Palma de Mallorca: Home

MMM the hilarious American bar that we are going to on the 4th that serves....tex mex!!! Take note of the Native American statue on the left. ;)

Me at Playa de Palma and Cala Contessa, Illetas.

My beautiful friends and I on the beach!!! And this is my lovely room for the month.

Us and our program direction and another beach shot. So cool that I live here now!!

Me climbing and all us who came in for part II of the program. We are all so tight now and pretty much best friends, having the absolute best time of our lives and I love every single one of them!!

Beach!!!

Ahh, so I am now in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, my new home until I finally leave for the United States. I arrived very tired, in poor health, with a broken foot, and lots of dirty clothes. However, when I arrived, instantly felt right at home here for my program directors are amazing, my new friends are the best motley crew bunch anyone could have (these are the 4 best friends that anyone could have ;) hangover anyone?). My host mother a.k.a my Spanish love is amazing and jumped right in and did all my laundry, cooked me amazing food, fixed all the things that I broke along the way and helped me with my Spanish. I can also not express amount of relief that I felt when I could finally unpack my entire suitcase, hang up all my clothes, and have my own private bathroom!! I think this is something that people take for granted, but it is amazingly nice to be able to find all your stuff because it’s in one place and not have to lock it up every time you leave the room. I am not sure really where to begin about my travels here, other than that I love every minute of it!! Though I did like traveling before, I did feel like an outsider—a tourist—because that is exactly what I was but here, I have my friends, I have a bit of a family, and I also have my school…. It is honestly becoming a bit like a home to me, and I am starting to feel like it might be weird to go back to the U.S. Before, I traveled, but still missed all my friends and family and felt as if I was in some transient stage, just waiting to return back home. However, now, I feel as if I am starting a life here. I am becoming more familiar with the language, the town, and am even taking classes here. So pretty much it’s just like I’m back at Case, but only on an island with better classes, better food, better beaches, and a family to come back home to every night. As I become more and more comfortable here, my vision of home has become fuzzier and fuzzier. Though I miss you all and of course my family, I have had so little contact, that all I have left of anyone is my images of them a few months ago and my random thoughts about them. Though I can think and think, my concept of people has come to the point where people back home aren’t necessarily very real anymore because I am so detached and I only have the images that I have transformed and even entirely created if that makes sense. I think everyone back home is also getting used to the idea of me being gone as well and it’s kinda like the initially shock has gone and now it as if I am finally gone and starting a new life here. And I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t mind starting a new life here because the way of life and pretty much everything except my family and friends I like better here and I also have a chance to somewhat leave all the stuff that I had to deal with back home. Although the island is very much a tourist island in many ways, with Germans and the drunk English men crowding the beaches, I still am in love with the idea of having water all around me and also with the language and the native people of the island. I have gotten caught up in the Tranquilo vibe of this place and only seem to get super excited when there is a another football match on, for I know I will go to a huge party full of Spaniards, shoot fireworks and champagne off the balcony, and watch Javier as he runs around half-naked with a Spanish flag tied around his neck…

I am finding that not only do I enjoy the people and the life here, but that I actually fit in pretty well. I am decent enough at Spanish that I can talk for hours with people in their native tongue, and that I am very easily able to navigate the city. I also have recently ditched my boot and now am walking exclusively in tennis shoes, hopefully merging occasionally into sandals sometime soon. My next goal is to find a gym so I can start getting my legs and left calf back into shape…

At first when I first got here, I was so tired and a little apprehensive because everyone in my group was so different and it seemed that everyone had a significant other back home except me. Since I just recently came from Venice, which is definitely a city for couples, I even saw someone get proposed to there (gag-kill me now), I was not looking foreword to a group of people not wanting to go out and talking about how they missed their boyfriends/girlfriends. However, it turns out I was totally wrong (which sadly, I have to admit is now often the case) and that mostly everyone here is not clingy and still willing to go out. Furthermore my friend Lindsey is totally like me, us taking the place of what would be the asshole guys in the group, haha. So, this so far has not even been close to a problem or a let down, for our group (the ones that came in for session II only) are absolutely awesome and we are already so close. There is a little bit of conflict though between our group and the people that were here for session I and are staying also for session II for they have already been here for a month and formed their group of friends. Both groups are tending to distance themselves from each other; they keep to themselves and there is so much drama and craziness in the dynamics of their group that we are staying away from them as well. When we first got here, we all went out to a club together. The girls from that session were all in Barcelona for the weekend—I think trying to escape from the guys a bit—and the guys were all talking about each other like little drama queens. One girl is and has been hooking up with one of the other guys, but has a long term boyfriend back home who is about to visit in about a week and a half (just reinforces my thoughts that I may never want to date again because it seems that most people aside from me do f*%^#ed up stuff to their partners). And the dynamics of that group just go on and on. Other than that little bit of clashing here and there, I have had an awesome time and marine biology class has been somewhat interesting, mainly because the Spanish teacher—oddly with a British accent—reminds me of a what would be the Bonnie Childs of marine biology. I am also kinda sitting in on a Spanish class that starts right after mine as well, just so I get a little bit more Spanish in my diet. This makes for some pretty intense days because that means that I have class for about 6 hours a day, after which I usually go straight to the beach or some other excursion like visiting cool castles and stuff like that.

Hope all is well back home!! Btw pretty much all of you that I believe read this, I have gotten some pretty sweet souvenirs for. J Still do miss all..