Christmas and Vacation

I am the world's biggest slacker. Sorry I've taken such a hiatus from writing. Yeah, a "hiatus", that's it! Anyway, we've just celebrated our first Christmas away from home, and though it was different, it was good nonetheless. I'll start with my schools' pageants. For weeks, each school prepared songs, acts, and other goodies to be performed by each grade. There were some days were I didn't even teach because the whole class period was devoted to the preparations. Anyway, they did well. Little kids singing is always cute (even if it's in Catalan and you can't understand what they're saying!) and older kids singing is always funny. Here, they don't really have Santa Claus, or "Papa Noel." Instead they are given gifts by The Three Kings (wise men). So, instead of leaving cookies and milk out, they leave carrots (for the camels) and shots of whiskey (for the Kings)! Another thing I found interesting is that during the pageant, the kids would dress us as the Three Kings, but one would always be in Blackface. It was a bit shocking at first, but I guess it's just a different culture and history. On the last day of classes I celebrated with the teachers at each of my schools. I went to Corpus Cristi first. We all gathered together and exchanged a Secret Santa. Here, they call it "Amigo Invisible" which literally means "invisible friend." I got a really nice scarf, and gave a bag of "Luz de Luna" tea and a nice mug. As soon as we were done exchanging gifts I hurried over to where the other school was having their party (of course they scheduled them for the same day, around the same time). I got to the restaurant a half hour late, but they had only just begun eating their salads (sometimes the long meals can work in your favor I guess). We had traditional paella with shrimp and mussels, and then paella negro, which is made with squid. It is cooked with some of the ink from the squid, thus "black paella" and it is DELICIOUS. I loved it. Dessert was equally delicious. And, oh! so much wine and champagne. We also traded Secret Santa gifts. I gave a 4 gig flashdrive to the technology teacher (he like it a lot, his other one is only 1 gig). I received a bottle of really nice Mallorcan white wine with a bag of roasted almonds to eat with it. It was really pleasant, and the teachers are opening up a bit (I imagine that I am too). They were all impressed when I wished them a "merry Christmas and a happy new year" in Catalan. 

Christmas was nice as well. We all wish we could have been home, but know we were thinking about y'all! It was really nice talking to some of you. Anyway, we woke up and exchanged gifts. Nikki bought me a really nice sweater and I got her a coat. The rest of the day was rather relaxing. That evening we ate a big dinner. For appetizers we had deviled eggs and homemade spinach and cheese dip. For the main courses we had a roast, veggie lasagna, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes (with garlic, green onions, and a local cheese), and gravy. For dessert we had homemade banana nut bread. It was amazing. We miss y'all! Nikki and I are off to Zurich this evening. We'll be there for a few days, then on the 30th we'll take a train over to Paris and stay there until the 4th. We'll fly from Paris to Frankfurt where we'll have an afternoon, and then return to Palma that evening. So, visiting 3 countries in 10 days seems pretty sweet! We'll take lots of pictures and (try to) update the blog as we go! 

No Longer a Tourist

Hooooola!
Long time, no write, I know. I keep trying to get Joseph to write a blog, but he refuses. Men! :)
I haven't written mainly because I've been busy and distracted, but also because all the day to day things don't seem so worthy of telling anymore. Every little thing is no longer new and exciting. I no longer feel like a tourist, I feel like I actually live here. We are regulars at cafes where the waitress knows our orders without even asking. We know which days to go to the market for cheap mushrooms, and which grocery store has a better cereal selection. It's kind of nice.
All recent events seem somewhat of a blur now, but here are some of the highlights.
- Jessica had a friend from home come visit. It was nice. We drank a lot and pushed her in a shopping card down Calle Olms.
- We got a new roommate! Stephen (another teaching assistant from LA) moved into our small office sized room. This now means that of the 40 Americans doing this program in the Balearic Islands, 6 of them live in this apartment.
- Stephen, Andy, Jess and I all took a day trip to Valdamossa. Another small beautiful town on the out-skirts of Palma. We found our dream house. Apparently Michael Douglas (a famous actor) apparently has a house there, maybe it was his?
- One of my second graders broke out a surprising level of English and serenaded me with an adorable rendition of "Killing Me Softly."
- It is freezing here. Ok, not really, but a lot colder and rainier than I expected/wanted it to be (avg high 55-60). And apparently a lot colder/rainier than Mallorcians are used to. Oh, and our apartment has no heat. Not that that's anything new in my life, but it doesn't make me like it any better.
- In fact, in a recent storm, Jessica was struck by lightening! Ok, not full-blown lightening. Just one of the little "feeler" lightening. Enough to make her umbrella spark. No worries, she is ok!
- I have at least one more tutoring gig lined up for next semester. And a possible four more in the works! Yay extra money!!
- Joseph finally bought a new pair of shoes! But then the "perfect storm" occurred. Which included a) new rubbery soled shoes b) lots of rain c) a bit of alcohol. The result? Joseph falling on his butt 8 times on the way home. It was somewhere between amusing and painful to watch.
- We currently have 3 Couch Surfers (ie random college-aged kids) from Iowa staying with us for a few days. So far they seem really great! After that we have Dan (a friend from UGA) coming to visit for a few days, and THEN....
- We are off to Zurich!! We will spend a few days there, then take the train to Paris, where we will spend New Years. I am super excited!!

