On A Boat

Last weekend Xisca invited Amanda and me on her family’s fishing boat to spend Saturday out on the water/beaches of northern Mallorca.  We took the bus to Port de Pollença, which is at the very top of the island, and met Xisca, Biel, and their daughter for a day of sun-filled fun. 

We hopped in the boat and headed out to Formentor; a luxurious area where the wealthy of Europe buy real estate.  The mansions we saw from the boat were enormous with rock cliffs and beautiful vistas of the sea. 

We arrived at our destination about an hour boat journey later.  It was an informative ride as Biel pointed out different historical areas and told us about old-time Mallorca.  Amanda and I were both relieved that Xisca and Biel like to talk because sometimes it’s hard to start lengthy conversations in Spanish; especially over the roar of the waves, motor, etc. 

After I made sure my sunscreen was on, I jumped into the water-cool but refreshing.  We swam around a bit and then got back on the boat for lunch that Xisca had packed.  It was so delicious, and we were starving.  We ate roast chicken, trampó (cold salad of raw onion, tomato, and green pepper with salt and olive oil), melon and brownies-not to mention the pre-lunch Spanish standard of olives and chips. 

Something that I really admire about Xisca is she never makes me feel stupid, which, trust me, there are plenty of times that I either say something odd or misuse Spanish, or eat raw red pepper for that matter, that she could look at me like I’m a complete idiot and she doesn’t.  Anyway, as Amanda and I were eating melon, we took bites and it basically exploded juice all over us—Xisca’s family was in control of their pieces.  I made a comment about how we were a couple of disasters on this side of the boat, but Xisca reassured me that we just needed a couple of napkins because they already knew how to eat melon-we just needed practice.  I thought that was nice of her; it’s the little things.  Ha.

We also talked about cultural differences during lunch, which is always a fun topic.  The major one we hit on, besides how Amanda and I both DESPISE dos besos (kissing a person’s cheeks when you meet, see them, say goodbye, ALL THE TIME), was the use of alcohol.  Somehow we got on the subject of how wine, champagne, and usually anis are always present at my school and how that’s not only unpracticed but straight-up illegal in the US.  They couldn’t believe it.

As we were heading back to Pollença, the wind picked up and started majorly rocking the boat to the point where Amanda’s hand (on the side of the boat) dipped into the water on a wave.  And I yelled at one point.  I was sure we would die and we still had about an hour to go in the boat. 

We finally arrived back at the port, unpacked the boat, and went to Pollença to drop off Xisca’s daughter as she had to get ready for a concert (she plays the trombone).  We met Biel’s mom who’s about 90, but cooks Sunday dinner for her whole family still!  I couldn’t believe it.  Biel’s family (4 people) and his sister’s family (4 people) come for weekly dinner to their mom’s house.  It’s a great tradition, but I think it would be so much work for her to cook for that many people.  Apparently it isn’t though, and maybe she really enjoys it.  I’m not sure I would, especially if it wasn’t potluck style and happened every single week. 

After Pollença we went back to Xica’s summerhouse in Llubí (a pueblo in the center of Mallorca) in order to catch the train back to Palma.  Biel offered us an afternoon coffee, but as it was about 1000 degrees, I said I’d pass.  Instead, Amanda and I watched him down an espresso and then take (and offer us) a shot of hard liquor.  Um…okay.  He told us the coffee was to wake up, and the liquor was to take the espresso taste out of your mouth.  Good to know. 

When we got back to Palma, we were dead tired, and it was only about 8:30.  Between sun, swimming, and Spanish all day, I was in bed by 10:00.  Such a fun day and I’m so thankful that we were invited.

Never too late to try something new

This past week for a couple of days, Sarah came to visit.  We’ve known each other since high school and have kept in touch throughout the years even though we attended different universities.  As I’m still unemployed, it was the perfect time for her to visit: we could hit the beach, sleep in, and pretty much do whatever we wanted on our own schedules.  Sarah is always up to try new things so we decided to take the plunge and buy a whole fish to cook for lunch one afternoon.  We did research (thank you, Google) before we went to the market to find a recipe that seemed easy enough for two ‘fish idiots’ to cook properly.  Luckily we found one that involved lemon, butter, and spices.  Oh, and the whole fish… 

We got back from the market with a little over a kilo of ‘rodaballo’ or turbot, freshly gutted (in front of us) and ready to cook.  We read the recipe again, seemed pretty straight forward, and then youtubed how to fillet a flat fish.  We failed on the filleting part and just decided, screw it, and threw it in the over as it was.  Amazingly, it worked wonderfully-the scales, after baking, came right off and Sarah became fillet master as she sliced and diced our meal.  Complete with hollandaise sauce, we had a lunch fit for kings.  I think I’m going to have to buy more fish next year; I kick myself that it took me until late June to try it for the first time, but ya gotta start somewhere.   Below is each stage of our fish fiasco.

