched a Hanson dvd, baked raspberry muffins, re-organized the big book shelf in the dinning room and saw the Amelie Poulain movie with my parents.


it actually feels good to recap the week like this. makes everything a bit more valuable. =)

this is an image I found on the net today that looks a lot like the place I saw in my ‘journeny to the past’ - figured would be nice to illustrate it to you.

this is the letter I found whilst organizing my boxes - from you to moi, 5 years ago

this is my desk and my latest ‘artwork’ LOL. - everything I do looks like it was done by a 5 year old

Bela's First -- post, that is.

Dear friend,
I just came back from watching the fireworks at my favorite pier :) I gotta say, I love this holiday season. I don’t know if it’s because it’s near the end of the year and a new year always seem to give us a boost, or if it’s because the fairy-lights. God, how I love fairy-lights. It just turns regular places into magical places! — at least for me.

As for my week, I hate to bore you but my week was mostly studying. I saw lots of books. History books, children’s books, Psychology books and random books. To be honest, I can’t wait to not see any, for a while at least. Give me the freaking New Yorker and let me chill on the beach wrapped up in a cozy blanket - this kind of reading would be highly appreciated. But while that time in my life doesn’t come, I’ll just keep on studying for my finals. Last week of classes is about to start (YES!).

Friday was fun, though. I went to a nearby Mexican restaurant. I’m kind of a regular there, even though every time I get the check I swear to myself I’m never coming back. As you can see, I do go back and my favorite waiter is always prompt to serve as well. His name: Jesus. No, I’m not kidding. He’s the greatest. I feel like asking for miracles and stuff, but I always end up ordering margaritas instead.
So excited to have this place to share with you a bit of what goes on with me up in this hemisphere :)

Here's a picture from Friday:

It says a lot about how I was feeling on that day. I took it through the back fence of the soccer field behind my house.

— Bela