La Feria de San Lucas

My latest adventure brought me on a return trip to the capital of my province, Jaén.  The first time here was during or orientation when we also stayed an extra night with some friends we met there.  However this latest trip was much more for personal enjoyment than business.

About a week ago we met some more friends from Jaén that had come to visit our great little town of Baeza.  While they were here, we showed them around and I even gave them a personal tour of the area around my school, since I am such an expert.  It was then that we found out about the great Feria de San Lucas in Jaén that had just started.  From weekend to weekend the entire city would be one big fair.  Not to mention, it was to be the last fair of the year in our province.  Simply an opportunity that I did not want to miss.  So with some tentative plans made, we invited ourselves to their apartment for the upcoming weekend, for them to show us all that Jaén had to offer.  We were not disappointed.

On Friday, we grabbed a bus from Baeza just before 5 pm and made it to Jaén about 45 minutes later.  Our touring group on this weekend consisted of myself, Julie, Lucia, Ellen, and Meg.  Although later we were to meet up with Ismay, Justi, and Caroline.  Upon our arrival, we joined forces with our traveling partner Eric and then made our way to the apartment where we would be crashing for the weekend.  Our new friends Miken, Becky, and Kathryn were waiting.  An interesting side note, Miken and Becky played volleyball and field hockey at Michigan State, so we had some common ground already.  Not surprisingly, Miken and I know many of the volleyball players from Minnesota, as I am good friends with many of them.  What a small world it is, even on the other side of the ocean.

The girls’ apartment was really nice, new and big.  We had no trouble finding a spot on the couch and floor for later that night.  After relaxing and then preparation for the night, we decided to head for tapas at a nearby place.  Our plan was to head here around 9:00 before a free concert near the fair at when we thought was 10:00.  I don’t know why a part of me still wants to believe these times that Spanish people here set, but obviously we were dead wrong.  What was 10:00, soon turned into 1:00 am and finished around 2:30.  The group was very entertaining and although I understood very little, we had a great time.  They were called Segonie and could be described as a typical Spanish rock band.  Loud, cool lights, and lots of fun.

After the concert finished up we went to the nearby botellón where the youth of the city had all gathered before heading into the fair.  Essentially it is a big plaza where people gather and drink before having to pay much more for whatever food and drink they desired once they were in.  We stayed here for an hour or so and met many other auxiliares and Spanish friends.

The fair itself is an enormous area.  It is hard to say exactly how big it is because I don’t think I even saw everything that it had to offer, but it really is a huge get together.  There are rides, food stands, restaurants, and more people than you can imagine.  But the area where we concentrated our time, included the many tents dedicated to the youth of the fair.  We saw dozens of tents, each with a different DJ or type of music that you could dance the night away if you desired.  We stayed for a few hours, danced the night away, and then returned to our friends for the night, or morning I should say.  Too much fun.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to their concept of time here.

After sleeping the morning away, I awoke with my friends early that afternoon and relaxed in their apartment as we watched basketball, dumb games, and tennis play on TV.  We watched both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer lose in the semis of a tournament in Madrid.  I wonder if that has ever happened?  Both of them losing on the same day.  The reason for the vegetative state was due in large part to the rain that was falling all day long.  However, when it finally stopped, Eric, Julie, Lucia, and I went in search for a grocery store to grab some food for a cheap dinner.  However, everything we passed was closed.  All of our frequent stops:  Día and Más y Más.  But then out of the darkness, a light emerged.  El Corté Inglés!  My first experience in the giant spanish department store was a good one.  We made our way to the supermarket area and found everything we needed for dinner.  Wine, bread, meet, cheese, and some snacks for our get together later that evening.  Hopefully my next time visiting will be just as good.

Our second night was just as fun if not better.  Although we did not start out at a tapas bar or a free concert, our friends whom we were staying with, had invited other auxiliares and spanish friends to their apartment for a little get together before heading down to the fair.  And what started as a small group of maybe eight people, soon turned into a party of probably 25 people, both spanish and american.  I met a lot of cool people and had a great opportunity to continue and speak Spanish with many new friends.

