World Cup 2014: Support your team with cookies!

Tomorrow is the U.S. versus Germany game, we are having a viewing party at where I intern, and donations of dessert are welcomed. Since I love sweets I know I will be eating a lot of desserts. To not feel guilty about eating other people's desserts, I feel I should provide some desserts as well. An opportunity to make something sweet and yummy? Of course, I don't mind at all! Instead of just bringing some baked goods, I wanted to bring some themed baked goods. I challenged my self to make world cups cookies, and here is what I came up with. An very important tomorrow, since it's the U.S. team playing, so I shall take the viewing party seriously and make seriously awesome cookies.

Paella Sunday

Passing Jaleo, a Spanish tapa restaurant on my way for beach volleyball, I passed by Jaleo, a Spanish tapa restaurant. I do like tapas, and was curious about the restaurants. My friend tells me the restaurant has a special Sunday menu, where it's 20 USD for all the paella you can eat. What? All you can eat paella? I need to go there.

Seville

Flamenco, amazing architecture, Star Wars movie scene, and Roman ruins. Seville was amazing.In this post I share with you all the Seville must sees, and some other spots off the beaten path (Roman ruins!)

Dim Sum near D.C.

In this post I share 3 dim sum places near and in D.C. I have always enjoyed dim sum, those delicacies that come in small steamers, or petite plates of fried crispy goodness or stir fried freshness; crunchy, soft, hot, cold, seafood, veggies, ducks, pork, beef--oh, the variety! Since everything is so small and dainty, you order many of the dishes and share with your friends so everyone gets a bit of everything. Sip hot tea, and eat so many snacks that it makes a proper entree, lovely.

Natural History Museum

Now that weekends are the only times I can visit museum, and with summer approaching, I have to get used to crowded museums. The Natural History museum greeted me with a big elephant in the middle, and the halls were filled with furry animal specimen, animals without fur as bone specimen, mummies, shiny rocks, and live butterflies.
https://www.mnh.si.edu/

Botanic Gardens--Take Your Lunch Here

I encourage myself to leave the office  for lunch, spending a whole day in a closed environment in the same chair is not ideal. I have found 3 fantastic green spots around the National Mall/Dept. of Edu./American Indian Museum/Air and Space area in the Botanic Garden. Shady benches, and wooden chair and table sets under umbrellas, lush green and birds; it's very refreshing to eat your lunch in that environment. So no matter if you're taking a lunch break from work, or eating lunch during your D.C. visit, you'll love these spots. Also, the Botanic Garden is something you should include in your itinerary since it's so close to all these D.C. tourist hot spots.

Cordoba: Pillars and Arches and Allies of Flowers

Cordoba, with its mosque cathedral with a thousand pillars and arches, greeted me with orange trees. Making my first visit to the South of Spain, the bright, round fruit lined the streets and rolled off pave ways. Along with the famous mosque-cathedral, I also visited the Alcazar, and saw the flower patios famous to the area.

Day Trip Madrid--Segovia: Awesome Aqueduct, and Disney Castle

There are two towns near Madrid that are popular day trip destinations for Madrid: Toledo and Segovia. Of the two, Toledo, the town described to be trapped in time, seems to be the more popular one. But when I saw the majestic Roman aqueducts in Segovia, I immediately decided to go there. Some say you just need half a day to see everything, and that might be true, but I spent a whole day there wandering through the streets and just enjoying the wide, dry, hilly Mediterranean landscape and had a wonderful time.

Cheap Eats in Madrid

Free tapas at El Tigre, a lot of chocolate and churros and San Gines, and the tourist packed San Miguel Market that is not cheap.
I didn't really go to any sit down proper restaurant kind of place when I visited Madrid because I had a tight budget. But I am going to share two yummy places that are inexpensive and will leave you pretty satisfied, too.

American History Museum & Rolling Thunder Parade

Memorial Day long weekend and I only visited one museum, the American History Museum was quite busy on Memorial Day. I also got to Pennsylvania Avenue at the right time to see Roaring Thunder, the motorcycle parade. The name Rolling Thunder couldn’t have been a better name, those bikes were LOUD. I got there just in time to see the very start of the parade, and at that parade I saw more than a life’s share of heavy motorcycles.  The Rolling Thunder raises awareness for POW (Prisoners of War) and MIA (missing in action), basically, personnel who have not returned from war but are not dead. I stood there for about 90 minutes and the motorcycles just keep on coming, I have no idea how long it went on but 90 minutes of non-stop motor bikes was enough for me and I went in the museum.

Cutest Panda Cookies

The last semester I baked cookies for my students (I’m a TA, you can learn more about me under the “About Me” tab), so I thought I should do that again this semester. Everyone likes chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted to wow my students and give them something memorable, so I made panda cookies. There is nothing complicated about these cookies, they are just your normal sugar cookies, but with some creativity, time, and love, I made your plain sugar cookie in cookies that are super cute and would bring a smile to your face.

Freer and Sackler Gallery & African Art

Freer and Sackler: The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art Office Site
National Museum of African Art Official Site

I had set my day for visiting the monuments of D.C. and the White House, and also the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Asian Art. I knew I would be pretty tired after walking half a day to see the monuments, so I picked a smaller museum to visit. Accidentally I visited two museums because the Freer and Sackler Gallery was connected to the African Art museum, and I went in one museum and came out from another. I did not look up any information before hand to the museum, and it turned out to be a lovely museum whose layout and atmosphere I really enjoyed. It was quiet, spacious, elegant, and with dim lighting at some parts and natural sunlight at others.