Giants Game at Levis Stadium

I've never watched American football and don't have any clue how it is played. Yet, when Vishnu's company gave us tickets to watch the Giants game, I decided to go anyway. I just wanted to get the feel of watching a live game at a stadium.

We reached the stadium a little early fearing traffic. Since we had reserved parking, everything was a breeze. This was my first time visiting Levis stadium and I was so impressed how big it was. VMWare has a special suite so we went up there. It was so comfortable and the view from the top was wonderful.

We spent time clicking pictures and grabbing some high priced tasteless food from the food court.

The game began and I had a tough time following what was going on. Vishnu had to explain the rules and by half time I had some idea of the game. It didn't help that the Giants (the home team) were playing terribly. Most of the people left much before the game ended as it was pretty clear who the winner was going to be. We stayed until the end.

Bollywood Dance

I haven't danced since the final year of college. But I always wanted to learn how to dance. When I heard about Mona Khan Dance Company from my SIL, I was eager to give it a chance. I signed up right away.

It was a 8 week session with an hour long class each week. It being a performance quarter, we also had a technical rehearsal before the final performance. The first day I reached class, I was very excited as well as scared whether I'd be able to grasp the steps. The teacher, Shipali introduced herself as well as the assistant teacher, Dhanashri. She told us we were going to learn the choreography for two songs-Rock the party (I had never heard the song before) and High heels.

I was exhausted after the first class especially since I hadn't been doing any cardio for a while. The teacher recorded the last 5 mins of the class and sent over a detailed email on the steps that we learnt in class along with the video recording. This was super helpful in remembering the steps.

After the first few classes, all the students decided to meet on the weekend to practice. It was fun meeting at a different house each week and dancing. There was a lot of food and chit chat along with the practice. It was quite tough to get everyone to come at a common time but we tried.

On the last class, we had a dress rehearsal.

We then had the tech rehearsal at Chabot college in Hayward. It gave us the exact feel of the final performance day. It was useful to mark our positions on stage and to get over the stage fear a little.

On the final performance day, Vishnu, SIL and BIL all came to watch the show.

I was pumped and happy about my hair, makeup and overall look.

When our performance started, there was some difficulty with the stage curtain and we had to stop and restart. That was a little unsettling but we managed to give a superb performance. Everyone gave their best and I'm very happy with the final result. Our 8 weeks of hard work showed and I surprised myself with my performance.

I've signed up for the next session (non performance) and I'm looking forward to improving my skills and learning some fun steps.

Whale watching

Last weekend, I took my in-laws on a whale watching trip in Monterey. I knew they would find it interesting and fun. I personally wasn't too excited about it as I knew there is no guarantee of seeing the whales. Since I found a decent groupon deal, I decided to give it a shot.

I booked the trip through Seagoddess whale watching. A quick google search told me that morning tours have the best probability of seeing whales so I picked the 10am slot. It being the Gilroy garlic festival weekend, we started earlier at 7.45am to avoid traffic. To our surprise we didn't face any traffic and reached at 9am. There is plenty of parking although it costs $8!

We checked in and received our tickets. They offered us donuts and coffee. As I had heard that the waters can be choppy, we decided to take some sea sickness tablets. It was an overcast day with a heavy layer of smog about us (there was a very big forest fire in the Big Sur area that week). We wore several layers as we were told that it gets really windy and cold on the boat.

 

The cruise started on time and we kept our eyes peeled for whales only to be told by the marine biologist on board that we are quite a distance away until we actually locate them. On the way we saw otters, sealions, cormorants, seagulls and various migratory birds. The playful sealions could be easily mistaken for dolphins.

After about an hour, we reached the whale territory. Within minutes we spotted a humpback whale followed by a blue whale. We could see the splash caused by the whales coming out and then the huge grey/black body before it dived back in. It was an amazing site and hard to believe how large in size they were. There were a few babies too. It was so quick that it was hard to click any pictures. Anytime there was an announcement of a whale sighting in a particular direction, everyone ran to that side and crowded. That made it a little hard to actually see them unless I stood on my tip toes or elbowed my way to the front.

We then made our way back and reached back by noon. No sickness but a terrible drowsiness took over us which kind of ruined the rest of the day. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant and made our way to San Juan Bautista.

What: Whale watching
Where: Seagoddess whale watching 7881 Sandholt Rd, Moss Landing CA 95039
When: Multiple trips during the day
Cost: $45, cheaper if you get a Groupon

Cooking Event

I am not particularly crazy about cooking.But when our team organized an offsite at a cooking school, I wanted to try it out.

 

The event was conducted at the Draeger's Market in Menlo Park. A small section of the store is turned into a cooking school. We arrive there at 11.30am. The 15 of us were divided in 3 groups. 'Rustic Italian' was the theme for the day. 3 groups together was responsible for cooking up one complete meal. Keeping with the theme, the groups were appropriately named as 'Team Milan (my team, yay!),' Team Rome' and 'Team Venice.' Each team was also assigned a dedicated chef to help them.

Team Milan

Team Rome and Venice made a salad, grilled vegetable and dessert. 

Blending

Grilling

Our team was tasked with making 'Homemade Farafelle in creamy lemon sauce with peas and mint.' This was exactly what I wanted to make so I was thrilled. All ingredients were duly measure and prepped for us to work with. Our chef, Sukanya, had already kneaded some dough for pasta and also made a sample of the farafelle pasta. There was fresh flour, eggs and butter kept ready in the blender. All our team had to do was run the blender to get the dough kneaded. The next part was the most interesting. The dough was then put through a pasta maker and rolled multiple times to get flattened strips. These were then cut using serrated cutters and then pinched to make the bow-tie pasta. Everyone took turns to do this. Afterall we were making pasta for 15 people so we used all the help we could get.

Pasta making

More pasta making

I took up the job of chopping onions. I got started with it and chopped a whole bunch of them. Others busied themselves with zesting and juicing lemons, cutting cherry tomatoes and chopping mint leaves.

Chopping

Once all the vegetables were done, we moved on to make the sauce. Most were still occupied with the pasta so I took over the making of sauce. A large quantity of butter was melted, onions sauteed, heavy cream and spices were added. Post a few tastings and adjustments we were ready with the sauce. It was a fun experiment. With Sukanya in tow, I had no fear of going wrong.

Sauteeing

 

Once all teams were done, the final touch was provided by the chefs and post a 15 minute break, the meals were served. Unfortunately, I didn't click any pictures of the final product :( But it was a satisfying meal with the best dish being the pasta!

It is a fun place to be and can be an excellent team building activity. I hear kids host their birthday parties there although it is quite an expensive affair. Nevertheless I had a great time donning the Chef's apron followed by a delicious lunch. They even provided us a copy of all the recipes scaled down for 6.

What: Cooking class
Where: Draeger's Market 1010 University Dr, Menlo Park CA
Fee: $125