Well everyone just came home, so now I am too distracted to write. I think we are going to make a giant Chicken/Rabbit Paella for our guests! What is Paella? Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

Hope everyone is having a good winter! Miss and love you all!!!
Luego!!

PS: If you want a postcard, make sure we have your address!!!!

A Good Weekend

We had a great weekend! Our friend April, who is from GA but currently study abroad in Salamanca, Spain, flew in for the weekend. It was nice to get to show someone around OUR town. On Saturday we took the half hour bus ride out to Soller, a small town in the mountains north of Palma. Joe and I had never been there before, and it was BEAUTIFUL! A charming little old town (pictures to come soon!) We found a secondhand shop run by an older man from CA, he has been living here 16 years! After looking around the market (because, of course, every town has a Saturday market) we decided to make the about 2.5 mile walk to Fornalutx, an even smaller and MORE beautiful town than Soller! And the walk was amazingly scenic. Mountains, valleys, farms, sheep, tons of orange trees. It was a wonderful adventure!

Oh yeah, and I Friday I went on a field trip with my 6th graders. They called it a farm, but it was more like a farm/dude ranch/adventure camp/park. There was a pool (but of course it was far too cold) horses (but the children didn't get to ride them, though I'm not sure why) animals (pigs, goats, chickens, the usual), a petting zoo, a garden, a ropes course with a zip line, a rock climbing wall, an obstacle course, and a "paddle" court (which, from what I can tell, is kind of like a mix between tennis and racquetball). The kids had a great time playing and exploring while the teachers got to do pretty much whatever we wanted. We sat around and watched TV, played Parcheesi, ate free snacks, and went for a nice bike ride through the scenic country side! It was a nice, relaxing day.

We also found a used bookstore in town, with all of the books in ENGLISH! It's great! It's kind of book-nook-esque. The prices are what I would normally consider high for used books, but after looking at the prices of trying to buy new English books here, or the shopping costs of ordering books on line, it seems a lot more reasonable.

In other news, here are some interesting observations/tid-bits about Spain:
- All cars stop for pedestrians. It's amazing. You hardly need to pause at cross walks because you know the cars are going to stop for you.
- They don't have coffee like we have coffee. The closest thing you can get is a shot of espresso with a lot of milk.
- They are great about recycling here. There are recycling bins right next to all of the dumpsters. So as long as you separate your trash at home, it's just as easy to recycle as it is to throw it in the trash.
- They are also very energy efficient. Most lights, like in bathrooms at restaurants, or stairwells in the apartment buildings are on timers. So they automatically turn themselves off a set time after the button is pressed.
- Dogs are allowed pretty much everywhere. Stores, restaurants, you name it.
- The cider here is nothing like British cider.
- They don't have sweet potatoes here.
- The things that look like giant shutters on the front of buildings are actually doors. Once you open the shutter type doors, then there is a small foyer, then the actual front door. This is so that during the hot summers, they can close the shutters and open the front door to keep the house cool.

I always think of tons of things while I'm out and about, but by the time I get back to my computer, I have forgotten! Maybe I will start writing them down....

Luego!

