Berlin

So.... Berlin was quite the adventure. I went a few weeks ago with four friends of mine here: Becca, John, Bradley, and Anthony. We flew into Hamburg and then took a train to Berlin from there. I had never experienced Germany before so as you can imagine I was very excited to be there.

We finally made it to Berlin after all the traveling and we decided to take a taxi to our hostel, which was a quaint little place called John's Cozy Little Backpacker's Hostel. It was late and three of the people we were traveling with were getting over being sick (one was on antibiotics, one had just gotten over the swine flu, and one had sinusitis!) so a few of us grabbed a drink at a local bar and then we al decided to call it a night.

In the morning we were set to see all the tourist sights. On that first day we saw the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag which has a beautiful glass dome as a ceiling. In between the sight-seeing we made sure to stop at some of the German Winterfests to try some new type of wurst (which were all amazing by the way) and some gluwhein (hot mulled wine mixed with fruit)... Germany has got some good food!

In the afternoon we met up with a friend of John's that lived in Germany named Torsten and we hit up another Winterfest with him. He showed us some places to go and helped us order the best things to eat and drink. It was really nice having a guide there to help us. I even learned a few phrases in German to get by.

The next day we dicided to venture out of the main part of Berlin and go see Potsdam, which was the residence of Prussian kings until 1918. We visited the largest palace there and took a tour of the inside. It was gorgeous! Then we went outside and got some more food and hot drinks at the Winterfest there.

We went to the Sachenhausen concentration camp just outside of Berlin too, which was a very tough site to see. The camp was HUGE, and I couldn't believe how many people they were able to cram in there at one point. While it was very interesting to read all the history behind the camp and to take a guided tour, it was honestly really rather depressing.

We also went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was close to the Brandenburg Gate. There were hundreds of stones which when separated created curvy paths that went up and down. The entrance to the museum was hidden within the stone sculptures and was all underground. Again, the museum was very interesting, yet sad.

We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, which was really interesting. There was a museum that explained everything about East and West Berlin and about the Berlin wall and the methods used to sneak people from one side to the other and all that jazz. It was really fascinating, although sometimes disturbing.

Things took a turn for the worse for me toward the end of the trip....

We went to this club one night called Matrix (Ill never forget the name) and I decided to set my purse down for a second and within NO time at all I turned around and it was GONE! While there was no place to lock up our luggage in the hostal I decided I thought it would be safer to carry all my important documents with me while we were out... That means my passport, my Spanish residency card, my camera, my IPOD, and all my credit cards we stolen at the same time! I couldnt believe it! And this was the night before we were going to leave so I knew I wouldnt have enough time to get a new passport in time to catch my flight back to Mallorca! While the others had tickets planned to go back to the islands too, I decided to stay back by myself and get things sorted out. The owners of the hostal were really understanding though and they let me stay for a couple more days. I made it to the US Consulate in Berlin the next morning and by late afternoon I had a new temporary passport. I was surprised at how easy it was to get things sorted out.

Caimari and Bike Trip

Hey everyone!

I went to this really cool festival in Caimari, one of the pueblos outside of Palma this last week. Caimari is really well-known for its olive oil, and they had the festival to show all of the products they had there. There were booths set up all over the place where you could taste different olives, olive oils, wines, and hierbas (a type of liquor that is typical in Mallorca). It was awesome! My favorite olives were these ones that were pickled in some spicy juices and stuffed with peppers! Wow they were delicious. We also went inside on of the factories where they had an old olive press and we got to see how the oil was made.

We also saw a prize winning sobrasada (Mallorcan blood sausage) that was enormous! I can not even imagine how many pigs it was made of... kinda gross. Although I'm not gonna lie... It doesn't taste all that bad!

But overall the trip was really fun. Helena's mom has a house in Caimari and she let us hang out there and meet some of the other family members. We really appreciated it.

The other day when I was at my gym I saw an advertisement for this bike trip called La Pedalada in which you could go on a tour of some of the older parts of Mallorca. We only had to pay 3 euros to rent a bike and we got a free T-shirt and some other goodies. It was super fun. We stopped with the group to take pictures toward the end, and in one of them we got a pretty good shot of the famous Cathedral here in Palma. It is soooooooo beautiful, and even more amazing inside.

