RL Ciudad De Ubeda

... the side of the road. I managed to duck sideways in my seat and avoid one but the other caught me in the upper left chest just at the neck line of my leathers. It hit me hard enough to move me back in my seat and it went flying lifelessly to the side. After we pulled over to look at the damage, I was relieved to see just some redness in the area of impact and some minor bruising. There would surely have been serious bruises and ...

... US last year so they have already had a year or two of the bilingual program and had very specific things for her to teach and a schedule already set out. She teaches Mon, Tues and Thurs from 9am to 2pm which is the entire school day and she teaches all levels and ages everyday. We have made a few friends here who are from Jaén....because we did not get to live with natives we are really trying to become friends with them. We met two brothers named Pablo and Nacho and then a guy named ...

As we've moved into July, the weather in southern spain during the day has gotten oppressively hot. The 2 greatest reliefs from this are LONG siestas (from right after lunch -about 3PM - until 6:30 or 7) and a concoction they have here called Tinto de Verano. Literally translated, this means red-wine of summer, but it is basically a mix of red wine and Fanta (usually lemon flavored) over ice. We discovered it in Malaga, and have been ...

Craziness in Cazorla While we were in Ubeda we took a couple day trips (since there really isn't that much to do in Ubeda.)  One of our trips was to a national park really close to the town of Cazorla.  Getting to the park involves a lot coordination with the public transit system, and we soon realized that we'd have to spend a night in the park to make it work ...

Sorry that entries have been somewhat few and far between these last 2 weeks, but we've been having a great time with Merche and Paco. They are absolutely worderful hosts. Just about every time Paco sees me sitting at the kitchen table (our usual hangout) he offers me another beer or wine, regardless of the time of day. And Merche is a wonderful cook and constantly encouraging us to eat more yummy food. Needless to say, our clothes don't fit ...

... us it was "muy rico". It is a form of ground pork, in a dark red greasy looking sauce. We ate it with bread, and it was slightly sweet and spicy. Pretty good. Then Moses came back to the table (after running after Ramon) and began to explain the ingredients. Cerdo, (pig), cebollas (onions), sangre de cerdo (pig blood) . . . Wait, what was that??? SANGRE de cerdo??? The table erupted with laughter at the expression on my face. Don´t think about it ...

... because when we asked for the bill, he wouldn't let us pay for our 2 beers. We thanked him and went off to spend the evening strolling around Ubeda. Around 9, we settled on a Restaurant terrace that offered some prime people watching and had some good food - and once again we learned the hard way that 3 media-raciones (half-rations) is MORE than enough for 2 people. The next morning, checking our email at the library, we had ...

... class and went on a tour of Bedmar, but since the pueblo has 3,000 people, the tour wasn't lengthy. The last class of the day was more Q & A with fourth graders and, at 2:00, we were off to Jaen again. Justin didn't waste anytime in starting his "siesta." About 20 minutes into the hour car ride, he was out, so my coworkers whom we were carpooling with decided he was part Spanish ...

... appear to be more scarce (taxi drivers not included). After sleeping the length of the ferry trìp, we set foot once again on the shores of sunny Spain and it felt very good to be back. Morocco was a total trip, and two nights there was definitely more than adequate. Tha brain can handle only so much chaos. Today, Rev, Brooksy and i were men of transit, taking a ridiculously uncomfortable 12 hour night train, a 35 ...

... a few days. I am trying to stay focused on learning a bit more Spanish, but I have to admit I am looking forward to what´s next also. I am trying to enjoy my time with Angeles and the family this week. They have really been the best part of my experience here. The youngest daughter, Eva, just spent a week in England with her school so it has been fun talking to her about her thoughts. She wasn´t a big fan of British food, so ...