Weird

I was at our usual cafe with a new Italian friend, when all of sudden "Sweet Home Alabama" started playing. Talk about surreal.

Festivals!

So, January should be known as festival month in Mallorca. It seems like the entire month was just a series of parties and celebrations. The biggest ones were San Antoni and San Sebastian. San Antoni (which is the Catalan spelling) is a holiday in honor of Saint Anthony. It is celebrated all over the island, but the big parties are in the smaller towns of Sa Pobla and Manacor. I'm not exactly sure of what the festival actually celebrates, but the way they celebrate is awesome! Nikki, Eric, our friends Mike and Irene, and myself made the our-long train ride to the other side of the island to celebrate in Sa Pobla. The train was incredibly crowded, at times feeling like a Japanese subway with workers cramming passengers into the railcars like sardines. When we arrived, we made our way to the Plaza Mayor to see the fireworks, which were amazing. The plaza was as crowded as the train, but our space in the crowd was right below most of the fireworks. After the show, the streets cleared a bit since many families went home. Traditionally though, the party continues well into the next day (the last free train left at 6 AM), so we were prepared for some craziness. The way Mallorcans celebrate San Antoni (and San Sebastiá for that matter) is to build HUGE bonfires in every plaza in the city. Everyone then brings various meats (mostly local sausages), bread, veggies, and alcohol. You cook your meat on the embers of the giant fires, drink your booze, and generally have a blast. In the US, it would be unheard of to have that many "uncontrolled" fires and fireworks, without a permit, some sort of restrictions on how close to the fire spectators could get, etc. Here, they embodied the Spanish mentality of "No pasa nada." We met up with others in our program and took full advantage of the festivities, though we made it home well before 6 AM. There were concerts of really great Mallorcan music (some even native to Sa Pobla). The coolest was a group of elderly singers and musicians which played an instrument I had never seen before. It was a grooved wooden stick, stuck into a small drum-like base. The musicians soaked their hand in water and ran it over the stick, which would echo through the drum and produced an odd drone sound. They would play like this, keeping rhythm and singing. Apparently, the lyrics are witty, sometimes vulgar musings on politics, other leaders, and even other singing participants. So, it was a local version of a rap battle! 

Later in the month, Palma celebrated San Sebastian (or San Sebastiá), Palma's patron saint. Similarly to San Antoni, giant bonfires and grilling meat were a big part of the celebrations. Also included were "castells" (groups of people who climb each other and make human towers), and "gigants," which, as the name implies, are giant paper mache sculptures of people that walk around the plaza and dance. There were concerts in every single plaza in Palma (anything from gypsy music, to traditional Mallorcan music, to rock). At the very end of the celebration (which lasted an entire week) was a "Correfoc", or a Fire Run. All down Las Ramblas, people gathered. A never-ending parade of people dressed as demons descended upon the streets, shooting fireworks (imagine sparklers on steroids) into the crowds. People would dance with the demons under the fire, run away from them. Some small children brought pitchforks with which to fight the demons that came near them. There were groups of drums interspersed throughout the parade. The noise was deafening with drums, explosions, cheers, chainsaws (wielded by demons), singing. It finally ended at the Cathedral with a spectacular fireworks show. It was a great time to be here, and definitely gave me a taste of the local culture. It was an experience that made me realize "Oh yeah. I'm living in Spain!" Next up: Carnival!

PARIS

After weeks of Nikki bugging me to write a blog about Paris, I guess I'll finally do it. Okay, so as Nikki has said, we originally intended to go to Paris on the 30th, but were delayed until the morning of the 31st. We found a couch to sleep on at the very last minute (we had emailed EVERY single person available in Paris and were denied by all of them. Our host in Zurich emailed four, and received two "yeses" for us in one night). So, once we arrived (about noon) we made our way to Jose's house, which is in the center of Paris. Jose was born in Mexico, raised in Wisconsin, but has lived in Spain and now France as well. He was living with 3 other French folks, all of whom were out of town for the holidays. Given free reign of the apartment for a few days, Jose decided to host about 10 couchsurfers, AND throw a party before his roommates returned. 

Nikki and I arrived and were greeted by Jose, Jeremie (a Frenchman from Leon in town for the New Year) and 4 Germans from Hamburg. We threw our bags in a room, and Nikki and I, along with our newfound friend and translator Jeremie, went off to explore. Jose lives near the Catedral de Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, a beautiful old cathedral that sits atop a hill overlooking all of Paris. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and foggy at the time, so while still amazing, the view was a bit limited. We wandered around, seeing the Moulin Rouge (nestled snugly within the city's red-light district), and just enjoying the Parisian sights. We returned to Jose's later that evening to eat and enjoy some time with the other travelers there. Jose had invited other friends over too, so the total for the evening (before we went to the New Years party) was around 20 people. Nikki and I were the only Americans (that night), along with the Germans, some French people, a couple from the Netherlands, some English, a girl from Pakistan, and even more Germans! We all ate, drank, shared stories. Before long, it was time to greet the night head-on.