The rest of our week flew by with ensaimadas, ice cream, heat complaints, and beer.  We had a really good time together (even trying snails!), and I hope it’s not another year before we see each other again.  I joked with Sarah at the bus stop when I dropped her off for the airport that I’d see her in a couple years.  We laughed, but sadly, that’s been a reality before.  Thank god for internet, skype, email, and everything that allows me to keep in touch with friends and family, even when we’re worlds apart.

Safety First? Not On Holidays...

As I mentioned, San Juan was celebrated on Thursday night to mark the summer solstice.  A couple friends and I went down to Parc de la Mar that sits between the cathedral and the sea-there was a concert stage set up and some other type of structure that we didn’t recognize. 

Around 11:00 pm the demons came out.  There was a holiday in January, San Sebastian, that also had demons, however I wasn’t in town for that so this was completely new.  Beckie, one of my other roommates, however, was present for San Sebastian and when Amanda and I told her we wanted to venture closer she told us absolutely not-they chase you with fire.  Hm…well, surely they don’t actually chase you with fire.  We’re going down anyway. 

They actually chase you with fire.  Not a controlled fire either.  These men that are dressed as devils, complete with ugly masks and goat horns, have something similar to a huge torch that is aflame and they come up behind you and almost literally scare the shit out of you by yelling things at you in Catalan.  And then they manhandle you and drag you to the ground or start thrusting you, but that’s a story for later.  You would thing that the open fire-on-a-stick among thousands of people would be dangerous enough…and you would be wrong.  They also carry around bottles of alcohol that they take a pull of and then blow onto the torch, and if that gets boring they light other fireworks that spin around above your head and emit sparks.  Into the crowd of people.  Overall, it was a really cool experience though I felt it was extremely dangerous.  At least they had Red Cross busses there.  

After part one of the festivities we headed down to the beach.  We didn’t really know what we were doing but apparently this holiday celebrates ‘a new beginning’ so you write something on paper to better yourself (a wish or something you want to improve), burn it, and then go for a cleansing swim in the ocean.  We decided to stay out of the ocean but sat by the water anyway and observed others; there were quite a few people there. 

The beach is really peaceful at night, I love that you can’t see where the water meets the sky; it’s just a black abyss. 

By the time we walked back home it was about 2:00 am and we were all pretty tired.  Needless to say, we slept in a little bit on Friday.

More Airline Fun

Today is a holiday.  But not the whole day (people still had to work), only tonight.  Tomorrow is the ‘recovery holiday’ so everything will be closed.  Tonight is Sant Joan, there will be street fires on the beach, people imbibing and making wishes over bonfires and swimming in the ocean at midnight.  I’m sure there will be some injuries, how can there not be with large, open fires and drunken swimming.

In honor of tonight’s festivities, my friends and I are going to walk down, swimsuits in tow, to the beach and have a look at what Palma does to honor the summer solstice.  This evening is the ray of sunshine on the hurricane that is today:

I’ve recently purchased my ticket back to the homeland, after many weeks (no exaggeration) of hoping, in vain, that the gods of all things aerial would take pity on me and pursuade AirBerlin (or any airline, or blimp, or Aladdin) to lower their travel prices.  However, when this dream was shattered, repeatedly, whenever I pulled up kayak.com, I bit the bullet and purchased a roundtrip ticket. 

The fun started today, when I received an email in Spanish (yay) from AirBerlin telling me that they were unable to charge my Visa and that I needed to pay my ticket fee by July 2^nd or I would be declined the pleasure to fly with them and would also have to pay a cancellation fee.  They included their banking information for me to go ahead and transfer money from my account to theirs.  How nice of them. 