New Photos

Well, this weekend we were kind of bored and felt that although we have been living here for more than a month, we had not done our duty of snapping as many photos of our new city as possible. So, we spent Sunday walking around unknown streets in Old Town, the historic district of Palma, and photographing to our hearts content. It was so touristy and great!
Check them out here, under "Tourist Day" http://photobucket.com/ourspainadventure

Paychecks, the French and Other Updates

After a lot of confusion and round-about conversations, we finally got paid!! Apparently our program was created by the old government, and the new government here doesn't like it so much. So getting the money out of them has been difficult. Luckily our schools agreed to pay us out of pocket while the government figured it out. Having money is definitely nice, but I'm having trouble accessing mine. There is something wrong with my bank card, so I have to go to the bank tomorrow and figure that out! Luckily I have two tutoring gigs right now (and another one starting next week!) so that keeps me in pocket money.
For those of you who haven't heard, my grandmother, Maw Maw, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer last week. They've given her two weeks to live. I struggled with what to do, but have decided not to fly home. It is too expensive to be practical and I think I'd prefer to keep my pleasant memories rather than seeing her in this state.

Josh (another UGA student doing the program here) had some friends from France come visit last week. I'm not sure how exactly he knows them, but they were really nice. We had a great "botellon" which is where you buy bottles and go sit in a park and drink until your heart is content (there are no open container laws here!) It is much cheaper than going to a bar! Being from France, they spoke very little English and so we conversed in Spanish the whole time. I found it easier to converse with them since they were not native speakers. They spoke more slowly and clearly, and I wasn't as nervous about messing up. My Spanish is slowly getting better. Tomorrow I am meeting with one of the parents from my schools, I didn't understand her exactly, but I think she wants a conversations partner. This way I could help her improve her English and she could help me improve my Spanish. So hopefully that works out well!
The weather here has gotten a little colder. With a high of mid to low 60 during the day. Lots of people here are wearing huge coats, but I am fine with my light jacket during the day. Plus I walk everywhere, so that helps me keep warm!

For Thanksgiving, the American style diner is having a big turkey dinner, so I think we are going to try to join in on that!
I think we've decided on Christmas plans as well. We will spend Christmas eve/day here with the roomies. Then we will fly to Zurich (Switzerland) and spend a few days there. After that we will take a train to France in time to celebrate New Years in Paris! I'm very excited, I can't wait!

School is going well. In some classes I'm just there to pronounce words and help with work sheets, in some classes I deliver the teacher's lesson plans, and in others I get to do whatever activities I can create. So it's a nice range. I think the students here are more or less the same than at home (and definitely better behaved than in England). Some of my roommates say the students here are worse behaved than American students. I don't know if their students are that much different than mine, or if my time actually teaching and working in classrooms at home has given me a different perspective. None of my teachers here have very strong management strategies (most rely on sheer voice volume) so it is difficult to compare. Plus there is just a more relaxed air to the classrooms here that is hard to find (but not unheard of) in the states.

Shipping here is definitely much cheaper than shipping to England! Joseph's family sent him a rather large package (9lbs I think) and it cost about $50. A similar sized package to England cost almost $150!! Also mail appears to take just over a week to arrive.
Also Jessica discovered that shopping on Amazon.co.uk (the British website) ends up being a lot cheaper than the American one. International shipping from the American one is outrageous, so even with the conversion rate, shopping in Pounds is a better deal!

Well I guess that will have to do for now! We are getting ready to head out to a Cider Bar! From the little I've had, Spanish cider is nothing compared to British cider (which I fell in love with while I was there) but I am looking forward to it none the less! Luego!

Pictures!

So after spending the last few hours uploading all of our pictures to Photo Bucket, I've realized that I don't really like it. But I've spent too much time on it to change it now!
I'm not good at taking lots of pictures, but here are the ones I have taken so far!
Go to: www.photobucket.com/ourspainadventure
The front page will be blank!
All of the pictures are in sub-albums. They are listed on the left side of the page, under the heading "Albums".
Click on the sub-album you want to see and enjoy!
The pictures all have titles, to see the full description, click on the picture. Once you have clicked on a picture, it becomes larger and you can see the full discription. From there, there is a little slider bar in the upper right hand corner where you can click to go to the next picture (you have to actually click on the photo you want to enlarge on the slider bar, clicking the arrows only lets you browse to the following pictures).
I hope it works ok! Let me know if there are any problems with it!

We have internet!