As for the rest of my life right now... Things are great. I cannot believe that two whole months have gone by; the time has just gone too fast since I have gotten here. School is good. One of the student teachers and I are going to have tryouts for a Christmas performance of Grease soon! We are also having auditions to sing some Christmas songs in English in the middle of December. I really like the kids I work with as well as the teachers.

I'm starting to take Salsa lessons here too! Every Sunday there are free lessons at one of the bars along the water, and Sunday was my first time there. It was really fun, although I know I have a long way to go.. heehee.

Other news: I'm going to Berlin this weekend! One of my friends here wanted to go somewhere for her birthday and we found plane tickets for a total of 30 euros! I'm really looking forward to it and I will make sure to put pictures up when I get back!

Hope all is well with you! Love you all and miss you!

Halloween, Deiá, and the Contemporary Art Museum

Hey everyone! Miss all of you!

Since our last encounter....

Halloween was fun here. I wasn't expecting much considering that it isn't really celebrated here like in the States, but it turned out to be a bigger thing than I thought. Encarna had made a ladybug costume for Carnaval the year before and she wasn't planning on dressing up, so she let me borrow it. Some of the others in the program came over to our place before and we dressed them up in costumes. We had to get creative because we didn't want to spend any money on them. So we came up with a mummy, a devil, a woman, and a Christmas present on the spot. It was pretty fun. Then we went out on the town and there were tons of people dressed up in the street.

One weekend some friends and I went to Deiá, another pueblo on the island. It is known for its rocky cliffs and beautiful views of the ocean. It was incredible. We went on this little hike down through the mountains to get to this little inlet of water where the waves came crashing in. We climbed some of the rocks and sat there for a while and looked out at the water... it was beautiful! After we sat for a while we made the hike back up and took the bus back to Palma. There really are LOTs of things to see here.. I'm looking forward to visiting some of the other pueblos too.

I got to go on another field trip with my students! We took a trip to the Contemporary Art Museum in Palma called Es Baluard. It was only a short walk from Eugenio López, so we were able to spend a decent amount of time there. We learned about how the building was actually one of the old fortresses originally used in Palma to stop the pirates from invading. Some of the original walls were still up, along with a couple of the look-out towers they used back then. Inside there were lots of interesting works by Spanish artists as well as others from different countries. My favorite was a large paintbrush that had little windows carved in it. Although I didn't get the meaning behind it, I still got a kick out of it.

This last weekend I finally made it out to the Castle and the Cathedral here. I had been waiting for my residency card so that I could get in for free, and finally I got it. They were beautiful! I will have to go back to the cathedral during the day because I couldn't really get any good pictures during the day, but nonetheless it was still worth it. We lucked out because they were actually throwing an free choir concert when we got there, and the sound was amazing in such a large space. It was really quite breath-taking.

As for the castle...it was gorgeous. It was a beautiful day and we had to hike up quite a few flights of stairs to get to the top. The castle is situated in one of the highest points of Palma, and from the top you get an amazing view of the entire city. It would be the perfect place to take a little picnic some afternoon. Inside the castle there was a square-shaped well (a little unusual) in the middle of an open round courtyard.

Well, that's all for now... I'm sure I will have more to tell you soon! Hope all is well...

A LOT has happened since we last talked...

SO...

Since the beach I have done quite a bit. For all of you who have facebook I have a ton of pictures up from my current travels... You should check them all out. I'll throw a couple on here too though :)

First off, my friend Caity and I went to this old town called Soller in which you have to take this old train to get to. Im pretty sure they said it was one of the oldest trains still running too... it was rickety but fun. We went there to go hiking, but unfortunately after the hour and a half train ride there and back and our failure to look at the return times, not to mention we had existing dinner plans back in Palma, we had to cut the hike short. But this town was BEAUTIFUL. It is mainly an agricultural town known for its lemons, oranges, and caquis (a fruit that looks kinda like a tomato). We saw lemons that were the size of my head (and thats big:).. they were insane! So we spent a good hour and a half two hours hiking through the town and sight-seeing. It was really fun... then we can home to an organized potluck in which the people in our program joined with many other Europeans to share our "native" dishes. I made honey soy peanut chicken wings... sounds like Washington huh? Heehee. But they were good and everyone loved them.