On a tangent, this came after I had a nice chat with a woman hiring workers to teach English at a summer camp here in Palma during the month of July.  As I don’t have a summer job, I jumped at the opportunity.  I set up an interview for Monday morning and then received the question that I love most: do I have papers and/or a social security number to work here?  I took the standard approach and beat around the bush in broken, flustered Spanish, that, usually I work for cash payments (because THAT doesn’t make me sound like a hooker…), until we reach the inevitable: no, I’m here on a grant from the Government of Spain.  Well, she tells me, an interview would be pointless if I don’t have a Spanish SSN.  So, yay, America, you’re STILL not part of the EU.

Back to the AirBerlin issue.  After I read about the money wiring, I decided I needed to have a quick chat with US Bank; I recite my situation to them after which, they remind me that there’s probably a limit on how much I can spend per day.  Of course there is.  And of course I went over that limit on the day that I booked my flights home.  Either way, I need to pay AirBerlin money for my flight so I don’t miss my connecting flight in Florida, even if it involves wiring money (with the lovely transaction fee).  But, as nothing can be painless, I’m told that wiring can only be done in person and that I would need to come to an office and fill out paper work.  Not over the internet and ABSOLUTELY not over the phone.  Well, thank God there’s a branch of US Bank in Palma! (sense the sarcasm). 

Sometimes when I used to complain as a youngster about being given time outs (a rarity), my mom used to tell me she WISHED someone would tell her she was in timeout-it was usually when she was juggling about 5,000 things and I had just punched my brother.  And then blamed him for his own injury, and she needed a break.  At any rate, I now understand that sentiment and gave myself a timeout, after which I frantically called my mom.  I don’t care how independent you think you are (or actually are), sometimes you need help, which is not something I make a habit of asking for.  I should work on that.  Today I reached out.  And my mom saved the day.  She called the bank again and through the magic of Genie my ticket should be charged to my Visa.  I’m still waiting for a confirmation email, but we’re a step closer. 

So now, as I sit writing this long overdue post and drinking glass number three of cheap, delicious, Spanish wine, I think—life in Europe really isn’t that bad.  Granted the EU citizenship is a doozie, but it’s a cloudless afternoon and there’s a street fiesta tonight.  What more could I want?  Thanks, mom, for helping when I was ready to jump over the balcony of apartment 2A.  A less cynical post is promised for the future-maybe complete with photos of the past few weeks/Sant Joan!

Isn't Being an Adult Fun?

Well, as the school year is winding down over here, Amanda and I have started looking for flights back to the homeland.  Let me tell you how fun THAT’S been… sense the sarcasm.  We’ve kind of had a hectic/stressful week that started with our refrigerator breaking two weeks ago on Sunday night.  Called our landlady on Monday, she said someone would be over to look at it on Wednesday.  Alright, whatever, our freezer still worked so we just froze all of our food, not a big deal.  Wednesday came and went, no one showed up so we waited a couple more days.  Turned out, it was definitely broken and that we would get a new one delivered to us the following Wednesday (now sans fridge for a week).  Perfect.  Well, yesterday (Friday) a fridge finally showed up and is usable.  Finally. 

            Aside from that hiccup, flight prices are not going down, so I bit the bullet and purchased a ticket to America, Des Moines, specifically, seeing that any way I slice the pie (Madrid, Chicago, etc-big airports) it’s not really cheaper once you factor in driving and such.  I fill out all my paperwork online, enter my Visa info only to click submit and have the Orbiz website tell me that the bank is denying my transaction.  Of course it is.  The message also says wait a few minutes, try again, or call your bank.  Waited, tried again, same message.  Yesterday, I called my bank, as there’s a pending transaction for a flight ticket on my statement but I haven’t gotten a confirmation email or anything stating that I’m actually on the flight.  Fun surprise when I called US Bank, turns out there are TWO charges on my card for TWO seats on the flight (bought a minute apart, according to the bank, must have been when I refreshed the page, damn Orbitz), but I’m not actually ON THE FLIGHT.  In either seat.  Oh, that’s fine then.  According to both parties (Orbitz and US Bank) neither can negate the charges, I have to call the national branch of US Bank.  Excellent.  Maybe I’ll just get a blow up raft and float myself back to the States.  Also got an email from the Embassy saying beware of ‘peaceful protests happening in big cities due to the upcoming elections’.  And, according to America, the world is supposed to end tonight.  If it does, do the charges on my Visa automatically disappear?  