Yay! We finally have internet! I can now type to you from the comfort of my living room instead of having to balance my laptop on the windowsill!
Things are going well. I've been teaching Halloween this week which is fun, but a little bit difficult.
Joseph and I went with our friend Stephen (another Language Assistant, from LA) out to Inca, which is the second largest city in Mallorca. It was about 45 minutes away by train. We got to see a lot of the country side, which was nice. They were having a big Sunday market, which was really cool.
Now a bit about Spanish food.
First and foremost, they do not refrigerate their milk. Which is just plain creepy. I dunno how it works, but it does. The milk does not have to be refrigerated until it's opened.
The grocery stores bake bread daily, which is awesome.
When eating out, tomatoes come on everything and olives always come on the side.
Not having a microwave is kind of nice. I feel like I eat a lot more healthy. But cooking with a gas stove and oven have their own set of challenges. It took us about half an our to get the oven lit the first time. And then about 2 weeks to figure out that was the grill setting (which is why everything was coming out burned). We know have the bake setting figured out, but unfortunately it has no temperature setting. In fact it only appears to have 2 settings - on and off.
Fresh fruit and veggies are cheap and easy to come by. Not so much from the grocery store down stairs. But there are tons of little fruit stores everywhere. And there is a big market everyday until 2 right down the street. And on Saturday's it is twice as big and super crowded. But it's nice to have such great access to them.
I have a new found appreciation for seedless grapes. Because they do not exist here.
I am in love with "creme de cocoa con avellana" which is basically like chocolate frosting with hazelnut, only I get the kind that is half regular and half white chocolate, and it is super fantastic. Spread it on some butter cookies and mmmmmmmm.
A really popular mallorcan pastry is "ensamada" and they have it at every cafe and on every desert menu. It's basically just sweet bread in a swirly shape, but they came in all sizes (like pizza sizes) and with lots of different fillings (my favorite is the creme, but I haven't tried the peach yet).
They have this awesome flavor of ice cream here called "stracciatella" which is kinda like vanilla with ribbons of brownie in it - but better! It is sooo good.
The cereal selection isn't nearly as wide here, but they have the knock-off frosted flakes so I'm good.
We'll I guess that'll do for now. We have a three day weekend coming up, and if we get paid in time, we might try to hop over to "the peninsula" (the main land of Spain). But we'll see. Hope everyone is doing great over there!

PS: Don't forget to vote!!

Two in One Day?!

So apparently Joseph and I were writing simultaneous blogs without even realizing it! Since he posted his first, I’ll amend mine to exclude the bank account and Day of the Virgins that he has already covered, but here is everything else!

I know, I know, the updates are few and far between. But we still don’t have internet and there is so much to say, I never know where to start or what to include.
Today’s topic? Work:
I finally just went over to my other school and found my way to the head English teacher. The school, San Francesco (not to be confused with my other school, Sant Francesc d’Assis) is only a 15 minute walk away and it is HUGE, at least 5 stories by my count (well only 4 according to them, because Spaniards don’t count the first floor). It covers every course (so from ages 3 to 18) and has multiple classes of each course (unlike my other school where there is only one class of each). I’m only working in the primary section, which I thought was kind of odd since I think my advanced level of English could be put to better use with the older students, but it’s still great. I work with both 6th grade classes, both 5th grade classes, one 2nd grade, and one 1st grade. I would say my students here know more English than at my other school, but not by much. Unlike my other school, where there is only 1 English teacher, there are several, so the student’s levels also depend on their teachers. Some emphasize reading/writing with others emphasizes speaking, some do activities, so do rote memorization, so it varies. One of the non-English teachers at the school wants to improve her conversational English, so starting this Thursday I will give her a one hour lesson each week. Of course I’m not charging her a lot, but it will be nice to have a little bit of pocket money.
I get to plan some Halloween activities for next week which should be fun! But I’ve been spoiled with technology. There is zero technology in any of my classes. No smart boards, no overhead projectors, not even white boards! Just good old fashion chalk and black boards. So it has definitely taken some re-getting use to. I thought my big school might have at least overhead projectors since apparently it is much harder to get into and a large portion of the student’s parents work in the near by Parliament building, but no such luck.
Ok, that’s all for now!
Luego!

