EL BLOG DE AMPOWERFLOWER

Aventuras y anécdotas fuera de casa

Monday, November 29, 2010

El templo Baha'i. The Baha'i temple

Hola amigos! hoy estoy escribiendo un monton y es que por fin tengo tiempo de contaros un monton de cosas que hemos hecho por aqui. Cuando aun estaba en Ciudad Real vi el programa "Espanoles en Chicago" y una de las personas entrevistadas enseno un templo dedicado a la religion "Baha'i".
Desde nuestra ventana se ve esta cupula y era otro de los sitios que queriamos visitar. Solo esta a unos 4 kilometros, asi que aprovechando que el dia no era excesivamente frio, hemos ido andando hasta alli, haciendo algunas paradas en el camino para hacer fotos de sitios que tambien queriamos ver.
Hi friends! today I'm writing really a lot! I finally have some time to do it so I can tell you about many things we have done these days.
When I was still in Ciudad Real I watched a program called "Spanish people in Chicago" and one of the Spanish persons in this program talked about a temple dedicated to the "Baha'i" religion.
We can see the dome of this temple from our house and of course, it was one of the things we wanted to visit. It is only 2.2 miles far, so we took our cameras and walk there. The day was not too cold today and during our way there, we stopped to take pictures of other nice places.

Durante nuestro paseo hemos hecho fotos a algunas de las iglesias que hay en el campus y tambien hemos visto las casas de varias fraternidades, a la gente espanola esto les sonara a las peliculas que vemos en television :), pero hay que ver que casitas!!
During our walk to the Baha'i temple we took some pictures of some of the churches around campus and we have also seen some of the fraternity houses. I know Spanish people will see this as taken from a tv movie :), but you have to see what kind of houses are these!!


Hemos continuado andando despues de pasar por la zona del campus y hemos llegado hasta el faro Grosse. Es un faro pequenito que hay en la playa del lago Michigan y ademas, por ahi, se puede acceder a la parte publica del lago. Hacia mucho frio aqui, pero el paisaje era muy bonito.
After the campus area we stopped at the "Grosse lighthouse". It is very small and there is also a collection of flowers there. In this place there is also a path to go to the public area of the beach in lake Michigan. It was very cold there, but the landscape was really beautiful.

Poco a poco nos ibamos acercando mas y mas hacia el templo, hasta que por fin lo hemos visualizado en las distancia.
We were approaching the temple little by little. Finally, we could visualize it in the distance.


La religion Baha'i es una religion muy nueva, cuyos primeros feligreses empezaron a practicar a finales del siglo XIX. Tiene sus origenes en Iran y su profeta es Baha'u'llah (1817-1892). Su verdadero nombre es Mirza Husayn-Ali y se le conoce como Baha'u'llah, que significa "La Gloria de Dios". Esta religion es practicada por solo 5 millones de personas en todo el mundo y la mision de este profeta era luchar por la paz mundial. Baha'u'llah paso 25 agnos de su vida en prision debido a sus creencias religiosas, que en todo momento, fueron pacificas. Tambien vivio en el exilio y finalmente murio en Akka (Palestina) en 1892, aunque hoy esta zona pertenece a Israel.
The Baha'i religion is a pretty novel religion, which first followers started practicing its principles at the end of XIX century. It has its origins in Iran and its messenger is Baha'u'llah (1817-1892). His real name is Mirza Husayn-Ali and he is known as Baha'u'llah which means "The Glory of God". There are only 5 million people following this religion in the entire world and the mission of it is achieving peace in the world. Baha'u'llaha spent 25 years of his life in prison because of his religious ideas, even though they were peaceful. He was also exiliated and finally he died in Akka (Palestina), a place that belongs to Israel nowadays.


