Creepin'

So it's 4:45am, and I'm doing homework and not extremely tired due to a long nap earlier. I wanted to share my blog stats, because I find them interesting. (click it to enlarge)
1. I love how I can see the countries. I know where all my friends are studying abroad.
2. Why are so many of you using IE?? I know I'm Ms. Microsoft, but stop. Firefox is way better.. or Chrome.
3. I love that people have looked at my blog on iPhones (because I totally FB/blog creep on my Droid all the time.. glad to know I'm not the only mobile creeper).
4. Windows pwnage.
5. I love that one Linux user, and I'm pretty sure I know who it is.

xoxo

Friday/Saturday morning

Yesterday was amazing! Hannah and I decided to go on an adventure to a beach that's about an hour away on the bus. Our first hurdle was the bus station and information screens there.. because everything was in Catalan. I hate Catalan. I came here to learn Spanish, and all the signs are in another language. Lame. Anyway, so Hannah asked a bus driver where we needed to go, and he told us to come with him on his bus so we did. The bus was so nice! It is like a really nice charter bus and costs about $4 to go. There are a lot of buses like the one we went on that go all over the island. This was my first trip truly outside of Palma. Our bus ride started off with a crash.. literally. Our bus driver hit a car in an intersection right next to the bus station. It was directly below our window, so we saw it happen. The bus just scraped the entire side of a tiny car, and the bus couldn't move or else it would scrape it more. So we sat blocking the intersection in a giant bus with every car honking for 5-10 minutes while our bus driver yelled at the car driver that it was his fault.. when it was clearly the bus driver's fault. I actually understood parts of his angry rant. It was really weird, because the car moved and we just drove away.. without exchanging insurance info or anything. Ah, life in Spain.. nothing matters. After all that fun, we headed out of Palma. I saw some amazing sites outside of Palma. Everything is so old and run down. I want to photograph everything here, which is quite hard to do through the window of a bus. We kept going.. and going.. and then we finally got off where Hannah's host madre said we should go. We walked through this cute town towards the water thinking it was the beach.. and it was all rocks with no beach in sight. We were a bit confused, but we saw some other tourist looking people so we followed them. We walked for a mile or two or three (really far) until we saw a beach. We scaled a wall to get there also. We saw hundreds of sea urchins in the water on our walk there. Some birds followed us the whole way there. Once on the beach, it was beautiful. I think Ses Illetes is still my favorite one here (and is a lot closer and easier to get to). It was just a long beach with crystal clear water. I had to pee, so I went walking in the brush woods near the beach to find a hidden place. I got carried away back there, because it was so awesome (and I felt like I was on Lost) and ended up walking back there for 5-10 minutes or so. It was sooo cool with low trees bent over the barely-there path and lots of cool trees and plants. I felt like I was in another time, and I wanted to just to keep going.. but decided with no shoes on and no one with me that wasn't a good idea. I went back to the beach where I was for hours. It was soooo relaxing. Also for most of that time, I was the only person there (because Hannah went further down the beach and swam), so it was pretty amazing feeling like I was the only person in paradise. I listened to my iPod and sang out loud. These two birds were creeping on me the whole time! They would sit right next to me and stare at me, and when I sang, they cocked their heads funny like they were listening to me. I spoke Spanish to them at one point too haha. They kept me entertained. I also got a little sunburned which I didn't realize until I took a hot shower last night.. ouch. I am actually excited about being a little burned; I have color now. It's not too bad, though. I need to condition my skin for the summer. :) Mostly, I just laid there, listened to music, and enjoyed life. I wrote, "Life was meant to be like my life today." I think that is so true. I feel like I was made to lie in the sun and listen to music and soak up the sun. I never want to leave this island.
I took a 3 hour nap then met up with the group to go out to paseo again. After drinking in the streets as usual, we got on the "bus de nit" which we just discovered. The bus was insane!! It was so packed with people our age all singing and laughing and probably tipsy like we were. It was so much fun just riding the bus with everyone haha (plus it is cheaper). We will definitely be using that bus more often. We went to 3 different clubs at paseo, because we weren't really liking the music too much at any of the clubs. We ended up in one called cultura club for a long time towards the end of the night (or morning..), because there was room to dance yet still a lot of people dancing. There was this guy that kept playing with my and Brittany's hair, which was hilarious. Around 6am, we were exhausted and decided to leave. That was the latest I have ever stayed out haha. I slept til about 1pm today, though, so I made up for it.. though I still feel like I could take a nap right now. A few of us are going to go to the beach that's close to us for a while just to get out of the house. There's no telling what tonight will bring...