Slackers

Okay, I know we've been slacking lately, but school has kicked into full gear, we're still trying to get basic things like bank accounts and internet etc., so we've been pretty distracted. All apologies. Anyway, we've at least set up our bank accounts, now hopefully the schools and government will figure out how they're going to pay us! What have we been up to since our last post? We've been to a few beaches (it's funny, whenever I tell that to my students, they look at me like I'm crazy because it's so "cold" but in my opinion, it's still great beach weather), we've enjoyed a few parties and bars (to understand the culture of Palma of course), although our adventures are still a bit limited since we haven't been paid. We're hoping to explore a little more of the island this weekend. We've gotten a few recommendations from coworkers. I also start my first tutoring job on Friday! I'll be helping the children of one of my coworkers. So far, it's only for one hour, but maybe I can bump it up to two. Nikki got offered a tutoring position today. While we were signing up for our bank accounts, the clerk was asking us questions. He asked where we were working and, coincidentally, his daughter attends one of Nikki's schools! So by the end, he said he'd email Nikki about possibly tutoring her. What else...Today we celebrated the Festival de Las Virgines. All the men go out at night and serenade the women at night. Then, during the day, they give the ladies clavelas (carnations). The women reward them with buñuelos (fried postres with potatoes in the middle, then sprinkled with powdered sugar). They reminded me of funnel cake or beignets. It was really sweet, the music was good, and the food was delicious. So far, that's all that's really happened. We spend a lot of time living a "European" lifestyle: making delicious meals with fresh food we buy nearly daily, spending time reading and writing in parks and cafes, etc. We live on a main avenue, but only a few blocks from the immigrant neighborhoods, so we have excellent restaurants and markets surrounding us. It's great. I've started writing another script. I hope it turns out well. Hopefully we'll have time to adventure out more with the next few weeks. Once I have more than 30 Euro in the bank. Thanks for the letters! I will try to find some stamps this week too so I can get on writing you back! Well that's all for now I guess. I miss y'all and love you a lot!

Teaching and Such

So we still don't have internet in our flat yet, but if you hang your laptop almost out the window we can get some wifi. So I am typing this now with the hopes that when I hang my computer out the window, it will post!

I had my first day teaching yesterday at San Francesc de Asis. It is a primary school (ages 3-11) with about 200-250 students (only one class of each grade). I lucked out on location. It takes me exactly 5 minutes to get from my flat (on the 5th floor) to the school. I work at this school Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays two hours a day. And the earliest I have to be there is 11:30, which is nice. Most of the students, even the older ones, do not have a very good grasp of English. The younger ones can say "Hello, my name is.." and thats about it. The middles ones can say "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma." And the oldest ones can say, "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma. I like play football." So the English teacher speaks in Catalan (a French influenced dialect of Spanish and the co-official language of the islands) most of the time. The kids are on the poorer side, but nothing compared to some of the schools I have worked in. Tomeu (the English teacher) said that before he came last year, they could speak no English.

 The director of our program told us not to let the students know we speak any Spanish, or they will only try to talk to us in Spanish. But it is very difficult with the little ones who know no English. Besides the English teacher, most of the other teachers don't speak English either. They try to, and we usually end up talking in a Span-glish mix as we both try to understand one another.

I have still yet to hear from my other school, where I assume I am working Thursdays and Fridays. The director of the school I have been going to was nice enough to call them for me to ask about my schedule. They pretty much said, "I have no idea, I will call you back" and they haven't yet. Maybe I should just show up at the school tomorrow? I don't know. But the good news is that the other school is only 15 minutes away, so that is very convenient as well.

Everything else is going pretty good. We had some tiles on the living room floor pop up, so the owner is going to stop by today and look at it. 

Having a super market right down stairs is awesome! It's like having your own giant refrigerator, just 5 flights of stairs away. We've been making group dinners most nights. So we decide what we want for dinner. Go downstairs and buy it, split the cost 5 ways, cook and enjoy!

Everyone says the same thing about the water in Palma, it is safe to drink, but not very good. Luckily the market also sells huge 8 liter jugs of water for only a euro!

Speaking of money, the program still hasn't figured out how they are going to pay us yet. Apparently they can't do it the way they've done in the past because we are not EU citizens. But their attitude is, they have until the end of the month to figure it out, so why worry about it now. I am a little worried, but I'm sure they will figure it out... at least I hope so!!

We also got 3 plants for out terrace! Someone had thrown them out by the dumpster, so we went and helped ourselves! I think one of them is mint even! Yay!

Ok, I guess that is good for now. Luego!

Brief Update

We have a flat. It is great.

We do not have internet. Yet. So right now we are in a Diner (yes, an American style diner) which has WiFi.

Our address is:

Calle Uetam 26, 5 B       

07006, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

(in Spain the house number comes after the street, the 5 means 5th floor and B is the letter of the apartment)

We also have phones!

