Video Blog!

So, I decided to make a video blog! Tell me what you guys think!

Decidi de fazer um blog video! Digam-me o que vocês acham! Espero que gostem! :)

Technorati tags: vlog, português

Norma!

So, as some of you may remember, for my birthday Rubèn bought me tickets for us to go see the opera Norma together in July. While searching around, I found a video of the famous aria from Norma. The aria is called Casta Diva and in the video it is sung by Montserrat Caballé, the best Norma ever, and perhaps the best soprano ever. Oh, and she's Catalan too, by the way! Montserrat is a typical Catalan name for girls. It's pronounced moon-suh-RAT. The letter E in that word being pronounced as a schwa, (like the U in the English word "up" or "under". And roll the R... like a lot. ;)

Anyway, enjoy the video. When I listen to it, she really takes my breath away. I hope that the soprano who sings it when I see it can compare. I'm sure I'll cry like a baby when I see it live.

My Daemon!

I'm standard!

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Different Same

Houston International Festival 2007

So the Houston International Festival started. It's going on this past weekend and next weekend. For those of you who didn't go, you missed out on some awesome concerts.

I work on the Hospitality team which, as you may know, offers hospitality to the artists and musicians flying in from everywhere. We pick them up from the airports, we transport them to the hotels, festival, wherever. It's a pretty cool gig. Anyhow, this weekend I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite singers and the members of her band: Angélique Kidjo. I've been a fan for about two years. Her music is awesome. I spent some time with her and she is such a cool person. Her personality is very fun and energetic. She seemed to me so powerful and childish at the same time. Really interesting.

After their performance last night, the band members wanted to go to have dinner, so we took them all to Mai's for some yummy Vietnamese food. I finally had the chance to get to know them a little better. I sat next to Rubens who is a really cute Brazilian guy from São Paulo... the guitarist for the group. He was super nice and fun. He even gave me his card and contact information so that we could stay in contact. His brother is an opera singer in Barcelona and he's going to try to introduce us while I'm there this summer. Yay for networking!

Anyway, there should be some good shows and concerts next weekend. If anyone is going, you should contact me!

Oh, and just for fun, here's a cute photo of my niece Kaiya playing with my second cousin Jayden.

Technorati tags: Houston International Festival, Angélique Kidjo

Update on Rubèn

So only six or so more weeks until we get to be together! We're so excited. It's amazing... even though we talk every day, often we get on our webcams, microphones and headphones to talk, and during the occasional silences we just stare at eachother and giggle. Just like the first time. We're like little school girls.

Being the total lovesick puppy I am, I totally miss him during the day. To help solution the problem a little, I put him as the background on my phone. I just can't help myself!

Technorati tags: online dating, internet love, boyfriend, foreigners, El Vendrell, Catalunya

Catalans in Houston

Several months ago, when I first began to study Catalan, I decided to make a group on Google Groups for Catalan speakers and Catalan enthusiasts to find eachother. Well, months passed without a single response until finally, a girl named Sara here in Houston contacted me! Well, she doesn't speak Catalan, but she understands a good bit and she's been to Catalonia several times and has lots of Catalan friends (none of which live in Houston still). In any case, it was a start! And so she suggested that we meet and have our first official meeting for the "Catalan in Houston" group. The very same week that she joined the online group, I had met a super cute and adorable Catalan guy named Albert at a French meetup group that I attend on Wednesdays called the French Connection. So I invited him too! And now we're three!

So tonight, we had our first meeting at The Gingerman in the Rice Village. It's a little pub type place. Sara put out her Catalan flag on the table and we had some fun discussion and conversation. Albert showed up and brought his friend, an Argentine, who also is interested in Catalonian culture but doesn't speak the language yet. But that's okay. The four of us seemed to have a good time. I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

So I'm the founder of a new little minority culture group in Houston. It's pretty neat. God, I'm such a nerd, but I love it.

 

Technorati tags: catalan, catalonia, language, meetups, català, catalunya, llengua, trobades

Hair Removal!

So, some of you who know me REALLY well know that I have some assymetrical body hair on my right shoulder that I think is super ugly. Well, I have finally started taking the steps to permanently remove it. I went to a hair removal place a week ago on Thursday and got my folicles zapped. I'm so excited. After a few more treatments, I won't have to shave anymore!

It's always been a source of insecurity for me, so I'm so happy to finally start getting it removed. My second session is in a few weeks, and hopefully I'll get another one in before I go to Catalonia... then when I come back, I'll resume treatments -- unless it's not too expensive to continue in Spain, in which case I may get some treatments there... but you can't be in the sun between treatments, so I'm thinking that it might be a big no since I'll be living a five or ten minute walk from the beach all summer.

So anyway, super exciting for me. I may be a teddy bear, but I don't have to be totally fuzzy wuzzy!

Dieting

So I've been on a diet recently. Well, Charles is always on a diet, right? Even more controversial is that Charles is on the Atkin's diet. Holy crap! Isn't that the diet that raises your cholesterol and gives you a heart attack? Isn't that the one that's so unhealthy and everyone thinks is a bad idea?

God, I'm so tired of having to defend myself. The Atkin's diet is completely healthy. All you do is cut out processed sugars and processed carbs. Can anyone really explain to me how that is unhealthy? I mean, people's health has steadily gotten worse since the discovery of sugar and since people started eating all this carb-rich processed junk like chips and such. It seems like a good thing to me to be eating only meat (mostly lean), vegetables, cheeses, some fats (like butter and mayonnaise), a fruit here and there, some berries. Really, what is so bad about that?

To top it off, this is the first time in my life I feel like I'm in control of my weight. I've lost a good twenty pounds since I've begun and it's still falling off. I feel more energetic, I don't feel hungry all the time anymore, I feel more confident about myself. How could someone have the nerve to tell me that I'm being foolish and that this is bad for me?

I know that they are just concerned about my health, but they shouldn't make ignorant assumptions that what I'm doing is unhealthy. I feel better than I have in a long time. I think my body is capable of surviving several months or so without pasta and cake.

Mean people

There is nothing wrong with me.
I am not stupid for what I believe.
Just because people don't agree with how I achieve my happiness, it doesn't mean that I'm wrong.
I don't have to cry because I feel alone.