xoxo
Lynne

Wednesday & Thursday & Food

Yesterday, I didn't have classes. Surprise?! No.. typical. I sat inside far longer than I intended and went on a 3ish mile walk around 5pm. First I headed down to the beach, because, obviously, that's my favorite place. I wanted to sit for a while and enjoy the warmth and the sun, but that didn't happen. A guy on a bike almost ran into me so that he could tell me I am beautiful. I went to sit on a rock ledge to watch the waves crash against the rocks below me, and I had the feeling that someone was watching me. Sure enough, I looked behind me, and there he was.. about 30 feet away.. just staring at me. I just thought eh, maybe he will just leave. No, he came over and started talking to me in Spanish, asking me my name, if I wanted him to take a picture of me (because I was trying to take a picture of my TOMS with the waves crashing), and more. I told him I didn't know Spanish in hopes that he would go away.. but then he started speaking in English. I ignored him as he kept talking, but then I realized he was asking me what my plans were for the night and if I wanted to go out with him. I said no, I have to go, bye. I practically ran one direction as he biked in the other.. I am so thankful he didn't keep following me. I was about to call someone to come rescue me haha. I continued my walk by the ocean and sat down a few times to enjoy the breeze. I circled my way up near the cathedral and went by my favorite part of town. I went home for a bit after my walk to make plans for the night. Hannah, Chelsea, and I went to see Black Swan in Spanish (Cisne Negro).. well, that movie was a trip. I understood the Spanish for the most part, but the movie storyline itself was whack. I am not a fan of the movie, but I enjoyed the ballet dancing and the music. Natalie Portman is an excellent actress.. and that is all I have to say.
Today I woke up and did homework.. the first homework I have done in about 2 weeks. Have I mentioned that I love living here and going to school here? I had to do some work with the subjunctive tense which everyone who has ever tried to learn Spanish recognizes as the biggest pain in Spanish. It has to do with verb tenses when there is doubt involved.. and it's so confusing. I ate my typical breakfast (banana, muffins, green tea with lemon, strawberries, water, yogurt) and headed to my room to open the windows and work some more. I basically worked until it was lunch time, then I had to get ready and go to my one class at 3:30pm today. Tough life. I dread that class (grammar), but it was actually fun today. We went over our homework then our prof told us stories of crazy students. For example, one Vandy student a few years ago went on a small boat from Palma to the Canary Islands (aka extremely far away) with some Spanish people that she barely knew without telling anyone. She was basically missing for 10 days until she contacted them to tell them where she was. He told us a few other funny stories.. and his point was proven: when you travel, tell people where you go, and don't call sex hotlines on your host family's phone either. He is a great prof and fun to talk to haha. Hannah and I went down to the beach to watch the sunset and take pictures after class. Now I am just relaxing, listening to all my music on shuffle, and thinking about food (it's almost time for dinner).

I really want to include some descriptions of my favorite foods here. One of my favorite things, that I had this afternoon, is called "arroz a la cubana" (rice of the Cuban). I think I may have described it at one point, but I am obsessed with it and want to talk about it more. This is the Wikipedia definition, but that picture isn't the best. This is a more accurate picture, except my rice is always in a perfect cup shape, and my eggs are perfectly cooked in olive oil and unbroken, and the hot dogs (with cheese inside!) are symmetrically placed on the sides of the rice. The tomato sauce is very simple.. I think it's basically just tomatoes and olive oil and/or water with maybe some garlic. The eggs are sooo good, because cooking them in olive oil makes them very fluffy. It sounds so weird.. and I was hesitant when I first tried it, but I am in love. I like to get a little piece of everything in every bite; I think it is best that way. I also eat bread with it and sop the yolk up using the bread just like my host family does. This is definitely not the healthiest thing, but it is so yummy!

Another of my favorites, again, not very healthy of course, is called "pollo al roquefort" (roquefort chicken). It is basically chicken breast with a white, creamy bleu cheese sauce and white rice. This dish definitely looks very white and not very appetizing, but rest assured, it is amazing. It doesn't really taste like bleu cheese to me, though, which is the weird part. It is ultra creamy and cheesy with a smoky, strong flavor. It is SO GOOD. I hope I can one day perfect the recipe for it.

The soups deserve their own section as well. Every soup I've had here was amazing. My favorites have been cream of cucumber, cream of pumpkin and squash, veggie soup with garbanzos, and cous cous with olive oil broth.

Okay, done with food talk for now. I feel like food will somehow be involved in my career. I think I'm going to talk to Brent for a while before heading to bed so I can spend my day at.. you guessed it.. the beach. :)

-Lynne

Lots of days

 I just realized that I haven't blogged in far too long! I'll take some time, listen to Landon Pigg, and try to remember everything from the past few days.

Friday:
I had no class, yet again. I don't remember exactly what I did during the day, but it probably involved the beach.  Friday night, a group of us met up to go out to Paseo and also to see the real "bolletón" (literally hundreds of young people go on this one sidewalk right next to the ocean where tons of gorgeous boats are kept and take bottles of alcohol to drink before going to dance in the clubs, because drinks are so expansive inside the clubs) which happens in front of Paseo. It was insane!! I had heard about it but didn't quite realize the number of people that were going to be there. It was really awesome, and I only had 2 vasos de vino! We were celebrating Kendra's 21st birthday that night, so we went to a club and danced to Spanish music. That was pretty fun.. except we didn't know the words to the Spanish songs when everyone else in the club was shouting them. We left early (around 3:30am) to head home since we weren't having that much fun and were all getting tired.