Nikki: +34 652 160 656

Joseph: +34 652 160 675

(on a cell phone, you can get the plus by pressing and holding zero, I don't know how to do it on a house phone...)

We'll have more updates and pictures soon!

No Longer (Potentially) Homeless

I was not aware it was possible to get stressed out in Palma. But it is. After a week of searching for an apartment (albiet with more specific requirements) we narrowed it down to 2 options. One was this really nice modern place and the other was an older, but equally nice apartment. After complications with Miquel, the agent for the modern apartment, we signed a lease with the owners of the other, older, apartment. We lovingly call it "El Museo", or The Museum, because when we arrived, the owner wanted to give us a tour, "just like at a museum." It is also furnished with ornate antique furniture. It's spacious (even with 5 people living in it), has a HUGE terrace, is more or less centrally located from all of our schools, has a market grocery downstairs, AND turned out to be cheaper than the other place. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty sweet deal. We moved in this evening and have been enjoying not being homeless.

Yesterday we had orientation for our program. It started at 9AM and lasted until 3:30PM. But, luckily, the Spanish enjoy frequent breaks for coffee and food. Nikki and Jessica (a girl from Oregon we're living with) hoped that it would be conducted in English, but to their dismay it was in Spanish. It turned out to be quite informative (if you could understand them) and it was really nice to see all of the other students involved in the program. Not everyone will be in Palma, or even in Mallorca, but seeing and meeting all the others was comforting somehow; just knowing that were that many others going through the same experiences. It turns out that the Language Assistant program is not just for English speaking countries. There were a few German and French students there as well that will be teaching their students the respective languages. I think that the Americans outnumbered the other nationalities though, even the British. Surprisingly, we were informed by our Consulate representative (a nice lady from California) that there are very few Americans in the Islands, that this was the first year Americans were involved in the program, and that for many of our soon-to-be students, we would most likely be their first (and possibly only) physical contact with Americans and American culture. Talk about pressure! After eating the free food and drinking the free Coke, wine and beer, we were off. 

Today was my first day of class. I arrived at 9AM at Col Legi de Arcangel San Rafel. There were many young children running and yelling in the courtyard (kids are the same no matter where you go). I met with Marta and Tina, the two teachers I will be helping the most. We had about an hour of planning (getting to know each other, going over material, etc.) during which I prepared a short PowerPoint to teach the students about where I come from. Marta really wanted me to be specific, so I chose to talk about Atlanta and the South more than America in general (although we did talk extensively about the country). I included pictures (the skyline (and Mom: I even pointed out your building. They really like that) MLK, fried chicken and sweet tea, Stone Mountain, etc), facts, and even Youtube clips to Southern music. The first class was from ages 11-13 and they were VERY curious and engaged and asked really fantastic questions. They were a lot of fun. The second class was up to about 16 years old and they were too cool to ask questions, so they were not as impressive. Hopefully I'll be able to pique their interests soon. I also got a phone! Finally! I've started out with a basic plan, but will soon upgrade to include international calls. We've also toyed with the idea of getting a landline for the flat because international calls are cheaper (when using a calling card). Anyway, things are going great. I think tomorrow will be filled with getting more things for the apartment and weather permitting, (it rained so hard last night that it leaked through my window onto the floor) we'll go to the beach again. Miss yall and I'll send you the mailing address as soon as I remember it. 

Still Searching

We got up early again today to try to find a flat.
We are beginning to learn a few things:
1) People will leave a listing up long after it has rented .
2) People don't like answering their phones!
3) "Furnished" does not always mean fully furnished.
4) Everyone wants you to sign a 1 year lease. If you don't want to, they will "let" you pay for the entire 12 months in however many months you will be there for.
5) Nearly every flat is rented through an agency, who charge a commission. If you can find a flat without a commission, they are usually more expensive.

We saw a few more places today. We've picked a favorite and are supposed to hear back from them tomorrow morning about a few details that will hopefully allow us to go ahead and sign a lease. But once you combine the first months rent (rent which is higher than expected because we only want a 9 month lease) with a 1 month deposit, and a commission equal to one month... we are looking at a lot of money up front. But that appears to be pretty standard, and I think it will be worth it for a nice fully furnished apartment, in a nice neighborhood, an acceptable distance from nearly all 10 of our schools (we each have 2).

Hopefully we'll hear from them first thing in the morning so we can get on moving in, I'm tired of living out of my bags! Wish us luck!

