Duke 71, Carolina 70! I was one of two Duke fans in the bar, and apparently the only vocal one. Still, all fans were gracious, I think. Most left with an exam or a class to attend just a few hours later. I had work and perhaps my first hangover in a long, long time. And that was after 4 beers, so I am getting old.

Work proved to be very productive, answering some 120 emails and updating various little items which needed attention on the sevilla5.com site. This was a long week.

Posted by Jeff at 1:23 PM CET

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So I am a basketball fan. I am a big basketball fan, and if you’ve read previous entries around last March, well you know I lose a lot of sleep and time trying to follow the real sport from Seville. The real sport is NCAA basketball, not this crap league that the world has been sold on called the NBA. Everywhere you go you can catch an NBA game with little passion, a lot of money and a lot of players who may be taking the night off from their “job”. Not NCAA basketball of course. The real sport has the best rivalry of all sports – Duke – Carolina (Betis – Sevilla trailing close behind).

So this is why I am typing this away as I wait for the late night phone call to drag me away from my desk and into a bar, a secret location if you will, where there is NASN and the Duke-Carolina game being broadcast live on a big screen television! And I will be surrounded by fans opposing my team, but I care not. I will walk maybe a mile through deserted streets perhaps tempting a thief or two with my money, but nothing will keep me from the game. Many ask what is the hardest thing about living outside the U.S. First and foremost is family and friends. Second is NCAA basketball. Someday someone will catch on, I hope, and more games will be available instead of three tape delayed NBA games like they will be showing this morning and tomorrow. And maybe Canal Plus will find that rather flashing a logo on the screen in Canal Deporte 3 for 12 hours a day because they have nothing to show, just maybe they could show something worth seeing besides their logo.

Posted by Jeff at 1:23 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 12:38 PM CET

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Ok, I don’t need to be selling you something. Feel free to make your hotel reservation for Semana Santa and Feria wherever you want if you don’t so at sevilla5.com. But I do want to help in telling you that the choices are getting slimmer and slimmer by the day. Especially for Semana Santa, where plenty of hotels are either booked or have just a few days at the beginning of the week. I just wanted to say this so I could say I told you so! But really, the situation and availability is getting worse by the day, so if you plan to come for either of these weeks it’s time to get moving and get your room reserved somewhere with someone, and quick.

Posted by Jeff at 1:22 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 12:39 PM CET

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A wedding in a pueblo is always an interesting experience. A wedding is always an interesting experience. A wedding at times is an interesting experience. A wedding is a way to lose 12 hours and 70 Euros...

Ok, so it wasn't all that bad. Granada and I left around 6pm with family to go to a cousin's wedding in Palma del Condado, a small town just across the "border" in the province of Huelva. I met a lot of family for the first time, cousins and cousins of cousins and their neighbors. After 30 minutes of standing and sitting we made our way to celebration hall. These places exist in every small town and larger city in Spain. Many choose to leave the city for their celebration and book these in small suburbs or pueblos just outside of the city. Think of a banquet hall of sorts, a place where you can mingle with a drink and pick appetizers off a moving tray, then a large hall for a meal and maybe a dance floor and bar close by. These establishments would likely fold in a year or two if weddings were the only events to be catered for. But this is a big business which thrives on weddings plus the communion celebrations for a catholic country. If anyone should be leaving money in the church collection basket it should be the owners of these businesses.

So, Palma del Condado is a nice little town, with a large church which is cold as can be for a January wedding. Once we arrived at the "celebration station" we began to warm up with a few drinks and of course typical appetizers. I think there is also a racket amongst these businesses to serve the same menu, from the entradas to the main courses. We took our pick of small crackers/toast with soft blue cheese and other assorted sugarless pastries. Then cazon en adobo and gambas con bacon. Of course Cruzcampo was on tap, or a selection of wine. Upon sitting down we made it to the main meal: plates of cheeses and cured meats. Then we received more than we expected - a whole plate of cured jamon serrano for each person, then a plate of shrimp, prawns and a third type of shrimp for each person. Then three additional plates of shrimp to share amongst everyone at the table. Of course a non-alcoholic lemon smoothy to clear our palettes was a must. Finally arrived the main course of pork loin wrapped in bacon and served with potatoes. Afterwards there was dessert (cake), champagne, the wedding cake and then of course chocolates! The groom passed from table to table and handed out Cuban cigars, while the bride passed around a small gift for all the women. We spent the next hour in conversation around the table. Finally, some 4 hours after beginning our meal we moved into the bar next to the dining hall for mixed drinks (Gin and tonic for me, thanks), dancing and then trays of pastries or sandwiches to choose from. I honestly don't think anyone ate a single piece of this last course.

