My favorite store fronts FOR MY MOM ON HER BIRTHDAY!

San Sebastián

I had the best weekend in San Sebastián with the true King & Queen of Spain

I don't know if it's because Franco holiday'd here but it's beautiful

This is the Basque country. They were forced to put up the spanish flag on their city hall - they put it in the corner (that's a little funny)

I also got to try the Basque version of caracoles - CACAQUELAS! There are from the sea instead and people eat them like sunflower seeds. They're so good.

Pacharán is a popular basque sloe berrie liqueur - AND this is the coolest Pacharán!

This is Xtabe & Chusman with Georgi from Bulgaria - we found him & we kept him all night! He was a really smart & even more handsome version of JAck BLack.

How cool is it that the concert is RIGHT on the beach?!

GREAT WEEKEND!! Y también he hablado más español que mi todo tiempo aquí. Pero no se si lo ayudame (jajaja).

The best earrings / Las mejores pendientes

Did I ever show you all my new favorite earrings? They are handcrafted by someone of LA GIRALDA!! I'm going to wear them when I dance. I think they're so great!

Mi fin de semana / My weekend

El noche de sabado / Saturday night

Y domingo / and Sunday

Una cosa mala sobre verano

¡¡¡ Los mosquitos !!!

The one bad thing about summer is that it brings stupid mosquitos - I'm being eaten up!
I have so many I couldn't keep track, so I made a map of my mosquito bites.

When better for the pesky mosquito to bite me and make me full of lumpy red bumps - summertime! Bikini-time!!! ARG.

Photos from California in June

puppies + my nieces = my heart melting!

Can you believe it - THIS ISN´T MINE!!!

I love summers at Rangeview Dr.

Lazy days outside

Lazy days inside (where´s Nona?)

2 cute 3 times

Flowers from Granada

Mis nuevas profesoras / my new teachers

As of today I'm taking bulerías classes with Concha Vargas (M, W & F) and Carmen Ledesma every day.

A partir de hoy estoy tomando clases de bulerâs con Concha Vargas (L, M & V) y Carmen Ledesma cada día.

The World Cup

These are a few of my favorite World Cup things before the last match happens:

1. VILLA - VILLA -VILLA !!!

David Villa #7 of Spain - he scored a goal in almost EVERY game!

He kicks ass. But the reason I love him is because he looks like Ben Sweeney !!!! I watch him, with his little chin hair (just like Ben's) and I marvel at how good Ben is in his parrellel life as a Spanish athlete. I'm sure you're going to say "NO WAY JOSE!" but when you're watching the little guy running around, getting quick glances of him, it totally looks like Ben! Look see:

2. I liked the Cameroon uniform the best, the one when they lost to Holland. It represented their flag well and, when the camera is in the air, it looked good.

3. Donovan! Team USA actually did really well. Landon Donovan is great player and thanks to him, Dempsey and the rest of the team, USA garnered some respect from around the world - which is great since they come from a country that shows no love for soccer. Games are 90 minutes long but they add a few minutes at the end of each half depending on different things AND Donovan scored the winning goal in the 91st minute (!) against Algeria - super unexpected and super cool!

4. During the Argentina vs. Mexico game a guy on the Argentinian team, Gabriel Heinze, was celebrating a goal with his team and he hit his head into the camera man and smacked him! It was so funny to watch live (I hope the camera guy is alright.) Watch!

5. #3 on the Ghana team, Asamoah Gyan, looks so tough and hard while he's playing on the field but he cried when his team was eliminated after the game with Uruguay - I like when people surprise me.

Also they lost in the shittiest way so tears were appropriate. They played so strong against Uruguay that the game resulted in a tie (the stupid tie-breaking kicks is how they were ultimately defeated.) Uruguay was expecting to win easily and instead the Ghana team made them fight so hard for it. The Uruguay team actually got dirty too. An article I read wrote this,

"I am not here to execute Suarez*, he and his team got their lot – a red card, a penalty and a possible two-game suspension – what I’m trying to point out is that Ghana deserve kudos for rocking the two-time world champions Uruguay down to their knees. When a boxer reaches for a knife to fight instead of his fists, it’s a sign that he has been over-powered by his opponent. Ghana won somehow last night. The crying can stop."

