I thought that my lovely Jaén dress would be perfect for today’s post. Today I am teaming up with Ada over at Elegance and Mommyhood to co-host her weekly linkup called Thursday Moda. What is a link-up? I’m glad you asked! It’s basically a fabulous blogger party where bloggers are invited to share their latest and greatest! You can find all the details on how to participate below!
Ada is a blogger who I’ve been following for some time now. This is also the second time I’ve helped host her lovely link-up! Just like me, she loves dresses. However unlike me, she’s married and is the mother to an adorable little girl. Her daughter often makes appearances in her posts about mommy and me fashion. Make sure you go check out her blog Elegance and Mommyhood, and leave some comment love!
The Jaén dress
Jaén is a beautiful small city just about an hour North of Granada, which is where I live. Last week, I had my orientation meeting for my teaching job in Jaén. I am employed to teach English in Spain through a program called Auxiliaries de Conversacion. Said program doesn’t give you 100% pick of the school you work in. Like it’s not like you apply to a bunch of different schools and see which one takes you. Instead everyone fills out the same online application and indicates their top three choices for the autonomous region they would like to live in. You getting your top choice depends on when you applied. So when I applied, I made sure my entire application was sent in the day it opened up.
The region of Andalusia was my first choice and I got it! However I picked it because I wanted to live in Malaga or Sevilla. Malaga has the beach and Sevilla is just well … amazing. Another thing about this job is that the second years in the program get first and more specific pick of where they want. Like we can just put down the regions and they get to pick the community. So many of them are putting down those cities because well … duh. So if Andalusia is your first choice as a first year, you’ll probably get it and get placed in a town like Jaén or an even smaller pueblo.
My school is in a super tiny pueblo about a 35-minute drive from Jaén. So this summer, I initially connected with the English teacher at my school and made plans to ride with her each day. I knew nothing of Jaén but was optimistic that I’d have a great year. After all, an adventure is what you make of it.
Then around late August, this same teacher contacted me to tell me she had transferred schools in order to be closer to home. However one of the teachers for the next year was living in Granada and she asked me if I would rather live there instead. I barely had to think about it … yes please! Granada is beautiful and one of the only cities in Spain where you get free tapas when ordering a drink at the bar. There’s amazing history and culture. It’s less than two hours from Malaga (where the airport is). It was a no brainer. So Granada it was and is. I’m currently writing this in my apartment in Granada and am so happy I made the choice to live here!
The orientation
So since I am employed by the state of Jaén (Granada is in the state of Granada), I had to attend orientation in Jaén. Afterwards, myself and some fellow English teachers decided to spend some time exploring the city. It was absolutely beautiful.
This dress made the cut when deciding what to pack for a year in Europe. I ended up packing more lightly and could only bring maybe 12-15 dresses. But this one I knew I’d wear a lot. It’s one of those dresses that transitions well into fall and winter. And I’ve been told that it gets cold in the winter.
The Linkup
