¡Viva la aceituna con chocolate!

In three short weeks, we have officially gone through our first 750ml bottle of extra virgen olive oil. In Spanish, oil is aceite, and olives are olivas, but since olive oil is used on top of pretty much everything, olives are also known as aceituna. We’d like to think that the main reason for this rapid consumption of olive oil is because we don’t have a toaster, and as such we “toast” our bread in a frying pan that has a thin layer of oil on the bottom. In reality however, the olive oil over here tastes really good. We still haven’t become complete true Spaniards though, who we’ve seen (not even kidding) put half a cup of oil on their one piece of toast, followed by a couple teaspoons of salt. This heart-attack on a plate is what the Spaniards like to call breakfast. It is consumed around ten in the morning and washed down with a cup of café con leche.
For those who enjoy the sweeter side of life there are ample places where you can buy churros con chocolate for breakfast! The churros have been calling Miss Jeanna’s name since arriving in Spain. The thought of eating something so sinful for breakfast has held her back, but upon realizing that Spain would not change for her (and serve them as a dessert after dinner) she broke down and we gave it a try. Elias la idiota que se habla un poco mas que su esposa (the idiot that speaks a little more than his wife) took the honors of ordering these delicatessens. He ordered two churros con chocolate and two cups of café con leche. Makes sense, right? There were two of us sitting in the cafeteria/churreria after all. He should have thought about it a little more when the waiter repeated the order to him twice to make sure that he was understanding it correctly. Si, Si, he said like a stupid American who had never in his life been to a churreria. Vale, he replied (the Spanish equivalent to okee-dokee!) and to the back he went. Five minutes later there appeared two, let me repeat TWO, coffee mugs filled with warm melted chocolaty goodness and un monton de churros (I think you can figure that one out without translation). Apparently when you say that you would like a churro it means a plate of churros. And when you say that you would like them with chocolate it means half of Charlie’s factory!!! Needless to say there was un monton of churros left over as neither of us could bring ourselves to indulge in more than one. Thankfully Jeanna’s school is relatively close and we were able to take the remaining plate of food to the teachers’ lounge! Seven euros will buy you enough churros to feed an army and enough chocolate to keep your wife happy for at least an entire month!
We are continuing to have an incredible time here in Spain. Little by little we are picking up parts of the language and culture and we are getting to know the city a little better everyday. We have been invited to several peoples’ homes for lunch/dinner and are hoping that this will open the door to more invites so we can begin to make some friends here in Jaen. The training has been going very for both of us. We have ample time to workout and the weather/location could not be better. We will continue to try and update this blog as time/internet connection permit. We hope that all of those back home are doing well.

Hasta la proxima
Elias and Jeanna (Apparently her name is easier to say…go figure)!