Yes, I am still in Spain, but China seems to be following me. More of that later.
Exercise is a constant theme in my life. I like to exercise and I don't like the feeling of being unfit. Wherever I am, I always have my running shoes. It's free, you can do it almost anywhere and apart from the wear on the old knees, it's an excellent form of exercise. I've run in Australia, in the French Alps, through the fields in China and now here Spain. I've also recently joined a gym and have started going to the exercise classes there. So far I've done 'Body Pump' (EVERYTHING ached the next day, so it must've done my muscles some good), 'Pilates' (brilliant for a Monday morning) and 'Step' (confusing). My Spanish is still a bit ropey, so I'm kind of slow at everything, having mostly to wait for a physical demonstration rather than being able to use the oral commands to help me... Never mind. The women in the classes tend to be a little bit more vocal than those back home, shouting out 'Es muy facil!' [It's very easy!] or complaining when an exercise is a bit more difficult. One woman sat massaging her chest after a set of exercises meant to strengthen the pectoral muscles...!
I've also found a walking club and will be going on my first outing with them a week on Saturday. I'm very excited about that. It should be good for improving my Spanish and will get me out in the hills - yippee!
And so, China. I've already written that I miss the place. More than I thought I would. I'm particularly missing the food, so need to go shopping to try and find some of the necessary ingredients and try to cook my own.
I went for a Chinese meal when a friend came to stay with me, but of course it was Chinese food for Westerners and not a chopstick in sight... There are quite a few Chinese restaurants in the town. There are also lots of Chinese shops, one quite close to where I live. I went there on Monday and it was a dazzling Aladdin's cave of, well, tat, basically. But very cheap tat. I'll definitely be going there again! Here in Jaen (and maybe in the rest of Spain?) the name 'Chinese Shop' seems to be synonymous with very cheap and selling everything...
And finally, I went out last Friday evening with the new Erasmus students. My flatmate works at Jaen University and so gets to gatecrash such things. It was all quite noisy, with the Italians in particular making lots of noise. However, I ended up sitting next to four Chinese students, three from Nanjing and the other one from Changsha, of all places.
It's a big country and it casts its net wide...
Tomorrow is the start of the 'Feria' in Jaen, so there will be lots of eating, drinking, making merry and a three-day working week for me next week.
Hast luego.
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