Europa Jaen

... well…more gestering with hands and pointing at what other people were drinking. Finally a guy came in that could figure out that I wasn’t speaking English when I was ordering Café Con Leche and Cerveza, which is coffee with cream and beer. As I unpacked the bikes, teenagers on mopeds and dirt bikes would slow down and then rev their little engines wildly as they passed. I didn’t have the heart to start one of ours ...

... language school where people 16 and over can take night courses in English and other languages where another auxiliar from the US is teaching. My students take so many of their core and elective courses per semester in English, I believe three or four, so I will be teaching lessons on my own as well as assisting the other teachers in various subjects in English. I begin on Oct. 1st and will have much more to tell then! We then took the bus out to Villa Gordo...literally Fat Village ...

... it ever since. We also learned just the other day that you can also get it with just cold carbonated water instead of Fanta, but why would you do that? :-) So basically it's a wine-cooler, but somehow classier, and it is SO good. It turns out that you can actually buy it pre-mixed in 2-liter bottles at the supermercado, because Mercedes brought a bunch home one day when we mentioned that we like it. The pre-mix is not quite as good ...

Arrive in jaen take sexy trike transport to other bus station where we board another combi for an hour. Laura loans her CD to the driver and we listen to the Spice Girls through very bad speakers. Fellow Peruvian passengers are scared...

... and call northern California home base. His name is Benny. He looks like a cross between Steve Martin and Mel Brooks. He´s very arrogant and thinks the way they travel is far superior to how anyone else might do it. She´s very sweet, but kooky and proud of her 60-year-old body. They refuse to eat the meat here but eat lettuce soaked in the water and say it´s very healthy. We got along with them fine and they were interesting to talk to but we are hoping to avoid becoming their ...

... is on the hill above the city, and if we are shopping at night, the castle is all illuminated. I will post pictures as soon as I remember to stop staring and bust out my camera. Also, there's a panadería, a bakery, right across the street from the door of our apartment building. We can go buy fresh baked break (for .55€) anytime because it's a 2 minute walk from our second-story apartment door. And it gets better... We are also ...

... then, to be really nice to your produce man because he could decide to give you bad fruit. I actually told Amanda this on our way to the apartment, so it was fresh in my mind when I went to the store to pick up tonight's dinner. Today I noticed that when I told him what I wanted he immediately picked it out, but on his way to weigh them he changed his mind and went back to each box to make sure he got the best nectarine and best apple he ...

... out until the next stop when what seemed like a hundred people piled on. I found out that I was in the wrong seat, moved, and went back to sleep. On the whole four hour train ride through the Spanish countryside I might have gotten an hour and a half or two hours of sleep. The train arrived in Jaén at about 9:00, and I was faced with trying to find a hostel for the night. I had been planning on getting all the way to Jódar ...

... a cinnamon twist, his friend plays guitar, and everyone hangs out and chats late into the night. We did visit the Alhambra with our reserved tickets yesterday. While obviously impressive, I found that I actually preferred the palace in Seville. It may have been just because the Alhambra is so extensive that it becomes less personable. It was also swarming with tourists of course, which detracted ...

... fat in. I had somehow lost my plug adaptor back in Malaga so I had to hunt down a new one. I was behind on work and it was the major thing on my to do list today. I asked a man who was walking around the hostel with a screwdriver if he could tell me where to find an electrical shop. He said he was going that was if I wanted a ride to which I promptly agreed. I hopped onto the back of his scooter and we were off. My new guides name was Lazerus and he told me that he too had ...