Scenes of Europe

A train to the Cotswolds, northwest of London: 

 

Our amazing hotel view in Cinque Terre, Italy:

Plaza del Sol in Madrid on most days: 

Switzerland 1: 

Switzerland 2:

Marina :-) 

Train to Avila, Spain 

My favorite place: Porto, Portugal 

Train to Bilbao, Spain

 

Bilbao  in Basque Country, northern Spain  

Madrid during Christmas

Rambling: Hasta Luego, España

Well I had this post 90% done before I left Spain, but then the holidays happened and I avoided doing anything mildly productive.  Late is better than never, so here is my trip summed up in 24 bullet points:

Things I Will Miss About Spain
1) Meeting up with the girlies, especially for churrrrrros
2) My Spanish family :) And being silly with Chiquita
3) The 20-second commute to work (downstairs to upstairs)

4) Cheap travel - I bought a round-trip plane ticket for $48 total, and one of my fave hostels was $9. And you never go through customs!
5) Being in a constant state of awareness and learning in Spanish. (Current favorite word? Elfo. It means elf) 
6) Feeling like a superior expat or traveler when annoyed at American tourists 
8) 40 degrees is "freezing cold" 
9) The family's massage chair. I will buy one someday
10) Driving the SmartCar.  And just how cute it is. And surprisingly, round-abouts
7) Patatas bravas, fried eggplant by the housekeeper, the kaki fruit, and frozen ready-to-heat crepes
11) So. much. free. time.

Things I Am Looking Forward to in the US

Captured: What I Did In Spain

Well, I started this post months ago, so now that I'm back in the states it makes sense to finish.  Though my schedule has changed over the months (I'd say my level of productivity over time would look like a bell curve), here is basically what I did during the weekdays:

7ish: Wake up, get sufficiently ready, and do 6 minutes of yoga (ok I was good about this for a while at least)

Rambling: High Speed Trains

Alright this post is random but I just have to share.  A friend of mine who is currently living in Taiwan recently blogged about how awesome the high-speed trains are (you can drive 2+ hours or sit on a train for 25 minutes).  I had been thinking the same thoughts and wanting to write about it here, so decided just to share my response:

OMG I've fallen in love with high speed trains. Barcelona is about 400 miles from Madrid, so about 6 hours by car. OR you can take the train and be there in 2.5 hours. How awesome.

Since the distance from Chicago and NYC is about double, how cool would it be to get on a train in Chicago and be in NYC 5ish hours later, rather than driving 12+ hours. It would make business sooo much easier. And visiting people. We would just be so much more connected. I would do it all the time, unlike driving 12 straight hours, which I'm never going to do. But taking a train for 5 hours I would definitely do.

Words: Do you have beggars in the US?

*man begging for money passes us on subway* 
R, my British friend: Do you have that in the US?
Me: What?
R: People begging?
Me: Ummm, yeahhh..... I mean in all the cities.
R: *stares at me with horror and disbelief*
Me: Actually, now that I think about it, I guess I didn't really see anyone begging when I was in London, hmm. Yeah we have them on the streets, on the trains, ya know, like here...
R:  *increases horror and disbelief*  Wow, I can imagine it's hard to see them and not be able to help. Like here it's especially so sad when you see the elderly or sick people... there's this one woman always shaking.....
Me: Yeah, we have lots of old and shaking people begging, especially since they probably can't afford health insurance so they can't buy medicine. It's the worst when you see them outside in the snow.
R: *stunned silence of horror and disbelief*  It makes me really glad to live in a country with a good welfare system.

Recipe: Squash Soup

Though my favorite was the onion soup, this one was pretty good.  I'm curious to try it with different herb combinations! 

1) In a large pot, boil salted water.
2) Chop roughly and add half a white onion, one large carrot, three potatoes, and half a squash (they cook with squash all the time here and I thinnnk it's butternut).
3) Whirl everything in the blender and strain. It's excellent with thick rustic bread.

I wonder how it would taste with caramelized onions, too...

Recipe: Fried Eggplant

Here's one posing with salmon.

THIS IS SERIOUSLY THE MOST DELICIOUS FOOD IN THE WORLD

1) Peel eggplant.
2) Slide it thinly and place slices in a bowl of water.
3) Beat an egg and sprinkle salt; pour breadcrumbs into a plate.
4) Assembly - coat slice in egg then breadcrumbs, place in pan over medium heat with oil in bottom.
5) Once golden brown, enjoy with tomato sauce!

Recipes: Easy Garbanzos

Yummy, super easy garbanzos:

1) Chop and saute onions in olive oil.
2) In a large pot over medium heat, boil water, garbanzos from a jar (here they're packed with spinach), and a little salt.
3) Add sauteed onions and chopped potatoes and continue to boil.
4) Call it done when the texture is to your liking!

I like how there's so much leftover broth, so I use it to make couscous :) 

Printed: Education Things

Some things that have caught my attention lately:


FINLAND: Oh, Finland. The country with consistent wonderful education outcomes for years and years, studied and admired by all. This recent article gave some facts about how they do things that I hadn´t heard before - I´d be curious to find out how true these things are for all schools, but it´s definitely food for thought.  (no school until age 7? teachers spending 4 hours per day in the classroom?? and they all have masters???)

Recipe: Basic Fall Vegetable Soup

SO EASY.

1) Boil water and add a cube of chicken bouillon (OK - so I learned this is NOT actually all vegetables, like I was told.  This is not the first time this has happened in Spain - I ordered a 'vegetable sandwich' and was surprised it came with a bunch of tuna on it, people seem to never mention that things are made with BONES so now I always ask, and meat broth doesn't seem to 'count' as meat.  Anyway, I'll just substitute with vegetable bouillon).

2) Chop roughly and add potatoes, red peppers, squash, spinach, leek, onion, and carrots (the big ones, not baby).  Cook with the lid on for about half an hour.

3) Eat it as is or, if you want, puree the mixture so it becomes a creamy soup.  The end!