March is almost over?!

It seems like I was just writing a blog about Belgium and all my adventures there and now, I look at the calendar only to realize that March is almost over, which means that my time in Spain is rapidly coming to an end.  I only have 2 more months over here, but I'm going to milk it for all it's worth.  oh, I booked my ticket home, and I'll be touching U.S. soil Monday June 15th. 

 This last month was great.  The weather was gorgeously warm, sunny and in the 70's, so I spent countless afternoons outside playing tennis with Ellen, reading in the park, or picnicing on the hill at the edge of town enjoying the mountains and olive trees.  Sadly, we're now in a cold spell, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees so I'm back to my winter coat and huddling under blankets in the apartment to stay warm. Luckily, I'm leaving in four days for warmer lands.  Semana santa (holy week) begins here in Spain at the end of the week, as Spaniards start preparing for Easter with parades and festivals.  I, however, am catching a plane en route to Kenya in four days!  I'm giddy with exciement because it's my first time to Africa and I get to see Tiffany, a friend from Hope who has been there since mid-September working in an orphanage outside the capital of Nairobi.  I get to spend a whole 10 days with her experiencing life in Kenya and I couldn't be looking forward to it any more than I am already.

Anyway, quick recap of the month.  Mid-month I got some wonderful visitors.  Abby came to visit during her spring break from med school and brought two of her friends, Crystal and Dana, with her.  After meeting them in the airport in Madrid, we bussed to Toledo.  Toledo is a quaint little town on the side of a mountain.  The Jewish, Moorish, and Christain cultures all meet there, each leaving their own indelible mark on the town in both custom and architecture.  We spent

 two days exploring the town, wandering through streets and only glancing at the map when we felt like we needed to find something to eat or make our way back to the hotel.  Let me just say that walking through Toledo was my exercise for the month since the streets go up and down all over the place.  My legs were feeling the burn a week afterward.  Here are some pics of Toledo.

We made our way back south to Baeza because work was calling me.  So Abby, Crystal, and Dana did some solo touring of Baeza, Ubeda, and Granada during my work week and I introduced them to the wonders of tapas.  We celebrated St. Paddy's day at a pub here in Baeza, playing darts and talking with the locals.  I was impressed.  Dana, who knows only a handful of words in Spanish, had absolutely no problem making friends with Spaniards and managed some pretty good conversations when one considers the fact that neither participant in the conversation understood the language of the other.

Thursday afternoon we caught the bus to Madrid for a couple days of sightseeing around the city.  We laid low for the night in our hotel, and set out early the next morning to the city center.  We started the day right with a delicious breakfast of pan tostada (basically toast) fresh orange juice and a tortilla espanola (an omelette of egg and potato, which is my favorite Spanish food).  Then we hooked up with a free English walking tour through the city.  Now this was the most interesting part of the whole day.  Apparently the tour guide guild in Madrid is boycotting this company that gives free tours, obviously because if there's a free tour, people are going to take it instead of paying a ridiculous amount of money for another guide.  So about six guides were harassing our party, talking through the entire presentation and holding up signs in neon colors with slogans like "stop lying" and whatnot.  It was kind of annoying, but I was very impressed with our guide because he was very polite to the hecklers and continued his tour through it all.  He did an excellent job and knew lots of little stories about different sites in the city.  And those kinds of stories are my favorite kinds.  The company is called NewEurope Tours and they do the same thing in all the big cities in Europe including London, Amsterdam, and Edinburgh.  

Then we took a lunch break which lasted for a good 2 hours in the true Spanish style, lingering over sangria and dessert.  Afterward, the girls did a little bit of souvenier shopping and we walked across town to the Parque del Buen Retiro, a park with el Palacio cristal in the middle of it.  Basically the palace is a huge building made of glass situated next to a lagoon with a fountain in the middle of it.  From there, we went to the Reina Sofia, an art museum which houses works by Spanish artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Miro.  The museum is huge and we only covered one floor before we were out of time and had to leave because it was closing time.  That night it was dinner and to bed because the girls had to get to the airport bright and early for their flights.  

The next day, back in Baeza, my roommate Ellen and I went to a nearby town called Cazorla with our friend Miguel Angel where we went hiking through the Sierras de Cazorla, the mountains there.  It was so good to get out of the city and just walk around in nature for a while.  We sat next to a waterfall and I just reveled in the joy of being outdoors without being surrounded by dozens of stone buildings.  Later in the day we stopped by a paddock and rented some horses for an hour and took them for a trail ride through the countryside.  Even though it rained on us twice in the course of an hour, it was seriously one of the best things I've done in a long time.  

Since then, I've just been relaxing and saving some money for break.  

Upcoming events include:  Dan's birthday on April 1st (tapas here we come!)

Easter lessons with the kids :)

KENYA!

And TIFFANY!

Heading to Barcelona with Lucia, my first foray into northern Spain.

ok, signing off.  I promise to tell you all about Kenya and post some pictures.  Did I mention we're going on safari?