Esta religion cree que todos formamos una sola raza, el mundo es un solo pais y nosotros sus ciudadanos. Todos juntos, con todas las religiones compartimos los mismos propositos:
- Eliminacion de todos los prejuicios.
- Igualdad entre el hombre y la mujer
- Armonia entre ciencia y religion.
- Paz mundial mantenida por una mancomunidad global de naciones.
- Soluciones espirituales a problemas economicos.
- Educacion universal.
Esta religion reune a todos los profetas de las religiones que casi todos conocemos: Jesucristo, Buda, Mahoma, Abraham, Moises, Krishna, Zoroastro...segun la fe Baha'i, Baha'u'llah es el mas reciente de estos mensajeros.
Este religion no tiene clero y en sus templos no se dan sermones, ni hay sacramentos.
Hay siete templos en todo el mundo, el de America del norte esta aqui en Wilmette, justo al lado de Evanston. En Europa esta en Frankfurt, en Africa en Uganda, en America del sur en Panama, en Asia hay uno en Samoa, otro en Australia y finalmente uno en la India.
Por supuesto, hay que seguir los libros sagrados de todas las religiones y por ejemplo, en la decoracion de los templos esto se puede ver en sus columnas donde hay cruces representando al cristianismo, las cruces del budismo e hinduismo, el simbolo del coran, la estrella de David, etc.
This religion believes in the existence of an only raze. The world has an only country and we all are the citizens. All together, joining all the religions can fight together to achieve the next goals:
- Eliminating all kind of prejudices.
- Equality of men and women.
- Harmony between religion and science.
- Peace in the world achieved by a global community of nations.
- Spiritual solutions for economical problems.
- Universal education.
This religion believes in all the messengers of all religions: Jesuschrist, Mahoma, Buddah, Abraham, Moses, Zoroastro, Krishna...and Baha'u'llah is the most recent of these messengers.
If you visit the temple, there won't be anyone preaching and no sacraments will be found in their sacred books.
There are seven temples in the whole world. The North American one is here in Wilmette, IL, next to Evanston. In South America is in Panama, the temple of Europe is in Frankfoort, there is another one in Australia, India and another in Samoa. The African one is in Uganda.
Of course, they follow the sacred books of all the religions: the bible, coran, torah, etc and you can see this in the decoration of the columns of the temple where symbols of every religion can be seen (the cross, the hooked cross, the David's star...).


Columna con todos los simbolos religiosos. Column with all the religious symbols.

En la cupula del templo se puede observar un simbolo que es la representacion de las palabras arabes "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha" que significa "Gloria del Todo Poderoso".
At the top of the dome a symbol can be observed. It represents the Arabic words "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha", which means "Glory of the All Mighty".

El templo se comenzo a construir en 1921 y se completo en 1953, aunque aun hay partes de los jardines que estan en construccion.
Me ha parecido una experiencia cultural muy enriquecedora, el ambiente era muy espiritual, no habia simbolos religiosos ni ningun predicador. Habia numerosas actividades para todo tipo de gente, todas ellas buscando armonia entre todos nosotros.
Es uno de los sitios que mas me ha gustado visitar y me parece increible que este aqui tan cerca de casa, un simbolo religioso tan nuevo, tan escaso y tan pacifico.
The temple started being built in 1921 and it was done by 1953, even though there are some parts of the gardens that are still under construction.
I thought it was an incredible cultural experience, the environment was very spiritual, there were not religious symbols of this faith and no preachers. There were many activities for all kind of people, always looking for harmony among us.
It is one of the places I liked the most since we are here and I think it is really incredible, so close, here, such an important religious temple of this rare faith...what I liked the most is how peaceful it was.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Campus y paseo en el lago. Campus and walk along the lake

Como os dije el otro dia, habia un monton de cosas que queriamos hacer aqui en Chicago y Evanston. Durante el puente no hemos podido ir a ningun sitio lejos porque Thomas trabajaba el sabado, pero aun asi, teniamos cosas sencillas que hacer por aqui.
Hacia tiempo que queria ir por el Campus y hacer fotos de los edificios, arboles, ardillas, etc que hay. El Campus de aqui es precioso, los edificios son relativamente antiguos y el lago esta a menos de cinco minutos. Asi que ayer cogimos nuestras camaras y nos dimos un buen paseo por el campus en busca de rincones bonitos. No nos dio tiempo a ver todo lo que queriamos en detalle, pero vimos algunas partes por donde normalmente no pasamos en nuestro camino hacia el laboratorio.
As I told you the other day there were still many things to do in Chicago and Evanston. We haven't gone anywhere further during Thanksgiving holiday because Thomas had to work on Saturday, but still we wanted to do some simple things here.
We wanted to go for a walk in Evanston Campus and take pictures of the buildings, trees, squirrels, etc. The Campus here is beautiful, it is relatively old and the lake is very close, less than 5 minutes walking. We took our cameras and we went for a long walk looking for nice places to see. We didn't have time to see everything we wanted to, but we could visit some parts that we normally don't see on our usual way to the lab.


