Allie in the South of Spain

José and I have discovered a theater here in Sevilla that actually shows films in their original version, NOT dubbed which I hate. Though I have known of this theater´s existance for some time, I was either too lazy or was basically boycotting and refusing to see anything there after I found out they weren´t going to show the latest Harry Potter. Because I cannot stand to see dubbed movies, we had only been to see Spanish films in the regular theaters since I arrived in August. People claim that Spanish dubbing is actually some of the best in the world. I would absolutedly hate to see the worst. I may have said this before, but I think dubbed movies sound way overdone, the actors seem to be over acting, the actresses always come across hysterical, the laughter is fake, the mouths don´t match up with the sounds they are supposedly producing. I know what certain actors are supposed to sound like and can´t stand when their voice isn´t what I am expecting. With all of this ...

I don´t often ride the bus here in Sevilla, mostly because I can walk everywhere and get there as fast if not faster, plus you know my love for my Sevici bike, but every once in a while I hop on one of the Tussam fleet. Every time I realize it was a mistake. I am always under the impression that the ride will go quickly but when the bus stops at EVERY stop and 5 anciently decrepit folks creep on and off, what would be a 20 minute walk becomes an agonizingly long ride. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t hate old people and I think its great that Sevilla offers them free public transportation. What I do hate however, is always getting stuck by the one little old lady who insists on carrying on a conversation with me. First, because most of the time I am sweaty and coming home from the gym. Second, I don´t understand half of what is coming out of their mouth. Deciphering accents is hard enough here in Andalucia, add to that slang, little known phrases and the word "hija" (whic...

Last weekend Jose, my friend Megan and I took a short trip to visit the cities Baeza and Úbeda here in the south of Spain, which are about 3 hours away from Sevilla. They are basically sister cities that are famous for being good examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. We got up early so we could get there in time for a tour in the morning. The first day we saw Úbeda on a walking tour in the freezing cold. It was nice but I ended up liking Baeza much better the following day. Maybe it was the flamboyantly gay tour guide named Juanma, maybe it was just more interesting than the first city or maybe it was that I could actually feel my nose and feet while walking but I kind of fell in love with Baeza and was sad we only had a few hours to spend there. What does this all have to do with the title of my blog you might be asking yourself? Like Lucy, I gots some splainin to do. Part of the reason to travel is to try and experience new foods and our weekend trip was no different. One goo...

That´s right, you heard it here first: the rap ¨star¨ Xzibit is striving to one-up Eminem and stage the biggest hiphop comeback in 2011. Or so it would seem, at least here in Spain. X to the Z as he so fondly called himself is everywhere! Okay, maybe just on MTV and maybe just when they show old re-runs of Pimp my Ride but it seems as if you can´t turn on your T.V. (at 4:00 in the afternoon) (on weekdays) without seeing him overhauling junk cars in style. I, along with many of you I am sure, had forgotten about this little gem of a show. The premise is simple: take one already pretty played out rapper (even in 2006ish around when the show was aired, the year I am guestimating after seeing Arnold make a guest appearance as the Governator), add busted vehicles, a ton of AWFUL and cheesy jokes, a dude with the worst spiked hair you have ever seen, seriously, ever, in your whole life and a crew of bad actors playing a car shop that transform the cars into flashy trash on wheels. Watchi...

Yesterday was Jose and my two year anniversary. Because we were living half a world apart last year, we decided to actually celebrate this time around. Jose got home from work to find me still sleeping my siesta (how romantic) and he gifted me an automatic coffee maker (just what I wanted). We hung around the apartment until dinner time when he misteriously told me it was time to go to places unknown. After driving around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot that wasn´t in the city center where you can now only be for 45 minutes before being fined, we opted to park in a structure that seemed miles away after making the 3 block trek in my heels. When we finally arrived at the restaurant I knew it was worth the walk. Located in the same plaza as a famous church called El Gran Poder (The Great Power which always makes me think of the Genie in Aladdin, although I believe his was infinite cosmic power and an itty bitty living space) the restaurant was well decorated and fancy (read ...

It has been a while since I updated the blog, mostly because I just spent the last 3 weeks or so at home spending Christmas in pure (cold and snowy) Michigan. After a few pretty stressful flights (never going through London again if I can help it where a snowfall=complete shutdown of their airport) I made it home in time to celebrate Christmas with my family and Jose. I am sure I am biased, but Santa is 100 times better than the Reyes (Kings or Wisemen if you will) that come and bring presents in Spain on the 6th of January. First of all, he does the work of 3 guys in one night. Second he has flying reindeer, not smelly, spitting camels. Third, he does it all while being overweight (and bearded). Really, Santa, maybe Jesus and Sean Connery are the only people I think can pull of the beard-look but that is besides the point. Santa lives at the North Pole. It is cold. It is snowy, kind of like Michigan. Many places have that kind of weather and it means everything comes to a screech...

I´ve mentioned it before, but I will say it again in order to put this post into context for anyone who has been living in a cave the last two years: the world is suffering from a financial crisis. Apparently, in some places like Spain it is an obsession and not a day goes by that we don´t hear about it. First, we had a general strike back in September (that really did a lot of good, I see the changes daily) and then things seemed to die down a bit in that it wasn´t necessarily the first thing to come on the news everyday. Then, a few weeks ago came the implosion of Ireland´s economy and successive bailout. People here in Spain (with good reason I am sure) have become concerned that they might be next. I understand their fears in an economy that seems to rely heavily on the tourism industry. When people are suffering hardships, they cut back and travel is one of the first things to go. Well, here I was thinking I was contributing to the European economy (even though their curr...