Hotel Palacio de Mengibar Jaen

... the valley of olive trees. What we found was amazing. The hotel was very traditional, although built recently within the last 15 years, and was at least 4-star quality. It had a perfect view out the balcony of more…guess what? Nobody in the hotel spoke English…in fact, they didn’t even speak Spanish! I asked, in pretty good accent, for Uno Cerveza and the guy looked at me and said he didn’t speak English ...

... everything a city has to offer. The city is literally built into the mountains so it is quite the workout making it up and down the streets. The hills surrounding the city are covered in olive trees and the view is beautiful. Jaen produces what has said to be the worlds best olive oil and so far it has tasted very good to me!  I went to visit the school where I will be teaching to introduce myself and I was greeted with open arms. They were all very excited to have me there and for me ...

... 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 ...

... as well as when we arrived. Also, we rarely pass up an opportunity to improve our skills in the kitchen, and this has been a golden opportunity. Merche has taught us to make gaspacho, tortilla espańola, albondigas and croquettas. Unfortunately, the last 2 usually require a deep-fryer, (Merche has a countertop model-about the size of a bread maker) but we will experiment when we get back home. We have had such a fabulous time in the kitchen and ...

... here before last year, and Italy won, because they have the better goalie. Both Paco and Jose slouched in defeat when the whistle blew at the end of the second over time. But all was not lost, Spain ended up blocking TWO of Italy´s penalty kicks, and Italy only blocked one of Spain's, so Spain won in the end. And there was much rejoicing. At least in Spain. One of the Spanish fans in the stadium held up a sign that read¨"CIAO ITALIA", and that ...

... with good intentions, I'm sure) and always excuse our poor grammar. So, on Thursday we caught a bus from Granada to Ubeda. We found a hostel, booked 2 nights, and then fired up my laptop to check the address. Well, it turns out the address wasn't included in the letter, nor was their last name. Total bummer! We made some quick phone calls back to the states to see if we could somehow extract the data from our home ...

... myself a cheap one, especially because it gets really cold in Bedmar in the mornings. I can assure you, there will be plenty of pictures up at some point with me wearing a huge red scarf. That's the one I got at the Feria for 3€. (It's a fantastic shade of red too!) Add that purchase to the earrings I got for 2€ and I'd say I made out like a bandit at Feria. It's too bad the traditional dresses were super expensive (60-200 ...

... the internet café, a girl overheard my conversation and recognized that I was American. She came over to me on her way out, and it turns out that we're working for the same program although she isn't teaching in my town. She got here at about the same time as I did, so I suggested that we help each other get all the administrative things done that we can. Now that I know my way around pretty well, (I walk around a lot and ...

... and then I won't have to pay someone to pour my heart out on a computer screen in public. Plus, this way I get to write whenever I want. (Even when the internet café is closed!) In case you are wondering what order I did write these in, I wrote the entry for tomorrow, the 27th, first. Then I moved on to this one, and I kept moving on backwards until the beginning of the trip. Don't try this at home, kids, it really ...

... and installed the one in his shop and kept the other as a spare. Jorge is the owner and we spent much time in his shop visiting. We met his wife and 2 young sons who were very interested in Eve and our travels. They became very good hosts to their lovely small city and took us to a safe haven for the night. We spent the evening together visiting, drinking cafe, jugos and sampling cakes. Jorge and his wife also have a little cafe roasting business. They gave us a bag ...