We've been living in Spain for almost two months! Yay! Here are some unusual things I've found living in Spain, and the first of probably many of these types of posts: 1. No underwear on the clothesline You hang out your clothes to dry if you want to do laundry Spanish-style. Most of the houses we looked at (20+) did not have a dryer because it is very expensive to run utilities here. Most houses still have hookups for a dryer, and being Americans, we naturally opted to get one installed. However, we still sometimes use the line on the roof patio. The thing I've noticed while hanging out my clothes is no underwear on clotheslines. And there are clotheslines everywhere in the city, so you think you'd get a peek of some granny panties hanging out in all their glory, right? Wrong---I'm yet to see them. I recently read that it is illegal to hang out your underwear in some cities in Spain. Not sure about here, but I know for sure that I'm not going to be ...

Trains, Metros, and Taxis; or, A Weekend in Marvelous Madrid

So the corny joke goes like this: what do you call Thanksgiving in Spain? Thursday! But yeah, there is no Thanksgiving in Spain. However, there is a four day weekend, which made it perfect for our first overnight getaway. Our first big trip was, naturally, Madrid. The purpose of the trip was two part: first and foremost, we wanted to visit our son who has been a university student there since January; and second, we wanted to see the capital of our new adopted country. (okay, and third: I wanted to see a painting. More about that later). How to get to Madrid from here: From Rota, take the Rencife train. We drove to Puerto de Santa Maria and left our car for the weekend in the (free!) parking lot. The train is not cheap; it's about 50 euros for each way per person. Sometimes you can get specials (especially if you are willing to drive 1 1/2 hours to Seville) and children under 13 or so can travel for a discounted price. We stopped and changed trains in Seville, but t...

These Shirts Don't Bring Me Joy; or, Frugality versus Minimalism

We've been in Spain for almost three months now, and we've been in a house for about a month---a near barren house with only the very essentials, and loaner furniture that is what I like to describe as "waiting room chic." I can put some 5 year old magazines and religious pamphlets out and people will feel right at home at the doctor's office! The doctor is OUT, so have a seat. . . Yes, it is as uncomfortable as it looks. Did we jump the gun on getting the house? Yes. And no. When we got here, our paperwork said our household goods would be here no later than September 9. By late August, we found a place that we really liked that has a wonderful landlord, so we decided to go for it. After all, what's a couple of weeks on loaner furniture? We packed out on June 9. As of today, it has been (drum roll) 129 days since we last saw our things. We did not find out until after picking out this house that September 9 really means late October ...