A wedding in a pueblo is also a larger affair. With such a small town you take a risk not inviting everyone you know, as you'll likely see them every day. And as everyone's lives seem to intermingle a bit more than the city folks you soon probably know, or at least know of, everyone in the whole town. There were probably some 225 people attending this wedding, and I was told of others where 400 to 500 people had attended. How this is afforded I don't know, though I must say it is customary or perhaps not frowned upon to hand over an envelope of cash to the bride or groom during the reception. Perhaps it's a nice way of paying the bill? It certainly was well worth it. I met cousins and other relatives of Granada's I never knew she had. And heard stories of their summers visiting when they were children, and how much the town had changed. We were invited to come back to go swimming at someone's pool when it got warmer, or perhaps just for a Sunday meal out somewhere when spring arrives. We also extended invitations for people to visit us in the city. This is common, I thought, but wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see them again until the next big wedding.

Some time around 3:30am we started on our way back to Sevilla. First was a short walk through the town, and there was a certain charm which appealed to me. It could have been the silence of 3:30 in the morning. Maybe the fog settling in over a nice little plaza with large apartments that had several terraces and windows to the outside. Or maybe the few mixed drinks consumed after a meal of ungodly proportions. But I could almost see myself living some place like this. Sure, I might get bored, but I think that can happen just about anywhere. By the time we got back to Seville it was close to 4:30am, and my dreams of pueblo life were long over. Maybe I need two homes - my small apartment in the center of it all and my spacious house in a pueblo somewhere. Now if I can just figure out how to make money, and save it, in Spain I'll be all set to start on my two houses. Although I have a feeling my second home will be likely be a shack somewhere in Extremadura.

Posted by Jeff at 1:22 PM CET

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Ok, so you see a theme going for these past two days. It'll be out of my system soon enough. Don't take offense if you like something on my hated lists...

• Read receipts for every email, no matter what the importance is…
• Email responses which appear at the end of the sent message. Thanks, I feel like scrolling today
• Email responses where the original message has been erased, especially the important ones. What the hell did I say? I don’t always remember.
• Flash web sites: do I have to go into this again? Yes! I love watching a progress bar load on the front page. I love seeing lots of animation and photos with little information. And give me a frame with a set of cute little arrows to move up and down with, but don’t make it a real scroll bar: limit the scroll speed to something agonizingly painful, or speed it up so fast that I can’t ever read the middle portion of the text. Your logo spinning in five different directions? Cool! Your hopeful commerce web site tanking in the search engines because you don’t understand the importance of 1 word of written text – EVEN BETTER.
• Web sites who steal my content, word for word and photo for photo, and don’t give one bit of credit to me, like this one:
  http://www.tuhotel.org/seville/art.htm
  http://www.tuhotel.org/seville/nightlife.htm
  http://www.tuhotel.org/seville/weather.htm
  These truly stupid people don’t even realize some of the information they have posted is almost 6 months out of date. Oh, and isn’t that the former director of my study abroad page there at the bar, or perhaps my wife? Well, don’t worry, I’ll never catch on that this is mine...love you honey!
• Meaningless icons which help me visualize instead of read. Problem is your icons suck and help me visualize visual clutter. Even better, give me a list of 40 icons, like the services and amenities in a hotel. Then add alt text so I can mouse over all the ones which make no sense instead of reading text the normal way.
• Fake search engine results which lead me to another page with another set of non-relevant results for a term.
• Websites which open each link in a new window…when it leads to a section in their own page. Try navigating through telefonica.net for a few minutes. Try it here, and here and here and here and here and here. Isn't that fun? Did I just cluttered up your desktop? Now see if you can make it back to what you were reading first...Look, I can understand in some cases: I do this for my photo albums, but not when you click on a link in the main navigation!
• Pop up windows alerting me of a problem with my computer.
• All pop up windows.
• Cialis soft tabs, mosrtgage re finan ce emails writte n with spa ces and speling error s to avoid spam filte rs. My unclaimed lottery winnings or secret opportunity to help Mr. Kawange P Nagabonga in the Republic of Nigeria, former Minister of Spoilery, move the funds in the sum of $20 Million from his bank to my country so I can claim 20%. Thank you Mr. Nagabonga, I do feel God has blessed me with this opportunity and I won’t tell anyone until you have my bank account information.
• Pre-selected check boxes so I can receive your spam when signing up for something. Or have me check a box to say I wish not to receive mailings. It doesn’t matter, make it tricky.

