Three Kings, Úbeda, y San Anton

Winter break in the States generally ends on January 2 of the New Year. People back home are given a day to recover from excessive consumption of “beverages”, staying up just a “little too late” and having just a “wee bit more fun than they had planned on”. One day to recover here in Spain? Como se dice "insufficient" en español?
That is correct. Jeanna and I had one more holiday to celebrate before heading back to work. January 06th es el Dia de Los Reyes Magos (The Three Kings Day). This holiday is actually as big if not bigger than Christmas here in Spain. Christmas involves church and family dinners and is generally celebrated on Christmas eve (La Noche Buena). The Reyes Magos bring the presents here in Spain! Much like Santa Clause, the Three Kings spend the entire evening of the 5th bringing presents to all of the good boys and girls. Yes, they even bring coal to the “bad children”! They also managed to make an appearance at the parade along with the other floats, where massive amounts of candy were thrown out to the spectators. This year the Reyes Magos brought Jeanna safely back home to Spain. They also gave us a few more days without work to spend together!
Unfortunately, all good things must end. Our winter break ended on the seventh and we were forced to go back to work for two entire days! It was difficult, and at times, we did not know if we would make it, but we helped one another pull through. We decided to make the most of our three-day weekend and bought a bus ticket to Úbeda. Úbeda is on everybody’s “must see before you leave list”. It is a quaint 16th century pueblo. Walking through the streets is much like stepping back in time. Very little has changed in the past FIVE centuries. The streets are very narrow and almost all made of cobbles! We had great time spending the day together and taking photos of many of the historic buildings. We hope that you enjoy the photos. It was a beautiful day although it was fairly “cold” (just above freezing).
One more week of work brings us to last night, January 16th, 2009. Yes, another fiesta here in Espana! This time the fiesta came in the form of a running race, La Carrera Urbana Internacional Noche De San Anton. Jeanna and I had heard that this was a very popular race but neither of us realized exactly what that meant. San Anton is a 10k race that starts at eight o’clock at night. The streets were literally lined sometimes two and three deep for the entire 10 K, many spectators holding torches. That means six miles of people cheering. There were also more than 5000 participants. All this made the race incredibly beautiful and memorable. Simply watching the race and cheering would be too boring for a Spaniard. Bonfires are built all around the city to make things more entertaining for everyone. It is typical to eat popcorn and drink “beverages” while watching the race. Keep in mind that this is Spain and this is simply the pre-party. After the race is over you meet up with all of your friends and head to the bonfire of your choice (normally the one closest to your home). You can buy little sandwiches and beverages at the bonfire and spend the rest of your evening singing and dancing around the fire!
Miss Jeanna did awesome. She chose to run with one of the teachers from my school (Manolo) rather than to shoot for a personal record time. This made the race more memorable for her. Manolo is an x-professional futbol player from Jaen and the whole town knows him. She spent the entire six miles having people shout and cheer for “them”! Manolo was known as “Leyes” as a professional. For many the name stuck and Jeanna’s run was highlighted with people shouting, “Leyes, Leyes, Anda,” but also with some “guapa, guapetona, rubia (blond)” and I am certain a few others she neglected to tell me (other than vamos and venga)! People here in Jaen love Leyes and everyone loves la Rubia! It was her night to feel like a super star! She finished very strong in her first 10K, almost killing poor Leyes! We all headed up to one of the bonfires after the race. We had one of the famous bocadillos de patata and una cervecita! The cold forced us to call it an early night (midnight)… A truly unforgettable experience for both of us.

Bienvenidos al año 2009

Life as a teacher definitely has its “benefits”. One of the more noteworthy comes near the end of the year. Winter break and/or Christmas Vacation is a period of time that all of us have experienced throughout the entirety of our lives as students. For many this period vanishes upon graduating from college and entering the “real world”. This is not, however, the case for teachers who in many regards can be thought of more appropriately as “life long students” or simply “lifers”. This entry is not about to tackle the great debate about whether or not this is “fair” or whether or not teachers are deserving of this large amount of time off. No, no, no… That would be a waste of time. Instead we would like to fill you all in on what we have been up to with all of this “free time”.
Jeanna: As many of you already know, and the rest of you probably suspected, Miss Jeanna is the wiser of the two. She is also much more adventuresome, and knows how to have a good time. What better way to “carpe the diem” than fly to Norway to visit a good friend? She could not think of one either so off she went to “visit the penguins” (and her friend Cristina). It was not enough for Miss Adventure to head out on this journey sin el esposo; she found it necessary to try smuggling SIX bottles of vino tinto in her baggage just to make the flight, “more interesting” (she also mentioned something about alcohol being VERY expensive in Norway and “presents” for her gracious hosts (caca de toro? maybe). FIVE bottles later…she Arrived and decided that the life of a drug/wine smuggler was not all that she imagined it to be!
According to Jeanna the next two weeks were spent missing her wonderful husband (caca de toro). I believe that her experience would more accurately be described as; being spoiled daily by her wonderful Norwegian friend and her family, spending plenty of time soaking up the heat inside the house (long hot baths with tea), eating great food, partying all night long, and catching up on the times with her long lost friend all; this better describes the reality of the situation. She also had the opportunity to spend some quality time in the snow and bitter cold, something that she had missed much more than myself! She would at this point like to think her friends Whit and Mavis for teaching her how to cross country ski. Those lessons kept her from making a total fool of herself while heading out with an x-pro! She spent her Christmas learning about the different traditions/customs, trying new foods, and meeting new people. As if all of this was not enough, her and her friend then took a train to Oslo (the capital) to pass the new year with Cristina’s sister. This entailed a rather large party with more food, drinks, and FIREWORKS! Somehow, Jeanna was able to “endure” all of this time away from me (she is a strong women). January 03, 2009 found Jeanna once again traveling to another country. She just could not stand the thought of only having been in one country in the first three days of the new year. She decided to add Spain to the list of countries visited in 2009. She claims that she was ready to see me but I believe that she was just hoping for yet another stamp in the ol’ pasaporte (as if the ones from Lisbon, London, Granada, and Lufthaven Torp weren’t enough)!
Eli: If Jeanna is the wiser than Eli is the…lets just say less wise! OK? Yes, the buffoon stayed in southern Spain all by himself (insert song “All By Myself”). The answer to this “less than wise decision” can most easily be summed up in the words of a cave man; “me like to ride the bike, me like the warm weather, me want to be fast on bike, me no like the penguins”… Yes, I passed on the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit another beautiful European country with my beautiful loving wife so that I could ride my bike (training)! So what did I do with all of this free time? Yes, believe it or not, I rode my bike. What did I do with all of the time I was not on my bike? Rest, so that I could ride my bike the next day. Yes, to some of you this might sound ludicrous, absurd, preposterous, etc. To me, this was Eli’s Winter Training Camp 2008 and a little bit of ‘09! I ate, I slept and I rode my bike. I spent hours upon hours chasing the local pros around every road that was rideable within 200 km of my apartment. I rode my bike until I could not ride anymore!
We are now back together here in Jaen, Spain. Eli is happy to have his wife back, and Jeanna is happy that Eli has a rest week coming up. We both look forward to spending some time with one another and sharing our stories and adventures with one another. We hope that all of our friends and family back home had a wonderful holiday season as well and that 2009 brings us all health and happiness. Hasta la proxima.
Elias and Jeanna