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!!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
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!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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 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!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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.
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
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
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