After this, our night went somewhat similar to the previous one.  We made our way to the botellón for a couple of hours and then down to the fair.  Here we also met up with Ismay, Justi, and Caroline.  Again, we danced and lots of fun before heading back to the apartment, grabbing our stuff, and heading towards the bus station where we waited about 45 minutes for the first bus to Baeza.  I thought it would be nice to sleep in my bed that morning instead of on the couch again.  As we rolled into Baeza, I made my way to my bed and had a very lazy and relaxing Sunday before getting started with classes for this next week.

As for this weekend, it has been relatively uneventful.  I went out with Caroline and Justi on Friday for awhile, watched the Huskers win yesterday, and am now getting ready for the upcoming week.  Also, Ellen’s parents are here for the weekend, so we have been treated to dinner once and have had too many Belgium chocolates.  Not good for my sad attempt to stay in somewhat of a shape this year out of the pool.  They went to Murcia for the day yesterday and Ellen brought me back a map in Spanish of Europe.  I have already put it on my wall and my plan is to mark each city that I visit throughout this year.  Hopefully I can bring it back with me next summer.  A nice keepsake for the future.

Granada

I know that it has been almost an entire week since my trip to Granada, but things have been busy here in Baeza since then.  But for those of you who didn’t know, I spent last Sunday in Granada with my roommates.  I was unaware but the trip to Granada is only an hour and a half by bus, which made the trip an easy one.  We hopped on the first bus at 8:15 that day and arrived in Granada before 10 am.  

After a quick pit stop at a café nearby, we made our way to el Parque de las Ciencias.  Our ever important guidebook informed us that second to the Alhambra, it was the #2 place to see in the entire province of Granada.  And they were right.  It is really an enormous science museum with more exhibits than I can remember.  They have an antarctic exhibit, a planetarium, a giant chess board, a labyrinth, a tower where you can see much of the city, an observatory, a butterfly house, and many more cool things that are science related.  We were able to see most of it, but it really is so big that you could be there the entire day.

Following the park, we made our way to el bus turístico where we rode around the city for a bit on the the second level of a double decker bus.  They gave us some headphones and we listened to an audio tour of the scenic things along the route.  We passed many cool things including the university, many important government buildings and a park that surrounds the former house of Federico Garcia Lorca.  We didn’t get a great view but I’m sure I will return some other time this year.

We left the bus at the stop where the cathedral and the chapel are located.  However, in accordance with the strict spanish tradition of the siesta, it wasn’t open as it was about 2:00 and nothing is open from then until at least 4:30 or 5:00.  Sometimes it can be a hard thing to get used to as you plan your schedule around these midday breaks.  But lucky for us, on this day there was also a renaissance/medieval festival going on in the plaza area just outside the cathedral.  It was really cool.  We had some doner kebab for lunch and polished it off with some helado (ice cream) at a nearby heladería.  While we sat on the steps of the cathedral and enjoyed our lunch, we enjoyed the festivities.  Stands were set up everywhere, street musicians surrounded us, and gypsy women continually approached us as they attempted to tell us our fortunes.  The atmosphere was a lot of fun and really made me think yet again about how lucky I am to be in the situation that I am.  After finishing our delicious meal, we walked around the festival for awhile and then made our way over to a nearby plaza where a statue of Isabel and Columbus stands in the center.  How fitting to be there on that day, when Columbus Day  was the very next day!

When the time finally came when we were able to enter the cathedral, we hurriedly made our way inside and the sight before us was breathtaking.  I read either on-line or in one of my guidebooks that Isabel desired only a humble cathedral and chapel here for her.  Fortunately for us the architect did not exactly respect those wishes, but what stands is in my opinion a mix of two things.  The space is enormous but the grandeur is not as elaborate as one might think.  Especially for someone who holds such an important place in the history of Spain, Europe, and the Americas.  It is a beautiful cathedral that although in size is largely impressive, still has an unassuming feel.

During my four years studying at the University of Minnesota, the history of Spain was a focus that I enjoyed.  I took many classes on her history, culture, and literature.  I even took one entire course on the most famous spanish novel, Don Quijote.  But in all of these classes, the reign of Isabel and Fernando stuck with me the most.  It is hard to argue against their importance and impact.  From Columbus, to the re-conquest of Granada, the unification of the nation, and to the inquisition, their time as los reyes católicos had a reverberating impact.  All of these reasons combined made the visit to la capilla real an important one for me.  Here lies their tomb along with three others who although important I will not discuss here, although one of these includes Juan la loca, who, if you have time and interest, has an interesting place in spanish history.  Although no pictures are allowed inside la capilla real, I have it photographed in my head.  Inside are two stone beds with the figures of Isabel, Fernando, Juana, and her husband.  You can also go down some stairs and see the actual caskets of the five bodies entombed.  I couldn’t stop thinking about how unbelievable it was for me to be in that room with such historical importance.  I only wish I had pictures to show you all.