Luego!!

Beach Bums

So we have been looking for apartments with Andy and Jessica(another couple) and Eric. It's a very slow process. Lots of listing in the papers are either already rented, don't answer, or upon asking a few questions, aren't what we are looking for. We saw one apartment on Friday, but didn't like it too much. We got up early Saturday morning to look some more, but quickly realised that it was Saturday and no body wanted anything to do with us until Monday. We did get one guy to agree to show us a place and it was pretty perfect. We got our hopes all up, only to find out that there is a 1 year minimum on the lease. Bummer. But he said he would talk to the owner about it and get back to us Monday. We also have 2 other places to see on Monday and a few places we need to call back. So hopefully *fingers crossed* we will have a place lined up by the end of the day tomorrow.

After the let down with the place yesterday we all decided to meet up for a few drinks. We got to Plaza Espana (our usual meeting spot) and there was all this singing and dancing going on that looked and sounded more reminiscent of Scottish than anything Spanish. We're still not sure where they were from, but they provided some good free entertainment for awhile! Then we went to track down a bar, only to find that nearly everything was closed!! Why, oh why, all the bars were closed on a Saturday night in Palma, we could not even begin to understand (perhaps they were all watching the Scottish/Spaniards). We wandered for maybe half an hour before we ended up back in the tourist district at an Irish bar. The bar was nice, but pricey.

After that we headed toward the old cathedral and heard what was clearly live punk music coming from somewhere near by. We followed the sound of blast-beat drums until we came across a pocket of Spanish punk kids and a makeshift stage. It was definitely interesting and provided a good hour or so of more free entertainment. We may have felt a little out of place if it hadn't been for the German business man (still in his button down shirt and khakis) who stood out way more than we ever could have hoped to. I don't know which was better, the dreadlock mullets or the insanely drunk bum playing air guitar in the corner. All in all it turned out to be a good night.

Since we had very little luck getting in touch with anyone yesterday. we figured it would be near impossible today. So today we ditched the newspaper adds and headed to the beach! Yep, that's right, Joseph and I spent about 5 hours lounging on the beach of a Mediterranean island. It was super fantastic! Jessica and Andy showed up for a while too, which was nice. Today the weather was pretty perfect, mostly sunny with a nice breeze, temperature in the high 70s. The water is clear, clear blue. Even when I couldn't touch the bottom, I could still see it (and all the cute little fishies swimming by). There are nearly no waves, so surfing isn't too popular. But there were lots of wind surfers out. Of course it is a European beach, which means that going topless is totally acceptable. But from the looks of it, most of the people who choose to participate are old women and small children. The beach also has lots of small Asian women trying to sell you a massage and men who will sell you a fresh slice of watermelon (but it cost 6 euros!) Getting to spend all day on the beach was pretty fantastic, and much less stressful than trying to find an apartment!

But it's getting close to dinner time, so we need to go try to find somewhere that is open(as most places close on Sundays). Luego!

Busy Busy

Today was pretty busy. Of course, I don't know if that's because we had so much to do, or if compared to yesterday, when I spent more time sleeping than awake and doing stuff (napping IS the national pass-time), it just seemed busy. Either way we accomplished a lot today. We woke up this morning and walked to one of my schools. It was the farthest one away from our hostel, all the way on the other side of the city, and it still only took about half an hour to walk there. I met with Marta, the main teacher I will be helping at Colegio de San Rafel, a very small Catholic school. There are only about 300 students total, from ages 3 to 18. All of their classes are taught in Catalan (Marta told us that no one ever speaks Spanish to each other. They only speak Spanish with those that don't speak Catalan, but if there a group of Spanish speakers, and even only one other Catalan speaker, the two would only use Catalan), but every year they try to teach two or their classes in English. So I am in charge of P.E. for the younger classes, and Social Sciences (History, Geography, etc.) for the older ones. The school was nice. A large courtyard was in the middle for all the little kids to run around in. All of the classrooms are located off of a main flight of stairs, with each landing being a different grade level. The highest one they have is ESO 4 (seniors), but that means I'll be walking up and down stairs every day! Marta says it keeps us fit. The older kids have a courtyard on the roof of the building where they eat lunch and hang out. I work Thursday and Friday mornings from 9-11 AM. I haven't heard back from my other school, Corpus Christi, but I hope to do so this week. I'd like to know my schedule before I start working! 