Most of us (about 15 in total) decided to go to "The Biggest New Years Eve Party in the World" (or so it was billed). When we arrived, there a few people inside, but I doubt there would be enough people to even be considered the biggest New Years Eve party in Paris. But no matter, we had 15 other friends and decided that we could turn the tide. And we did. I met people from Japan, Turkey, the US, Senegal, and all over Europe. It was a pretty great party. We danced in the New Year to the 60's and 70's funk and motown. We left when a band took stage. It's not that they were bad, they just weren't right for the moment. It was sufficiently late to where we felt that we had put our New Years Eve to good use, so we went home to sleep. Sleeping was an ordeal too (with 10 people in one 4 person apartment). But, it was fine: Nikki and another girl got the two couches, I slept curled up on a beanbag chair, and the others slept on air mattresses or on the floor. 

The next day could possibly be the most Parisian day ever in the history of the country. At least in my mind. We arose at about noon and just lounged around for awhile, each of us attempting to being (semi)functional. One thing the really impressed me about Paris was the quality of some of its radio stations. The one we listened to the most was a jazz station, so we had excellent jazz going as we all greeted each other, and the new day. Then, when we were all more or less alive, Jeremie taught us how to make homemade French crepes! His grandfather was a baker and crepe maker, so his recipe was excellent. So, we spent our first day of the New Year in an apartment overlooking a bustling Parisian street, all the while making genuine French crepes and listening to jazz. Tres chic, non? Hon hon hon (French laugh)!! After the meal, we went to places like Notre Dame, the Seine, and Le Chat Noir Cafe. That evening we went to Pere Lechaise Cemetery and spent hours there. Among the old, overgrown tombstones, we saw the graves of: George Melies (one of the "founding fathers" of film), Oscar Wilde (his grave was covered in lipstick from where women kiss), Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, Moliere (a great French playwright), Champollion (the man who discovered the Rosetta Stone), and Jim Morrison. We then met Jeremie's friend, William, for dinner. We had Mexican food (though not nearly as good Los Hermanos or Agua Linda). Then, we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous! all lit up and majestic. 

The next day we just wandered around with the Germans, Daniel and Vikki. Jose's party was that night, so we would need to help him get ready. Before we did though, we all bought silly hats (it was a wine and cheese party, but everyone needed silly hats). We also decided that instead of eating dinner at a restaurant, we'd buy food at the grocery store and have a picnic. So I piled some sandwich fixins in a bag with a bottle of wine, good cheese, and some chocolate, and we ate on the steps of Sacré Coeur, overlooking the city, with a street musician playing to a crowd right next to us. It was great.

We went back to Jose's place to help him prepare for the party. His roommates had returned (3 days earlier than he had thought) and they were fine, though not thrilled, to see a handful of strangers in their flat. They agreed that we could stay, so long as we slept in Jose's room, which was fine because the bulk of the guests had left. All that were left were Nikki and I, Jeremie, and two Germans. Jose had decided to go ahead with his party since his roommates were going out that night. He did not tell them how many people were coming, so when he brought up the baguettes, he left half of them downstairs so they wouldn't think twice. There ended up being easily a hundred people there. So many, in fact, that when more would arrive, the door would be answered by whoever was closest, not by Jose. At one point, Jose's neighbors came to the door to say we were too loud, but since there were so many people there, Jose could not make it to the door, which angered the neighbors even more. Finally, Jose was able to get the crowd's attention. They took the party elsewhere, but Nikki, the Germans and I decided to stay behind. We grabbed a bottle of wine and chatted the rest of the night, periodically answering the door to latecomers, telling them the party had moved on. As we were getting ready for bed, another knock on the door. Nikki opens it to see four police officers standing there. Vikki, the German, spoke French, so she spoke to the police. But about the same time, Jose's roommates come home to see four policemen talking to strangers (who the probably didn't want there in the first place) and Jose is nowhere to be found. I haven't heard if Jose is still living there or not.

The next day (our last) Nikki and I went to the Cinemateque, an entire museum devoted to the history of cinema! Nikki wasn't feeling too well, so she sat at the screens most of the time, but I was able to wander around, seeing first hand all the things I had learned about in college; the very first cameras, costumes and props, old posters, etc.  It was quite moving for me. The next day Nikki and I boarded a plane for Frankfurt, where we had a six hour layover. But we were too tired/sick to venture out. We got back to Palma (which was surprisingly comforting; oh! to be able to understand what people are saying again!) and rested. 