Poco a poco nos fuimos acercando al lago Michigan para ver todas las rocas pintadas que hay al border del lago y todo a lo largo de el. Se puede encontrar de todo, rocas firmadas, de alguna asociacion de estudiantes, rocas amorosas, declaraciones de amor y de casamiento, etc. Me parecio muy original, hay un paseo a lo largo del lago lleno de estas rocas pintadas :) Aqui teneis algunas fotos.
We approached lake Michigan and we could see all the painted rocks that are along the lake. We could find everything there, rocks painted by student's associations, rocks with love poems, with marriage proposals, etc. I thought it was very original and some of theme were very artistic. Here you can see some pictures.





Esta es mi roca favorita, me parecio muy graciosa :) El novio de Jenny la llama su "dinosaurio favorito" que romantico! jaja!
This was my favorite rock, I think it is very funny :) Jenny's bfriend is calling here "his favorite dinosaur" so romantic,haha!!

Antes de volver a la Universidad, terminamos nuestro paseo en el campo de los "Wild cats". El equipo de futbol americano de Northwestern. La temporada ya ha terminado, pero ir a uno de los partidos tambien esta en nuestros planes :)
Despues de trabajar unas horas, yo fui al gimansio y despues salimos a cenar a un sitio muy chulo que os contare en el post dedicado a restaurantes en Evanston. Besos!!
Before going back to University we ended up our walk in the "Wild cats" field. The Wild cats is the football team of Northwester and even though the season finished already it is also in our plans going to one of their games :)
After working a couple of hours, I went to the gym and then out for dinner to a nice place. I'll tell you about it in the post dedicated to restaurants in Evanston. Hope you liked it!!

Edificios altos, ventanas y mierdas de pajaro. High buildings, their windows and bird shit

Me encanta vivir en este edificio, la vista es maravillosa desde nuestro apartamento y ademas, me gusta muchisimo que las ventanas sean tan grandes, hay muchisima luz y le da un aire muy moderno al apartamento. Sin embargo, las ventanas tienen un inconveniente, segun mi opinion. Hay una parte de la ventana que se puede abrir, pero como estamos en un piso bastante alto, no se abre completamente. La parte de arriba no se puede abrir, es un cristal fijo y solo se puede limpiar por dentro. Los cristales los limpia una empresa periodicamente por fuera y ese es el incoveniente...si hay un pajarito muy mono que le da por cagarse a lo bestia en tu cristal, no se puede limpiar la mierda hasta que los de la empresa vengan a limpiarlo...esto es lo que me he encontrado hoy mientras estaba desayunando, la mierda aun estaba goteando...ayyy!!!! Asi que ahora toca esperar un tiempecito viendo la mierda gigante de pajaro cada vez que mire por la ventana...que bonito! y que organico!


I really like living in this apartment, the view is great and I really love these big windows. We have a lot of light and they give a modern touch to the apartment. However, they are not very convenient sometimes. The lower part of the window can be opened, but not completely because it is too high and it would be dangerous to open it too much. The upper part can't be opened and it is completely fix. So the windows can only be cleaned from the inside and there is a company that cleans the windows from the outside periodically and...that is the inconvenient! it is possible that a nice little bird comes and shits all over the window :). Of course, this can't be cleaned until the company comes and clean it. This is exactly what I found this morning while eating breakfast...this huge shit was still fresh and sliding on the window, aggg!! From now on we'll have to be seeing this nice thing every time we look out of the window, how nice and organic!!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Thanksgiving. Accion de gracias