Posted by Jeff at 2:21 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 12:41 PM CET

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So there isn't much about Sevilla or Spain below. But it's a good day for me to write about what bothers me today...

• Roaring 20’s music and costumes.
• Just about every musical ever made, including some of the latest movie/musicals like Chicago. I’m sorry but who can sit through this crap, or should I say two hours of this crap!
• Corset dramas as my friend Stike use to say , which include about any drama/ love story surrounding events in the 16th- 19th centuries.
• Dumb people in travel forums who spout opinion as fact or simply make up facts about certain places when they don’t have the first &*#%@ idea... This includes the “asses” who live in the forums only to jump all over a question by a poor fellow who has never traveled outside his own country. Travel forums should be for helping people, but some must lead such terrible lives that abuse is the only thing they can use them for.
• Antoñito’s hair – it’s bad enough he plays for Sevilla.
• Walking down calle Aguila which involves hugging the side of a building as you try not to get hit by a car mirror.
• George W. Bush…I can say I hate him, right? Here in the safe confines of Spain I think I can…right?

Posted by Jeff at 1:21 PM CET

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We now have new neighbors who many have seen if they have visited Sevilla. They are very good classical musicians from Romania or perhaps Russia which can be found on calle Tetuan on many days. People stand around and clog the streets to watch them for more than a few minutes. People toss them 1 and 2 euros coins fairly often, and it’s only fair as there are four of them and they are quite good. Just a few days ago some or all of them moved into an apartment downstairs. Now we get to hear them practice about every day, and it is a pleasant practice. Especially nice as it drowns out the soundof the various children in our building: the one who calls everyone ugly when she sees them, and the two brothers who fight until the youngest cries (every night). So we are happy to have our new neighbors and a little peace.

We’ve recently crossed paths with a large woman who carries a hat while her partner (equally large) plays the saxophone accompanied by a disk of background music. They seem to be hitting the bars we frequent and are now getting to know us. We’re always asked for a few coins, or better yet a 50 Euro bill. I have to admit she has a sense of humor and fairly soon we’ll have to start paying her just because she recognizes us. Then again, when they finished their last song the other day outside of Bar Manolo they hopped into a 4 door Citroen which is nicer than any car I plan to have in my life. So maybe if they give me a lift next time I’ll part with a little change.

Posted by Jeff at 1:20 PM CET

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It’s been a long haul to get my wireless network up and working the way I always wanted to. It didn’t help that Telefonica provided me with a router-modem which would not allow me direct access, rather access through a hellish program which has me going through page after page of useless steps. One at a time the barriers, literally and virtually, came down and I now have the connectivity I wanted. I have over 20,000 photos which I couldn’t possibly store on my laptop, but I wished to play with. The laptop is much quicker than the desktop for Photoshop. I have 40 gigs of music, plus 30 gigs of video. I have a Pocket PC which is wireless. I only have one printer. I have a real problem with gadgets.

After months of fighting with Windows new built in mierda of a firewall, plus Zone Alarm, plus my router configuration plus the ghosts in the machine which would have things working one minute and then not the next I finally triumphed three weeks ago. I lived with no firewall, no encryption and at many points no connectivity. I survived a hacking attempt – seems someone could get around my network easier than I could. Thankfully they are now locked out. Now if I want to stream video to any device in the house I can. I can print from my Pocket PC, I can remotely connect from one device to another and see what’s happening on a desktop at any time. I can stream music to my home stereo. I still have a few bugs to work out and a couple of things I am longing to do on my network, but for now I have to sit back and enjoy it. It’s great to surf the net on my hand held before I drift off to sleep in my bed. And I know at any moment it can all come crashing down.