After leaving the cathedral and the chapel, we hopped on another bus and made our way up the hill where we explore the Alhambra and the Generalife for the rest of the day.  First we headed towards the Generalife which is amazing in itself.  The area is a palace I suppose with an amazing view of the city and the Albaycin.  This is the neighborhood nearest the Alhambra.  An interesting thing about the area is that most historians say the name has something that means “the people of Baeza”.  Apparently when the city of Baeza was re-conquered by the spanish, the Moors that were living there fled to Granada and settled the hillside nearest the Alhambra.  Pretty cool little fun fact about my town and its former inhabitants.

Back to el Generalife.  Besides the palace, the Generalife is actually known for its elaborate gardens that surround it.  Its a really fun walk to the building itself.  After you go through the building, there is even what they call a water stair where the railing on the stair is actually a sort of pipe that takes water down from the top of the hill and down towards the building.  These gutted out water pathways can be found all over the compound.

After the Generalife we made our way to the Alhambra.  It is actually a fort, a castle, and a palace all in one.  The fortress part of it, called the Alcazaba is what you see in all the pictures.  We were there at the end of the day and I have some great shots in the last hours of sunlight that day.  In all, the Alhambra is a huge area.  We were actually inside and walking for quite awhile before making it to the tourist portion of it.  First we entered el Palacio de Carlos V, which was built after the spaniards conquered Granada in 1492.  The architecture seemed a bit strange to me, as the outside of the building is square in its sides, but the inside is a circular courtyard that looks more like an arena where you might see a bullfight.  Next we toured the Alcazaba, where we saw areas like the barrio where people lived, el baño, and the many towers still intact.  Once again, fantastic views of the city and the Sierra Nevadas nearby.  Finally we went through the Nazrid Palaces where the higher ups called home during their time of occupation.  Its a massive compound that yet again has courtyard after courtyard followed by garden after garden.  The item that these palaces are known for however is the amazingly intricate markings on all of the walls and ceilings.  The designs are amazing and although I have included some pictures here, it is hard to understand the complexity and time it must have taken to complete such artwork.

All in all, the day was a success.  A whirlwind but a success.  I will have to return again and visit the two monasteries in the city and maybe see some more of the science museum and the park where Lorca’s house is located.  Not to mention we passed the Plaza de Toros where they host bullfights.  It puts the one here in Baeza to shame.  Our last adventure of the day involves only two of us.  There were four of us in our group from Baeza.  Two of us decided to stay the night in Baeza, but Julie and I headed towards the bus station.  However we encountered a problem when the buses shut down due to El Día de la Hispanidad (Columbus Day) celebrations.  We had to make it all the way to the other end of town without a map and a bus to get us there.  I will have to go back and calculate the distance that we ran and walked but over an hour later we managed to catch the bus about five minutes before departure.  One adventure after another.

My next adventure is the Fería de San Lucas in Jaén next weekend.  Until then.  Adios!

New Mailing Address

In my last blog entry I forgot to post my new mailing address.  It is:

Dan Berve

Calle de Rojo

21 Bajo-B

23440 Baeza (Jaen)

Spain

I know its a bit confusing.  But if you send me something and write it this way, it should get here.  I have already received a letter from my parents, so I know it works!

I just returned from Granada last night, so I will be posting pictures and a new blog entry very soon.

Baeza

I have arrived!  After much traveling and sight-seeing, my adventure that will be this next year of my life finally has a home.  After a long and terrible bus ride, where I was constantly paranoid that someone would snatch every important thing that I had in my possession, I arrived in Baeza.  I took an 11 hour overnight bus from Barcelona to Baeza.  Yuck.  Not to mention that because of this paranoia already mentioned, I hardly slept at all.  I really had no idea how many stops there were before my own and I was constantly hopping off the bus to ensure that my two bags in the compartment below were not nabbed at one of the stops.

