Allie in the South of Spain

Jose and I have been on our Christmas vacation now for almost a week and it feels like we have taken advantage of every moment. Things have been busy to say the least. Pre-Christmas we cleaned and prepared for both the holiday and our visit with our friends, Erica and Ernie. Then we spent the 24th and 25th with Jose's family, one day with his mom's side and the second with his dad's. Santa even came to visit! On the afternoon of the 25th we stopped at the train station on our way home to pick up Erica and Ernie. They came back to our apartment where we relaxed before heading to visit Seville the next day. We went to the Cathedral, had a big lunch at one of our favorite restaurants and walked around enjoying the Christmas atmosphere. We ended our day in the best place in Seville, the Plaza de Espana. The next day we headed out to Cordoba to go to a winery because our friends really enjoy wine tasting. Ernie is basically a self-taught expert and one of the thing...

So here I am again writing another Christmas Card via my blog. This is the third year that I have done so, choosing to update my friends and family on what is going on with us here in the south of Spain as well as recapping what has happened throughout the past year. We also use this blog post as an excuse to take a holiday picture which you can see below. It's fun to be able to look back at the past few years and the memories we have created. You can see the cards from 2012 and 2013 below: Christmas Card 2012 Christmas Card 2013 Without further ado here is our top ten from 2014: 10. Visiting Morocco for the New Year. This was a trip we had been wanting to take for some time and though we were in some ways disappointed with the tour we chose, this short vacation made us want to return again some day. Read about Morocco here . 9. Heading to Pure Michigan for another summer with my family. We always have a great time when we are back home in the U.S. We fill up on family...

Recently we had a long weekend and Jose, Cooper and I headed to the south of Portugal. I love this part of our neighboring country because though it is quite similar to the south of Spain, it has it's own charm. We usually stay at my in-laws' apartment right across the border in Vila Real de San Antonio. It is less than two hours from home and we can walk to the beach when we are there. This area of Portugal is really popular with retired people from all over Europe and we enjoy exploring the villages that dot the coast as well as heading a bit in-land every once in a while. One of my favorite things about this time of year is the Christmas festivals, fairs and markets that pop up all over. Vila Real is no different. In their main plaza there is always stuff to do, see and buy. This month there was a holiday themed fair going on complete with an ice skating rink. There was a stand in the market with its own wood stove where they were making bread that looked FANTASTIC. ...

This weekend Jose, our friends, Cooper and I went to spend the weekend at a casa rural outside of Aracena in the Sierra of Huelva. We make a similar trip every year because this is probably my favorite place to visit in the south of Spain.  You can read about other weekends away here  (Aroche), here  (Aracena) and here  (Almonaster). This time we stayed in a place right near a small village called Corteconcepcion.   Casa Rural El Chaparral I love visiting this part of the mountains of Huelva because it is home to a very unique ecosystem, the dehesa which I find incredibly beautiful. The best way I can describe the dehesa is as follows: imagine a mountainous area with lots of trees (though not very tall or full) like cork trees. There is no underbrush or any bushes that cover the ground. Rather centuries ago, man adapted this area to his needs by clearing away the smaller plants to allow sun to reach the grass. This allowed them to take advantage of not on...

You may remember our first canary, Skittles, who lived with us for over three years (read here ), making the move from our old apartment to our new one. He brightened our lives every day with his beautiful song. One weekend we left him out on our terrace when we went away and when we came back we found him dead. He had been killed by some kind of bird of prey (read here ). Bastard. You might think that you wouldn't come to really care about a pet that doesn't cuddle with you like a dog but I really did love that little bird. I was pretty upset when he died. RIP Skittles. It's been a while since we lost our last canary. We kept the cage and all of the accessories in the hopes of one day getting another one. They really do make things happier with their singing (unless you want to take a nap). In the end it was Jose's Dad who gave us another bright orange bird. We got him about 2 weeks ago and have named him Starburst to stick with the candy theme. Here he is! He...