Saturday:
Slept a lot. Went to the beach again, but it was super cold. Tonight, my Swedish friend had invited us to "pre-game" (I lol'ed so hard when he used that word) before Paseo, because some of his friends from Sweden were coming to visit. We were all so excited to meet more Swedish people! After almost forgetting to get alcohol and having to call someone to get some for a few of us, we headed over to his apartment. His apartment is so nice and in such a good location too. There were about 10 Swedish people total and about 6 of us Americans. They had loud music playing, drinking card games, and good conversation. We were having a lot of fun over there, some of which included a person who wishes to remain anonymous locking herself in the bathroom and trying to figure out what an "E" means on a Swedish playing card [it means Ace].. until the cops came to the door. Yes, cops on motorcycles came to the door and said there had been a noise complait and that we all had to leave the apartment, and they waited for everyone to leave. Bad neighbors. We all filed out into the street with the cops awkwardly while they rode through the middle of our group on their motorcycles and left. It was kind of hilarious, but also quite annoying since it was too early to go to Paseo. We started walking towards Paseo to head to a small bar to get drinks and talk before going to dance. At one point, we were stopped in the street talking and we saw this man riding a bike just fine.. until he suddenly steered to the left and ran into a building. Then he proceeded to get up, walk in circles around his bike, and yell that he was going to kill someone. I was kinda frightened, but being that I was in a large group which included a lot of guys and was slightly tipsy, it was fine. We strolled down the street for a long time (I was the only one who brought alcohol with me, so I shared my last few beers with people) and finally got to some club they wanted to go to. They were playing American 70's rock music which was awesome but so unexpected. We hung there for an hour or two just talking and drinking. Around 1 or 2 we decided we should go to Paseo to dance, since it was only then the appropriate time to go out (seriously.. if you go out before 1am, you are crazy or just foreign). We took some cabs since it was a pretty long walk. We went into one club that was lame for like 3 minutes then left. Then we went back into the same bar that we went to last weekend because 1. it is free and 2. it plays good dancing music. We all danced and sang and had fun until one of the Swedes had a bit too much to drink, so then almost all of the Swedes left to take him home (again, it was so early.. around 3:30ish and we were prepared to stay out til the sun rose). Brittany and I decided we wanted to leave too because we were disappointed so most of the rest of us left too. We met up with 2 of the Swedes near their apartment, because we were going to go hang there for a while since we weren't ready to go home yet, but they had given their key to someone that went upstairs and fell asleep.. so they were locked out. We wandered around plaza españa for 30ish minutes and talked and ended up just leaving. I went home with Brittany to sleep in her guest bedroom so that we wouldn't have to walk alone that late. We stayed up for a while and ate chips and guac until we passed out. It was a fun night, but a little disappointing. Swedish people are awesome.

Sunday:
I woke up late at Brittany's then we talked for hours about travel plans. Also, during the afternoon, Brent and I talked and decided we didn't want to be together at the moment, because we both have some things we need to figure out. I can't wait to spend some time with him this summer to see how things are going to work out. I pretty much slept the entire day since I was physically and emotionally exhausted.

Monday:
School! 4 classes.. lots of hours.. blah. I decided I'm dropping one of my classes, because it is extremely uninteresting and I don't need the hours for my major nor to graduate. So now my work load is even lighter.. yay? I'm still trying to find a family here that needs a student to help their kids learn English.. I need activities to keep me busy. I went to Hannah's after our grammar class to find places to stay during Semana Santa. We e-mailed tons of places, so hopefully at least one will work out for us. I saw a man riding a bike with a basket attached to it with a cat that looked like Astra laying in the basket on a pillow. I laughed out loud on the street corner.. pretty sure no one else thought it was funny. The metro stopped working for a few minutes today which freaked me out. The electricity went out so it was pitch black for a few minutes.. weird. I'm kinda paranoid of taking it now. I don't want to get stuck in a tunnel. I talked to Brent on Skype for a long time Monday night and found out his favorite cat passed away. :( He was pretty much the best cat ever, and I am very sad that he is gone.

Tuesday (today! .. fially caught up)
Only one class today.. slept in and ate breakfast at 12:30pm. That is my kind of life. It's also, 2-22!! So that means something good has to happen today, right? I'm still waiting... I think today is the funeral for my grandma's brother. :( He passed away recently, but I think it was for the best because he had been suffering for a while. My family is all in Tulsa right now, and I wish I could be there with them. Some of us girls are going to go walk around in a little bit, since it is soooo warm today! It is warm and super windy; it reminds me of Tulsa. On the metro on the way home today, a man got on the train, and it started moving before he could sit down so he fell on his face. It was really scary and sad. :( I think he already had a cut or something on his head, so it reopened and started dripping all over the floor. A few really nice young guys helped him get up off the floor and took care of him. It was really scary because it literally happened right in front of me, and I knew I couldn't do anything to help. It reminded me of the time in NYC last year when a guy had a seizure on the sidewalk in front of me. He was up and walking off the metro with help from his wife and one of the men who helped him, so I guess that was a good sign.

I've had a billion emotions in the past few days!! I am sorting out my life, or at least trying to. I am enjoying really thinking about everything in my life and figuring it out.. and the beach helps too. :) I still can't believe I'm living on a gorgeous island in Spain! I miss everyone at home so much.
Time to go walk around and perhaps down to the beach.. ;) I never thought I would be so in love with the beach, but I am. I want to go to it every day, because it is incredibly relaxing and beautiful.

