Parador Nacional del Condestable Davalos Ubeda

... a side road. The road disappeared at one corner and revealed a massive valley before us along with a twisting road that snaked downward. And what did we see in the valley? More f*ing olive trees. There’s really no way to explain how many olive trees there are. Hopefully the pictures do some justice.

As we were ripping up the road at about 130kph, between massive fields of ______, (c’mon, guess), two birds lifted ...

... where Kathryn teaches...she has to take a 20-30 minute bus ride there and back from the city of Jaen to the small pueblo of 3000 people. Her school is preschool and elementary and is very charming. When we went out there for her to introduce herself, they brought us into a 4th grade classroom and let her assist in teaching a lesson where they were learning vocabulary about the rooms of a house in English. They were amazed by us and how we spoke since they are used to learning British ...

... back down to Granada, spend one night in a Hostel, and then catch an overnight train to Barcelona, where we plan to spent a good bit of time. By the way... sorry about the lack of photos lately... we've still been taking quite a few pictures, the problem is that... well the problem is that I don't feel like going through the whole process of transfering them, picking out the good ones, re-sizing and then uploading them. Maybe tomorrow :-)

... shucks).  We took a bus to Cazorla in the morning, then had to wait a long time for the mini bus that takes people out into the park itself.  The mini bus dropped us off a couple kilometers from our campsite, so we hiked in and set up camp. We were a little bored, and things got a little silly.  (Those are my knees.  Really Really, just my knees).  I think I ...

... to practice and we've even learned a couple of good idioms and a few dirty words, which is always handy. They manage to work a tiny lesson into almost every topic we discuss, without disrupting the flow of conversation. Since there is not a whole lot to "see and do" in Ubeda, we've also had some extra free time to lounge out on their gorgeous patio and improve our tans. We've also taken some day trips outside of Ubeda. More to come soon...

... a healthy three. He was very entertaining to watch. After walking for a while Moses and Ramon joined us for beers and tapas at an outdoor restaurant. We spent the rest of the evening there, sipping our beers and sampling all the different free tapas that came with each round of drinks. After four rounds we had sampled quite a bit, but Paco wanted us to try something called Morcilla. Neither he nor Mercedes could describe quite what it was, but ...

... The owners (an older couple) were indeed, very nice and chatted with us for a while. They remembered Laura fondly and although we asked, they did not know any Mercedes y Paco. Ubeda is small, but not that small. By the way, Laura: they said you promised to write and they hadn't heard from you so here's the address :-) El Gallo Rojo Calle Manuel Barraca, 16 23400 Úbeda (Jaén) Laura obviously made a very good impression though ...

... out of him from his dog's name, to all the states he's lived in, to his favorite Spanish actor. He had to go around the question by answering Penelope Cruz. My students probably won't know the difference between actor and actress now. :) At recess the younger kids wanted pictures with him. He had mentioned signing Beckham autographs earlier in the trip, now I saw why. We skipped my ...

... ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar, a bus from Tarifa to Algeciras, a 5 hour bus from Algerciras to Granada, pretty much everything short of an aeroplane, a hovercraft and an armoured tank. And with such exhaustive consecutive travel comes the total destruction of your body clock, hence i walked around for most of the day like a dazed galoot with bad hair and probably smelt pretty bad as well. We had organised nothing ...

... meal while the rain came down outside. We went next to Baeza, only about five miles away. We took a really quick tour around the town and then ducked into a university building where Spanish poet Antonio Mochado once taught and finally on to the cathedral. I arrived back in Granada pretty wet, but happy I´d gotten to see these towns even in the rain. I have about a week more of class and then Pierce will be coming down ...