Holiday Fun

            Well, this is the first week (May 2nd-6th) back from Easter holidays.  It was kind of hard to get back in the swing of things, but I did it.  Hard to believe I have such a short time left working for the school year, and that it was almost a year ago that I graduated from college.  Yikes. 

            My break was full of visitors and fun, like it should be, right?  The week before our vacation time (which was actually Holy Week), our school had cultural week.  From Monday through Wednesday we did different Mallorcan cultural activities.  I talked to the director of our school and was told to just choose a class to participate with.  I chose a first grade class (they’re so much fun!) and was with Kiko helping his class make crespells (a typical Easter cookie), painted shirts, and learning about Easter. 

            On Monday we made crespells with the class.  We actually discussed ingredients with them (in Catalan, so I didn’t really participate in the discussion, ha), followed the recipe, and measured out exactly what we needed for our baking extravaganza.  I thought it was really neat that we made these in class instead of just talking about it; it made a really good hands-on activity for the kids, even though it was a little messy.  One thing that I still can’t get over is alcohol on school grounds.  A second grade teacher, Ana, walked into our class in an apron (her kids were making cookies too) carrying an open fresh bottle of anis.  I just stared at her.  She was talking to Kiko about adding some to the cookie dough.  Um…what?!  I understand that the actual liquor bakes out, but still!  I asked Kiko for clarification about what she was going to do and he said that, yes, as soon as we mixed up the dough she was going to come back and add some anis.  For flavor.  Oh, I see, well that’s fine then.  I just kept thinking to myself how this would NEVER fly in a classroom in the US.  The teacher would probably get arrested.  Or something, I’m not even really sure.  You can’t even drink during lunch in the US.  At any rate, the cookies turned out really well, and the kids were super excited about baking.

            Tuesday, everyone brought white t-shirts and we stencil-painted bees on them since Kiko’s class theme this year is beekeepers.  Again, the kids had a blast-how could you not, when you’re getting down and dirty with paint?  I got a little painted myself, thankfully, not on my clothes, but it was still sliiiightly embarrassing to have another teacher tell me I had yellow pain on my nose.  Wah waaahhh.  That afternoon, all the first grade classes watched Bee Movie.  I’d never seen this movie, and didn’t really follow along as it was in Spanish and the kids were being loud.  It looked pretty cute though, and the kids that were listening seemed to enjoy it.  Even though I wasn’t really ‘working’ per se this week, I always went home extremely tired from the days’ activities. 

            On Wednesday we went on a field trip to La Fiore glass factory with the first graders.  There were four chaperones, including myself, and I would say maybe 80 kids.  To a glass factory.  I assumed this would failed miserably, and the school would have to write a check for thousands of euros to the glass shop, but nothing was broken!  Granted, we watched the process of glass blowing and the students weren’t allowed in the actual store, but still.  On the ride to the field trip, the kids started singing songs on the bus.  As I was listening, the lyrics of ‘quien ha hecho pis en un saco de dormir’ became apparent.  This literally means, ‘who took a piss in a sleeping bag’.  Oh, ok, so this is what we’re playing.  They’re six years old remember.  Though I was taken aback by the lyrics, I couldn’t help but chant the tune as well, it was rather catchy.  After getting back from La Fiore, the students had recess for about 2 hours while all the teachers talked outside.  It was a beautiful day and I got to talk to some of the teachers that I don’t normally see, which was nice.  After school got out at two, a few of the male teachers and I went to get tapas at a restaurant near by.  Most restaurants serve you a tapa (small plate of something) if you purchase a beverage, so the five of us got drinks that were accompanied by a plate of food that we all shared.  We were pretty hungry and ended up getting about 5 plates/aka 5 beers and needless to say, by the end of the meal, I was glad that I wasn’t driving.  I really appreciated that Jordi, one of the first grade teachers, invited me along with them.  It was nice to chat and get to know the guys outside of our school setting. 

            On Thursday (Maundy Thursday) we started our Easter vacations, and I was ready for a break.  Thursday night Amanda, Beckie, and I went to La Rambla in Palma to watch the big night of processions.  They were quite interesting, not as intense as Sevilla (can’t say I’m sad about that), but still kind of gave me the creeps.  I understand that this is a huge religious affair, but it still kind of reminds me of the Klan, especially when people here tell me that it’s like that with a big smile on their faces.  I’m not sure they understand that yes, the robes are certainly similar, but the actions are opposite.  Usually I just nod and smile; I don’t want to get into the discussion of what the KKK actually did. 