But I finally made it.  Eyes bloodshot and terribly sleep deprived, I got my first glimpse of Baeza.  My roommate Ellen picked me up at the bus stop and together we made the short walk to our apartment.  Later that day, my other roommate Julie made it here on a bus from Madrid along with Lucia, who is another auxiliar that we spend lots of time with.  If you have already begun to notice, I am a boy among many girls.  Which is not a big deal for me, but is something that takes some adjusting to.  There are supposed to be nine auxiliares in total here in Baeza, and of these nine, there are supposed to be two boys.  Myself and another.  However, he has not yet arrived and we are starting to speculate that he may not be arriving at all.

My first week here in Baeza has been filled with all of the things that one must do when moving to a new place.  We had our internet set up, made copies of our house keys for all of us, did some cleaning, moved into our rooms, and made a few trips to the market.  There are several markets, or grocery stores, here in Baeza and we are fortunate that there is one very close to our apartment.  As none of us obviously have a car, we make frequent and sometimes daily trips.  Walking with eight bags of groceries is something I would rather not do.  Throughout this first week we also made several trips out to eat.  The other auxiliares that are here in Baeza are Ellen and Julie, my roommates from Belgium and Indiana, Justi (Nebraska), Lucia (North Carolina), Caroline (Rhode Island), and Ismay (Scotland).  Next week our last auxiliar from Minnesota will be arriving.  Its been great getting to know everyone is with all of the Spanish that we are speaking, it is always nice to have a small refuge from time to time.

Our apartment is in a great location.  It is only a couple minutes from the bus stop and less than ten minutes to the Plaza de Constitución (the main plaza of the city) and to my school.  Our street is a nice quiet side street, except for the awful dog next door that apparently has no training or discipline because it is barking constantly.  We got a great deal on the place.  It is very cheap and very spacious.  My room is plenty big enough, the living room is nice with an old TV and plenty of seating, the kitchen is easily big enough for the three of us, and we have a washing machine along with an area outside to dry our clothes.  Check out the pics!

I’m sure that many of you are wondering what exactly my job is like.  Well, it is quite an experience already.  I have even more sympathy for teachers like my parents who have to deal with some pretty difficult teenagers on a daily basis.  Most of the kids are great, but almost all of them can be quite a handful.  But they are constantly coming up to me and saying hello and then running off giggling.  Especially the girls.  It can be pretty amusing.  Each day at school is different for me.  I am there from Monday thru Thursday, which is nice to have a three day weekend every week.  Mondays and Wednesdays I am there for about six hours each and Tuesdays and Thursdays for only about three hours.  Its a good schedule and even though it sounds like not too much, it keeps me busy.  Approximately eight hours a week I am actually in the classroom teaching or helping the head classroom teacher.  Another four hours a week are devoted to one particular teacher or another and are spent helping them prepare their curriculum.  Two years ago my school began to teach a bilingual program.  This means that there are not only English classes, but also art, math, history, science, and other classes that are taught with a mix of english and spanish.  It is an interesting program and from my early observations, it achieves mixed success.  The last of my duties at the school are spent making myself available to other teachers so that they can practice their English and I can practice my Spanish.  I am already learning a lot and this constant submersion has helped me to improve my language skills in a very short time.  I am really excited to see how this changes even more over the next several weeks and months.  The teachers at my school are great and very helpful.  One of the math teachers named Elio went to the bank with me earlier this week to help set up my bank account.  We did this during his free period.

As for the actual physical building of my school, I feel I must spend a little time here in my blog because of how incredible it is.  Don’t let me fool you.  Not all schools here in Spain are like mine, but I feel very fortunate to be where I am.  My school is located in La Antigua Universidad (the Ancient University).  For those of you who have studied literature or Spain, a very famous writer named Antonio Machado taught at this university from 1912-1919.  Not only due to his involvement in the university but for other historical reasons of which are not completely known to me, the university has been very important throughout history here.  My school is an actual tourist attraction!  You can actually buy postcards with my school on them!  Who gets to say that at any point in their lives?  Not many.  Like I said I feel very fortunate to be here.

