Allie in the South of Spain

When I was young my sisters and I were wild for Lisa Frank. We had folders, Trapper Keepers, pencils, backpacks, keychains and most importantly stickers. You remember her designs. They mostly involved bright, obnoxious colors, dolphins, unicorns or dogs. We collected everything and stuck the stickers everywhere. You couldn't show your face at school if you didn't have something by Lisa Frank. Apparently here in Spain when Jose was young he also collected stickers called cromos. They are very similar to baseball cards in that they have soccer players faces and stats on them. (Surprise, surprise Jose started very young with his soccer obsession). He would collect them and very carefully put them into the correct spaces in the book that came out each season, which was divided by teams. His goal was to get each player and it was a way for him to learn about the league. Really it is a good advertising ploy. Somehow these magazine type books ha...

For those of you who do not know, Jose and I have an ORANGE canary named Skittles. Before receiving him as a gift two years ago, the only thing related to canaries I knew about was Tweety Bird. Here is the most important thing to know about canaries (at least the males), they sing. A LOT. Skittles is almost constantly looking for a ladybird friend. He sings his little heart out as soon as the sun comes out and keeps going pretty much all day. A canary's song is actually quite pretty. I am providing a link to a youtube video of a typical canary. Apparently  there are singing contests for these birds and Jose claims Skittles would give them a run for their money. I am inclined to agree. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5p9yrMHTM&feature=fvwrel So we have established that Skittles is a skilled singer. He has different registers, different sounds, he whistles, warbles and tweets. He preens and fluffs. He is one randy bird who works it to the best of hi...

Last night as Jose and I were eating a slice of pizza right next to the cathedral in the city center, he spotted my FAVORITE local celebrity. Previously I wrote a blog post (see September 2010) about Juan y Medio and his television show which helps bring together lonely old people in Andalucia. Though a lot of the time I have a hard time understanding his daily guests, the stories they tell about their lives and the expectations they have in the opposite sex are really interesting. Juan y Medio is a very tall man (for a Spaniard) which is where he gets his name from, he is one and a half Juans. He also has a moustache which he wears proudly. Basically, behind Gerard Pique he is my favorite famous Spanish person so you can imagine my excitment last evening. Unfortunately, I was sitting with my back to him as he approached. As I was stuffing my face with pepperoni, I saw Jose's eyes light up. By the time I choked down my pizza and realized what was happening, all I saw was his t...

Last weekend Jose and I went to yet another wedding. One of his childhood friends got married in his hometown. Their ceremony was a civil one (my first in Spain) that took place in a castle (how typical). It was a really beautiful space but I am sure that the Spaniards there were not as impressed as I was since castles really are a dime a dozen here. I mean, I grew up with the idea that happily ever after meant getting hitched in a castle. The actual ceremony itself basically consisted of reading the marriage laws along with the couple's personal information and then asking for their consent. There were no vows and though they had a friend give a short speech, I couldn't help but feel that the civil ceremony didn't really do justice to the act of getting married. It was very different from anything I have seen before. Overall, I am still glad Jose and I decided to have two church ceremonies. After the ceremony, we headed to the reception site which happened to be the same...

About a week ago the Euro Cup soccer tournament began. In the Euro Cup, countries send their national teams to play against each other to decide who is the best in Europe and since Spain was the last winner of the World Cup, they are basically defending a title.  Being married to a SPANISH soccer fanatic means that for as long as this competition lasts, I will be watching daily games. Spain's first game took place when Jose and I were scheduled to fly home from Bilbao on Sunday. There was only one small TV tuned in to the game in the airport and the amount of guys crammed around it, groaning and shouting in unison was incredible. Needless to say, I had to drag Jose away and run to catch our flight since he found it hard to break away. As most people know, watching soccer is not my idea of a good time. At least tonight we are heading over to a friend's house to watch the Ireland/Spain game and there will be other girls there to share my pain. Hones...

Last Friday when Jose got out of work, we got on a plane and headed to the north of Spain for our friends' wedding. We met Manu back in North Carolina and have stayed in contact with him and his now-wife Lucia since then. This was the first wedding that Jose and I went to together as a couple (except our own) because before we had always been separated. We were very excited to help our friends celebrate. They are a wonderful couple! The wedding itself took place in Pamplona but we flew into Bilbao and took a bus there. We had already visited the Basque Country (and north) before but I was again struck by how different it is when compared to the south of Spain. If Sevilla is hot, dry and brown, the north is cool, lush and GREEN! Coming from Michigan where we have trees (not just palms or olive trees like in Andalucia) I feel like I can relate better to the landscape of the north, apart from the mountains and hills. The night before the wedding we stayed at the bride and groom...

Jose and I are leaving in a few weeks for our honeymoon-FINALLY!! We will be spending a few days first in Paris where we will also be going to the Disney park before embarking on a two week cruise through the Mediterranean. We are both very excited for this vacation since we will be visiting places we have never been before including Croatia, Greece and Turkey (plus DISNEY). That being said, neither of us have been on a cruise before. I am looking forward to it and I know that Jose is already planning how we will take advantage of everything the ship has to offer. We were incredibly lucky that people were generous at my honeymoon shower last year so we will have the opportunity to really enjoy our time onboard. I am positive that we are going to have a great time. My one concern is packing for this almost 3 week long vacation. Our goal is to only bring one large suitcase between the two of us plus a carry-on each. I always seem to overpack though I am getting better over time (I do n...

The other day Jose and I were shopping for a new blender at a pretty large chain store. After we wandered the aisle clueless since there were probably 50 to chose from, we decided to ask an employee for a recommendation. She immediately gave us a run-down on several until honing in on one in particular. She finished her little speech by saying that it was German-made. Jose's eyes lit up. Here in Spain, German = quality. That was the blender we ended up buying even though it cost more than other options. Later that weekend we saw another advertisment for kitchen designs which also claimed to be of German making and therefore would last longer and be better overall than something perhaps domestically made. As an American, when I think of Germany, images of blonde, goose-stepping, beer-chugging, harsh-sounding giants come to mind (speaking only in terms of stereotypes obviously). While living in Chile in a city with a large German population, I viewed Germans much in the same w...