            On Friday Mike, Telene, and the girls flew in to Palma.  I picked them up at the airport that afternoon for a week of Spring fun.  They were absolutely exhausted, but were awesome sports about going to watch a procession and get tapas that night for dinner.  I think the girls made it to about 8:15 before they started nodding off at the table; I was surprised they made it that long to be honest.  I don’t think they were big fans of tapas but Mike and Telene seemed to enjoy them. 

            The next day, we started bright and early (around 10:30 ha) and walked around the city.  Throughout the week, we hiked up to the castle, went to the Cathedral, enjoyed a lot of Spanish food (including ensaïmada and sobrasada), and, of course, sangria.  Before we knew it, it was time to head to Barcelona.  I took a separate flight and arrived a couple hours early into the sunny, warm Barcelona weather.  This is the third time I’ve been to Barcelona and every time I love going.  It’s such a huge city that’s full of awesome architecture and great food.  I sat outside a café for a while and had fresh squeezed orange juice and a croissant while I people watched.  My favorite.

 

            When Mike and Telene arrived we checked into the hotel and walked around the city to find some lunch.  There’s a good tapas restaurant on La Rambla, one of the main streets in Barcelona, and we stopped there to have a typical Spanish lunch.  We only had three days in Barcelona but I think we spent our time wisely and walked a TON.  Something that I hadn’t experienced before was the city after a big football (soccer) win-Barcelona played its biggest rival, Real Madrid, for the semi-final of the Champions League and won 2-0.  Barcelona absolutely erupted.  We didn’t venture too far into the crowded plaza, but were able to walk up La Rambla and see how many people were in Plaça Catalunya—I would say probably between 700 and 1000, screaming how Barcelona was the best. 

            The morning we left, we all got up around 4:30.  I had to catch a flight back to Palma and they had to get to Madrid.  My trip to the airport was a little rocky, as the car that Mike and Telene had hired (and paid for already) didn’t show up on time.  Instead I took a cab to BCN and boarded a flight that left at 6:20 at 6:05.  Cutting it a little close.  Thankfully, I made it on, and home safely.  A huge thanks again to Mike, Telene, Brecca, and Brinley for taking the time and money to come all the way over to Spain.  It really meant a lot to me that you guys spent your Spring Break with me and it was definitely nice to see family!  

"C" Means Hot

This past week, Sarah and Lisa, a couple of my friends from home came to Palma for Spring Break.  I picked them up at the airport on Saturday evening where we encountered our first travel hiccup-Lisa’s luggage was still in Barcelona.  I felt so bad, as I’ve been through that before, and it’s such a hassle-especially after you’ve been traveling for about 24 hours.  Luckily, her bag arrived the next day and the airport was kind enough to drop it off at my apartment! 

Throughout the week, I introduced them to a bunch of tapas, sangria, and, of course, sobrasada and ensaïmada, all of which they seemed to like.  I was really proud of them for being so open-minded about new foods, they were down to try anything!  Way to go Sarah and Lisa!  I had the week off work, I had made up my hours before they arrived, so I got to spend the entire week taking them around Palma.  We visited the Cathedral, Bellver Castle, a few of my favorite restaurants, and of course the Ruta for tapas. 

From Monday-Wednesday we rented a car and drove around the island a bit.  There are quite a few towns that I haven’t been to yet, so we wanted to explore a little outside of Palma.  Our first stop was Valldemosa, a quaint little village that is basically my epitome of what Spain should look like.  It’s mostly stone buildings, small, cobblestone, narrow streets, and serves some of the best coco de patata that I’ve ever tried.  The dessert is a bun-shaped cake (but not as dense) that is made of potatoes.  You get a cup of chocolate, which is kind of like hot chocolate pudding, and you dip the cake into the chocolate.  It is to die for.  I will definitely be going back to Valldemosa, even if it’s just for the treats.

We also drove a little bit through the mountains up to Cala Gat, another small village.  I usually don’t get car sick, but the roads in the mountains are very narrow and winding, Spain can’t make anything easy.  We stopped along the road to take pictures of the ocean a little cove we found.  The water was so blue, even though it was overcast that day.  After Cala Gat, we decided to call it a day and head back to Palma for the usual evening tapas.

I am so thankful that they came to Spain.  It was a long trip, especially since they both had to jump right back in to work and school when they returned to the United States.  It was really good to see people from home though. 