Last Friday, all of the auxiliares (auxiliar is the name of our position as a teaching assistant here) in the province of Jaen went to an orientation in the capital of Jaen, which is also named Jaen.  I received a ride from one of the program coordinators in another school here in Baeza.  After about a 40 minute ride, we arrived.  The actual orientation was quite boring.  Lots of it seemed to me to be information that we already knew, but the food was free and quite good.  It also gave us all a great opportunity to meet lots of people who would be doing the same thing that we are all doing over the next year.  In fact, we met some friends who decided that we would stay in Jaen for the night and see the city.  Historically there is not much to see in Jaen.  There is a castle up on the hill and a cathedral with some historical significance but besides that, not much.  There are however approximately 100,000 people.  So there are many shops, restaurants, and places to go out to at night.  I also finally picked up a cell phone here because it seemed to be much easier than in Baeza.  After doing a bit of walking and sight-seeing, our group of about eight stopped at a market and picked up a bunch of bread, meat, cheese, and wine.  A good cheap dinner.  We then took it to the apartment we would be staying in that night and had a very nice and late dinner on the terrace of their roof.  It was lots of fun to meet some new people and it was a beautiful night.  We then went out to a couple of bars, one even being an Irish pub.  However there were not any Irishmen at the bar, but many Spaniards.  Some of these we met and who later took us to a couple of other fun places.  The next day we hopped on a bus back to Baeza along with one of our new friends who wanted to see Baeza too.

Saturday we spent sight-seeing in Baeza, which was really nice.  It isn’t too much walking as Baeza is not that big.  One can walk from one side to the other in about 20 minutes and there are roughly 16,000 people here.  The pictures will do a better job of explaining everything that we have here and for the lucky few who come see me, you’ll really understand how beautiful it is here.  The town is really the image that you might have of a small town in the south of Spain or Italy.  The buildings are very old, the streets incredibly narrow, and the weather wonderful.  As I read in one of the guidebooks that we have, Baeza has an ever-present Sunday aire to it.  And this is true.  Everyday feels like a Sunday.  Peaceful, quiet, and plenty of people out in the streets.
Every other building seems to be a historical landmark here, but there are a few worth specifically mentioning.  First, my school. Like I said earlier it is located in La Antigua Universidad.  Right next to my school is the university here in the town.  I like this because during our 30 minute break in the middle of the day, I generally go with some fellow teachers to a cafetería attached to the university.  By the way, the word cafetería does not have the same meaning here as in the US.  It is simply a café or a place where you drink coffee and have a pastry possibly.  There is no buffet line with trays for everyone.  But anyways, it is very nice and is exclusively for teachers and university students.  So not only is it a chance for me to get away from the students for a bit, but there are many university students around my age there too.  The university is located in an old Muslim palace and just next to this building lies the cathedral.  Three very important buildings in one small part of the town.  A great place to go to work everyday.  The cathedral is beautiful and for one euro we went to the top of the tower where we were treated with a great view of our city and the countryside, filled with olive trees, for miles and miles.

Other than these buildings, we saw the Puerta de Jaen, which is part of the old wall of the city that still stands in some places, the Convent of San Francisco and its ruins, and the Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring).  Some great sights.  See the pictures for a more justified description as I am unable to do so.

The last point of note that happened to me during these first weeks here in Baeza is that I have another job!  I was approached by a man who runs an academy and tutoring center in the evenings.  He asked me if I would like to help teach some English classes and tutor some kids as well.  At first he wanted me to devote much of my time to this, but I told him that I would be glad to help only if it were on select days.  So the result is that on Mondays and Wednesdays I teach two classes for one hour each in the evenings and on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays I also tutor for two more hours.  And most of the kids are kids at my school so it helps because I already know a lot of them.  The extra ten hours a week are going to be really helpful.  I am paid well and because of this, I will have a lot more freedom to travel throughout the year and next summer before coming home, whenever that is.  I can stop worrying about money at least some of the time now.

Other than this extra commitment, I don’t have much more going on here at the moment.  I have already exchanged books with the headmaster at my school, Salvador.  He is really helpful.  We talk often in Spanish and in English.  I lent him All the Pretty Horses, from the same author of No Country for Old Men and he gave me Invierno en Lisboa, an adventure that he says is a great read and good for my Spanish.  Next week we are also going to set up an hour a week where we talk in Spanish for 30 minutes and English for the other 30 minutes.  Like I said earlier, everyone is very helpful.

I’m writing this while listening to the Nebraska/Texas Tech football game.  Come on Huskers!  But other than that, I already have my first big trip booked for Halloween weekend in Milan, Italy.  My roommates, Lucia, Russ, and I will all be going.  Should be lots of fun!  And tomorrow my roommates, Lucia, and I are heading to Granada for the day.  Again, should be a great day!  Well, more later and I will speak to you all soon.