Zurich

Sorry for the delay! It's so easy to get distracted and keep putting it off.
Ok, so Zurich:
There is so much to say, I don't even know where to begin! We left for Zurich on Dec 26th. Normally when you board a plane, you walk through the gate and it takes you through a walk way directly onto the plane, but not this time! We went through the gate and ended up on a bus! We then had to take a bus to the middle of the airplane parking-lot-area. For whatever reason, I felt very important getting off the bus and climbing up the stairs to the plane. It was pretty cool. We landed in Zurich and our Couch Surfing host met us at the train station. He was an older (50 somegthin), super nice, Swiss man named Werner. He had warned us before that he was a bit worn out from the holidays, and probably wouldn't be very sociable. But of course, Joseph and I are just so cool, we all stayed up until about 2 in the morning just talking and drinking organic beer. Werner was way into the organic life style, but not in an I'm-just-doing-it-because-its-cool way, but in a this-is-just-how-I-live way. Which was really cool. The next day Werner took us and showed us all around Zurich. It is a BEAUTIFUL city. It was super cold though. It even started snow flurry-ing a bit while we were out wandering around.

That night we were changing hosts to go spend the rest of our stay with Pascal a younger (mid 30s) Swiss guy who just got back from a year backpacking across Asia. So Werner thought it would be a good idea to invite Pascal over to his place, and we could all have a traditional Swiss dinner together before we followed Pascal home. Apparently super traditional Swiss food is cheese fondue. It was EXCELLENT. We also shared it with another couch surfer, Jason, who is an American kid from CA who is currently completing his basic training in the Swiss Army (yes THE Swiss Army, apparently he has duel citizenship or something). Anyways, it was a great night, but I was stuffed by the end!

We had a great time staying with Pascal. He showed us around Zurich some more, took us to an awesome Natural History Museum, and even took us to his favorite bar. I thought it was great how many random American songs the bar played- everything from Aerosmith to Blink 182. Zurich, on top of being beautiful, is also a very expensive city. Luckily Pascal showed us this awesome little sausage stand. 6.50 for a big sausage and a huge dinner roll, which is a good price for Zurich. Apparently this place has such amazing sausages, that Tina Turner (who has a home in Zurich) frequents there!

I wanted to actually go to the Alps, but it turns out it's super expensive to just get to the Alps, even if you don't want to ski. Instead, we decided to take the train out to Luzern, which is a small town close to the Alps. It was a beautiful quaint little city. We had a great time exploring the old churches and throwing things at the ice covered ponds. On the way back to Zurich, we decided to stop in Zug, which is an even smaller, more quaint little Swiss town! It was adorable! The highlight of that stop (and maybe even all of Switzerland) was sitting on a park bench, looking out over lake Zug, watching the sun set behind the distant, snowy Alps. It was beautiful!

Pascal was super helpful while we were there. He made us breakfast every morning, and often times dinner as well. When we were having trouble finding a place to stay in Paris, he e-mailed some people until we had a place to stay. And we went to the train station with us to help us buy our tickets to Paris. We originally wanted to head to Paris on the 30th, but train tickets were super expensive that day, so we ended up buying tickets for the 31st. On a side note - when we left on the 31st, Werner suprised us by showing up at our train (at 7am!) to give us 2 awesome organic tea strainers that we had used at his place and commented on how cool they were. It's that really nice?

I never realized how much Spanish I knew until I realized how much German I DON'T know! I had to use my phrase book to figure out basic things like "bathroom" and "water." Switzerland has 4 official languages, German, French, Italian, and Rumantsch (which is spoken in the little villages of the Alps). Zurich is in the German part, but the dialect of German they speak is SO completely different than standard German. Luckily most people speak English as well. Still, I would always intent to greet people (waiters, bus drivers) or ask for directions to the bathroom in my phrase-book German, but for whatever reason, it always came out in Spanish! Even if a shopkeeper would greet me in English, I would still respond in Spanish! It was strange, but I guess it's a good sign that the Spanish is coming to ingrained in my brain. But it was a little frustrating always having to say things in 3 different languages before I got to the one I actually wanted to use! However I do feel better about my Spanish skills now. At least I can carry on a basic conversation (and don't have to rely on my phrase book) in Spanish, which is much more than I can say for my German!

In summary - Switzerland is awesome. Zurich is beautiful (but expensive). The people are super nice and the food is delicious. Especially the CHOCOLATE! I bought some everyday we were there and it was totally worth it! My favorite part? The sunset over Lake Zug.... and the Chocolate :)

Now let's see if I can get Joe to post about Paris :)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all!!
We made it back to Palma safe and sound last night. We had an excellent time in Zurich and Paris, and met a ton of great new people! Unfortunately I got sick the last few days in Paris, and am still feeling a bit sub-par, so an in depth blog will have to wait until later. But I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a great trip and made it home safe!

Love to all!

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!!!!