Allie in the South of Spain

WTF, Spain? In the last few weeks there has been quite an uproar here in Spain as known, condemned ETA terrorists have won a legal battle and are being released from prison. Let's not mince words here, these people are responsible for murder and mayhem that plagued the country in the 1980's. They committed crimes, were caught, went to trial, were found guilty and have been in prison since.  Seems like a normal reaction to being found responsible for 24 deaths in one case, that of Ines del Rio who was released today after being condemned for her participation in various crimes including a car bomb meant to destroy a passing bus full of members of the Spanish Civil Guard. In reality that explosion killed Eugene Kenneth Brown, an American who was not the main target. This woman was in jail for a total of 26 years, that is 13 months for each person she murdered. In Spain the maximum amount of time you can spend in jail is 30 years, regardless of your crimes. So even if you a...

Maaaaaaaria, I just met a girl named Maria Hopefully you just read that and sang the song from West Side Story in your head. Let's just say that from what I have experienced here in Spain, people really, really like this name. In fact, there are times when it seems like EVERY woman or girl is named Maria (or Maria de/l something) and though they might go by the second part of their name, their given one is still Maria. People definitely opt for traditional names here, unlike the US where names go through trends.  Recently a friend on Facebook posted a link which contained a GIF  (originally from The Atlantic)  showing the different female names that had been popular in the US since 1960. It is interesting to see how a name like Jennifer would be popular in one region and then would sweep the nation. Such a map would not be as cool here in Spain since not a whole lot would change. Maria. Maria del Carmen. Miriam. Marian. Mirian. Variations on a theme. Religious...

Thank you again, Groupon Not too long ago I received a deal from Groupon for 2x1 tickets to Seville's local amusement park. As I had never been before (and Jose hadn't visited since he was a child), we decided to buy the coupon and ended up going yesterday. We brought a picnic lunch to save money and wore comfortable shoes to be able to walk around all afternoon. At the entrance Yaaaarrrggghhhhh The park itself is pirate themed and was created in conjunction with the World Expo Fair that Seville hosted in the early nineties. There are boats everywhere and lots of water rides which are nice during the hot summers here in the south of Spain. There is a big fort and live shows, the most popular being one in which there is a battle aboard a pirate ship.  Most people's favorite ride is a roller coaster although there are a lot of attractions for children as well. I did not go on the really big rides because I have a terrible time with motion sickness. Luck...

Fall in the south of Spain My favorite season The last week or so has seen my Facebook page innundated with people posting updates about fall and all the fun activities they are participating in. Autumn is my favorite season which is a real bummer here in the south of Spain since it basically doesn't exist. There is no real cool down, the kind the screams for jeans and sweatshirts. The (palm) trees don't change colors and the leaves don't fall. I miss it! Here is a list of the top ten things that I really am wishing for during this season here in Spain: 1. Halloween candy The other day when grocery shopping I noticed that they were offering mixed bags of Halloween candy but it just isn't the same. I miss the Reese's in the autumn colored wrappers, the mini-sized goodness available everywhere. We will be accepting boxes with donations of candy. I can message the address... 2. Apples Visiting apple orchards was pretty standard back in Michigan during the ...

Cheap transportation needed Since I started my new job last week, Jose and I have been trying to figure out how we would be able to manage our different commutes with only one car. Before we were able to drive to work together since our schools were just down the road from one another and we had more or less the same schedules. Now things are different. Because Jose does not have very far to travel and doesn't go on any main roads, we decided to investigate buying a scooter. It didn't take us long to find one second-hand. We didn't waste any time in buying it since it was a good deal (at least we hope). Coops wants a ride That means that we got to spend the afternoon today driving around our apartment complex to practice. Even Cooper got into the spirit. The nice thing about this scooter is that it is pretty basic and easy to use. Really there are hand brakes and an accelerator. We both need to work on curves and turning but I think things went pretty well. We wil...

One year later We adopted our dog Cooper about a year ago. A lot has changed for us since then (new apartment, new job, new furniture, a summer at doggy camp) but one thing remains the same. Bringing this big-eared, short-legged, little guy into our lives is one of the best decisions we have made. I talked about why I wanted a dog here  and though at times neither of us wants to get out of bed to take him out, he has only made our lives better. A day in the life of Cooper the Pooper Generally speaking the Cooperonian calendar doesn't change, even on the weekends. He wakes up between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. by scratching at the big crate that he sleeps in with his favorite blanket. Then he goes outside and has breakfast. The rest of the day entails sleeping, snuggling and chewing on his various toys and bones (especially Donald Duck, meet him here ), interspersed with sucking on his blanket. I first introduced this weird trait here .  This summer while we were back in...

Actually this title is a falsehood, in fact there is a lot of stuff about living abroad that sucks. Most of this is related to being so far away from friends and family.  You miss every day things like family get-togethers or spontaneous dinners with friends. You miss out on being able to see how kids are growing and changing. Every time I speak online to my niece she is saying new words and doing cool stuff that she didn't do last time. Just yesterday she introduced me to her new stuffed friend, Toni. But only after yelling dramatically, "Tooooonnnniiiiiii."  Sometimes I am able to push to the back of my mind these small things (because if I don't I get too depressed). It is the trade off of living overseas. You have to give up being there for every single, small event. What really kills me though is missing out on the big things, the life changing things.  Today is a prime example of that. Today my best friend gets married. A love story No, I am not going to...

Since coming back to Spain we have completed a few more small projects here in our apartment. Here are a couple photos of what we have been working on. Small bedroom, small changes First we added a small wardrobe in our small bedroom. I think proportionately it works in the space (which isn't incredibly large to begin with). We also added a headboard that matched. I really think that headboards make rooms feel more grown up and permanent. Black and white photos Next we finally hung up the black and white photos that we had printed before we headed to the U.S. for the summer. I had been dreading trying to hang these frames because I knew it was going to be difficult to get them exactly even in a row. It took us a couple of tries to get it right but we did eventually get them hung fairly well. The giant empty space between them is our missing television which we are still waiting to hear about from the guy who will hopefully fix it for us. Read about it here. ...