Life in Palma

First off, I apologize for not having written in so long; to say I’ve been busy would be a blatant lie, I’m just lazy and enjoying the town.  Please forgive me…

The weather here is still nice, I can’t believe it.  Right now, It’s 11:30 and I’m on our balcony sipping coffee in the sun, a few wispy clouds are in the sky, and it’s a high of 70 today.  It’s kind of interesting though, in the mornings and evenings, it’s freezing (almost literally), but the afternoons are still pretty warm.

I’m finally getting situated at my school and trying to pick up a couple more hours (during the two hour lunch period) teaching English to the professors.  Most of the teachers ate the school are friendly, though during break they speak to each other in Catalan (a regional dialect, kind of a Spanish/French mix) and it’s impossible for me to understand.  To combat this, I’ve registered for an online class in Catalan.  I’m going to try to learn at least a little bit but we’ll see how the ‘teach yourself’ method goes.  They have workbooks at school that I’m going to try to obtain too.  I will keep you all posted.

Our biggest news this week is that we FINALLY have internet in our apartment!  Long gone are the days that we had to buy a café con leche (coffee w/ milk) at a restaurant just so we could use the internet.  Thank God.  And now, I can skype with people on a decent connection.  If you’re on skype, feel free to chat me up at kaylaesmith.

 In slightly more exciting news, last weekend my friends and I (about 10 of us) traveled to Manacor (small town, about an hour away from Palma) to go to a few bars and have dinner.  While we were out (around 2am) we saw Rafael Nadal!  Manacor is his hometown and he was back for the weekend visiting friends and such after playing in a tournament.  We ran into him at two different clubs and were able to get a photo with him!  He seemed like a nice, down to earth guy; he was taking pictures with everyone who asked.  Anyway, it was a late night-the clubs here close around 6am and we got the first train back to Palma.  Made it home and in bed as the sun was rising at 8am.  Needless to say, I was worthless for all of Saturday afternoon.  Worth it.

We have another holiday this Monday, All Saints Day. Kind of like our Memorial Day I think, though they told me it’s also Halloween, so I’m not really sure what people do on the actual holiday.  I don’t have to work though so I’m not complaining.  I have today off as well (Friday) and need to run a couple errands.  Better do that before siesta (STILL trying to get used to that, it’s going to take a while…)  I’m thinking about getting a bike, one of my roommates has one; I would love to be able to exercise while exploring the city.  The nutella (chocolate/hazelnut spread) is starting to catch up with me. 

I also need to reserve/order a turkey.  Since, apparently, no one eats them here (they’re not in stores), I have to go to a carnicería (butcher’s shop) and have them get one.  I just hope it’s de-feathered and dead before they hand it over, otherwise you’ll all be hearing about that experience.  We’re going to cook Thanksgiving this year at our apartment (again, I hope to God it works out) which, could be an interesting feat because our oven is rather small and, extra bonus, there’s not temperature dials.  It’s just a fire.  I think I’m going to give it a test run today with some cookies (if I can find vanilla extract, good lord that’s a tough one).  If this completely fails, mom, I might need you to send me some vanilla and some almond.  Amanda and I just want chocolate chip cookies and we can’t find brown sugar, vanilla, or almond.  I’m sure they have it somewhere though, I’ll keep looking. 

Oh I almost forgot, we went on a short hike last weekend as well.  The scenery is so beautiful over here; you have the ocean on one side (well, all sides) and the mountains on the other.  We climbed up a trail to a castle on the side of a hill and the view was amazing.  We could see the port and out into the ocean.  For any visitors that are coming this way, it would be something fun to do one afternoon. 

Well, I better get this posted and run my errands before the daily shutdown.  Keep me posted on all of your lives, I love the emails!  Un beso a todos, chau!