Sorry!

Realized I forgot to post from this weekend. I am alive but not much to report. This weekend was a lot of soccer and hanging around with friends. Very boring for a blog, but very fun in real life

One cool thing we did on Saturday night was a local night hike! It was suppose to be a full moon but sadly all we got was clouds....still fun though!

Mexico business trip

So our Outshine fruit bars are doing very well, in fact they are doing so well that we need some help making them. One of the factories we have recruited to help us is all the way down in Mexico, which means someone has to go down there and check that they are doing things right. And guess who got to go? 

Agata, my project manager James and I all got to spend 3 days in beautiful Lagos De Morena, a cute historical town about two hours from Guadalajara. It is kind of the Bakersfield of Mexico, complete with dried up river.

Our hotel was in a prime location, right next to the enormous city center church

The second picture is out my hotel window, pulled from snapchat.

There was also a beautiful little square full of people and live music

It was sunny and 75 every day we were there. 

Obviously we spent most of our time working in the plant. The factory was very similar to ours, although the dress code made us kind of look like ice cream doctors

And the best part was eating the Mexican ice cream

And at the end of the day we got to eat a lot of delicious Mexican food, and enjoy some cervezas 

Probably the two most interesting things about the trip are that 1. I remember a lot more Spanish then I thought. 2. Mexicans really love old school VW beetles. I have never seen so many in my life, in every color driven by all kinds of people

I have no explanation for this.

It was an awesome trip and it defiantly changed my view on Mexico. It's not some crazy, gang filled country that's super dangerous. Most Mexicans are extremely nice and hospitable, and I would go back if I ever have the chance!

Layover in Houston

So I am on my way to Guadalajara, Mexico for work...and along the way my friend Agata and I had a layover in the great state of Texas....Houston to be exact.

Luckily, one of our coworkers lives here and we were able to crash with his family. His wife is a blogger in Houston who has a lot of connections. So naturally, she was our tour guide.

First stop was a food truck park for some Texas BBQ

Oh yeah, it was raining a lot. Just my luck.

After that we explored Spring, Texas a little bit, which is a suburb of Houston. It was a very cute little town with fun shops. We hung out at a wine tasting room for a bit and just relaxed.

At night it was time to hit downtown, with our expert tour guide leading the way. 

First up, dinner at a place called Bovine and Barley, which had really good local beer.

The our bar tour and alcohol education began. First up was a little Mexican place that specialized in tequila and Mexcal

I did a Mezcal flight, and the others did tequila. We recieved a full history of each drink, including my favorite which was made from a plant that has to be aged 30 years before its distilled. I don't normally like the straight liquor, but this stuff was very good on its own! With it came orange slices with worm (yes worm....) salt.

Next stop was to a place called Moving Sidewalks

Their menu had all drinks based on an amusement park that had recently shut down. They also had ice cubes that were specially frozen to be completely clear and then cut into interesting shapes. Very cool.

Our last stop of the night was a place called Okra Saloon

This place was really cool because every time you bought a drink, you pick a local charity that part of the sale goes to. 

Overall, Houston was surprisingly hip with a lot of trendy spots. I did not see a single cowboy hat or boot the whole time we were here, so I guess I have a different view of Texas now!

Onward to Mexico now! It's going to be a very interesting trip...

Fancy work day

Today was a big day for us at nestle. Our humble research center went from being the center for ice cream in the Americas...to the center for ice cream of THE WORLD!

Naturally it was a very fancy event. We alll had to wear business formal and make sure we behave ourselves in front of all the important people

I thought we cleaned up pretty well

And here is my whole group!

The best part of the whole shindig was getting to eat the ice cream from around the world. The best one was a green tea kit Katdrumstick from China 

Pet watching

Lots of people traveling this week so I'm in pet watch!

Weekend in Bako

After the expensive weekend in Los Angeles, it was time to relax in Bakersfield this weekend. 

One of my friends proposed a new activity for me, going to the shooting range outside of town for skeet shooting

Turns out I'm a natural with a shotgun, and hit my target on the first try! 

My friends were much better since they had a lot more training

But it was still a lot of fun, and very different for me. 

After that they wanted to try out their hand guns, so I gave it a try too

I wasn't a big fan of it, but once again I was pretty good at it!

The rest of the day involved eating and hanging around. 

At night we went to the hockey game, where our boys won 4-0!

And ended the night with some milkshakes

The next day I went rock climbing at a gym and played some pickup football

All in all, a very relaxing weekend in town! Proof you can have some fun in this quiet town!

The Old LA Zoo

One of my friends saw my pictures from a few months ago about the abandoned nazi camp in LA and tipped me off to another cool place...the old LA zoo in Griffith Park

While not as creepy as the nazi camp, it still had plenty of strange sites.

Like big empty cages

Creepy staircases

Lots and lots of graffiti

And, of course, lots of abandoned cages to crawl into

Even baby beetle was hanging out with the graffiti 

Since it was New Year's Eve, we went out in Hollywood that night. Not much to report other than paying a little too much money and having a little too much fun!

New Year's Day didn't have much excitement other than us hanging around in my friends' apartment watching college football. Of course, we had to go to the beach for the sunset 

And for dinner? All you can eat Korean BBQ in Koreatown 

Sadly, I woke up on the 2nd with a fever and a cold, so I had to cut my weekend short and head back to Bakersfield. The rest of the weekend was spent lying on my couch playing video games. An interesting start to the new year!