Posted by Jeff at 1:20 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 1:25 PM CET

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If you read through much of the site then you likely have stumbled upon my profession aside from running this non-revenue generating web site here. I love exploreseville and wish I could spend all of my time taking photos, adding content and writing about whatever new things come up in Sevilla. But that doesn’t really pay the bills. The way I try to pay the bills is by working at Sevilla5.com, where I run the online hotel reservation portion of the business. Markus, my partner, takes care of the apartment reservations. All of this is geared to the tourist or short term visitor, which makes my site a helpful resource as well. Much of my time is spent answering emails, talking to hotels and making bi-weekly visits to see that everything is working. I take a lot of pictures and do a lot of online research for the hotels we select. I also work with a few language schools and other businesses plus get to meet with a lot of interesting people from just about every corner of the globe. And I have a little more freedom than my last job – a bar or café is often my office. I get invited to a beer or tapa every now and then, or can enjoy an hour hanging out in a 4 star hotel patio with a free cup of coffee. When I am not glued to my laptop, I spend a lot of time in the street running from one place to another.

Posted by Jeff at 1:19 PM CET

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The ones who break in line. The ones who refuse to move and thus push me into oncoming traffic on a narrow street. The ones who scowl at everyone who even comes close to them. The one who had the right to grab the last piece of fruit out of my hand at the fruit stand. The one who paid for 18 Euros of groceries in coins of 10, 5, 2 and 1 cent denominations at the only open register. The one who pushed me out of the way and into the path of a tractor to get a better view of the cabalgata. The one who slapped my friend with a package of cooked ham in her polite way of saying she needed to get by in the supermarket aisle. I love my grandma and lots of little old ladies in this world. But you can’t live in Sevilla, or Spain for that matter, without living through little old lady rage. They quickly become your enemies and soon you can’t distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. You find yourself making sure that little old woman doesn’t get in front of you in line no matter what. You feel guilty – what if she really is tired and needs to get home and rest?

Posted by Jeff at 1:19 PM CET

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Now three years and running that I am getting the flu over the holidays. This past one has been with me for about 10 days and while I am doing better it still seems to hang on. I spent New Years day waiting in line at a farmacia which I thought was filled with people suffering from the after effects of a long evening. But it seems a nasty flu has its grips on Sevilla and it’s one that likes to hang around. Between getting back to a normal work schedule and being constantly at 75% has kept me from getting much done on this site. But I have also been secretly working, little by little, on 10 new sections. I plod away each day, adding a little to one and a little to another. It’s a painful cumulative process which has me advancing a lot while having nothing to show. Still, there should be plenty more for everyone to enjoy in the coming month or two, so I continue and continue…

Posted by Jeff at 1:18 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 1:25 PM CET

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I have written a little about BitTorrents in a previous entry. I know I live in a wonderful city and should spend my time doing something more than watching TV, but I missed the Simpson’s and the Amazing Race too much. And some days you just don’t want to go outside. So I have my weekly rhythm of downloading a few shows along with a few movies and here and there have managed to fill up my hard drive. But when it comes to sports I can find NFL games and NBA games – I like the NFL but I can watch it on satellite television in Spain. And the NBA, well, it just really sucks in my opinion. College basketball is what it’s all about but you can’t find a single NCAA ball game on these sites. It’s a pity, really. It reduces you to a few options:

ESPN’s college basketball pay per view which sells their online product for the same price as their cable or satellite product. And then there are blackouts depending on where you live. Their product packaging and distribution method is truly the result of the moron’s mentality in several ways: 1) the 2”screen windows media feed which stops to be buffered every 10 minutes should not cost anyone the same price as 32” crystal clear video feed on a television. I know they want to make money, but man, this is just plain stupid to offer a crappy product for the same price as a good one. 2) Blackouts because I can watch it in my local area??? What world are you living in? Would I opt for that 2” pixilated video stream over my television just so I miss the commercials? I’d rather watch commercials than a black screen telling me the game will return in a few minutes, not to mention sitting on my couch and watching a better quality feed on my television. 3) Only available in the U.S. Well, I can get around this with my credit card and U.S. billing address. But who has the rights to these games in Spain? They certainly are not broadcast anywhere in this country except for 6 games during the tournament. And I can purchase and watch the CBS NCAA tournament package online from anywhere in the world. Wouldn’t live online basketball’s market also include expats and countries where you can’t watch the games? Who are these people?!!!???

