¡Bon Nadal!

The holidays have been an interesting time in Palma.  This is my first year being away from home and my family and friends for the major events.  Though I miss the comforts of home-cooked meals, family Christmas games, and, dare I say, snow, Amanda and I enjoyed our Christmas here in Mallorca. 

On Thursday, the 24^th, my school put on an excellent Christmas program.  We went to the church, which is conveniently attached to the school, where some children were dressed as the Nativity Scene and others sang.  Each grade (1^st-6^th) either sang a song or played a song on their recorders. (Everyone remember those?  First instrument for most of us?)  The entire program was in Catalan, but I was able to get a couple things out of it.  Xisca (pronounced Cheeska), gave me details on some of the more important parts in Castellano, which was really helpful.

After the program, Xisca and our 3^rd graders went back to the classroom to have chocolate and potato cake.  The chocolate is a thick liquid, kind of like hot pudding but a little less viscous.  The potato cake has powdered sugar on top and you dip the cake in your chocolate and then drink the chocolate after.  I thought it was delicious but Xisca said the chocolate was burnt.  Could’ve fooled me. 

Once the students finished their treat, we played games.  I chose to join a group of Old Maid players.  Our deck was made of pairs, such as the snorkler and the fish, the hunter and the lion, etc.  Instead of the Old Maid, the card that you didn’t want was the Lobo (wolf).  I played a couple of rounds and then moved on to a Monopoly group. 

After wishing everyone a Bon Nadal (Merry Christmas in Catalan), I rode the bus home and was ready to start my Christmas break!

Instead of trying to track down a turkey or spiral ham, we went with a tradition that Amanda’s family eats on Christmas Eve: lobster.  Since neither of us had ever cooked whole lobsters before, I knew this was going to be interesting before we even set foot in Mercadona, the local grocery store, to get ingredients for dinner.  We approached the seafood section which is a little unlike that of stores in Iowa; instead of the fish fillets on ice, in glass tubes; the whole fish is just right out there for you to see (and smell).  When our turn came, the woman behind the counter gave us two feisty, live lobsters and we were on our way.

Amanda and I relied on YouTube and Google to teach us how to prepare our dinner.  It worked!  After about 45 minutes of prepping/cooking, Anna (an American friend), Amanda, and I sat down to dinner.  This was interesting because we didn’t have any tools to crack the lobsters.  Instead we used a pestle we found in a random drawer, some knives, and a pair of children’s safety scissors.  Looking back now, I’m lucky I escaped with only two battle wounds (those claws are SHARP!)

                                                                            Fear

                                                  Each lobster was probably about 2 lbs.

                Lobster, baked potatoes w/ "sour cream" (unsweetened greek yogurt), and salad.

After dinner, Anna and I walked to 11:00 Mass at the Palma Cathedral.  Our walk was beautiful; most of the streets here are lit with strands of lights in shapes or different Christmas sayings in Catalan.  Bon Nadal (Merry Christmas), Molts d’anys (many years), and Bones Festes (good feasts, I think) are a few common ones I’ve seen.  Plaza Mayor, our Main Plaza, had lights streaming down from its center.  It was really cool to see, and made me appreciate the differences between Palma and Des Moines.  I live in a beautiful city on and island in the ocean, what more could I want?

                                   Some lights from one of the main shopping streets in Palma.

                                  This was only a little bit of the crowd at Mass.  It was packed!

                                         More of the crowd and the front of the Cathedral.  

I wrote this post as a packing break; I’m stuffing a duffle bag for a trip to Barcelona to celebrate New Year’s Eve (Nochevieja-literally, “old night”) and four days in Rome, Italy with Taylor.  I’ve never toured Rome so I am very excited to see the sights, and of course, eat pizza, pasta, and gelato.  Best get back to work.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will enjoy the start of 2011!  What's your New Year's resolution?

Prepping for the Holidays

No new big news from Palma, but I thought I'd give an update anyway.  Work is going well, everyone is still enjoying their jobs for the most part.  We have Monday through Wednesday off this week due to Spanish holidays; one is for the constitution and the other is for something else, I can't remember what the celebration is.  At any rate, I don't have to work until Thursday so I'm a happy camper.

Morrigan, my friend that flew here with me from Newark, was supposed to come spend a few days in Palma but instead got to spend about a day and a half in the Reus airport (about 2 hours away from Barcelona) and then a couple days in Barcelona due to the nation-wide strikes that were starting on Thursday night (the night her flight was supposed to land in Palma).  Needless to say, many vacations were shortened, if not ruined, on this long weekend.  The government passed an alert on Friday night or Saturday morning that mandated the air traffic controllers to begin work again or they could be jailed.  Many people were stranded, not only in Spain, but since the air space was closed as well, no international flights could land.  The airplane that Morrigan was supposed to be on was coming from Portugal, and apparently it turned around mid-air and went back.

We are thinking about getting a Christmas tree this week sometime, though it will be small and fake, it will still remind us of the holidays.  I'm being spoiled right now as I have the balcony door open and it's a high of 70 degrees today.  On December 7th.  A far cry from last year when we had a snow day at Iowa on December 8th.  However, just because it's gorgeous out doesn't mean I can't get into the Christmas state of mind by making paper snowflakes and other goodies, which will probably be happening this weekend sometime.  I can't believe it's already December and I've been here almost three months!

As far as my holiday travel plans go this year, I will unfortunately be missing out on the Sioux City trek with family.  Instead, an American friend, Taylor, and I will be spending Christmas here at home (with Amanda), New Years in Barcelona, and January 2nd-6th in Italy.  I've been to Barcelona before, though not over a major holiday, and am quite excited to return; it's such a beautiful city.  As for our Italy trip, we're going to fly into Rome and tour there for a couple days and then hopefully take the train to a few other cities; we're kind of just playing it by ear.  It will definitely be different from my normal holiday travels but I think it will be a lot of fun.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, I know I have a lot to be thankful for.  Will write more later, but for now, I'm going to enjoy the sun and 'buen tiempo' (nice weather) on our balcony.