Hasta luego,
Lynne

*edit*: Just got back from walking around with Hannah and Chelsea. We went to H&M for the 21309234 time, but none of us bought anything. Then I got some ensaimada flavored gelato.. can you say delicious?! It was amazing. I love just walking around, especially when the weather is absolutely perfect. Seriously, today was my favorite weather ever. Anyway, Hannah and I were walking home and saw this guy ducking and hiding behind cars and he kept looking past us like he was running away from someone. He ran down a street to our left very quickly. We didn't really think anything of it until 2 security guards went running by us a few minutes later. I had no idea how to say "that way" in Spanish (I know, it seems so easy, but the random simple things are what I am missing) and they were pretty far from us once I realized they were probably looking for that guy. So they ran off and Hannah and I approached the entrance to my apartment building and were standing out there talking when we heard someone whistle to get the guards' attention. So then they went running past us, and some handcuffs fell off of one of them so he was freaking out. By that point, a large group of people were just standing and observing, because no one knew what was going on. One of them ran down that street (the same street we saw the guy go down) and the other one ran past us again (with some random girl chasing him and laughing???) and down another street. We waited for a minute to see if anything else was going to happen, but nothing did. Someone yelled for someone to call the police and the girl that was chasing the cop was just standing there laughing. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but Hannah and I very much enjoyed watching it happen. Hahahaha. So that makes 2 random and weird things that happened today that I saw. Exciting stuff. Just ate some delicious broccoli, carrots, grilled chicken, and salad.. yummy. No class tomorrow, or as my host madre likes to say, "vacaciones!"

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday wasn't too exciting. I didn't have class, so I slept in and was lazy.. very lazy. I didn't leave the house until about 5pm to walk around with Hannah. At 8pm, I went to a pre-birthday dinner for one of the HC girls at her casa. It was so much fun! She and her madre made delicious Spanish food.. and the cake and ice cream were pretty incredible.
Today was a little more exciting. Chelsea, Hannah, and I went on a walk around 3pm to the oceanfront (in front of the Cathedral). There was obviously a storm blowing in, because the waves were incredible!! I have never seen such beautiful waves. They would crash on the rocks and lightly mist us. We watched waves for at least an hour, until the sun was covered by clouds and it got crazy windy and cold super fast. That was probably one of my most favorite things I have done here so far. After that, we went to C'an Juan d'Saigo for treats. I had cava (champagne) flavored ice cream. It was delicious, but it reminded me of Smarties candies. Their almond ice cream is definitely the best I've had there so far. I also must note that we *almost* found it without having to ask for directions. We were really close and asked a woman just before we reached it. (We never can find the place. It is so hidden.) We went home and rested before our big dinner tonight. We all rode a bus together to a little town on the outskirts of Palma for a dinner with our program directors. It was Vandy people, HC girls, and some CIEE girls we invited too. One of our directors couldn't make it, so just my grammar teacher was there. Yes, we go to restaurants with our grammar teacher for fun. Anyway, it was awesome, because Vandy and HC basically paid for it all. Well, it probably came out of our tuition somewhere, but it was fun to be able to have a dinner with all my new friends and not pay anything! The food was quite delicious. We had bread with olive oil first, then calamari, then Brittany and I shared paella ciega ("blind paella" aka they take all the bones and heads and tails off). It was so yummy!! We had some delicious sangria also. :) It was also Kendra's birthday, so we had perhaps the best blueberry cheesecake I have ever had. We talked a lot about traveling, and I am so excited to travel!! I am also excited to have people to travel with. I am really getting the traveling bug.. We are thinking of going somewhere next weekend.
One of the best parts of tonight was after dinner. My prof drove the HC girls back, because his car couldn't hold all of us. So we went to the bus stop (around 11:30pm) and the sign said it would be about 45 minutes until the next bus.. and it started raining. So we all huddled under the shelter and talked and played games. We kept watching the countdown on the screen. Suddenly, it jumped from 20 minutes to 3 minutes, and we got so excited! It quickly dropped to 1 then had some arrows flashing like it was about to arrive. We were so happy that it was coming!! We saw it drive over the hill and.... THEN THE DRIVER TURNED ON THE "OUT OF SERVICE" SIGN AND KEPT GOING. Seriously. We were waving and screaming and standing at the stop, and he looked at us and kept going. I could punch that guy. So after standing around looking at each other's "wtf" faces and yelling a little, we headed back to the restaurant to ask them to call a cab. We had to get 2 cabs, because there were 6 of us. They arrived shortly after and we headed home.. I am so thankful for taxis. We were going to go out, and I think a few people might have, but most of us headed home. I hate walking around after dark by myself, so that is mostly why I didn't want to go. Plus, I am 100% going out tomorrow and Saturday, and that would be too much going out for me haha.
Again, I don't know what to do tomorrow. I don't know if I should walk down to the ocean again or ride the bus to the beach or read or sleep or what. I need something to do here! I want to work for families by teaching English to their children, but I haven't found any yet. So far tomorrow, I plan to sleep in (since it is already 2am here), eat, and figure out what to do for the rest of the day. Exciting life, huh?
I have been thinking seriously about what I want to do after I graduate. My mind is so muddled with thoughts that I don't even know where to begin. I'm not even sure where I want to live anymore. I want to live everywhere and do everything. One thing that I never thought about doing before now is to teach English in Spain to children. I think that would be so cool! ..but then again, I don't know. Maybe I want to work for Microsoft.. or be a professor in London.. or do some other work in Spain. I guess I am meant to attempt to figure these things out while here. Right now, they're just bothering me.

Buenas noches,
Lynne

Monday & Tuesday: Real School!