Ayer fue un dia importante en Estados Unidos, ya que se celebraba "Accion de gracias". Esta tradicion proviene de los primeros colonos que tomaban parcelas de tierra (en cierto modo quitandoselas a los indios americanos), pero despues se reunian con ellos y cenando todos juntos, daban las gracias por sus tierras, cosechas, etc. Al menos, esta es una de las historias que mis companeros me han contado :)
Christina, una de mis companeras del grupo nos invito a cenar en su casa. Lyle, su novio iba a preparar el tipico pavo de accion de gracias y un monton de platos tipicos de esta noche.
Por supuesto aceptamos! nos hizo mucha ilusion y estabamos deseando ver como era este evento, como seria el pavo, la comida, etc :)
Yesterday there was a big celebration here in the States because it was "Thanksgiving". Some of my colleagues told me that this celebration started after the first colonist took some land from the American Indians. After settling they use to make a big dinner to thank for what they had :)
Christina is one of my colleagues in the group and she invited us for dinner at her place together with her boyfriend and some other colleagues, including our friends Patricia and Igor.
We of course, accepted and we were very excited to see how Thanksgiving was. We were wondering how the turkey was, about the typical food, etc ;)
Christina me dijo que Lyle, su novio, habia empezado a preparar el pavo el domingo, ya que para que la carne este lista, hay que inyectarle caldo de pollo y mantequilla para este tierna. La verdad es que me quede muy sorprendida al ver y probar el pavo. La pinta era inmejorable y el sabor tambien. Me parecia muy dificil preparar un pavo tan grande, pero la carne estaba jugosa y muy tierna.
Christina told me that her boyfriend Lyle started flavoring the turkey last Sunday. They inyected butter and chicken stock into the turkey. This way the meat is nice and tender. They also salted the turkey during two days, keeping it in the fridge. I thought it was very difficult to prepare such a big turkey but I was really surprised, it look great and the taste was excellent. The meat was juicy and tender :)

Christina and Lyle with the turkey. Christina y Lyle con el pavo. (Pic by Patricia Dankers)
Cortando el pavo. Carving and cutting the turkey
Pavo! Turkey!
Ademas del pavo, habia muchisimas mas cosas para comer, todas ellas caseras y muy ricas. Entre otras cosas habia: patatas asadas, se hicieron en el horno debajo del pavo, patatas dulces, judias verdes, "stuffing" es como para rellenar el pavo, tiene trozos de pan, de salchicha y verduras, pero se come fuera del pavo :), "graving" es salsa para el pavo, normalmente se coge del caldo que suelta el pavo al ser asado, tambien habia salsa de arandanos (deliciosa!!), ensalada, huevos y pecan nuts, como nueces pero mas dulces.
Nos pusimos un poco de cada cosa, estaba todo delicioso y no estoy exagerando. Aqui os enseno mi plato.
Apart from turkey, there were many other typical things to eat, everything home-made and nice: roasted potatoes which were baked under the turkey, sweet potatoes, sauteed green beans, stuffing, graving, cranberries sauce, salad, eggs, pecans, etc.
I took a little bit of everything and my plate ended up completely full. Here you can see some pictures.

Mi plato. My plate

Como he dicho, todo estaba buenisimo. Empezamos a comer antes de las 5 de la tarde, jaja! para los espanoles se que esto suena casi imposible, pero no! es muy posible :)
Nos servimos la comida, mientras hablabamos de todo un poco y despues vino el postre :)) tarta de calabaza. Aunque suena un poco raro hacer algo dulce con una verdura, aqui es muy normal y bien pensado, en Espana tambien tenemos el cabello de angel, que esta hecho de calabaza.
Todo nos encanto, asi que le pedimos a Christina y Lyle todas las recetas! Aqui podeis ver la tarta.
As I said before, everything tasted wonderful. We started eating around 5 pm :) extremely early for Spanish standards, but well, here it is completely normal. We served ourselves and then eat while talking with everyone around. Dessert was also great, we had pumpkin pie. It sounds a bit weird making pie with vegetables, but here it is very normal and after thinking a bit, in Spain we also have "cabello de angel" (angels hair), a typical stuffing for sweets made of pumpkin.
We loved everything and we asked for all the recipes :) Here you can see the picture of the pie.