There were many funny stories from this week, but I’ll share the one from which this post title comes.  In Spain, faucets are labeled “C” and “F”, standing for “caliente” (hot), and “frío” (cold).  Well, Sarah tried to take a shower one afternoon, after our water sporadically shut off, only to tell me, “Good news: you have water.  Bad news: it only comes on freezing cold”.  Well, fabulous, because I was next up for a shower.  I decided to just hop in, make it a quick one, and be out.  I turn on the shower, get in, and burn myself.  Thinking the cold didn’t work, I JUST turned on the hot and was scorched.  Hmm… After the shower, I went back into my room, told Lisa she could have a warm shower and told Sarah (again) that “C” isn’t for cold here.  She reiterated that she knew that before, but her shower was freezing.  For the rest of the trip, anywhere we saw a faucet, we reminded Sarah that, in Spain, “C” means hot.

March Madness

Hi all!  So far, March has been a whirlwind month.  Beckie, Amanda, and I all went to Berlin, Germany for part of our March break.  Though we left sunny weather in Palma for chilly Berlin, our trip was amazing, complete with a ‘start-of-journey’ shot at the Palma airport. 

The hostal we stayed at was right in the center of the city and within walking distance to a lot of famous sites.  We took a walking tour of the city, which lasted about 4 hours but was totally worth it; our guide really knew her Berlin facts and took us to a bunch of places we definitely wouldn’t have found on our own.  Among others, we got to see the Reichstag (Parliament building), the Holocaust Memorial, and what remains of the Berlin Wall.

Next stop for us was German food, one of my favorites now.  I was really proud of all of us because we each tried something new, even Beckie, who is a picky eater.  I had bratwurst and sauerkraut as one of my first meals, but tried wienerschnizel again too.  Yes, I ate all of what is in the photo below.  All of the food is so delicious, albeit probably not healthy at all.  Especially when followed by fried apple rings and apple strudels.  Yum.  It’s not an understatement to say that my pants were snug after this trip.  

One of the more sobering parts of our trip was our concentration camp visit.  We toured Sachsenhaussen, which was the camp built specifically for Berlin; which they built in the middle of a residential area.  The houses around the camp were usually for SS guards and their families, or for others that were of elevated Nazi rank.  Our guide told us this was usually done because on the rare chance that a prisoner successfully escaped, the first house he/she would go for help would be that of an enemy. 

The next day, we walked along the East Side Gallery, which is actually part of the Berlin Wall that has been painted with murals.  It was really cool to see as there were so many artists, from the east and west that participated in this art.  One painting that I thought was cool was that of the German flag and the Israeli flag superimposed on each other.  There was also one of what looked like it could be an American flag-of course Amanda and I had to get a picture with that!

After we got back from Berlin, my school had Carnival.  It’s kind of like Halloween in the States, everyone dresses up in costume and they have parades.  I joined Maria Angeles’ class of first graders that were dressed as Tintorers (dyers).  The school theme this year was ‘antique jobs’, so, there were dyers, miners, people that collected ice, wine makers, cobblers, etc.  The kids and I had a lot of fun walking around our block in the parade, and they all looked so cute with their tie-dye shirts and clown wigs.  Also, I might mention that finding tie-dye materials in this country is about as easy as scaling Mount Everest.  Literally, I went to 5 stores looking for colored dye and my only choices were brown, black, or navy blue.  Thank god we went to Berlin, where I found red and brought it back to Spain.  Needless to say, crafts here are kind of hard to do.  I wish they had a Target…Below is Maria Angeles' class (first grade), and me with Xisca.  Her third grade class were dressed as llatra, which are people who weave products from a palm tree like plant here in Mallorca.  The last photo is of a second grade class who were candle makers.

Sant Antoní and San Sebastian

This next segment is about the Saint’s days that we had in Palma and Mallorca.  Sant Antoní (celebrated January 16^th) is the patron saint of small pueblos and animals in Mallorca and is mostly celebrated outside of Palma, which is a bigger city.  According to Xisca’s story (hopefully I understood all of it), St. Anthony went into a desert to pray and encountered the Devil.  They fought, and now people and children dress up as Demonis (devils in Catalan) and dance around and chase people with fire.  This happened at our school when two male teachers dressed up, complete with masks and ran into classrooms/through windows/kicked open doors trying to scare the children.  It worked as a few kids in each class (grades 1-3) were literally trembling and bawling.  Their costumes were quite scary actually, especially with the masks they had made.