The past few days have been exciting yet boring. I finally started my actual classes for the semester.. well, some of them. I am taking two more with Vanderbilt & Holy Cross students only that don't begin until next week. Even then, I will only have classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I sort of love school here. Mondays will be pretty tough going from 9:30-3 then 5-6:30, but I am still getting a great deal by not having class for 2 days a week!
Anyway, I had the same 2 classes yesterday and today. Of course, the profs were super late, which is quite annoying when you're on time. They were also super boring. Today was better than yesterday, but it was still uninteresting. I feel like my classes at Vandy are never that boring. There is no homework.. like, ever. I don't understand how class works. Also, no one even goes to class. In one class, I have a group project, an indiviual project, and a final.. all due at the end of the semester. In the other class, I only have a final. And literally, no homework. How does school even function here? I guess I am about to find out.
Last night, Chelsea, Hannah, and I went to get churros at Rosaleda. After about an hour of looking filled with directions to a flower store and Google Maps fails, we found it! Yum. We had invited a bunch of people to go, and only the three of us could last night. So, tonight, we went again with more people! It was fun, even though it was raining ridiculously hard today and tonight. Afterward, we walked around in the rain and chatted for a while, taking cover in plaza mayor. I love just walking around and talking with friends.
Time for bed so I can rest up to do nothing for the next 5 days!!!
Love and miss you all back home.
~Lynne

Weekend

These past few days have been so busy!! On Friday, Hannah and I went to Ses Illetes beach again. Who wouldn't want to spend their day in paradise? We walked around for a while during the afternoon to kill time and enjoy the sunshine. We were planning on going out after dinner, but all 3 of decided we would rather go to sleep. I know, so exciting, right?
Saturday, my Vandy friends went on a hike to a castle for the entire day. It sounded awesome, but I just don't think I could physically do that yet. I need to walk around the city to get more acclimated to all this walking! So, I did something I wouldn't usually do back home. I messaged a girl that I met on the train last week to see what she was up to. (this act was way more outgoing than I usually am.. it surprised me a bit) She invited me to go to the nearby beach with some of the other people in her program during the afternoon. Of course I gladly accepted. We walked down there and ended up meeting up with other people that they knew from another program at UIB that hosts students from all over the world. Well, mostly, Chelsea and I just watched them do things since we both are taking the laid-back Spanish lifestyle to heart. It got a little chilly, so we decided to go shopping. We went to a bunch of stores and eventually headed home for dinner and agreed to make plans to go out later. I was so excited for this! I haven't gone out here at all, except for that one time drinking cava in front of the cathedral, but there were only 3 of us then. After a brief nap and a Skype date, I headed to meet them at 11:30pm to start our festivities. There were about 7 of us in the group, and I knew most of the people (and actually really like them.. shocking, right?) from earlier on the beach, except for one other international student from Sweden. We went to the little store where I usually buy kinder eggs to get some cheap alcohol to start the night with. I got a 5 euro bottle of wine which was decent for being so cheap. There was some party on the street I live on that everyone wanted to go to, so we headed that way. We walked for a long time to find the party, and when we got there, we sat outside on a step and drank. I thought it was pretty funny that we were searching for this place, and when we finally found it, we didn't even go in immediately haha. So we sat outside and drank a moderate amount of alcohol. It's so weird that you can drink on the streets here and no one cares. I was pretty much done drinking at that point, as I was at a comfortable level. We went inside the party for maybe 20 minutes. We had no idea what was going on, because it was like a single/not single party, and everyone had a number. It was weird. Well, then Shaka, the Swedish guy, decided to buy us all shots of tequila. This is when my night began to get crazy. I was fine at first, but I will never drink liquor again. We took a taxi down to paseo (where all the clubs are) because it was too far to walk. We went into some bar there and danced for a long time. [Sidenote: Shaka's phone rang, and his ringtone is MMMbop. I laughed for so long and explained to him how they are my favorite band and told him to listen to their new cd. best thing ever.] I was okay until Shaka bought this giant mystery drink with a billion straws. I can't say that I remember much after having a few sips from that drink. Let's just say I will only be having a beer or two or a glass of wine or two from now on when we go out haha. I learned my lesson.
Today, I pretty much slept the whole day and ate a lot of food and drank a lot of water.
Real classes start tomorrow! I am excited [nerd]. I have some weird class that I'm not even sure what it's about called intro to the study of Spanish lexicography, but it's with my program director so it's okay. :) Then I have Women & Literature with about 5 other American students that I know haha. This week, I only have classes on Monday and Tuesday.. what the heck. (Lots of beach time for me!!!) Normally, I will only have classes Monday, Tuesday, and one on Thursday afternoon. I could get used to this. :)
Even though I slept pretty much all day, I am tired.
Goodnight, world.
-Lynne

