Jerez sunset
Running past cows, dogs, sheep, goats, horses, and a peacock this weekend, I thought, hey this is my life on a typical weekend in Spain. I’m living here and running in the countryside like it’s any other weekend. On Friday, I took a country route to venture beyond the track. While I always enjoy watching the footballers practice, sometimes I just need a change of scenery. I chose the bridge path (there is a bridge at the end of a 3 hr route) but since it was all essentially downhill, I turned around, ran back up and saved the bridge for another day. When I got back to the main road, a man on a motorbike yelled : “Extranjera!”
(Duh.)
Lake near Jerez
This was the third weekend since I’ve been in Spain that I’ve spent in Jerez. Fully enjoyable. I worked all day Saturday, but the time flew in the all day immersion class for teachers. We had breakfast, English activities, lunch and a scavenger hunt. The morning activities included a tour of Jerez by the students. They pointed out many new highlights for me. The teachers spoke English throughout the entire day and the 10 hours passed quickly. Thank goodness we ran out of time and weren’t able to do karaoke in English. After the tour, I did learn that I should start treating Jerez like a tourist destination and be religious about seeing everything. I STILL haven’t set foot inside a church.
On Saturday night, I went out in Jerez with the other Americans to a couple of bars. We met some people and realized people DO hang out during the weekends in Jerez. In addition, it was Havana night at the Irish pub. I got a coupon for a free five-minute massage. I must say, receiving a massage in a bar with folks dancing and drinking around me was a pretty surreal experience but nonetheless, awesome.
Also, I met a pig farmer who tried to sell me an Iberian ham. An ENTIRE Iberian ham. Turns out, this farmer was on the television program Big Brother.
Just another weekend in Jerez.