Art Basel

      This past weekend, Nuno and I drove two-and-a-half hours to the Northern Canton of Switerland, Basel, or in French, Bâle. For those tennis fans out there, this is where Roger Federer is from. We went for the Art Basel weekend, where there were many exhibitions set up around the city for people to come and see contemporary art. Of course, there was a lot of art to see, which can be on one hand inspiring, but on the other hand, visually exhausting. Though the term "art" can have a wide spectrum, it is interesting the ideas behind different art pieces and the amount of work as well to make an idea come to life.

A part of a performance art piece using elements from the periodic table.

The path of a snail

The interest is more the people in the reflection of course

I enjoyed this artist: Wolfgang Stiller

Photo fun in a mirror maze

In the middle of the Art Basel building

At the center of the city

Hey! Do not jump in! Oh wait you are just a statue....

Mystery Dinner

One of the main characters

       Have you ever wanted to travel back in time and put yourself in the middle of the Renaissance in Rome? That is where I was transported to when I participated in a mystery dinner recently. From the start the characters are in full costume and immerse you into their world. The story has twists and turns, and for me hard to keep up with rapid french, "Italian" accents, and of course subtle jokes. During the whole dinner they react with you, as you keep wondering who was the killer and why. At the end, there where three great responses and the one chosen won tickets to come again. The professional actors also came out after the whole show in normal clothes to speak to the audience and answer questions. The only thing that would have made the night even better, is well of course the food, which sadly was beautiful looking, but not the greatest. So, yes, it was more about the show, which was interesting and kept the audience on their toes.

Chatting with one of the characters

He did not know about cameras

A disguise?

The guys...

The gals...

Is he the killer?

Our table was the Fellini family

Lucerne

Lake Lucerne

     On a long weekend a while back, Nuno and I visited Lucerne, a city about three-and-a-half hour train ride from Geneva. I have heard before visiting that Lucerne is beautiful, but sadly, the weather was rainy, cold, and at night it snowed. This prevented the gorgeous views of the mountains, since most of them were blocked with the clouds. But of course as a Chung, I tend to focus on the food and in that respect we had a good time. The best this I ate was homemade ravioli stuffed with freshly-made mozerella cheese. Purchasing highlight: purple-colored pencil lead, yeah never going back to gray. We were also able to visit a local museum where we saw mostly work from Picasso. We ended up taking a walking tour, which sadly ended up being too cold to complete. I hope to return in better weather though it still was a nice trip overall.

The Carving of the Dying Lion

Façade of the local buildings

Multitasking

Entrance to the train station

Inside the Alps Museum

Weekend Retreat

Out picturesque view

       The other weekend, my bible study went on a retreat about an hour-and-a-half from Geneva. We stayed at a house near Bulle, which is near the Gruyère region. For those who are not familiar with cheeses, Gruyère is famous for their cheese and you see it in every supermarket here. On one of my walks I saw a vending machine that even sold gruyère cheese! Our house faced the mountains and we saw para-gliders land not too far from us.
       We were asked to disconnect from our phones and watches, which was a nice freedom. My group spent the weekend in community, listening to two guest speakers, worshipping, and spending some good quality time with God. It was nice to get away for the weekend and enjoy the beautiful landscape of Switzerland.

The vending machine of cheese!

On a walk I discovered a cool looking cross

He is looking a you..

I enjoy encouragement

Cable car to the mountains

Proof I was there :)

Thai Food Experience

One of the Thai dansers

     This past weekend, Nuno, his brother Toni, Toni's girlfriend Luci, and I went out to dinner together to discover the local Thai cuisine. We went to a local place called Na Village, which was gorgeously decorated both inside and out. I did not take pictures of the picturesque environment in the front of the restaurant because it was at night, but I hope to visit again in the spring or summer by day. There were Thai dansers during the meal who changed outfits between each performance. My favorite food that I ate was part of our appetizers: curry-stuffed tofu. The dessert menu came in a wooden case and I ordered the mango sticky rice, which sadly I have had much better in the United States. Overall, however, the meal was delicious and the company was delightful.

At the entrance

Toni and Luci

The front door, fancy!

Our main course

Me and Nuno

Appetizers

Mango Sticky Rice

The dessert menu

Luci happy to read the dessert menu

Poker Dinner

Nuno and I in front of the restaurant

   To preface, Nuno and his friends play poker once a month. They have been playing as a group since 2007 and take it very serious, keeping track of each winner and then at the end of the year announcing the winner of the year, who then has to give a speech. Every week they put in money to bet on the game, but they have set the extra money aside in a back account. After five years of accumulation, they decided to invite the wives and significant others out to a fancy gourmet dinner at Châteauvieux, a very fancy well-known restaurant in Geneva. There was I think about nine courses, including two different desserts. We even got to meet the chef at the end of the night, as we were not only the first ones to arrive, but the last ones to leave. The thirteen of us had a great time, the only sad part was toward the end of the night, my tired brain makes it near impossible to speak French anymore. But that's okay because my tummy was happy!

Nuno and the president of the poker group David

Sole with a citrus emulsion

Me and Nuno's best friend Fred

Pidgeon cooked in two different ways (I did not eat it)

One of the desserts, mandarine meringue with praline pistachio

The group of us sitting at the massive table

The poker group

Holidays in the West

      I was able to go home for two weeks to visit family and friends for the holiday. Nuno came along for the festivities, but Ryder stayed behind. We got there a few days before Christmas, and then Kevyn followed coming from Japan, and then Jenny from Boston. The Chung family Christmas traditions continued including way too many presents as usual. A couple of days after Christmas, Nuno and I drove to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Luxor hotel and saw the magician Criss Angel's show Believe. We also saw the Bodies Exhibition and the Venetian's Madame Tussands wax museum.
     We then returned to good old Rancho Cucamonga for a dinner at Lucille's BBQ. Nuno and I then left the next day to go to Universal Studios where we took the VIP tour, which not only allowed us to go to the front of the lines, but we got a personal back stage lot tour where we got to see the set of the television show Parenthood, the prop storage with the original E.T, and we were able to take pictures in front of the clock tower from Back to the Future (sadly the clock was being repared). At night we met up with Jenny, Jenny's brother Chris, and Kevyn for dinner in Pasadena.
     The next day was New Year's Day and we went to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, where sadly the hand prints were closed off. We took a bus tour of Hollywood, which ended up being 90% a tour of celebrities houses: this is where Michael Jackson's came out in a body bag kind of thing. We then proceeded to head to San Diego to stay at Brady and Fred's house (who sadly were in Japan). We had a nice dinner at a place called Bali Hai on Shelter Island overlooking the harbor and downtown. I was able to see many friends, and I had dinner with some at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside, Hill Street Cafe. On the last day we hit up the San Diego Zoo with my ex-coworker and her baby before heading back to Rancho.

Kimberly, Valentin, Katy, and I at Hill Street Cafe

In front of the Excalibur Hotel

At the San Diego Zoo with the pandas

E.T. is 30 years old!

Marilyn in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater

Ovlera Street churros stuffed with caramel!

     For the remainder of our trip we did some last minute shopping to take advantage of the cheap price, and on the final day took a trip around LA. We went to Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street and finally got to see the hand prints in Hollywood before heading off to the airport. Au revoir lovely Cali!