Photocopiers and Snow at La Tiñosa

I was sitting alone in the office when two of my fifth-graders entered saying they needed some photocopies. They were sent to me by Lourdes, the secretary, music and art teacher. She was currently in their class for an art lesson and needed some copies. The photocopier had been acting weird all day: it was only accepting paper loaded on the side of the machine. The students needed copies made onto size A3 paper (more square than legal sized paper, but about the same length).

María Jesús, who is one of the smartest students in 5A, kept trying to help me by miming what the machine said. I knew it was jamming; I had been fighting with the photocopier all day. She was surprised I could figure it out. She then asked me if we had photocopiers in “my country.” I told her yes, and that they functioned about the same way as this one (constantly jamming, etc.). She was shocked, and then quite amazed/pleased I was able to fix the problem and give her the copies.





Later Tuesday afternoon, David and one of his friends picked my roommates and I up and drove us to La Tiñosa, which is the tallest mountain in the Córdoba province. It’s located about 15 minutes from Priego, by way of a twisty, windy dirt road. The guys wanted to go see it covered in snow. From where we parked the car, I don’t think it would actually take that long to get up to the top of the mountain. The problem is that it’s pretty steep. We walked partway up but it was really muddy and icy in some spots. There was really only an inch or two of snow on the ground, but my feet got really cold. (I was thankful for my hiking shoes, which kept me dry.) The snow was really light and powdery; it actually looked like styrofoam at times. La Tiñosa looked really pretty covered with snow and I can’t wait to climb it in the spring. The light on the mountain was really pretty. We also had a great view of neighboring villages and the surrounding mountains.




David and his friend really enjoyed the snow!

The guys think it’s going to be a cold/snowy winter because it started snowing in the mountains in November. It actually snowed in Priego the other night. It was only a dusting, and it only stuck to the cars, but it was still there in the morning.