Yahoo’s Sports College Broadcast, which is cleverly bundled with other sports aside from basketball. Why? So they can say you can watch live ACC sports online! Problem is there isn’t a single ACC basketball game with live video on the site. There is football, maybe soccer, baseball and perhaps something like track.

Then there’s NASN, which won’t answer my emails. When will it come to Spain (if you don’t illegally subscribe to Sky and want to install a 2 meter dish on your apartment roof)? We’ll never know…

Posted by Jeff at 2:18 PM CET

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Seems a package sent to us took a long while to make it to Spain and didn’t stay very long after arrival. Although there have been improvements in the Spanish mail system the biggest problems still remain on the receiving end while in Spain. While letters and packages sent abroad most often make it (length of time varying) there is a higher percentage of problems with arrivals. Our Christmas presents showed up for a few days and then were shipped back home – after $70 in shipping costs. Kind of heart-breaking for the family, not to mention the money they lost. So we will wait until this summer to celebrate Christmas.

Posted by Jeff at 1:17 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 1:25 PM CET

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Christmas is in full swing and plenty of preparations are being made as we face a busy holiday schedule. We have the tree to buy, the now annual trip to Jabugo to purchase holiday meats, three cenas de Navidad to attend, plus shopping, mailing and of course the family events. Parents will be in town starting this Saturday to find an apartment for an extended stay in 2005. We plan to have an early Christmas dinner and celebration while they are in Seville. Then we have the dinner on the 24th which should be an extremely large meal. The next day we pay the consequences of being between two cultures and attend the traditional Christmas day turkey dinner at my sister's house. We should have a few days of rest before my birthday, then the celebration for New Year's Eve (including another meal of ungodly quantities), a day or two off to rest and then another meal likely in Umbrete held by more family. Then comes the 6th and Reyes, which we plan to spend inside our house relaxing. So there is enough eating and gathering to make us fat and tired.

Unfortunately these aren't the only plans. We have to shop in the center of Sevilla for gifts, which is a chore during what looks like to be the busiest holiday season in a long time. And it's quite tiring being on foot and negotiating large crowds. Then our cenas de Navidad, which are work dinners to celebrate the holidays, will take up three nights plus a large portion of our stomachs. The trip to Jabugo should hopefully be a nice change through all of this. And of course we have to work, too. And then there is the Sevilla-Betis game, which will be similar to a regional holiday for us.

Posted by Jeff at 1:08 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 1:26 PM CET

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My first true concert was this past Friday at the Palenque, a semi outdoor facility just across the Barqueta bridge in the cartuja. This is the site of the 1992 Expo, which is a mixture of offices, wasteland, and a few entertainment spots. I would guess the Palenque holds about 5,000 people, but I may be off. Still, it’s a good venue to take in show, with a central seating area in front of the stage surrounded by a fairly small moat. Around the central moat is a horseshoe shaped set of seats where the less fortunate get to sit. Still, it’s a small venue meaning you avoid the stadium type distances you’d get in larger places. If you are hungry or want a beer or three before the show you can take your pick of mobile burger, sandwich and drink stands out front.

We paid about 40 € per ticket for seats in the 13th row and watched a pretty good show. Manolo has with him an eight member band filled with good musicians, although a few of the songs off the last album are a bit too slow for my tastes. Near the end we were treated with a few versions of past Último de la fila songs, bringing back a few memories of my days studying in Sevilla in 1993. The band was pretty tight and certainly entertaining. It made me miss some shows back home, though, and how I wish the Tragically Hip would some day make it to Spain. I miss those guys…

