Mommy and Me

It’s almost been two weeks already since I had to say bye to my mom :(   She took advantage of her thanksgiving break and visited me here in Palma!  (I know, I know Im spoiled for having such an amazing mom, but you don’t even know the half of it!)  Not only did she show up with an extra full sized suitcase filled with my winter clothes and other goodies that I requested, but during her week here she insisted on taking me shopping and forced me (yes I resisted for a whole 2 minutes) to buy an amazing pair of black leather boots.

But besides for being muy mimada, mom and I really did have a great time together.  Her first day here we took an old wooden train out to the town of Soller, and enjoyed the picturesque views of the mountain villages and the marina. 

The next three days I brought her to work with me and incorporated her into my lesson plan.  I had my older students practice talking about likes and dislikes in the past, present and future, so they bombared Mom with questions about things that she liked when she was little, things that she likes to do now, and what she would like to do in the future.  Mom was really a great sport, especially since most of the questions had to do with Spanish food that she had never tried (ie. “Do you like pa amb oli???”).   Since my younger students can't understand whole sentences in english yet, we drew family trees and learned the members of the family--ie) hermana is sister.

These pictures are taken from a cliff that is about a five minute walk away from the school.

Rather than take my mom to boring museums or monuments I tried my hardest to introduce her to the very best of what Spain has to offer—the desserts, coffee, wine and tapas!   From the time we woke up till about 930 at night we fueled our bodies for hours of walking with at least three cups of coffee and an array of pasteries like ensaimadas (a light round crossiant like dessert that is dusted with powder, and achieves its signature puffiness with the help of a whole lot of pork lard, which I didn’t tell my mom until her last day here).

Check out exhibit A, B, and C of Mom enjoying the cafe con leche...

For thanksgiving Mom and I went to Barcelona and tried to see as much as the city as we could in a day and a half (due to our haste we forgot to take pics! But just trust that we were indeed there and had a great time).  We went to the Picasso Museum, which I highly recommend if you ever make the trip to Barcelona, the Santa Maria Church, the Cathedral (although I still think that Palma’s Cathedral is way better!), Barcelona’s huge outdoor market, and Las Ramblas.

Mom, thank you for an amazing visit!  Te echo de menos!!!

Motorcycle Diaries

I have to admit, when I was invited to go on a day trip “por moto” (or scooters as we typically refer to them in the US (although I think moto sounds way cooler)) I exuberantly accepted, but never actually thought people would follow through with it. To my surprise/delight this past Saturday I joined a group of 12 people for a cruise up into the mountains and to the beautiful Valldemosa (which is a village I mentioned a bit in a previous blog post). Since our route was along the water we enjoyed some of the most breathtaking views that Mallorca has to offer. I shared a scooter with my friend David, and was able to take a ton of photos from the back seat. The entire trip took about seven hours, but that included stops for lunch and coffee...keep in mind that Spanish lunch is typically at least 2 hours. When we returned to Palma we decided to ride around a parking lot to give all of the people who were on the backs of the scooters the chance to drive them (ie me and a couple of other girls). My first time driving the scooter went something like this…


Revved up the engine and pulled down the handle for the gas.

Scooter takes off...

I make it about 2 feet before I lose control of the scooter.

Instead of braking I pull even further down on the gas.

The scooter spins out from under me, I jump off, and it smashes on the ground.

All the while the engine is still going and oil gets all over the side of the scooter.


Umm yeah so I definitely needed a little bit of practice, but right after that exciting event I hopped back on and tried again. Thankfully I quickly figured out how to use the brakes and then everything was smooth cruising.

Here are some pictures of our first pit stop on the way to Valldemosa...

The following pictures are taken from up in the mountains.  We stopped at this cliff that had views which I can't even describe...you'll just have to look at the pics and see for yourself  :)

And we finally made it to Valldemosa!!!

And these are some pictures that I took from the road...

Halloween

Although I couldn’t be happier that my favorite holiday is celebrated in Spain, Halloween here still does not compare to the festivities that I’ve grown up with in the United States.  Don’t get me wrong, I mean Spanish people definitely know how to party and have a good time, but when it comes to Halloween, a lot of the traditions that are extremely popular in the United States –ie haunted houses, watching scarey movies, haunted hay rides—haven’t made their way to Spain.  Egg throwing, however, is an activity that a lot of the teenagers take part in (I asked my students to avoid egging my apartment, and gladly they did).  Another fully embraced Halloween custom is getting dressed up in revealing costumes.  As in the United States, many girls here use Halloween as an excuse to be a slutty witch, or a sluttly angel, or a slutty devil.  I have to admit that I too was not orginal with my costume this year and was a dark angel (and yes a slightly sluttly one).  Check out the pics! 

"Me llamo Queso!"

Recently I have been accused (by my friend Ian) of: 1) ether having nothing to blog about….or 2) Having so many things to blog about that I don’t have time to blog. Fortunately for me I would have to agree with choice number 2. For example, over this weekend I was visited by Hannah Singer—my friend from Brown and one of the coolest people I know.
Hannah arrived in Palma—from Ireland where she is studying this semester—on Thursday night at 1am. Feeling pressure to show her the highlights of Palma in two days, we were sure not to waste any time on stupid things like sleep or sitting down to eat at a restaurant. Instead we took advantage of Palma’s amazing cafes and had various combinations of coffee, pastries, chocolate, and ice cream. I also introduced Hannah to Spain’s large selection of 1-2 euro bottles of wine, and tapas with cheese, bread and tomato…Hannah loved this so much that upon one bite of pa amb oli she exclaimed to my friends “Me amo queso!” This slight error to what should have been “Yo amo queso!” or “I love cheese” sounded more like “Me llamo queso!” or “My name is cheese!”, which resulted in Hannah being called “cheese” for the rest of the night (mostly by me! lol, I love you Hannah!). But even despite the occasional teasing, Hannah was a great sport and was up for doing practically anything that people “typically” do during the weekend here in Palma. Needless to say my friends and I took Hannah to a party on Friday night until 4am and then the next night we left the clubs at 5:30am and sent her straight to the airport to make her 7am flight.
Below are some pictures from a picnic that Hannah and I had on the beach!