After the school adventure Nikki and I went out in search of a good cell phone provider. Most of the ones we looked at required us to buy a phone as well (as opposed to just a SIM card we could put in our existing phones), but we finally found one. They seem to have decent international deals too, but all her information is in Spanish, so we're not quite sure how good they are! At least at home the phone manuals are in four different languages. We had lunch at a kebab place we found along the way. It was delicious! So much food though. I guess our stomachs can no longer handle American portions. I had a Fanta Naranja (Orange) and it was fantastic!! I don't know what they do differently, but it's so much better than the Fanta Orange back home. Unfortunately, most "refrescos" are about 2 Euro, so I won't be drinking them too much. We did find a grocery, so we bought sandwich fixings and will (hopefully) live off that for a few days. 

We also met 3 people from the US on the same program. Andy and Jessica are a couple from Oregon and we spent a few hours with them. We're trying to find an apartment together, since it seems that 1. Apartments with more rooms are cheaper and 2. Apartments with more rooms don't fill up as fast. They were very nice. We also met with Eric, a guy from Iowa. He had just arrived this afternoon when he met up with us! All I wanted to do upon arriving was sleep, but he came out and looked at an apartment with us. I hope we can find one very soon. At least now we know what areas we need to look in. At first, we'd circle about 20 choices, only to find out that 15 of them were too far out. 

Random things I've noticed about Palma:

There are A LOT of Germans. Never would have guessed.

People here are not as "smile-y" as in Georgia, but they're just as willing to help you out.

There are really awesome looking trees everywhere.

That's all I've got for right now. Hasta Luego!

Day 2 in Palma

We've been having a great time exploring our new city. Our hostel is very centrally located with the Palma Cathedral (the biggest tourist attraction in Palma) right across the street and the Mediterranean sea just beyond it. Crossing the street you can smell the salt from the sea. Our hostel also has a roof top terrace from which you can see out over all of Palma. And of course it has a great view of the cathedral and the sea.
We wandered many a street and found all sorts of cool little shops. Best of all, there are like 10 bazillion ice cream shops! So I can get ice cream at any time of day or night, I love it! Sandwiches (or bocadillos) are very popular here and are usually what we stop to get for lunch. Last night, for dinner I had Tumbet, which is a traditional Mallorcian dish. It's basically just a bunch of veggies (eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, and peppers) in a tomato sauce, but it was very good.
We started the Great Apartment Search today. We bought a few local papers (and some croissants) and headed to the rooftop terrace, pens in hand. It was a bit hard because we don't know the area well enough to know which "zones" are near by. So we just circled a bunch of places that sounded good then came back to our good friend Google Maps only to find that more than half the places were way too far out. But we did find some good options.
We went to ask around about cell phones, but of course everywhere had already closed for siesta. However we did manage to find our way to the grocery store where you can find big bottles of water for 21 cents instead of paying 2 euros for a tiny bottle with your meal.
I guess that is all for now.
Luego!!

We Made It!!! Numero Dos

Nikki pretty much said it.
It is sunny here 300 days out of the year, so of course it's supposed to rain our entire first week. The area around the hostel IS tourist-y, but it's also very pretty. There is an old Cathedral across the street (I'm not sure exactly how old yet, but I can promise it's a couple of centuries older than the US). There is also the Plaza de La Reina right outside. It has plenty of little stores and restaurants. The cab driver said that it was a very active place, which is good. We're jumping in head first! But we are safe and excited. But we miss you.

We Made It!!!

Hello All!!
We finally made it to Palma!!
The 7 hour flight to London was long, but not long enough because when we got there at 8am local time, we were still exhausted. But that didn't stop us from running around London! My favorite part was the mummies exhibit in the Britsh Museum, talk about cool! The flight to Palma was very short and we thought they lost our luggage, but it turns out it just had to come through customs first. Whew! We made it to our hostel no problems, but we were so tired we slept until noon today! The hostel is nice (it has a mini fridge!), but nothing too fancy . No worries though, it is nothing like the "Hostel" movies ;)
We explored a little bit around our hostel. It seems nice but very tourist-y. We asked around and got a few leads on places to start looking for apartments. But of course most listings give a phone number to call, which means we need to make getting a Spanish cell phone a priority.

I guess that is all for now.

Joseph and I decided it would be easier to have just one blog that we both write in. So we will both write here and I will write in red and he will write in green so that it is easier for you guys to tell them apart.

Hasta luego! (until later)

~Nikki