Wednesday & Thursday

The highlight of yesterday was our journey to our favorite hot chocolate cafe. We had been there two times before, yet it still took us at least 30 minutes of walking, at least 30 minutes of me searching on Google Maps, and asking about 5 people where this place was. At one point, we stopped in this really cool, old bookstore. The owner was British, and I couldn't understand anything he said. Apparently he asked me a couple of things while we were in the store, but I just stared blankly in confusion. I thought he was speaking Spanish or was a Spanish-speaker trying to speak English, until I heard his English accent as we were leaving. I am so horrible at understanding people with accents, and I don't know why. It is quite annoying, but I guess the only thing that will help is to listen to more people with accents, which I have been doing quite a bit of recently! We were totally clueless as to where this little gem was. We finally found it after wandering down many sketch roads, and it was totally worth it. I splurged and got an ensaimada (which I found out is made from pig fat and that is why it is unique) and hot chocolate. Best day ever. Okay, maybe not, but it was incredibly tasty. We also realized that the cafe is older than the United States, as it was founded in 1700. Crazy, huh? As usual, it took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to divide the check and pay for everything, but we finally figured it out. After that, we went to my favorite store, El Corte Ingles, to.. I don't know why we went, but we did. We walked around and looked, but I didn't buy anything. I love that store so much. It is like a cross between Macy's and Target and Publix. It is about 6 or 7 floors, with a cafeteria on the top floor and a supermarket (that is incredible) in the basement. They have absolutely everything. They even have bare minerals makeup!! Anyway, that store is like my Target here. I go there to buy everything I need.
Today was productive, partially. Classes weren't very productive, though I have realized I can understand quite a bit of Catalan now, which I wasn't expecting to be able to do so quickly. After lunch, Hannah came over to mi casa, and we researched hotels and flights for our grand Easter break (Semana Santa) adventure. Carmen brought us hot chocolate (made with Nesquick) and little muffins in my room where we were researching. She is so cute. Since Spain is so very Catholic, we get one and a half weeks off school! So, Thursday through Easter Sunday, Hannah and I are going to Sevilla, Spain. They have some of the best, most world-renowned Easter/Semana Santa celebrations in the world. We are so excited!!! Masses upon masses of people flood the streets to celebrate Jesus with parades and all sorts of things. It looks amazing. On Easter Sunday, we are flying to Paris!!! I think Amit and Emma are going to meet us there also. I also cannot wait for Paris, as I've always wanted to go there (and everywhere else...). On Wednesday, we are going to... DUBLIN!!! I think I am most excited for Dublin, and it is also the cheapest, which is incredible. I am going to need like 10 memory cards for all the photos I'm going to take. We have been looking at hotels, hostels, and apartments to rent during our travels. I cannot believe how cheap everything is compared to the U.S. It is insane. This is going to be one of those trips I remember every detail of for the rest of my life.
I also got a box from my aunt my mom today! I am so happy that it arrived. I had to leave some things behind that wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so this box reunited me with things I had been missing like my favorite scarves, teddy bear, and brown boots. I cannot thank them enough for sending that box to me!
I just got done eating Thursday family dinner. We had some really strange meat. They said it was turkey and cheese, but I don't believe them. It was the weirdest textured meat I've ever had, but it had good flavors so I dealt with it. We also had potatoes cooked in olive oil. I love olive oil. I think I've had at least one entire bottle of it in the past 2.5 weeks. We also had some delicious cake called coca. Half of it had peaches on it, and the other half sobrassada, which is something I have yet to try. They put spicy sausage on a sweet pastry and cover it in powdered sugar. Around Carnaval time, they put that sausage stuff on all of their sweets, like one last indulgence before Lent starts. I am having a hard time bringing myself to try it, especially since I researched the sobrassada and know what it is and how they make it (let's just say it's homemade pork sausage that is not cooked, but instead cured by putting it in sausage casing and letting it age, oh and putting salt and pepper on the ends so insects don't get stuck in it.. sounds delicious, right?). I will try it one day, but not on a pastry. In the sausage casing it looks like raw meat, and they cut off a piece of it and smear it on bread like meat paste.. I don't know if I will ever try it.  For some reason, I am super tired tonight. They were laughing at me at dinner, because I looked so sleepy.
I think we might go to the beach tomorrow and maybe some caves in a different part of Mallorca on Saturday. I love living on this island!

Buenas noches!
~Lynne

Tuesday

I had my lovely, always exciting classes this morning. For the second one, it was kind of weird, because 2 of the 4 of us had real classes so there were just 2 of us in the class. We read some really difficult article and listened to more than a few tangents.
We went to see the movie Tangled in Spanish tonight! It was super cute. I enjoyed it, especially because I understood almost everything they said. I really liked the scenery in the movie. It reminded me of some areas in World of Warcraft (gah I miss playing that game). The theater is so cute. The chairs are red and quite comfortable too. Carmen said it opened when she was a little girl, so it is about 50 years old. I love small, local businesses like that. It is also so cheap! It is about 5 euros (about $7) with a 50c discount on Mondays and Tuesdays. I will definitely go back. :)
I am going to bed early tonight so I can sleep a lot, because I got too distracted by videos and random blogs last night and did not get much sleep.
Sidenote, I love cream of pumpkin soup, chicken cooked in olive oil, and fresh mushrooms cooked with garlic and cilantro. :)

~Lynne

My Third Monday in Palma (What???)

I can't believe it has been a little more than 2 weeks here already! I thought time flew by fast at Vandy...
I had my wonderfully entertaining (not) classes today. School here is so weird.
1. You can miss class and no one cares. (I will be missing one hour of one of my classes every week, because my prof recommended it and approved it.)
2. There are no set deadlines for anything (Today, a prof that I only have class with two more times.. ever.. said we have a 4 page paper to do. I thought it would be due this week, but he said sometime at the end of February or beginning of March, or even later. And it can be on a short story, book, or poem that we have already read.. what??)
3. No one is ever on time. (Every day, my profs are at least 10-15 minutes late. They usually let out on time, though. I take the 9:15am train every morning [my classes start at 9:30am] and get to my classroom around 9:37ish and am still there before my profs.)
4. There is only one test for most classes. If you don't do well, you can retake it.
Life here is soooo laid back. It's going to be so hard to go back to stressful Vandy... hopefully being a senior and only needing a few more "real" classes to graduate will equate to a more Palma-like lifestyle.
I don't really have much else to write about today. I have a lot of grammar homework to do plus 3 other short readings and a one page written essay. Yes, I have started it (just barely), but I definitely need to hurry up if I want to finish before midnight to get lots of sleep.

Buenas noches!
-Lynne

The missing pieces to Palma's near perfection

I think that Palma and Mallorca in general is almost perfect. It is only missing a few things that would complete its perfection.