San Sebastian is a little different, but during the same week (January 20^th).  We got a day off work in Palma for this holiday, which made me happy as I got a 4-day weekend.  Wednesday at school we had an assembly where the kids could bring their pets for the priest to bless.  I think this is actually part of Sant Antoni, but our school kind of combined both holidays.  The blessings were followed by Jordi, the music teacher, playing the Zambomba and a group of dancers showing us a typical Mallorcan dance. 

On Wednesday night we all went out to Plaza Mayor where there was a big bonfire and huge statues of people dressed in typical Mallorcan clothes.  As Amanda pointed out to me, the fire seemed pretty dangerous as there are apartments all around Plaza Mayor and the smoke/flames were escalating quickly. 

Whew!  I think I’ve caught you up with my travels, and life in general, as of now.  Amanda, Beckie and I are going to Berlin at the end of this month and I have friends hopping the pond for a week in March.  Spring will be a busy time in this apartment!  

Getting Caught Up

This post actually starts about a month ago on New Year’s Eve.  Taylor and I were lucky enough to stay at her friend’s apartment, which was close to a Metro station and, therefore, close to the center of the city.  The first day we were there, December 30^th, we walked around the city.  We have both visited Barcelona before so it was nice this time to leisurely stroll instead of running around trying to see all the sites in such a short time.  We enjoyed La Rambla, an awesome Hindu restaurant called Maoz, La Boquería (a HUGE outdoor market selling everything you can imagine), and, of course, Starbucks.  One thing I had never visited was Parc Güell (pronounced Park Gway), designed by Antoni Gaudí.  We made the trek all the way to the top, where we encountered our first (of many) hurdles to jump:  Taylor’s camera wouldn’t work.  The rest of the day we scouted around for another camera that wasn’t insanely overpriced in the tourist district of Barcelona. 

On New Year’s Eve there is a tradition in Spain to eat 12 grapes, one at every stroke of the clock at midnight; and, of course, drink champagne.  Well, Taylor and I were prepared-we’d bought both products that day and were happily making the trek down to La Rambla in dresses and high heels (mistake number one).  Let me preface this by saying La Rambla, and I’ve heard Barcelona in general, is known for pick-pocketing; especially when it’s as packed as it was on New Year’s.  There were literally people everywhere.  Personal space was NOT an issue.  After the clock struck we decided just to sit in a bar for a quick drink and then head back to the apartment; a very early evening.  It took us about 15 minutes to get to the bar since there were so many people on the street.  We literally got pushed by the mob that was Barcelona on NYE; if one of us would’ve fallen, we would’ve been trampled to death-no joke.  We finally make it to this bar and are about ready to order a drink when I realize my right pocket of my coat is empty.  It used to contain my Blackberry and my camera.  Perfect.  Needless to say, we did not stay for a drink, we just went home and I was in shock about my stolen items.  Taylor tried to calm me down by saying I could get another camera tomorrow, someplace would be open, it’s Saturday. 

Well, the next day everything was closed because it was a holiday (January 1^st) so I was sans camera for the rest of Barcelona.  By the time we arrived in Rome, after sleeping in the Barcelona airport and being up for most of the night, I was ready just to head back home to Palma. 

We were on our way to St. Peter’s Square where I FINALLY found a shop that sold cameras!  My trip was looking up.  The first place we toured was St. Peter’s Basilica, which was gorgeous-so many paintings and beautiful marble, it was unbelievable. 

After our Basilica tour we stopped at a small restaurant to grab some authentic Italian food (we both ordered pizza) and split a bottle of wine.  We were so tired and hadn’t eaten forever, so the wine really had an effect on both of us, even though it was a small bottle.  From the restaurant we went back to our hostel for a quick nap (it was 5:00 pm) but then just went to bed at 9:00 with the promise that we’d wake up early the next morning and do more touring. 

Over the next few days, we walked around Rome for most of the day from morning ‘til night and ate our way through the city.  I tried a few different pastas, tiramisu, cannoli, and pizza.  Everything was delicious-the Italians really know how to cook.  

We had an excellent time in Rome but were definitely ready to be home and sleeping in our own beds in Palma.  Not to mention the weather in Italy was a lot chillier than in Mallorca.