Posada De Ubeda Rural Hotel

How many olives could a Spaniard chuck if a Spaniard could chuck olives?

Were having a real hard time getting used to the timing people observe here in Spain. They seem to get up late, work till just after noon, then they're off until 5pm when they open up for business again until 9. We haven’t gotten to bed before midnight or 1am yet. That said, we got a relatively early start to the day so we could get to our campsite ...

... company and moved in that afternoon! It is a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a big kitchen and living room and great views of the mountains and olive trees. It is near the Plaza del Toros...bullfighting ring...and is a 10 minute walk for Miken to school a 15 minute walk for me to school and 5 minutes to the bus station for Kathryn.  We were glad to finally put our bags down and be done with hauling them around from town to town and up and down the hilly streets! We next ...

... still hits the spot on those really hot days when it's getting over 38 to 40 degrees outside. We will be wrapping up our stay in Ubeda this weekend, which is kinda sad because we have had such a good time with the family there. But we do want to see the rest of Spain. Since we spent so much time in Ubeda, and because it's getting so hot here in the south, we've decided to forego Valencia and the Balaeric islands. The plan is to catch a ...

... for 30 minutes straight after taking that picture.  The next morning we got up early early and packed up in order to catch the mini bus down to the trailhead for a walk we wanted to do.  We left our packs at the visitor center and headed down the hill towards the Rio Barrosa walk.  It was a couple Km before the actual trail head, but it was all beautiful, so we ...

... 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 española, 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Of course, I'm Mercedes." My jaw hit the ground. She invited us in for a tour of the house, which turned into an invitation for lunch (very yummy), which then turned into an invitation to rent a room and stay for as long as we liked. We immediately accepted, and plan to stay with them for 2 weeks. In our 3 hours chatting and having lunch with the family, we learned more spanish that we had during the entire first 4 weeks of our trip.

... 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 ...

... a 50 foot cliff harnessed to a cable and making your way to the bottom. That was interesting as well. We also went rockclimbing, which I suck at. More hiking on Sunday as well. Everywhere you walk is uphill here. I feel like I should have a six pack and an ass of steel from all the hiking we did. We went out on both Saturday and Sunday night, with all the people from the trip. They are all so funny; they're all ...

... photo). Continued to be shocked and amazed by the propensity of mullets in every nook and cranny of this country, non-ironic, offensively horrendous mullets - its as if the 1980's never transpired in Spain, and their mullet renaissance is just hitting its teething stage. I currently place the mullet to normal person ratio at around 1:22. Mind you, my own patchy buzzcut is admittedly no work of art. But seriously, Spain, take a look at your youth, do studies, run tests ...