~Lots of people that I love
~Ginger and Astra (my dog and cat)
~Pueblo Real
~Sweet Cece's
~My Xbox 360
~Hanson playing here every weekend


P.S. I had homemade paella today. It was amazing and definitely much better than what we had the other night! It had fresh peeled shrimp, beef (?) chunks, lots of fresh veggies, and rice. Yummmmm.

Friday, Saturday, & Sunday

The past few days have been great! I can't believe I have been here for 2 weeks already. I can already tell a huge difference in my Spanish skills, which I am so excited about!
On Friday, I had classes (they lied when they said we wouldn't have classes on Fridays, but hopefully this is a one time occurrence).  After lunch, we went walking around to find the supposed best churros in Mallorca. We found it, but of course it was closed (all the businesses have the weirdest hours ever, and usually they are not posted anywhere). So, we walked down through the cathedral gardens and walked for a mile or so along the sidewalk close to the sea. We found a little beach down there and watched the sunset while picking up seashells. Perfect. I only took a few pictures with my camera that's not very good, because I didn't have my nice camera with me. When we went back to Rosaleda, it was open! The line was so long for a table, but we got one after about 20 minutes. We ordered their hot chocolate and churros which were incredible! The place is called Rosaleda Churreria. You have to dip the churros in the chocolate for the best experience. I can't wait to go back. After all that deliciousness, we decided to go try tapas somewhere. The place we wanted to go was incredibly packed, so we walked around for a while to find another place (and to work off some churros). We found a decent-looking place that had a few natives in it, so we decided to try it. I got some cava (which is ridiculously cheap here.. 3 euros for a glass!) and the other two got drinks as well. We ordered a paella with peeled shrimp and mussels and an appetizer sampler. I didn't really like the food that much. The rice in the paella reminded me of take-out Chinese food, but the shrimp in it was good. The appetizers were really weird including some type of cold potato salad, some squid in a red sauce, meatballs, potatoes and beef, and some bread. I wasn't a huge fan of any of that, so I don't think we will be going back.
After dinner, we wanted to see what this "hacer bolletón" thing was all about. One of our profs told us that on the weekend, all the people our age buy bottles of alcohol and go sit on the path by the sea since drinks in clubs are so expensive. We found some random cafe/bar and got a bottle of cava (7 euro.. so cheap) and plastic cups (the guy offered them to us. he knew what was up) and headed down by the cathedral. We realized it was only 10ish which is really early there since they don't go out until at least midnight. So we sat and looked at the cathedral and drank the bottle for an hour or so. Then we decided to go back and get another bottle and try to find the other people. We walked around and never found them (but someone from Holy Cross told us where to go next time), so we just sat by the ocean and drank the other bottle. We had to go into McDonald's to use the restroom since it is the only place with a free, public restroom. I cannot even believe the McDonald's here. It is like a nice, legit restaurant. The food is about 3x the price, and the building is so cool. I am tempted to try it here to see if the quality is better, but I just can't bring myself to ever eat there again for the rest of my life. We went home kind of early (compared to how late they stay out here), and slept a lot.
On Saturday, we went to Ses Illetes beach. It is about a 25 minute bus ride from Palma and costs about $2. That was the first day I have spent at the beach in at least 5 years, definitely more, maybe even 7 or 8. Anyway, it is paradise. It is the little secluded inlet with lots of beautiful trees and rocks and crystal clear, blue water. It was so incredible. I stood in the water up to my ankles, but it was incredibly cold. Some people were actually swimming out in it, and I don't know how they did that. We took a bunch of food including cheese, 3 baguettes, tons of fruit, water, and a bottle of cava. We had so much food and loved it. We took tons of photos (which you can find by clicking on the sidebar and going to my flickr page) and just enjoyed the day. I felt so happy all day. Vitamin D really does make a difference. I didn't get sunburned either, yay! It was so relaxing just listening to the waves crash against the beach and the rocks and just feeling the sun on me (and knowing it wasn't burning me). I am pretty sure that I am going to need to live near a beach with sun for most of my life. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington are looking like good prospects. After yesterday, I really don't want to spend my life so far away from something I love so much. Just knowing how relaxing and healthy I felt at the beach makes me want to spend many of my days there. You only live once.
Today, I am just being lazy. Nothing is open on Sundays, so there's really nothing to do. I have a little homework to do and need to shower. Other than that, I'll probably watch some tv shows on my computer and read a little bit. I definitely caught up on my sleep last night after taking a nap from 5pm-10pm then sleeping from 4am-11am. I love weekends. We are also planning our spring break trip to... Paris! I think we are going Monday-Friday April 25-29, and I am thinking about heading to Nice/Monte Carlo/Monaco for the following Friday and Saturday by myself (because I love traveling by myself). I found this amazing website that has apartments you can rent all over Europe for super cheap, usually cheaper than hotels. I am definitely not going to stay in hostels by myself, so this website is perfect. I am having a hard time choosing where I want to go, and I can't really plan it yet because I don't know my full class schedule. Right now, I only have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays beginning on 2-14, but I have 2 other classes I will be taking that I don't know when they meet. I am crossing my fingers that I don't have class on Friday (or Thursday either). So far, the places that look the cheapest and best to go this semester are Paris, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Athens, Berlin, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, and Florence. That seems like a lot, but I am going to be here for a long time with many long weekends, so I think it is doable at a pretty reasonable cost. I have found some websites with incredibly cheap flights and places to stay. I want to go to mostly English-speaking countries or very large cities that cater to English-speakers especially if I go on my own, because that would be slightly terrifying to be in a place and not know what anything meant. Anyway, I will probably do more researching about traveling today since there's nothing else to do! I would love to walk around since the weather is perpetually beautiful, but my legs are soooo sore. I think I'm just going to lounge today.
Love and miss you all!