Pumpking pie. Tarta de calabaza

Estamos encantados con la experiencia, lo pasamos muy bien con nuestros amigos y esperamos poder celebrarlo juntos al menos un agno mas :) We are very happy about Thanksgiving dinner, we had a lot of fun with our friends, so we hope we can celebrate it together at least one more year :)

A lo mejor, la proxima vez, podemos comer turducken, jaja!! un pavo que tiene un pato dentro y el pato un pollo :) que locura!!! haha! Maybe next time we can eat turducken, haha! that was new for us, stuffing a turkey with an stuffed duck (with a chicken inside...) crazy!!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Rosquillos sin agujero, bicarbonato y otros experimentos. Donuts without the hole, baking soda and other experiments

Hola amigos! Hoy estamos de vacaciones!! bien! es el unico dia de descanso desde que llegamos aqui practicamente, ya que trabajamos de lunes a sabado.
Normalmente hay un millon de cosas que me apetecen hacer :) pero no tengo mucho tiempo!! asi que hoy era mi oportunidad, jaja!!
Cuando hablo con mi madre via skype, ella a veces me cuenta las recetas que ve en uno de los programas de la manana en Espana:
http://blogs.rtve.es/sabercocinar/posts

Hi there!! We have a day off today!! bien! it is the only off day we could take since we arrived almost since we work from Monday to Saturday.
I usually have one million things I'd like to do :) but I don't have time!! so today it was my day!!
When I talk to my mother via skype she tells me about some recipes she sees on TV while watching a Spanish magazine in the morning:

http://blogs.rtve.es/sabercocinar/posts

Sergio es un cocinero joven que hace todo tipo de recetas caseras, sanas, para cuidarse y sobre todo, muy ricas!! ademas, tiene varios postres que son muy faciles de hacer y yo, como amante de la comida espanola y manchega especialmente, elegi la receta de los rosquillos para hacerla.
Es un postre tipico espanol, se pueden comer en cualquier epoca del agno, pero son tipicos de Semana Santa.
Todo el proceso de preparacion de los rosquillos segun la facilisima receta de Sergio puede llevar unos 30 o 40 minutos, asi que me he levantado esta manana directa a cocinar los deliciosos rosquillos.
Sergio is a young chef who makes all kind of home-made recipes, healthy, easy and delicious! moreover, he also has many dessert recipes and since I'm a lover of Spanish food and especially food from Castilla -La Mancha, I chose a recipe to make "rosquillos". Rosquillos are a typical Spanish dessert and you can eat them whenever you want but they are typical for Easter time.
According to Sergio's recipe it only takes 30 or 40 minutes to make so I got up early in the morning ready to cook the delicious rosquillos.


Pero...no tenia levadura, que es uno de los ingredientes. Le he pedido a Thomas que fuese al super a comprar un par de cosas, pero el otro dia Thomas trajo "baking soda" o una especie de bicarbonato que se puede utilizar para hacer bizcochos, etc y hacer que la masa suba un poquito. Habiamos usado este tipo de "soda" un millon de veces para hacer postres o al menos, eso era lo que nosotros creiamos...
We didn't have yeast, which was one of the ingredients so I asked Thomas to go to the store to buy it, but a couple of days ago he bought baking soda for cooking, so we thought I could use it to make my rosquillos. We had used it many times before in Holland to bake some cakes so it should be fine. At least that's what we thought...
He puesto mi huevo, mi azucar, leche, aceite, "baking soda" y la harina. La masa me ha quedado genial, ahi teneis la foto. La he dejado reposar 15 minutitos, hemos hecho las bolitas para obtener los rosquillos y el primer problema ha aparecido...las bolas se nos deshacian al intentar hacerle los agujeritos :) jajajaj! al final hemos optado por hacerlos sin agujero, que cutres madre mia!!
I added the egg, sugar, milk, oil, baking soda and flour. The dow was just perfect :) you can see the picture. I left it around 15 minutes before baking the rosquillos and them we made two balls of dough, put them together, press a little bit and then, the first problem appeared...the balls were too soft and we couldn't make the holes :) haha!! we decided to go ahead without holes, so crappy!!

