más de Jáen y Úbeda

A couple weeks ago I had a meeting in the capital and they also paid for us to tour the cathedral while giving us a tour of Jáen. Here are a few pictures of the sights.

As you can see, even the capital city is gorgeous. I have also tried to explore Úbeda more. In the future I hope to have a post dedicated to my new school but it is difficult to find the time to take pictures while I am at school. I will make sure to set some time aside in the future for this purpose though. I am also cooking much more and will have to share some of my experiences of Spanish cooking.

This fountain is in Plaza de Andalucía.

Although this is not the picture of the particular convent I am going to refer to, this picture reminded me of something. I hope in one of the weekends next month to visit a convent where I can purchase some of the homemade baked goods from the nuns. I am told that they are simple but well made and it will be another experience.

Here is Mercado Abastos. This market reminds me a little of Pike´s Place in Seattle. It is my much smaller Spanish version and I will be a regular visitor. We returned (my roommate and I) today to purchase our goods. We were the only young people there and talking to others they were surprised that we even cooked. If they only know!!

I live really close to the Museo Agrícola. In the future I will definitely check it out and try some food at the restaurant as well.

About two minutes walking from where I live are some gorgeous lookouts where some of the 70 million olive trees can be seen. It is a wonderful walk.

I have enjoyed taking walks here and look forward to what the following months will bring. I have been practicing my Spanish much more this year. I have a private language exchange at a friend´s house as well as a second job working at a language academy! This past month has been busy but wonderful!

Here is the picture of my bedroom that I promised! Notice the pumpkin :)

The first weekend getaway... Italy!

I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and take a trip to Florence. I spent three nights with a dear friend Julian. We worked together for many years at the YMCA and he is now living in Florence, where his father is from. I have already visited Florence in 2011 and so I used my time there to catch up and just relax. The only real "touristy" thing I did was climb to the top of the dome of the Duomo. The view was phenomenal. I did not take many pictures but here are a few.

There were soooo many stair in tiny corridors.

Here is the view from the top.

The top of the dome doesn't look to high until you have climbed an insane amount of stairs to reach it.

My favorite picture from the trip!

I now FINALLY have internet so I plan to be better about posting regularly!