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...

This weekend Jose and I kicked a** getting a bunch of little projects done around the apartment. We figured we could finish the majority of this stuff on Saturday but as per usual our timeline kept extending. Everything took longer than we had originally thought. We started in the bathroom where we added our towel holders, toilet paper holder, etc. Yay IKEA! Drilling through the tile and then the wall proved harder than we expected. Each hole took 20 minutes, no joke, partly because you have to be careful not to crack the tile itself and secondly because the wall is basically made of diamond  (or something similarly hard). Sorry about the photo, we still don't have lights in place, just a lamp and the bathroom is still not too organized. Then we moved on to the kitchen where we hung a chalkboard and a pole that we hung a basket from to help get things off the counter. This was another thing we picked up in IKEA. For about 20 bucks we were able to get all the parts and I like...

There are a bazillion orange trees here in the south of Spain. Some produce oranges you can eat, others like the ones in Sevilla's city center are not edible (travel tip). Orange trees are everywhere and right now they are producing flowers and fruit. I have wanted to start getting our terrace ready for the spring and when we were grocery shopping the other day and saw dwarf orange trees I knew I wanted one. Here it is after we brought it (her) home. Isn't she cute? I still have to do some research to see exactly what kind of care she needs and whether or not we can eat the little baby oranges that she produces but I love her!

It would seem that with all this rain, spring has arrived here in the south of Spain. At least this is what I am hoping. When we are able to get outside to actually take Cooper for a walk we have been noticing the signs that spring has sprung. First came the snails which have been crawling out from wherever they were hiding. Most of them are pretty little and I only really notice them after I accidently crunch them underfoot. Some are bigger and the girls at school come screaming to tell me they saw one at recess. Snails are actually a popular dish here in Spain (caracoles) and though I have yet to try one, a lot of people love them. The snail's creepier cousin, the slug, has also made its presence known. They are huge! While living in Chile I had my far share of run-ins with slugs but the ones here are just as gross even if they are outside and not found in my shower. Cooper sniffs them out and is somehow convinced they would be a tasty treat. We have to pull him away all the ti...

It has been raining pretty much daily for the last couple of weeks. I am over it. It can stop any time but probably won't.  Besides being depressing as hell, this rain is really cramping my style. First, Cooper hates going outside to do his dirty business when it is raining. When we walk out and he gets hit by water he will turn around and look at me like I am crazy. Nuh uh. Next, working at a school with daily inside recess is not going well. Our girls desperately need to get out and burn off their energy. Otherwise they go a bit stir crazy which in turn makes me crazy. When you don't have a dryer, best of luck getting your clothes un-damp and not smelling just a bit funky when it rains all day, every day. Those money-saving solar panels aren't working too well either at this point. Rawr! Let's hope that this weather lets up soon. I have heard that it might be like this for the rest of March. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???????

If you know me, you know that I LOVE McDonald´s Shamrock Shakes . Seriously, they are so incredibly good. If you haven´t had one, please stop reading and go get one. They are minty and fresh. They are like heaven coming through a straw. I could probably slurp like a million of them. I remember the first time I had one in college and got hooked. How could I have gone so long without experiencing this green nirvana? They are only out for a limited time around St. Patrick´s Day so you really have to take advantage. I have in the past contemplated trying to freeze them for later consumption in the past but wasn´t convinced that they would keep very well. Besides, part of the fun is realizing they have been re-released into the restaurants. The first sip is always the best, especially after a year of anticipation. Then after I graduated from college I moved down to North Carolina to start grad school. When March rolled around I realized that Shamrock Shakes were not available in the...

This weekend we decided to take a quick trip to Portugal for a few days to get away from all the apartment stuff we have been doing recently. We needed to relax and disconnect for a bit. We drove the two hours to Jose's parents' apartment by the beach, taking our own food to save money (this was definitely a cheap trip). Our plan was to just hang out and maybe buy some sheets and towels for the new place since Portugal is well known for these kind of products. (People actually make pilgrimages across the border to buy household goods since the prices are much better). We arrived on Friday afternoon and settled in for the night. On Saturday we took a long walk down to the beach with Cooper. He loved it and was running wild until he decided to ingest some old, crusty, dead crab and then he gagged for about 20 minutes. He's not the brightest dog there ever was but he sure is cute. As you can see, the weather wasn't too great so we were the only people out on the ...

We have a bunch of vacant land near our new apartment. Someday if and when the economy picks up these lots will become buildings but for now they are open areas where we like to take Cooper for long walks in the morning. Cooper loves it. He is able to run around safely (see no cars) and act like he is a real dog. He especially likes flushing and chasing birds. Since Cooper is so short with his stubby legs we sometimes lose him in the tall grass or shrubs. We have to look for movement to be able to find him because he can get pretty well camoflauged. Here are a couple of pictures we took with Jose's phone. See if you can find Cooper. In this first photo he is completely hidden. Where is Cooper??!! Now can you find him? Hint: look in the middle and look for movement. SOLUTIONS:     See, it isn't easy. We have to make sure he is following us so we don't misplace him out there : )

Yesterday Jose and I had the day off work for Andalucia Day so we went to visit his family in their small pueblo, El Saucejo which is about an hour and 20 minutes away from Sevilla. It has been a while since we made it out there to see everyone so it was nice to catch up with Jose's grandparents, aunts and uncles. As we were driving up into the town (which is located at a higher altitude than Sevilla) we noticed that it had snowed. This is something that doesn't happen often and boy oh boy did it become THE topic of conversation throughout our visit. Talk about snowmaggedon. We always talk about work, family and the weather with Jose's family. Without fail. This light dusting of snow was conversation fodder in each of the 5 houses we stopped at during our visit. Each person first commented about it, talked about the last time it happened 40 years ago and then said where they were and what they were doing when they realized it had snowed. Hilarious. The best part was t...