Getting Situated

Needless to say, a lot has changed since I’ve last written.  I now have an apartment, a working phone, a few friends (yay!), and I can find my way around the city (for the most part).  I live with three other people, two Americans (Amanda and Dan), and a British girl (Becky).  They’re all pretty laid back and easy to live with; I got really lucky with the random roommate situation, thank God. 

We did have a few issues before Amanda and I could get the keys, which was extremely frustrating.  I was reminded multiple times of how much I despise siesta and the ‘no pasa nada’ (don’t worry about it) attitude that a lot of people have.  Our day started with the two of us trying to exchange Amanda’s traveler’s checks for cash.  Easier said than done, since NO ONE would take them.  We walked from bank to bank, standing in lines, only to be told that, absolutely not, why would you want to exchange traveler’s checks?  We FINALLY got to a bank that had a sign on the window saying they could do the exchange.  Perfect!  We waited in line for about the 20^th time that day, again, only to be told, “Well, this branch doesn’t do it.  The bank on the other side of downtown does it.”  So, with light at the end of our god forsaken tunnel, we make the trek to a Banesto bank on the other side of town.  We arrive at 2:10pm and banks, apparently, close at 2:00pm.  For the day.  Between the two of us, we decided to just withdraw the cash we needed for our apartment deposit and say, “screw traveler’s checks.”  Well, after my debit card got denied (at three different ATMs) I figured something was up.  I told Amanda we needed to find a café w/ Wifi ASAP so I could Skype my bank and tell them to let me have my cash, this is some type of emergency.  I call, and they say, “NOOOOOO you may NOT take out more cash!  You’ve reached your limit for the day, you have to wait til tomorrow.”  What.  I said, “Listen, I need to put money down for a deposit, since, I’M STILL HOMELESS, and it would be FAAAAANTASTIC if I could take it out of my own account.”  Abbbbbbsolutely I may not.  Well, that’s perfect.  Thankfully, the person Amanda was staying with offered to loan us 600 euros so we could still pay our deposit.  Woo hoo!  We can get our keys!  We went to the office to sign our lives away and arrived at our new home moments later.  There are a few things we need to get straightened out, like internet, a few kitchen appliances, and cleaning supplies, and how to work the washing machine, but other than that, we’re very happy living here.  It’s centrally located and about a five minute walk to our friends’ apartment.  Below are photos of our apartment.  The first is me (obviously) in the kitchen, next is our dining room, followed by the living room, and lastly, the view from one of the balconies.

Today, instead of unpacking and cleaning our rooms, we decided to hit up the beach.  This was my first trip since being here and I was amazed.  The water was crystal clear and there were rocks and sand to lie out on.  One thing I am going to have to get used to is the way the natives embrace their bodies.  Probably about 1/3 of the women I saw today were topless, either laying out or swimming.  Some were also in thongs.  Extra bonus.  I mean, I guess it would be nice to not have tan lines…  At any rate, though I’ve witnessed it all before, I was still slightly taken aback.  We all looked out the bus windows (the city bus takes you right to the beach!) and were speechless.  I really hit the jackpot by being assigned to this city.  It was so nice to lay down in the sun and enjoy the scenery, especially after we’d had such a terrible day yesterday.  We’re definitely going to have to hit it again soon.  Photos below are me arriving at the beach, and the view from the coast.  Be thankful I spared everyone the topless beach goers.  There were some bad ones.

Tomorrow I’m planning on walking to my school, about a 35 minute walk from the apartment, according to Google Maps, just so I can figure out the location of everything.  I’ve also been looking into calling one of the language schools here and possibly teaching a couple more English classes.  My friend, Hollie, apparently got another job with them and it pays really well for the time you invest.  It would be nice to have a little extra cash for traveling and stuff so I’m going to see what I can do.  Right now though, I’m just sitting on the couch, listening to music (in my own apartment!).  

One thing I did forget to mention is, Amanda and I witnessed (and participated in) a strike!  Here, and all over Spain, there was a workers strike on Wednesday, the 29th for a lot of businesses and public transportation (busses, trains, Metros, etc).  I’m not entirely sure what the strike was over, besides small businesses wanting the same rights as larger companies, but it was quite interesting.  People were marching with flags and other signs here in Palma and on the news, we saw a lot more in other cities.  The major cities, like Barcelona and Madrid, were feeling the effects of the strike a lot harder than we were here.  Many busses were egged and there was a photo of a police car on fire.  Below are a couple pictures from Palma:  The first is the crowd, followed by a march of people holding a sign written in Catala (the local dialect here), and last is another picture of the march, with people holding flags (we each got one!) and a tombstone with RIP.