-Lynne

Wednesday & Thursday

Yesterday was fairly boring. Nothing special really happened. I went to my classes, and then afterward, we walked around Palma in search of the office to get a card for discounted rates on the bus. Of course when we found it, it was closed. I am starting to learn my way around, though (with a little help from the Google Maps app on my phone). Hannah and I went to El Corte Ingles to look at shoes. Of course the ones I wanted were ridiculously expensive, so I passed. I had some really good chickpea and veggie soup that is my second favorite only to the pumpkin cream soup and salmon. I also got 9 hours of sleep, which made me so very happy!
Today was pretty boring too. I went to classes which I enjoyed today. We talked about cultural things, and I also feel like I learned a lot of verb tenses. Lunch was amazing. It was "pollo rocquefort" (idk how to spell that) which was grilled chicken with a bleu cheese (but I couldn't really taste the typical bleu cheese flavor which was weird), cream, and pepper sauce.. it was so delicious. It was like Mexican + Indian food. The most notable part of today, aside from finally finding some reasonably priced black boots, was meeting some other American students on the train this morning. I rode the train alone today and had some homework to finish on the way to class. I first noticed a girl wearing TOMS shoes. Then I realized they were speaking English. So I quickly finished up my homework and went to sit with them to talk for a few minutes before we got to school. I found out they are with the CIEE program here, which is a bit different than ours. But I am so happy to have met more people here! I want to know everyone. Then after classes, I saw them at the train station which was funny. I keep running into the other Americans here, because we all use the same train station. Palma has a fair amount of people, and I am always surprised when I see someone I know. I also got a Spanish phone today with Yoigo (weird carrier name, I know), which I am excited about. The phone is pretty bad, but I am happy to be saving my family some money when I can. Another thing I did today (it was a productive day) was get my bus discount card, which was ridiculously hard. Imagine going to a government office in a foreign country and trying to understand a lady at a computer asking you questions. Hannah, Amit, and I did not know a certain word that she kept asking us, so it was pretty confusing until Hannah looked it up in the dictionary. Finally, we got our cards after we (partially) crossed the language barrier. I took my broken boot to a shoe repair place, and he said no one around here will fix the entire zipper so that is why I purchased some new ones. I will have to find a place to fix it this summer.
Tonight, we had another family dinner. This one was more fun, because I understood more of what they talked about. I also tried some Mallorcan food that was pretty good. They call it "pambolí" (idk how to spell it), and you make it like this: take a piece of bread, cut a Mallorcan tomato in half, rub the tomato juices and innards onto the bread, add salt if you wish, add lots of olive oil, add various types of meats including jamón serrano (typical Spanish ham cured with salt) and jamón york (they said it is "sweet". it is typical American sandwich ham, but better), and a slice of delicious cheese. You make it yourself so you control how much you want on it. She told me I probably wouldn't like it, so she gave me a giant salad to start the meal. I don't know why she thought I wouldn't like it. It doesn't have a very strong or different flavor. It is just like a sandwich with different things on it and without a top. It wasn't the best thing I have had, because I didn't think it was incredibly special, but I definitely liked it. Her grandson just got back from a boat in Norway (?????) so that was why we had a special dinner tonight. Then they debated about Catalan and why the Balearic Islands are classified as a Catalan speaking part of the world when they speak Mallorquin.
Anyway, time for bed.

Buenas noches!
-Lynne

Tuesday

Today wasn't that exciting. I went to classes which were quite boring. After school, I went home and ate a lot of food including a pumpkin and squash soup which was incredible (for those of you who know me well, pumpkin is one of my favorite things in the world)!!! I have been sneezing all day so hoping that doesn't turn into something nasty. I have been eating lots of fruit and taking extra vitamin C. After lunch, Hannah, Amit, and I went on a walk for a long time. We were looking for a used book store, which we eventually found after visiting what seemed like 5 other book stores scattered around the city. The store was so cool! Typical old-fashioned bookstore, crammed full of old books. I want to have a room in my future home that looks like this bookstore. I will definitely be going back there. I found an old Hanson book (in Spanish) from 1998. I saw a large display of old-ish books that were about Aqua, BSB, Spice Girls, etc. and I just knew there had to be one about Hanson.. well I was right! I found it after a little searching and bought it. I had never seen this book before, so I think it might be an exclusively Spanish book. I never thought I would find some random old book about Hanson in a Spanish bookstore, but I did and I love it! We went down a street we had never been down before, but with the help of Google Maps on my phone, we found our way back fairly easily. We also found a really cool health food store that is like a mini Whole Foods. I wanted to get some krill oil capsules, but it was (not even joking) 59.99 euros for a small bottle!!! I still don't understand that. Needless to say, I did not buy any. I don't have any homework due tomorrow, so I am going to sleep soon.
This deserves its own paragraph. My shower works and gets so hot that it burns me. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!! I can finally take a hot shower. :)
Also, my mom and aunt Karen have booked flights to visit Palma in March. I can't wait for them to come here!!
Off to catch some zzzzz's,
Lynne