Allie in the South of Spain

This is a sort of follow up blog to my Let there be light! entry a while back. Today Jose's dad stopped by and helped us hang the lamps in our living room and bedroom. I am so happy to get rid of the hanging lightbulbs that were really cramping my style. These are the little details that make the difference between a house and a home. Our next step will be curtains. Here is the first one in our living room: The other lamp in the living room:     And in the bedroom: Oh and we finished the last of our furniture in the bathroom: Tomorrow we are headed to Portugal to relax for a bit. We are enjoying our week off!

You can't live in the south of Spain and not mention Semana Santa (or Holy Week which is going on now). Let me start off this post by saying that this isn't really my cup of tea. I appreciate its cultural significance and tradition but I cannot handle the crowds. Seriously, the city center gets crazy this week with people milling about, shoving their baby strollers through crowds, rushing to get to see the next procession. Add to that narrow, winding streets, smokers, heat, rain, etc. and it can get stressful quickly. Semana Santa here in the south of Spain involves a lot of processions on different days which basically follow the story of Jesus' last days. It officially began yesterday but since it rained most of the day not a lot (if any) of these processions left the churchs where they stay during most of the rest of the year. The religious figures are carried out on the shoulders of penitents and paraded around the city on a decided route so that people can see...

I have mentioned it earlier but spring is definitely here in the south of Spain. We are still getting rained on a lot but this morning on our walk we were able to see everything flowering. I am thankful to not have allergies because this time of year must be a nightmare. Plants we didn't even know would flower have. Most of these are plants I can't recognize but they sure are pretty. This week Jose and I have off of work for Holy Week. We plan on relaxing, seeing some of the salidas (I will take pictures and explain in another post) and then heading to Portugal later on this week. This is the plant that really looks like it could make you sneeze. Hi Cooper. I am sure the people back home are jealous since I think it is still snowing there. Ha! Happy spring : )

Living overseas is hard for many reasons. Obviously I miss my family and my friends but some days it goes beyond that. Some days I miss little things. Here is a short list: 1. Blonde people : Really I miss having physical diversity in general. I was struck once again at the lack of it again the other day when my class was reviewing physical traits. Brown hair and brown eyes? Got that covered. The other ends of the skin color, hair color and eye color spectrums are much harder to find.  2. Eating at normal times : I HATE eating dinner at 9:00p.m., lunch at 2:00p.m. and having to have a snack just to make it so late without getting cranky. I am not sure my body will ever really adjust to this schedule. I am either ravenous or feel too full at odd hours.  3. Speaking in English : I am lucky in that I work with other Americans so I get to speak quite a bit of English during the day. Sometimes I feel burnt out when it comes to having to face life in general in Spanish. Runnin...

This weekend was pretty relaxed for us. We didn't have a super long to-do list but did get some lamps and paintings hung as well as shopping for some fabric for curtains that my mother-in-law is sewing for us. On Saturday we hung around the apartment getting things done but not without enjoying some food and downtime. Here is Cooper watching some t.v. while sucking on his blanket. He is a big baby who especially likes any shows with animals. I also got our books and other miscellany put up on our shelves. Nothing too exciting but little by little things are coming together.

This week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at school. We used the holiday to tie in with a English-language themed week that will take place later this spring. The country chosen for this year's English week was Ireland (last year it was England and next year will be USA, USA, USA!). St. Patrick's Day was a good introduction and the girls loved it. We kicked off the week by presenting some important facts about the saint, when he was born, his life and miracles, a little about Ireland etc. These facts were hung throughout the school and were discussed in our girls' English classes. Then first and second grade participated in a coloring contest while third and fourth had a drawing contest. Here are some examples from first grade: And from fourth: We also had the girls do different crafts to decorate the hallways. One was a shamrock (that symbolizes the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). Another was a rainbow made out of a paper plate. Finally th...

A new Pope was elected yesterday in Rome and there is a lot of buzz here at work about it (this is a Catholic school after all). In the last few days I learned a lot about the process of electing a pope (how many votes they do a day, for how many days etc) as well as the distribution of Catholics throughout the world (I hadn´t realized that there were so many in Africa). It has been an interesting few days while everyone was waiting for white smoke.  Drum roll please. Here he is Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, now Francis (or Francisco) I. He is the first non-European Pope in over 1,000 years.  I have been lucky enough to see the last 2 Popes in person on separate visits to Rome. Once was when I went during Holy Week in 2002 and attended Easter mass at the Vatican. The second time was on my last trip to Rome when Jose, our friend Megan and I got shuffled in to an official ceremony at the Cathedral with no tickets and no idea that it was planned for that same day...