Allie in the South of Spain

Since returning to Spain not too long ago I have been thinking a lot about when Jose and I eventually have children and how they will become English proficient while living in Spain since this is where we will be for the foreseeable future. Part of this curiosity must be seeing my beautiful niece who is at 6 months old in the babbling stage of development which is one of the cutest things EVER. I wish I could be there to see her develop eventually into single words and then short sentences. (I imagine a lot will have to do with their dog Domingo and the word NO!). Since I have just started working at an all-girls elementary school where I will be teaching English conversation and science I am also seeing how difficult it can be if you wait to start children with a second language until they reach school age. Some of the other women who work there are Americans and both admit that their children are fluent in Spanish but are lacking in their English sk...

After leaving Olympia, Jose and I headed back towards Venice to begin the second half of our cruise. We spent the day in Italy walking around the streets of Venice getting lost and buying one of the most expensive beers of our lives. We also took a gondola ride which was romantic in its own way (something I hadn't done last time I was in Venice with my friend Kate). Unfortunately there were a TON of people in Venice and we even hit traffic on the canals while with our ever-texting gondolier. We both agreed that Venice is beautiful and that we would love to return someday, perhaps when it is a bit quieter and less expensive (if that is ever possible). Our splurge: a gondola ride San Marco square After Venice we were off to our next three stops in the Greek Islands. First we visited Corfu where we did some shopping and visited the old fort. It was also incredibly hot and probably our least favorite destination. I did decide to go to a spa where you stuck your feet in water...

Since I last wrote Jose and I have spent a day at sea as well as visiting Athens. We had a tour booked and went by bus to visit the Acropolis. There were a TON of people and it was very hot. The Parthenon was under serious construction which was a bummer but otherwise it was amazing to be able to see some very well known sites. I will post pictures later (we are in a cyber cafe). Afterwards we drove around the city a bit and saw the Plaka neighborhood where we ate some AMAZING Greek food. Yum! We are probably gaining a ton of weight on this trip since we always get dessert everywhere but who cares. You only get one honeymoon right? Although, since I had two weddings maybe I am entitled to two trips as well... After Athens we headed down the coast to Katakalon where we took a train to Olympia. By the name you can probably guess that it is where the ruins of where the Olympic games were held are located. We visited them and the archaelogical museum and are now headed b...

After spending two days in Disney, Jose and I were ready to explore a bit of Paris. Braving a cloudy sky, we rode the train into the center of town and visited all the most important sights before it began to rain in the afternoon. We even were able to do some of the things I didn't when I visited Paris with my sister Chrissie several years ago. We saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, Sacre Cour and more. We didn't have time to enter any museums but I do think that we took advantage of our day. We even ate crepes. Ooooh lala. My one complaint about Paris is that people smell. Horrible. Invest in deoderant. The following day we spent traveling to Venice where we stayed the night before boarding our amazing cruise ship. Our first day we explored and visited the pool before having dinner and crashing. The following day we went to an art auction on board as we were traveling toward Dubrovnik. Jose and I ended up buying and winning several pieces of art which wil...

Jose and I arrived in France on Monday evening and were picked up at the airport by his sister, Miriam. She works at Disney and had gifted us a trip for our wedding so we decided to add that on to our honeymoon cruise trip through the Mediterranean. After getting our bags, Miriam dropped us off at our hotel. I could hardly sleep I was so excited. I had never visited a Disney Park before. Miriam used her connections to get us into the park as well as through most of the lines quickly so we didn´t have to wait. We spent the first day in the more traditional park visiting the typical rides like It´s a small world and the Casey Jr. train. I loved every minute. We saw the daily parade and after a long day thought we were headed home. Instead, we had another surprise. Miriam had bought us tickets to the Buffalo Bill show which included a typical American dinner (chili, barbeque chicken and apple pie) and an exhibition with horses, cowboys, buffalo and Indians. It was amazing. The...

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...