kimmie nguyen:

Wrapping Up 2011

At current moment, I'm somewhere in Singapore eating yummy hawker street food with my friends, Stef and Ada. Luckily I had the forsight to create this post ahead of time. Something that's been a bit lacking on the blogs this year. Looked around for 2010's wrap-up list but apparently I was too busy vacationing in Mexico at the time :) Last New Year's post was written in 2009, in which I sound way too happy. Must have been the post-accident-i-love-life-high coming through.

This list is by no means an exhaustive summary of the year. Just the moments that are sitting in my head as December winds down.

• For the first time since graduation, I actually have an itch to move to SF again. And give up my ridicuous rent? Right, well it's only an itch...
• There was a lot of stress with the new job. I really should have shutdown and gotten offline more often. Making this current trip much needed and long overdue.
• Naive I am not but on an occasion or two, I may been too trusting. It's a shame that you sometimes can't take people at face value.  But it was such an incident that helped reset the values that I deem important in others.
• Saw my bestie, Ada, move to NY. Never in a millon years would I have expected it. But proud of her for doing it.
• I have a beau. Shhhh, don't tell mom. He's the Aussie and he's awesome. Quite clever too.
• As you know, the holidays and my family don't go hand in hand. But this year, mom bought me a real gift. Diamond earrings. Plus three Buddhism books to save my soul (her words not mine).
• I discovered that I'm allergic to Acai berry seeds. Not the juice, but the seeds. An unfortunate finding after I engulfed half a bag of chocolate covered berries and broke out in hives for a week. 
• Still traveling. Wish there was more time in a year for this but I can't complain about Mexico, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, Leavenworth (a cute Bavarian town 3 hours outside of Seattle, WA) and Singapore.
• The Reina Sofia museum in Madrid is one of the most beautiful museums that I've ever been to. I'd return just for that and the Jardin Botanico.
• My friend Jas married her best friend, Sancha, after a decade of friendship and all of us wondering if they were ever going to realize what we already knew ;)
• Lots of awesome music festivals to remember with WMC, Coachella and Outside Lands. Always grateful for a chance to be with friends, music and outdoors dancing. Rain or shine.
• Had another amazing year of food parties with the friends. Too many to recount here. Just know, I'm one lucky gal.

Hope you're having a wonderful New Year. See you in 2012.

Duck Sauce :: Barbara Streisand

 

"Oowoo woo woo woo woo woo woo" became the official tune for the girlfriends this weekend at Coachella. Good times. We are already planning for next year. Bigger and better, harts!

 

jo entenc l'amor per a ser simple

A long drive last weekend made me yearn for the cobblestone alleyways of Spain. It's a simple but wonderful feeling to wind your way through those narrow streets with their rows and rows of open balconies, every corner with a cafe and every turn an unexpected sight. An experience that can't be replicated back in the states.

Many friends love Barcelona but find Madrid to be like any other European city. I enjoyed them both albeit for different reasons. Barcelona for its open neighborhoods dotted with Gothic architecture and Gaudi's unmistakable freeform buildings. A landscape that is remarkable with its Port Vell waterfront at the sea winding into the criss-cross grid of L'Eixample and into the woody hills of MontJuic. By the time I reached Madrid, I felt much less like a tourist spending most afternoons reading in the beautiful parks. I didn't venture out of the Old City so perhaps that's why I never tired of Madrid. There the old and the new intermingle and each street blends into the next so you can't tell the difference between the Habsburg, French, or Georgian architecture. I stayed down in Barrio de las Letras - which is situated between Lavapies, Puerta del Sol and Paseo del Prado - where many of Spain's most famous writers like Cervantes and Quevedo lived. It is an area full of history and interesting buildings and is well-known for its concentration of bars, restaurants and hotels. I couldn't get over the fact that there are 2000 restaurants to dip one's feet in. Love.

Despite the smoke filled air, their obvious obsession with ham and other meat products and the lack of decent hand dryers in public restrooms, I very much adored Spain and will definitely be back. The full bulk of photos are on Flickr but here are the goodies.

 

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