Rosquillos dow. Masa de los rosquillos

Todo iba bien, sin agujero pero bien, los hemos frito, los hemos rebozado con su azuquitar...uhhhmmm! un hambre! una pinta!! que bien, por fin! con nuestro cafetito, sentados a la mesa dispuestos a comernos los rosquillos y atencion! aqui viene lo bueno...
Los rosquillos estaban tremendamente amargos!!!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! Por que????????? mi gozo en un pozo!!
Everything was going more or less ok. We fried them, put some sugar on top...uhhhh! yummie! they looked nice! yes, finally! we sat at the table with our coffees, looking forward to eat our rosquillos for breakfast and then...OMG! the nice part is coming! the tasted incredibly bitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooo!!! Why!!!!!!!! Big disappointment!

Mi cara de recien levantada relamiendome por los rosquillos. My face early in the morning and being impatient for the rosquillos.

Desde el primer momento lo he tenido claro, eso es la "baking soda". Hemos debatido, a lo mejor es esto, a lo mejor lo otro...bla, bla, bla! no es el huevo, no es el azucar, no es la harina, no es el aceite, tiene que ser la punetera baking soda!! jaja! pero que raro! si nosotros la habiamos usado antes...en fin...pensemos como quimicos que somos. Esto es bicarbonato y el bicarbonato sodico se descompone en CO2 y of course!! NaOH, hidroxido sodico...de ahi el sabor! pero, lo habiamos usado muchas veces antes y esto no habia ocurrido, que habra sido? necesitaran mas coccion los rosquillos? cual es el problema?
From the first moment I knew the problem was the f... baking soda, haha! We debated about it, maybe is the oil, maybe it is the flour...bla, bla, bla! it is not the egg, it is not the sugar, it is not the flour, it has to be the f...baking soda!! haha! but it was still weird because we had used it many times before without troubles. Since we are chemists we started thinking: ok, this is sodium bicarbonate and it decomposes in CO2 and of course, sodium hydroxide NaOH...that was the flavor! but still, we had used it before and we didn't taste anything. What was going on?? maybe we have to bake a bit longer the rosquillos?
Hemos mirado la caja y todo normal, es para cocinar! Asi que hemos hecho un experimento, hemos puesto un poco de baking soda en la sarten y efectivamente, todo el CO2 se ha ido, quedando una capa de solido blanco. He decidido echarle limon, un acido, porque si lo que queda en la sarten entre otras cosas es NaOH, para todo aquel que sea quimico: "acido + base = sal + agua" y asi ha sido, he probado un poquito de esa mezcla y que asco!!! jajajaja!!
We have taken a look at the baking soda box and it says: "for cooking". We decided to do an experiment, we took a spoon of baking soda and put in on the hot pan. All the CO2 was gone leaving a whitish layer on the pan. I put a little bit of lemon (acid) because if you are a chemist you know that: "acid + base = salt + water" and of course, I tasted it...agggggg! disgusting!!
Para seguir confirmando nuestra hipotesis hemos ido a internet, herramienta cientifica donde las haya y ahi es donde hemos hecho el gran descubrimiento, atencion: UNA COSA ES BAKING SODA Y OTRA ES BAKING POWDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To have a deeper insight into our hypothesis (it looks like I'm writing a paper for Jacs...) we looked in the internet as a scientific tool, haha! and it was then when we discovered our mistake, attention: ONE THING IS BAKING SODA AND A DIFFERENT THING IS BAKING POWDER!!!!!!!!!!!
Baking soda: es solo bicarbonato, no tiene nada acido y para que no sepa hay que contrarrestarlo con algun componente acido, limon, etc...
Baking powder: tiene dos componentes, uno acido y otro basico y el sabor se neutraliza cuando se cocina...y eso era lo que nosotros teniamos en Holanda!!! BAKING POWDER!!! NO BAKING SODA!!!
Baking soda: it is only bicarbonate, it doesn't have anything acidic and you have to add an acidic ingredient such as lemon or butter milk to quench the flavor...
Baking powder: it has two components, an acidic and a basic one...so the flavor becomes neutral upon cooking...and that was what we had in Holland!!! BAKING POWDER!! NOT BAKING SODA!!!
Por fin estaba todo explicado, jajajajja! asi que ahora mismo vamos a ir al supermercado a comprar levadura o baking powder, jajajaja! para volver a repetir la receta, hoy no me quedo sin comer rosquillos :))) aunque esta noche me espera el pavo!! yuhuuuu!!
At least it was explained, haha! so right now Thomas is at the store buying yeast and baking POWDER, haha! because I want to repeat the recipe. Today I'm going to eat rosquillos!!! even though the turkey is waiting for me tonight!! yuhuu!!
Puesto que somos unos frikys vamos a hacer diferentes tandas de rosquillos, con levadura y con baking powder y asi comparamos. Hasta hemos pensado hacer experimentos tipo "diferentes proporciones de levadura" a ver que tal saben, jajajaja!
Lo importante es que me he divertido un monton, que pardillos madre mia!! eso si, los rosquillos me los como hoy como Amparo que me llamo!!
Since we are total nerds we are thinking of making different rosquillos batches with yeast and with baking powder in order to compare the resutls. We have also thought of making different yeast ratios experiments, haha!! to see the taste!!
The important thing is that we had a lot of fun, we are real nerds!! but today I'm going to eat rosquillos!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Lunch in the Hancock building. Comida en la torre Hancock

