My Mommy and Daddy actually LOVE me!

Well, it’s official. My mom and dad finally agreed, after me being here for almost 2 years, to come visit me in Spain. Ya, ya. I get it, I really do. I'm a drifter, I haven't lived in the same place for more than 6 months since college. They never thought I’d actually commit to being here this long, and certainly not as far in advance as they could book an international plane ticket. But here I am. And here they came...

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You know you're fine when your dad is drunk with your city

We'll start a little earlier in the day. Although jetlag was still running amok in my family, with only a week in town, there was no way I was letting a single minute go to waste. So after I got up at 7 AM and worked a full day, I roused the family at about 1 PM and forced them into tourist mode. We spent the early parts running my normal "roadtrip" route from San Ambrosio, up the back roads to Vejer de la Frontera...

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Alhambra? That sounds stinky.

Get it? All Ham Bra. Like a bra, made out of ham? Ok fine. It sucks. Our final expedition in Spain before Jennifer and Emily headed back to the Americas was to drive up to Granada. I’ve been dying to get up to this amazing city, but haven’t had an excuse, or anyone to share it with, so I’ve been hesitating. But what better time to do it than now. We find a cheap hotel on hotels.com. Some off-season gem we get a room for 1/3 it’s...

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San Ambrosio, I’d like to introduce you to Texas

As a part of my American re-immersion, most English-isms were attempting to be cut out of my vocabulary. It involved the snapping of a hairband on my wrist and the negative reinforcement actually worked quite well to ride me of my “quites", “queues””and “propers” and reinstated some “awesomes” and a few “seriouslys.” I’d been talking about Emily and Jennifer coming to San Am for a long time now, and most...

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My One Week American Re-immersion

I don’t get a lot of American influences these days. Yes, I still watch a lot of US television, I still talk to my friends via e-mail quite frequently, and talking to my mom once a week on the phone has given me this strange Michigan twang when I talk. But my everyday life, feels less and less American. I call french fries Chips without thinking twice. I ask questions with some strange English inflection pointed out immediately...

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My 6th Annual 21st Birthday Celebration

I was so lucky to have my girls with me for my birthday, as I always am, as they are amazing about coming and seeing me wherever I am for my birthday. Today was our city day. What is a trip to Tuscany without a visit to Florence. But, being that I had already been to Florence on several occasions, I wanted to get something in for me as well, so we took a morning trip to San Gimignano. Which. Is exactly like Vejer, except...

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Wine Tasting in Chianti or MADD’s Worst Nightmare

Today is wine tasting day. We are bound and determined. We’ve got out little rental Clio and we are heading out into the Chianti region of Tuscany and we are going to find wines and drink them. And then we are going to drive to the next place that makes wines and drink them. We start our day with a lazy morning, a long shower and an early lunch. We drove around Poggibonsi for a while before finding what appeared to be a small...

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Getting Lost in Central Italy

I sort of have great friends. And this year, three such friends are coming to Europe for my birthday. I really don’t deserve them. Instead of coming all the way over here just for a couple weeks in the campo, we’ve decided we’re going to also do a bit of Italy. Basically how this is going to work, is I’ve taken a weekend off work, the girls fly in on Thursday to Rome, we’ll spend the weekend in Tuscany, they’ll go back to Rome for the...

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