Gobble Gobble

This year was a small Thanksgiving, which means more for everyone. We had the turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies and"butt buns" as Mark calls them. We had a great stuffing this year, bought to us by Sara. I love Thanksgiving food.

In accordance with the Collins sweet tooth the pies took precedence over everything... we had 7 different pies: Pumpkin, pecan, apple, sugar-free apple, cherry, french silk and Lemon Meringue. (this amounted to .78 pies/person)

I made my first ever pecan pie, and a lemon meringue pie. I know the lemon meringue is not exactly in season but i reallly wanted to try to make one. It turned out great and was super fun and easy.

Amaya and Sara.......My brother Jim in his essence:

(He eventually put on some jeans and joined everyone at the table......)

Adam and Maria had thier own thanksgiving, but eventually came by with Henry. I wasnt home, but I still wanna give a shout-out to him.......

cute cute cute

Since I've been back

One thing is clearly evident: I've been doing a pretty bad job of keeping up/continuing my blog. I have to fit it into my new routine here I guess, which is something that is also forming.

Okay so a quick update to catch you up before I delve into my next adventures....

I got a car, not just any car, a car that is probably too good for me. A 2011 Ford Focus.....However, using my wit, I have managed to justify every package and upgrade that I added to it, including my moonroof, light up cup holders, and heated seats. Obviously the heated seats were easiest to justify as Wisconsin is quickly living up to its fame for being cold (of course we all remember Jack Dawson's reference to the cold Wisconsin winters in the movie Titanic).

That was step 1 to my transition back home. I am also working for my mom at her stores, working a games kiosk (board games) at the mall during the holidays and exploring Milwaukee. For kicks, I'll also add the eating too much factoid. Trading the Mediterranean diet and public transportation for Burgers and a sporty little coup is taking its toll on me.

My thoughts on being home? It's been a weird quick transition. Things are still settling in and especially with the onset of dark cold winter, I miss Spain quite a bit. However, the perks of being here are my friends and family and I would not trade that for anything. Besides, I have heated seats now. Come February I plan to get my resume together and am toying with the idea of searching for a 'real job', but anyone who knows me, knows that anything can happen in the next few months....... or days.

Farewell Trip

I'm a little behind, but this is my catch-up week. My last trip in Spain was to Malta. Malta is a small island country just south of Sicily. Its supposedly one of the most Catholic nations in the world. It was a very important British port in History as such its native language is English, but the cool thing is that it also has Italian and Arab influences. A typical Maltian (or whatever you call someone from Malta) looks like a Japanese anime character......

Overlooking the port:

These are what the buses of Malta look like. They have a lot of character (aka are ancient) and also breakdown, but Malta is famous for them.
Pictures from the Medina (old city center):

Port:

Javi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just some random park.....