Dan

Un dia en Barcelona

Well, you could say that our second arrival in a major european city went much better than the first.  After arriving in Barcelona, where we had absolutely no idea where to go, except for the address and phone number of our hostel, we somehow managed to wander outside of the airport and tram stations and find the correct bus using a series of broken spanish and catalonian sentence fragments to the driver.  About an hour and a half after we landed, we arrived at our hostel exhausted from another long day of traveling and with only one thing on our minds:  tapas and spanish wine.  So we dropped our bags and headed to a nearby tapas bar where we could sit in the cool evening air and talk about how happy we were to finally be in Spain.

The next day, which was to be our only day of actual sight-seeing in Barcelona,we awoke and headed towards a route where we could see the most of Barcelona in one day.  Without a map this objective was harder than we thought.  However, we did manage to stumble upon a couple of Gaudi’s famous architectural buildings.  After stopping for a sandwich and to buy a map at a local stand, we headed towards Barcelona’s smaller version of Paris’s famous Arc de Triomf.  Although not quite as impressive as its larger relative, the red brick that this one is constructed with was very striking.  I wish we had been able to see it at night.  I’m sure it would have been something incredible.

The area that the Arc de Triomf is located is one of the coolest in any large city I have been to.  Now I believe I realize why my parents told me how much they loved Barcelona.  If you have a love for history, architecture, and obviously art, it is a wonderful place.  After visiting the Arc de Triomf, we took the short walk from there down past the many museums in the area.  We did not go in because we felt we had too much to do.  From there we came to the zoo and some sort of government building.  Congress maybe?  After this, we came to the pier and the shops surrounding it.  We walked out onto the pier and got some great shots of the Mediterranean and all of the boats sitting in the harbor.  
From here we could actually see La Sagrada Familia, which was probably a 15-20 minute walk away.  We headed off in that direction with a slight detour stop at the bus station so that I could buy my ticket to Baeza.  For those of you that don’t know, La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that was started in the 1870s by Gaudi and is an ongoing beast of a project even today.  The architecture of the building was like nothing I had ever seen before.  Standing there looking up at it, you get the sense that the building is almost organic.  Something that just sprung up out of the ground in the middle of Barcelona.  We walked around it for about 30 minutes and then paid a fee (fortunately smaller for us because we were “students”) to go inside and look around.  Gaudi was in every way a genius.  The architectural parallels that he used with nature to construct the building are incredible and something that even today, well over a 100 years later, I have yet to see another example.  

After realizing that the Olympic Park was not in the area we were at, we took another look at our map.  We then sound out that the area where we were very nearby, called Vila Olimpica, is not actually the Olympic Village.  So finally after spotting the actual Olympic Park, which was located in another very cool part of the city, we headed towards the Plaza Espanya, which was the metro stop near the Olympic area.  The plaza is a large and beautiful one and at one end lies the main Barcelona art museum.  Behind that and up on a large hill is the Olympic Park.  The enormity of this one and the other in Munich which we had seen only earlier in the week was just about the only similarity between the two.  Other than this and the fact that each have a large museum next to the grounds, the two are strikingly different.  Munich’s strange attempt to have a modern looking park and Barcelona’s classic stone on all of its buildings were very contrasting.  Unfortunately here we were unable to see inside the Olympic stadium.  However we were once again able to swim in the Olympic pool and we sat for awhile and rested in a beautiful plaza/promenade that was easy for us to imagine, being filled with thousands of athletes and spectators 26 years ago.


After getting or fill of this stop on our endless walking tour, we returned to the Plaza Espanya and found a nice little restaurant nearby where we had our first paella and sangria in Spain!

After feeling quite satisfied, we returned to our hostel and relaxed as it was already a bit late and Russ had an early plane to catch the next morning.  I on the other hand was in for an exciting day of sitting at the bus station caused by a 12:00 check-out of the hostel and  a 10:00 departure from Barcelona.  I sat and read my book, had a very long and relaxing late afternoon lunch or early dinner, and watched Across the Universe on my computer.  Finally, ten hours later, I was off.  On my way to my new home in Baeza.  I had no idea what to expect, but was anxious to finally have a place to drop my bags and meet my new roommates.

More from Baeza soon!