Cultural events

When I look back at my school years, I wonder what I enjoyed the most. And it was the cultural events hands down. If there is anything I am proud of accomplishing, it is the fact that I took part in SO many events. I took part in Adzap, music competitions, dance competitions, drawing competitions, fashion shows, Rangoli, collage, dumb charades [somebody gently pointed to me a while ago that I had this typed as "dum charades", quite fitting :)))] ..... Name it and I did it. I feel so happy that I utilized every single opportunity I had. Of course, I had my parent's support in everything I did. They were always there to encourage me and pay for my expenses :)) If I ever have kids, they will go to every cultural event whether they do well in school or not :)) Ours was a girls school because of which we had the freedom to literally do whatever we wanted. I cannot ever forget how we danced like maniacs in sarees. I remember once when we were dancing, a woman took me aside and asked me how my saree hadn't fallen off after all the crazy dancing I was doing :)) Rhapsody was so much fun. Hmmm.... I wish I could all of that again. :((

Hike at Jemez

It's been a while since I blogged, but here I am after a LONG break. Some of us hiked at the Jemez Springs this morning, near the East fork river, it was FUN. One of those hikes where you get to walk in water and on logs across streams. While today we just went half-way, a couple of weeks later, we plan to do the entire trail in which we will have to swim a bit too. Sounds like it is going to be fun and I am eagerly looking forward to it.

Cheese cake yummy!!

I baked a cheese cake yesterday!!! My very own cake for the first time!! Yipeeee! It was for a friend's party and it came out really well. In fact, I must say that it was probably the best cheesecake I've had. With orange zest and vanilla essence, wow was it delicious!!! I wanted to post the original picture of the cake, but the people cleaned up the plate in a jiffy!!! The cake did have a mango topping like the one in the picture, just without the strawberries. Now I have to find vegan egg substitute to bake one for my husband who has been pestering me for a while to bake a vegan cake. My first ever baking experience was with cranberry-walnut bread. That did turn out good but it had a crispy crust, while I wanted it soft.

Santa Fe

Just returned last week, after a 3 week vacation and
ofcourse there was a pile of work waiting for me :(

Did some interesting things on saturday though, visited Santa Fe with a couple of friends. Santa Fe is the best city I have ever been to.
Beautiful and artsy with its adobe architecture and galleries of famous artists including New Mexico's own Georgia O Keefe. It was a sunny day and we visited quite a few galleries with water color paintings. For those of you that love art, this is the place. People who visit the grand canyon always talk about Sedona being a beautiful town. If you think Sedona is beautiful, wait till you see Santa Fe!!

After gallery hopping, we went to a friend's place for dinner and ended up discussing politics as usual!!!