Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is an originally religious celebration, which marks the beginning of the holiday season.  It is only celebrated in the US and in Canada, but in different occasions: the fourth Thursday of November and the second Monday of October, respectively.

On Thanksgiving Day, families and friends gather for a large dinner.  They usually meet early in the afternoon to cook and organize the meal together.  That dinner, one of the most expected of the year,  consists of lots of food and traditionally starts with the host or hostess saying grace.

A Thanksgiving dinner would not be a Thanksgiving dinner if it didn't include baked or roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet corn, some kind of vegetables and lots of desserts, namely pumpkin pie.

Another important part of Thanksgiving festivities is watching American football games.  From what I heard, teams like the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots always play on this day.

My Thanksgiving experience this year matched exactly this general description.  Pedro and I went to the Cantlays' house, where he has spent this day in the past three years.  We got there at 3 pm.  I spent all afternoon cooking with the ladies, while him and Patrick watched football on television.  By 6 or 7 pm, we had prepared some appetizers, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows (!!!), green beans with mushrooms, two different kinds of stuffing, and corn rolls, as well as two pumpkin pies, two apple pies, a raspberry pie, a custard tart, a chocolate cake, ginger bread, cookies and a cranberry crumble.  All of this for around 20 people, kids included.

In the meanwhile, when the Cantlays saw my camera, they thought I was some kind of photographer and thus made me take charge of the photo shooting for this year's Christmas cards.  I loved it.  It was another very American experience in that very American day.  Here is the result:

Because most people go home for this celebration, most companies and schools close on Friday, the famous Black Friday.  It's often the busiest shopping day of the season, with crazy sales starting very early in the morning.  I did some shopping in LA on Friday.  Could that count as another check in my American to-do list?  I guess so...

This little four-day break could not have been better.  I went to LA, got to spend some relaxing time with Pedro, caught up my studies, had this amazing American experience, played some tennis, went to an American Football game, ate nice food, did some shopping, and rested a lot.  I am now ready for my last week of classes and three more weeks of lots of studying before going home.

In this Thanksgiving season, I have two things to say.  Firstly, that I am very thankful for having the best family and friends in the world and for having the chance to spend this year in Berkeley.  Secondly, that, in my opinion, we should think about what we are thankful everyday and not only in this time of the year.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Birthday girl

Oh yeah!  For two days, I was the birthday girl here in Berkeley.  Is that a good enough excuse for spending so much time without writing a post?  I hope so.  If not, that's fine.  Last week, it was already an excuse for lots of other things, such as:

- having Pedro, Miguel and Rita visiting for a few days;

- receiving tons of messages, phone calls, skype calls and Facebook posts throughout the 30 hours that made my birthday, starting at 0:00 in Portugal and finishing at 12:00 pm here in California;

- being awarded with many hugs, kisses and even presents from my nice friends in Berkeley;

- having two relaxed days, Friday (after my 10 am midterm) and Saturday, without even touching any book;

- organizing a potluck dinner with my closest friends in I-House and a cocktail night with lots of other people;

- being surprised with a postcard from my dear classmates, a few letters in the mailbox, some roses from Pedro and kiwis (oh, how I missed kiwis!) from Mico and Rita;

- receiving money from Mom and Dad to buy an iPhone 5 as soon as the unlocked version is released, and from my aunts, uncles and grandparents to buy whatever I want;

- eating whatever I wanted;

- asking Miguel and Pedro to give me massages all the time;

- etc., etc., etc.

My potluck dinner was one of the best dinners I had here in Berkeley.  Luisa, Yasmina, Pedro and I went to the supermarket in the afternoon and we gathered with my other best friends around 6:30/7:00 pm. Everyone cooked or pretended to help organizing our dinner, some way or another.  Around 8:30 pm, we had the following dishes on the table: Coronation Chicken (cooked by Yas), Mushroom Risotto (cooked by Claudia), Mediterranean Salad (prepared by me), mini steaks (cooked by Mico and Rita) and sausages (bought by Pedro but cooked by them as well), a quiche (bought by Mike and Huw), nachos and tomato dip (bought by Mario), some bread and cheese (provided by Pedro), an Egyptian dish (brought by Nour) and a few Middle East dishes, such as warm pitta bread with olive oil and spices and a few typical dips (prepared by Nour, Nathalie and Taymour), and a selection of fresh fruit (bought by Emre).  Not to mention the sangria prepared by Nico, Coke and Ludo and the watermelon cocktail made by Taymour.  For the dessert, we had Rita's apple crumble and pear crumble and Luisa's pear in wine, accompanied with vanilla ice cream.  Does this sound yummy enough?  It was more than yummy!  Daniel was the only one who didn't bring anything but he has the excuse of working harder than anyone else for school.

