Allie in the South of Spain

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...