Como ya he comentado varias veces aun tenemos muchas cosas por hacer en Chicago, asi que el domingo pasado hicimos una de ellas, ir a comer en la torre Hancock.
Este edificio es el tercero mas alto de Chicago y solia ser el mas alto hasta que se construyo la torre Sears.
As I've told you in previous posts we still have many things to do in Chicago and last Sunday we did one of those things, we went for lunch to the Hancock building. It is the third highest building of Chicago and it used to be the highest until the Sears tower was built.

https://www.signatureroom.com/

Decidimos ir a comer alli porque hay un restaurante y un bar muy chulos y lo mejor, en las plantas 95 y 96!! tambien se puede subir al mirador por 20 $, pero por un poco mas puedes subir y disfrutar de la maravillosa vista y de una comida muy bien preparada :)
El domingo habia un buffet para elegir de todo, asi que hicimos varios viajecitos para coger primero marisco y pescado, despues algo de carne y por ultimo, un gran surtido de dulces.
La vista desde el restaurante es maravillosa y la verdad es que impresiona bastante, por un lado el lago Michigan y por el otro lado la ciudad llena de rascacielos.
Algo que tambien nos impresiono fue la velocidad del ascensor, que solo tardo 30 segundos en subir 95 pisos :) la sensacion fue paracida a ir en avion, incluso sintiendo presion en nuestros oidos.
We decided to go there for lunch because there is a very nice restaurant and a bar and the best thing is that they are on the 95th and 96th floors!! you can go up to the tower for 20 $, but for a bit more than this you can go up to the restaurant and enjoy the view together with the nice food :)
Last Sunday there was a great buffet with absolutely everything and we made several tours to take fish and seafood, meat and sweets for dessert.
The view from there was amazing and I was very impressed. On one side you can see the lake and in the other side you can look at the city with all those skyscrapers.
Going up in the elevator was also quite impressive. It took only 30 seconds to go up to the 95th floor and the feeling was like being in a plain. I could even feel the pressure in my ears :)



Para todos los que decidais venir a Chicago, es algo que teneis que hacer, a nosotros nos encanto, asi que lo recomendamos y por supuesto, os seguire contando todas las cosas que nos quedan por hacer :)
Despues de comer fuimos a "Navy pier", que es una especie de puerto pequeno o paseo junto al lago donde hay muchas tiendas, actividades para ninos, algunas atracciones, pero sobre todo, es un sitio desde donde se puede ver una de las mejores puestas de sol.
El domingo fue un gran dia, nos relajamos, disfrutamos del dia y vimos varias cosas nuevas de la ciudad junto con nuestros amigos Patrica e Igor.
If you decide to come one day to Chicago this is something you really should do. We really liked it and we recommend it. Of course, I'll keep writing about all the things that we still have to do here :)
After lunch we went to the Navy Pier where we walked looking at some shops, activities for children, etc. The best part was the beautiful sunset, from this part of the city the view and the light are great and we took tones of good pictures.
Last Sunday was a great day, we could relax and enjoy the day doing new things in the city together with our friends Igor and Patricia.