Around 9:30 pm, other people started coming and our night was made of preparing and drinking cocktails, dancing a lot, playing pool, taking pictures, and singing happy birthday at midnight.  I even had a cake with candles!  It was a very nice party...

On Saturday, I just had a relaxed day.  The four of us - Rita, Mico, Pedro and me - had brunch together, and then Rita had to leave for the airport.  Before Pedro left for the airport as well, we spent some quality time with Mico and played tennis together.  After Pedro left, Miguel took good care of me.  We had dinner with some friends of mine in iHouse's dining hall and then watched a movie in Luisa's room.  It was a good relaxing day.  Everyone kept me so entertained that it was not as hard to be away from home as I thought it would be!

Three months down

Update of the post published a month ago:

3 months in Cal = a new home + a new bank account + a new cell phone number

3 months in Cal = a failed attempt to buy an iPhone 5, which is has not been released yet (There are iPhones 5 without contract.  Does anyone know the difference between being unlocked and being without contract?)

3 months in Cal = tons of new friends from all over the world (Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Serbia, Russia, UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Morocco, Iran, Egypt, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, USA, Canada and so on)

3 months in Cal = some specially close friends, among all the people I met: Yasmina, Luisa, Nathalie, Daniel, Nicolas, Ludovic, Mario

3 months in Cal = even more lectures and discussion sessions

3 months in Cal = (way too) many homework assignments: 31 in total and most of them take more than a day to be solved

3 month in Cal = 4 (tough) midterms done

3 months in Cal = the best grade in the class for one subject (48/50, average: 35/50)

3 months in Cal = even more hours in the civil engineering computer lab, although now I prefer being in the one on the 5th floor instead of the one on the 3rd floor

3 months in Cal = many, many, many hours in the i-House library and 6th floor lounge too

3 months in Cal = very smart and friendly classmates

3 months in Cal = many gatherings with my classmates, such as meals together, a potluck dinner, a grad students party, homework sessions, girls night and so on

3 months in Cal = a nice and helpful advisor

3 months in Cal = a thesis supervisor but not many research done

3 months in Cal = some housework and laundry done

3 months in Cal = 7 weekends with Pedro (we even seem to be a real couple now!  Hahaha)

3 months in Cal = 1 trip to Monterey

3 months in Cal = 2 trips to Los Angeles, the last one with Pedro, Mico and Rita

3 months in Cal = 6 trips to San Francisco

3 months in Cal = 1 trip to Santa Cruz

3 months in Cal = 1 trip to Cordevalle

3 months in Cal = 2 American football games + some pre-game without going to the game (pre-gaming is the best part of American football.  The game itself is waaaaay too boring)

3 months in Cal = lots of workout (yoga, pilates, spinning, jogging, conditioning, circuit training, touch rugby and indoor soccer)

3 months in Cal = a indoor soccer game played every Thursday night, as part of the Structural Engineering team.  We got to the final of the intramural tournament, which is going to take place in two weeks!

3 months in Cal = many miles walked

3 months in Cal = (only) two days at the beach

3 months in Cal = lots of parties (the best ones in SF)

3 months in Cal = some fraternity experience (although I still need to go to a coop party)

3 months in Cal = way to much food

3 months in Cal = great breakfasts and brunches

3 months in Cal = tons of cookies

3 months in Cal = realization that I would have to change my eating habits (I am a healthy person again now)

3 months in Cal = only one meal with fish

3 months in Cal = almost no cooking

3 month in Cal = many restaurants in Berkeley explored. Favourite ones so far: Cheeseboard Collective, Joshua Ya, Gordo's Taqueria, Icy's

3 month in Cal = different gourmet cultural experiences

3 months in Cal = lots of crazy people on the streets (people laughing loud, talking to themselves, talking to other people, wearing crazy stuff, etc., etc.)

3 months in Cal = many homeless people

3 months in Cal = 28 posts on my blog

3 months in Cal = some photos taken

3 months in Cal = many hours in Skype. As my Dad said, a lot of emailing, messaging, Skyping, Vibering, blogging, etc. (Mummy is the champion of Whatsapp, Skype and Viber!)

3 months in Cal = 4 familiar events (that felt so good, specially the one with Villas-Boas' family...) with other families + lots of familiar events with Mico, Rita and Pedro too

3 months in Cal = 2 events with Portuguese people: dinner with some Portuguese PhD students and dinner at Villas-Boas', besides all the things that Mico, Rita, Pedro and I did together

3 months in Cal = Mico and Rita came visiting!!!!!!  First visit besides Pedro

3 months in Cal = lots of mail received, including 4 letters from Mom and Dad; 2 (with amazing drawings) from Tios Ana and Carlos; 3 letters, some cookies and a CD from Avós Teresinha and Zé; one letter from Avós Rita and António; some boots and an external disk offered by my parents

3 months in Cal = more mail to be received, now that my birthday is coming up soon

