Spain/Spanish Resources

I've spoken with several friends or acquaintances in the last couple of weeks about a couple of resources that I've found helpful since living in Spain.  I know that the majority of our blog readers are not living in Spain, but for those of you who are (Dennie & Katie, I know you're out there!) I wanted to share a couple of resources.

First, a video that explains the Secret Powers of Time (dun, dun duuuuun).  This is a worthwhile viewing for anyone, but it specifically goes on to explain some of the differences between catholics & protestants,  northern & southern europeans.  Honestly, this is good for ANYONE, including people not living in Spain.  It really helps you understand the major differences that exist between these people groups, and why they are like they are.  PLUS, it's a smart lecture illustrated in an exciting and engaging manner.  I've posted this before, but it was worth a second mention.

Second, there is a blog that I read called A View of Madrid.  From what I can gather, it's written by a British guy who takes a lot of his time to research and write very intelligent posts about culture, places, events, or unique things about Madrid or Spain.  I've looked through his archives quite a bit, and it's helped me understand some things about my own city that I never could have found out by reading a tour guide or even asking my friends.  I love learning about my adopted city & culture, and Brian and I have had fun exploring some of the places that this guy explores.

Third, the language school that provides our tutoring service created a blog called Spanish and the City to provide links to additional spanish resources.  I haven't used it much, but I'm glad to know that it's there for me to use.

Last, a plug for our primary means of communication for the states (other than email).  We use Skype, like many of you, but our primary method of calling home is a MagicJack.  You're thinking to yourself, Kate, are you really promoting a made for TV product that comes on at 1 am as an infomercial?  Yes, that is what I'm talking about.  You can pick them up at Radio Shack.  We use this thing to call home because it's only 20 bucks a YEAR for the service.  I did a lot of research before we came over here to see if we should get a Vodafone contract, or use Skype Call or something else, and this was by far the cheapest option we had.  It works great, and we've been so satisfied.  Plus, when we travel, we can just bring along the little USB port, and plug it into any computer to use it.

Though, I have been using GoogleTalk to make several phone calls this week, and that's a pretty sweet (and totally free) system that's worked great as well...

Do you have any Spain/Spanish resources that you'd suggest?