The mesa camilla is a very Spanish invention (in fact I believe it to be a very southernly Spanish invention). It consists of a table, a heater and a heavy, long tablecloth-like fabric that drapes over the sides. The idea is that you put the heater under the table and when you sit down you put the fabric over you like a blanket. The truth is that it does keep you quite warm. The downside is that once you get up and move, you lose the heat. Since the houses and apartments here in the south of Spain are not created for the cold (no central heating) a mesa camilla can be found almost every where.  We didn't have one last year and survived with blankets, space heaters and flannel pajamas throughout the winter. This year Jose decided we needed to get a mesa camilla. I fought the good fight (since often times they look very similar to the option in the picture above) but we ended up ordering one not too long ago.  Typically the mesa camilla is made of wood and can be stored ...

Okay so the last time I checked in with my 30 before 30 list I had changed and updated a few things from the original list I had made. It's a bit crazy that I have been working on these goals for about a year and a half now and that I have about as long left until the big birthday. To get you all caught up here are the posts I have written thus far about my 30 before 30 journey: The original post in May 2013 The first up-date in September 2013 The second up-date in November 2012 The third up-date in January 2014 A revision of the list in June 2014 And now without further ado, on to the latest and greatest things that I have crossed off my 30 before 30 list. 1. Go on another cruise.  2. Learn to cook Indian food . 3. Start a family (read: have a baby).  This is something we are still working on. I wrote a post in September about PCOS and how difficult things can be but we are optimistic that everything will work out for us. 4. Find a job in which I am happy with...

Here in the south of Spain there isn't much of a tradition of throwing showers (neither for weddings or for babies) but when my good friend, Cristina, announced that she was going to have a baby I decided to organize a party in her honor. Cristina is a wonderful person, who cares about and cares for all creatures great and small. She and I worked together in the past and our husbands work closely on the English team at their school. We share a love of animals and have teamed up to rescue a few in the past. I am very happy to be able to call her my friend and am excited that she will soon be welcoming a baby girl (named Blanca) into her family (which includes 5 rescue kitties). Keeping in mind that I wanted to bring this tradition to Spain, I took advantage and did a bit of shopping for decorations while at home this summer. This party was by no means one of those fantastically put together showers that you find on Pinterest but I think it came together well. We ended up havi...

This year the school that I work at celebrated Halloween in what I would consider a big way for the south of Spain (where this holiday is growing in popularity but is still not on the scale of the USA). We decorated both our classrooms and the hallways about a week before our celebration, which fell on last Tuesday instead of Friday. As English teachers we were tasked with preparing our students with the necessary vocabulary to see a Halloween play that was presented by a troupe of English speaking actors. It was based on Frankenstein and ended up being pretty funny. The kids were also allowed to dress up for the day and we handed out candy. Here in Spain there is a somewhat misguided belief that Halloween costumes need to be scary, like witches, demons, vampires and zombies. I tried to explain to my students that they could come dressed as anything they wanted like princesses or football players but they still all showed up in dark costumes. I dressed up like a mime ...

Ok so I know this picture is a bit blurry and I apologize but it is the final result of my having cooked chipirones a la plancha for the first time. Let me explain, chipirones are small squid and a la plancha means grilled. They are served in an olive oil, parsley and garlic sauce. At first I wasn't sold on the idea of this recipe but believe me, it is pretty awesome and super healthy. It is a really typical tapa that you can order at almost any bar here in the south of Spain. Chipirones a la plancha is usually served on a bed of lettuce or with a small side salad. Yum! Here's the how: First you need the chipirones (small squid that come with the heads and tentacles attached). I can buy them at my local grocery store in the fresh seafood section. I bought a package of 400 grams though the good thing about this recipe is that you can make as much or as little as you like. Allow me to also explain that here in Spain people tend to eat a lot more fish and seafood than...

Medical news So it's been a while since my last post where I came clean about my PCOS diagnosis. Since then we've been busy with appointments with specialists, having tests done and hopefully beginning a successful treatment plan with a new doctor who I really, really like. I mean the guy busted out a white board to explain what our options are, how things will work and what the next steps are. Plus he studied in the USA which probably shouldn't make me feel more confident but it does. In other medical news, Jose fell while running a 10k race and was in a cast for having sprained his ankle. He missed a couple of weeks of work and was bored out of his mind. Since he was told to not move to give his ankle time to heal I was charged with all of the housework, cooking and basically slaving to make sure he was fed, showered and entertained for the last month or so (kind of like having a baby). Needless to say we are all happy (except Cooper) that the doctor took Jose...