3 months in Cal = so much knowledge learnt, not only in classes, but mainly in the daily life

3 months in Cal = lots of contact with different cultures

3 months in Cal = a very united family living this experience with me

3 months in Cal = Dad's birthday far away from me

3 months in Cal = a lot of strong feelings

3 months in Cal = many "saudades" too

3 months in Cal = still a lot to do

Happy birthday Pai

It was 3:55 pm (11:55 pm in Portugal) and my mom signed in her Skype account.  I asked her to wait a few more minutes till Miguel arrived at Pedro's home in Westwood, LA.  As soon as he got here, we lightened up a candle, put on some hats and stuff like that so that it seemed that we had a costume on, and we called my mom and dad.

We sang happy birthday, we made some noise and we tried to chat for a little bit, but I guess that everyone got very emotional, specially me.  I actually cried.  It was the first (or maybe the second) time I felt really homesick.  It doesn't feel right to spend one of our (Mom's, Dad's, Miguel's or mine) birthdays apart from each other.  And the fact that Miguel is here with me, having an amazing weekend in LA, makes me feel even worse about not being at home with my lovely parents.  There's nothing we can do about it.  What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?  All I can do now is to write a post showing the world how much I love my dad and wishing him all the best.

Basically my dad is my idol: the best husband a woman can dream of, a caring father, an extremely successful business man that is also a full engineering professor, a good friend, and my personal advisor.  He's so smart, so honest, so respectful, so proper and so optimistic that we have to accept that he is sometimes too tough and straightforward.  Along with my mom, he's the person I look up to.  Yeah, I had to mention my mom too.  If she wasn't so organized, so sweet, so supportive, so successful in her career and such a good housewife and present mom, my dad wouldn't have the chance to be as awesome as he is...  

Happy birthday Pai.

I love you and our family,

Martinha

Coming up soon

As I told you in the previous post, my birthday is coming up soon and I spent some time organizing the festivities today.  I am planning to have a potluck dinner only with my best friends in i-House and a Cocktail Contest Night with everyone else after that.  I created two separate events on Facebook, which descriptions are shown below.

Potluck Dinner:

Hello my darlings! As I'm sure you all know :), my birthday is coming up. I'm going to turn 22 on November 17th and I would like festivities to start the night before. I'm inviting only my closest friends in i-House to a small dinner. I rented the kitchen for that afternoon and evening, so that we get the chance to cook. My idea was to organize a potluck dinner. Everyone would bring something. People who don't want to cook better buy some good food! Haha. Just let me know what you're planning to bring so that we don't have the same dish twice. It doesn't have to be proper dishes, we could have some kind of tapas night.
I will create another event on Facebook for the after party, where anyone can come. Cocktails night!

Cocktail Contest Night:

Hey everyone! My birthday is coming up soon and I would like you all to celebrate it with me. I was planning to organize a cocktail contest night in the Gamble Room on November 16th. Everyone should organize themselves in groups of 5 to 6 people and choose a cocktail to prepare.

I'll provide some basic cocktail ingredients: sugar, lemon, olives, mint and fruit decoration. Each group brings their own alcohol. I'm going to go to the supermarket anyway so just let me know if you want me to buy you anything.

I hope you can all make it!

I guess someone's having fun next weekend!!!  Come join me if you can.

People/Family/Friends over

Guess who came visiting!  Oh yeah, Mico and Rita did!!!  Not only did they came, but they brought a bunch of stuff from my Mom and Dad, including a fully equipped pencil case, some lotions I couldn't afford here, warm apparel and a lovely letter with drawings.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

They arrived Thursday evening in Berkeley and left the day after to start a romantic road trip around California.  Although it was a short visit, we got to get the most out of it.  On Thursday evening, we had a typically Californian dinner together (mexican food and ice cream sandwiches) and spent some time with my friends from i-House.  On Friday, we had a touristic day in San Fran.  I took them to Pier 39, Fisherman Wharf, Lombard Street, Union Square and the Mission District, where we had an amazing lunch outside while we enjoyed the chill artsy neighborhood.

Before coming back to Berkeley, we picked up their home for the next two weeks: a van with bed, curtains, table, sink, griller and so on.  They are certainly going to have lots and lots of fun.  Do you wanna know where they are going?  Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas and every interesting place between LA and SF.  :)

I felt quite lonely after they left (my room suddenly became so big again) but I can't complain.  We are going to meet in LA next weekend (double-dating weekend!!!) and here in Berkeley the weekend after to celebrate my birthday.

By the way, dear family and friends, my birthday is coming up soon...  Has everyone bought gifts and/or wrote letters?  Hehehe.  I received a special present this Friday: three boxes of butter cookies and one of "broas" to sweeten my mouth.  Thanks Grandpas!

Have a nice week,

Marta