A Little Brazilian Flair in a Little Italian Town

For Tim's 20-11 birthday, a group of us (17!) went to Como (as in Lake Como in Italy) for Brazilian. I have heard of these Brazilian restaurants before, you know, the kind that give you endless amounts of meat. I have to say, I was fairly impressed. It was great to have real meat, know what it is, have it taste like meat, and enjoy it. I'm used to the dining hall where you are never really sure if you are eating baby horse. Anyway, we all had a great time celebrating with Tim and gorging ourselves like the carnivores we are. Here are a few pics from the evening.

Birthday boy and Blair

My dinner plate....a little gross to look at, but it tasted soo good!

The Group

(Thanks for looking Carla and Allie!)

Carla and her Italian Stallion, Matteo

So, after eating some great food, we also got a little entertainment from a Brazilian dancer. The dancer's sexuality was questionable. She was a six foot amazon "woman". Now, I think she actually was a woman. While I may not live in southern CA anymore, I still retain some of my knowledge from growing up there. One thing I can pick out easily is whether or not a woman is "enhanced" or not. This woman was not enhanced. When you watch the video listen carefully for my comment that was amazingly picked up by my camera. Oh, sorry that it is sideways. I have no idea how to fix that, so if you have any ideas please let me know.

As I said before, it was Tim's birthday. The good friends we are, we made sure to tell the owner of the place. Well, the amazon woman also found out somehow and Tim got a little lap dance for his b-day.

Dinner was awesome, the company was awesome, and the entertainment, well that's fairly self-explanatory.

So, people always say there is nothing like skiing in the Swiss Alps....

...and that is totally true! I had the amazing opportunity to go to Andermatt last weekend for a day of skiing. The drive alone was awesome. Andermatt is only about an hour or so away from where I live, but you gain thousands of feet of elevation in that short time. The coolest part was going through "the tunnel". The tunnel goes through the mountains, literally. You also build the most elevation in the tunnel. Now, when I'm talking about a tunnel, I'm talking about a 27 km long tunnel. It's crazy! Okay, so on one side of the tunnel, the Ticino side, it was beautiful and sunny...the perfect day for skiing. When we got to the other side it was overcast and colder. However, luck was on our side. You have to take a gondola up to the part of the mountain where you ski. Shortly after arriving up there, the clouds began to clear and we saw...well you'll see. Check out the pictures!

We were walking to get our rentals and this little house was tucked just off the street-how Swiss!

The main road in the little town of Andermatt. I have to say, this is definitely one of the most quintessential Swiss towns I have been in.

Emily and I skied the morning together. Here are the clouds clearing.

After lunch I took another gondola ride up to the peak of the mountain with Allie and Sam. This was my 360 degree view up there. It was really strange to ski above the tree line. I was able to get some amazing pictures as a result though.

Me and Sam about to head down the slope.

When we got to down to the main ski area from the peak, we noticed a cloud creeping up the mountain. Here are Allie and Sam preparing to ski through the cloud. Talk about creepy!

Do I really need to say anything about this picture?

Going up through the cloud for our last run of the day.

I can't say enough good things about this ski trip. The skiing was great, the company was great, and the scenery was just amazing. So, I am now going to be one of those people who says that there is nothing like skiing in the Swiss Alps.

Catching Up

Okay, so I have been pretty lame about updating my blog for the past month, so here are a few things that have happened:

The First Montagnola Snow

This is a view from my apartment of the crazy amount (for this part of Switzerland) of snow. Unfortunately, no snow day at school--I just realized that I miss VA for that reason right now. Who doesn't love a good snow day?!

Raclette at the HoJo

Okay, so Mike and Erica planned a raclette evening out. Raclette is a Swiss cheese that you heat up and scrap off onto potatoes, bread, etc. It is very tasty. Anyway, we couldn't get into the restaurant down the street, so we found a place in Mendrisio that had raclette. Little did we know, the little place was actually a little hotel. The little hotel reminded all of us of the classy establishment in the US, The Howard Johnson. The bibs we wore really added to the classiness of the place :).

Home At Last!!!!!

I was finally able to make it home in mid-December. Much to my surprise, my man treated me to a Christmas tree. This has been a little bone of contention in our relationship, so I'm glad he has finally agreed that I am right :). Isn't it cute?!

Back to CA

After spending a few quality days in VA, I headed to CA to see my family and plan, plan, plan for this wedding. I did manage an evening out with my best gals, Megan and Marilee. Here we are at Mar's house admiring my gorgeous ring!

Like I said before, I spent the rest of my Christmas break planning for the Big Day. I found a dress (yeah!) but I just can't post those pictures. What if he saw? Ellis came out for part of the ordeal and endured a few days of non-stop wedding. We both had a great time and we can thank my parents enough for organizing everything for us. Ellis and I also took engagement photos, which you can see at www.jimkennedyphotographers.com under the "Proofs" link. Find my last name and follow the directions for logging in at the top of the page.

I arrived back to CH in early January and I have been making my way through each week ever since, enjoying the few day trips I have taken. Check out the next posting to see what I've been up to!