¡¡¡¡¡¡DE ACUERDO!!!!!!!!!!!! I AGREE!!!!!!!!!!

*Suarez made an unprofessional hand-block that robbed the Ghana team of what would have been a winning goal.

6. Gerard Piqué

Not only handsome but crazy good, made a shirt of the July 7th game because it was already historical that they'd made it to that level. July 7th is Renee´s birthday so I want one of those shirts!!! Thanks Piqué...now, where to find one.

7. SHAKIRA!!! Who better to choose to make me love the World Cup - no one! I love Shakira and she loves FÚTBOL! She opened the game and she sang the official song - I get chills when I watch it. The cutest thing in the whole world just got cuter.

8. The game between Spain and Germany was a great example of why Spain is the best team, no matter what happens.

In fact, I think Germany was a better team than Holland. Keep in mind, Germany had scored four times against Australia, four times against England and four times against Argentina! Spain was up against a strong team. Germany is special too because usually a team has a few players who know how to kick goals BUT everyone on the German team knows how - that's why they always score so much! So the Spanish goalie and the spanish defence got to display how incredibly good they are - impenatrable. And Spain’s goal finally came after it spent the match doing precisely what manager Vicente del Bosque intended, "using its knack for ground passing and possession to keep the ball." SO TRUE! Here are the highlights of the best game I've seen so far:

9. Joss made the best tortilla WITH Jalepeños!! I EAT JALEPEñOS NOW! It's his masterpiece!

10. The excitement! World Cup is so fun - I'm drinking beer from South Africa...I love it. One day I´m going to go to a live game!

They are playing the anthems now SO I GOTTA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VIVA ESPAñANA!!!!

Ranch dressing

Comimos pizza y le dijé a Joss que yo querría Ranch dressing así que él buscó en internet como hacerlo. Pero él descubrió que una cosa que necesitamos para hacerlo no existe en España - NO ME DIGA!

NO hay Ranch aquí porque España no vende - no tiene - sour cream o buttermilk - en ninguna parte! Es como lo no existe...que extraño. Este es el razón que Teresa le encantó Ranch tan mucho cuando estaba en EEUU.

Así que no voy tener Ranch durante mi tiempo aquí - Ah! Bueno!
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We were eating pizza and I told Joss I wanted Ranch dressing so he looked up the recipe on the internet. But he discovered that one of the ingredients doesn't exist in Spain - DON'T TELL ME!

THERE ISN'T ANY Ranch in Spain because they don't sell - they don't have - sour cream or buttermilk - anywhere! It is as if it doesn't exist - how weird. This is the reason that Teresa loved Ranch so much when she was in the USA.

So I'm not going to have Ranch during my time here - oh well!

July 7, 2010

RENEE!!!!! SPAIN MADE FÚTBOL HISTORY ON YOUR BIRTHDAY!!

They´ve never gotten this far before...it was such a good game.

My Myspace project has ended!

Yesterday ended my 1 year myspace project. My goal was to posted a photo each day, of the day, starting on my birthday July 5, 2009 and ending on my birthday July 5, 2010 - and I did it.

Now that's it's done it's interesting to look at. When I started, the days before my birthday ended up being really special too and so I included those days too. And who knew I'd be living in Spain by the end of it?


But they're all there, with a little caption below each, and it turned out really cool - I like it a lot. It's open to be viewed by everyone and I'm thankful for everyone who's in a photo and for those who's photos I used!


I made a link at the side if anyone wants to see it!!!! Mom, I made it really easy for you!

Mi primera canción

La escribí ayer en la noche pero la grabé este mañana antes de una ducha. Así que no me parece muy bonita. Pero no me importa porque la canción es muy bonita.

Divertido con mi nueva guitarra