Afterward we headed to the Alameda, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve been here late at night. I think I forgot about the incredible size of the botellón in the plaza, where there were easily thousands of people enjoying their store bought booze and hash. Not being a person for the botellón we wandered into a bar and enjoyed a few drinks in a very smoky atmosphere. For those of you looking for a more alternative or down to earth scene the Alameda has a lot to offer. For those of you looking for some really bad drunks the Alameda has plenty to offer as well. I spent 2 minutes trying to explain what time it was to an extremely drunk Portuguese fellow who was hanging onto the bar. It only took me 15 seconds to begin pointing to my watch and trying to show him the hour, hoping to avoid further conversation, but then he just tried to explain to me something about how they say the time in Portugal. I could have cared less and I could also see that a few wrong words out of my mouth might lead to trouble. Taking my drink with me I settled down in the back of the bar with the rest of my group. Every 5 to 10 minutes voices were raised over at the corner of the bar where el portugues was talking. A few people would enter, have a loud discussion, and then leave. One fellow had to be picked up off the floor as his legs simply stopped supporting him, or perhaps he forgot he had legs. Either way we could all sense that this corner of the bar had a bad atmosphere to it, so it was no surprise about 30 minutes later when we heard shouting and then glass breaking as somebody was thrown out the front door. A little more shouting and it was all over. By 3am we were done and headed back home.

Posted by Jeff at 2:05 PM CET

Updated: Thursday, 24 September 2009 12:44 PM MEST

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Oh how glorious it will be to see Sevilla in 2007. Or maybe make that 2008. Are the Olympics coming to Sevilla? No, that came to an end after one attempt at the 2004 games and then Madrid took Sevilla’s place as the next possible city for the summer games. Another world’s fair? No, in my ignorance I don’t even know if those continue to be held. But if you take a look at the calendar of city projects and renovations then you’ll see a lot is planned to be finished in and around 2007, which I think will really add a lot to the city. In the next few years we may suffer a bit unless things are carried out in an organized fashion (hahaha).

Ok, jokes aside below is a list of some of the things to be finished before or by 2007 which make me excited about being in the city:

• Avda de la Constitución will become a pedestrian street. Good news for the Cathedral and Indian Archives which have suffered from damage due to the pollution. Good news also for tourists, with more room to roam without all the traffic.
• Archivo de Indias opens. The Indian Archives is the world’s largest depository of “New World” documents and has been closed for some time. It should open well before 2007, but I don’t have the date yet.
• Plaza Alfalfa, Plaza del Pan, Plaza del Pescaderia and Plaza Salvador renovated. All have plans to be “reurbanized” as laid out in a recent exhibition.
• Alfalfa area pedestrian. Along with the reurbanization is the plan to make several streets and plazas in the Alfalfa area will become pedestrian only. I believe this still may be up for a bit of debate, but I see it as good news for us without cars and perhaps bad news for residents with cars.
• Encarnacion Market – 30 years has come and gone and it’s still a big dirt pit. That changes starting in February when construction begins. This promises to be a nice end to a long and often debated history. Construction was halted on the underground parking after very significant ruins dating from Roman, Visigoth and Arab occupation. With the final plans approved they will preserve the ruins in the same manor as the Triana Market, while including an area for the vendors, plus an open plaza and a raised mirador or lookout where one can see the entrie plaza.
• The Metro! I have less faith in a timely finish but work continues for the first leg of the Metro. This will connect the center of the city with Los Remedios and then other outlying areas and pueblos.
• Baños Arabes – the hammam phenomena will arrive in Sevilla with the renovation already underway for what will be Spain’s largest functioning Arab baths, plus a spa, massages, and much more. This will follow successful models in Granada, Cordoba and Malaga.

Posted by Jeff at 1:07 PM CET

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I met my friend Karen about a year ago, maybe less, thanks to my web page. Karen is one of my favorite people I have met through the page – and the only one I met who came prepared with a list of really good questions about moving here. Many made me think, and some turned into content for this site! Karen has made the leap to Spain while Sean is here for a few weeks with his new Irish passport, thanks to family he was able to secure one even if he’s American. He was also fortunate as the Irish law of granting passports to people of Irish descent will be coming to an end in the next year. (Look it up if you want more information – it has to do with having Irish parents or Grandparents, the Irish kind that lived in Ireland, that is). Anyway, soon they both will be living permanently, at least once the house has been sold back home. You will thank them a lot if you make a similar move, since I plan to pick their brains on things like storage facilities, overseas moving costs and the like. That will all end up on my page as well.

Ok, so we arranged to meet them for a beer at Los Claveles around 1:30 and then find some place to eat. After a beer we made our way to Bodega La Extremeña for a good lunch – grilled presa ibérica plus assorted cheeses, and a glass of wine or beer or two. Afterwards we walked through the center and stopped for a coffee and a little conversation on politics at the kiosco by the river. It was apparently the best time of day to be there as there were few tables to be found. After an hour by the river we headed back to Arenal and Café Maestranza for a little after dinner drink. A good time was had by all, as they say, and Granada received a long lesson in English while Sean was able to learn a few words in Spanish. An hour later and it was time for me to head straight to the Betis-Barcelona match!

After suffering like a good betico through the first part of the season I think I was due, or perhaps Betis was due. I could sense the victory coming because of a number of strange coincidences. Well, some of those coincidences happened after the game, so I guess it was just all the stars aligning in my favor. The day before Duke had beaten Clemson in football in what was an improbable victory. I also was winning my weekly trans-Atlantic (American) football pool for the first time this year. The Panthers were also on their way to a much needed victory against San Francisco in the NFL.

Posted by Jeff at 1:06 PM CET

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A day after a late night is a day to do a lot of nothing. Having had our recent weekends filled with chores or vacations (much more of the former than the latter) we decided we would finally use a Saturday for nothing but whatever we wanted to do. We had planned to remain indoors for most of the day, rent a few movies and make a pizza. However, once we made it outside it was too nice a day to spoil sitting around. We did make our way to the video store and picked up a few movies. Then strolled down Luis Montoto to Nervión looking for a place to eat. As were close we decided to make a trip to Lizarran, our second in just over week. I know it’s a chain restaurant but the ideas is fun and in a way you don’t have to decide what you want to eat. Just grab anything you’re in the mood for. Some 17 toothpicks later we were full and headed back home. We rested for an hour and then headed out for coffee and a few things at the grocery. Made it back to watch a movie, and then decided to eat at McDonald’s, the first time in a long while. After eating we headed back to watch yet another movie (note I cannot remember which movies we watched, which means they were perfectly forgettable and just right for a lazy Saturday.)

Posted by Jeff at 1:06 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 29 November 2009 1:26 PM CET

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While I will have to wait for college basketball season to truly sing the praises of this great method of file sharing, discovering bitTorrents, or torrents, has been a godsend for following some of my favorite shows such as the Simpsons and the Amazing Race. Download a small application and then head out to look for files on a lot of pages and directories. Simply type in “bittorrents” in Google and you will find plenty of pages. Some of the good ones have them classified as movies, series (i.e. TV Series), music, and games. You are a at the mercy of what people want to offer up, but most of the popular series and shows are listed. The great thing about bittorrents are the way it works – it takes advantage of the unused upload bandwidth of each individual user so that other users can download the file. That is, at the same time that I am downloading the file or show I want to watch I am also uploading the same file to users. In general, when more people are downloading a file my download speed actually increases rather than decreases. I won’t get into all the specifics because other, more technical folks can explain it much better. But don’t be afraid to try if you have little experience. Simply download a program – there are several to choose from. Then find some listings on a page and click on the link. Most downloads come in a format like MPEG or AVI which you can watch with windows media player. I warn you that it may take several hours or even a day to download some large files, but you can start downloading before you go to bed and then wake up the next morning to an episode of your favorite show.

Below are some helpful links to get you started – there are plenty of programs and sites about this, and I am surely a late entry into all of this. As with a lot of file sharing of this nature be prepared for a few banners on the sites (with links to files you want) advertising some adult content. It’s just the way it goes.

Some helpful links:

Download one of the popular client (program):
http://bittorrent.com/download.html

A good FAQ so you can understand more about BitTorrents:
http://www.monduna.com/bt/faq.html

Some sites with some good files:
http://www.donvitorrent.com/
http://torrent.youceff.com/
http://www.suprnova.org/

Posted by Jeff at 1:05 PM CET

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You can never say there isn't enough fútbol on television in Spain. When the Champions League week comes upon us it’s hard not to follow a match or seven. And if you love fútbol and have Digital Plus, you can’t help but see a few hours of matches. Between the broadcast stations, Canal Plus, Canal Plus Deportes 1, 2 and 3 and even Eurosport you have a chance to flip through a number of matches. You can hop around from match to match until you don’t know which you’re watching anymore. A bit like the NCAA tournament if you subscribe to one of those packages.

Posted by Jeff at 1:04 PM CET

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