Things in school have been great too. It was awesome because I was not informed until the day before that I would be going on an excursion with the kids in on e of my fifth grade classes to Son Real, one of the oldest pueblos in Mallorca. I got to accompany them on a 2 hour bus ride singing songs in English and watcing Looney Tunes... couldnt ask for more huh? Son Real was originally known as el Rafael d'en Rubert (Robert's Farm), a Moorish town, but after they were kicked out it was colonized in the 15th Century by Lord Real Móger i des Colombers and was made into an agricultural society. We got to visit the museum and see all the old artifacts they found and to learn about where some Spanish customs have come from. It was really cool, although the tour was given in Catalán which made it a little more difficult. Although you will all be proud to know that I am starting to at least understand it! I know a couple phrases too..

I also found out recently that the teachers I work with were going to be gone for about a week... which meant that I didnt have to be there either :). Needless to say, I decided it was the perfect time to fly to the mainland and visit my friend Sara. She lives in really quaint little town called Calatayud, which is close to Zaragoza in the "northern central" part of Spain. Sara and I studied together when we were in Granada and we traveled together too, so I was really excited to see her again. We visited the school she works at, the cathedral there, and made dinners together with her roommates. We made the most delicious paella there... mmm tasty. I think the most exciting thing I saw in Calatayud though was the ancient castle on the mountain there. It was made in the 7th Century! We climbed up to the top and had the most gorgeous view of the entire city. Unfortunately, it is common for some sketchy people to hang out in the castle so we made sure not to stay for long. There was this creepy man whispering things to us from the top tower so we decided not to venture that way. Too bad he had to ruin that for us... I felt like we were in medieval times and there was a troll that wouldn't let us pass. Kinda funny... but oh well. It was still fun to see though, and we took lots of pictures there.

While Sara had to work during the day while I was there, we decided to travel only on the weekend. We bought train tickets to go see Pamplona on Friday and it only took a few hours to get there. We booked a double hostel room at Hostal Hemmingway and were off to explore the town. The owners of the hostal were our age too, and they offered to show us a night on the town. So we hung out with them in the hostal and watched some spanish concerts on dvd until it was an "acceptable" hour to go out (2 in the morning!!! OMG).... Im telling you life is very different here. Needless to say that by the time we came back to the hostal I could hardly still stand I was sooooo tired.

In the morning (afternoon for us), we went exploring. We saw the Cathedral and the main plaza, the fortress there and the old look out point where people loved to paint murals. By far the most exciting part (and the reason we went to Pamplona) was our visit to Estafeta Street. That is were they do the running of the bulls every year. Unfortunately we couldnt see the real deal as it happens in June, but it was still cool to see where it all takes place. The bulls run all along this street and end up at the Bull Ring there, which isn't a shabby sight either. The picture below is of me standing where the bulls finally end up. I was expecting Pamplona to be a much bigger city... It really didnt take that long to see all the "main" sites, so the last day we spent just wandering and exploring the many windy narrow streets. It was a blast. And I found a bakery there that made gluten-free products too! Pretty awesome.

I got back from my trip on Tuesday and now Im getting settled again. Yesterday was actually my first day back at class (Thursday), and so today is the beginning of another weekend for me. Im excited because I get to teach the art classes today... we are making Halloween crafts. Its cute how excited they get about a holiday they dont really even celebrate much. And it turns out some of the people in my program still want to have a Halloween party, so dont worry guys, Ill still get to celebrate with you. I didnt want to buy a costume so my rooomate Encarna and I are going to add things to the one she made last year. Im going to be a lady bug... or mariquita in Castellano. Should be fun....

Sorry this message is packed with so much info guys, but I wanted to let you know about all that has been happening there... Feel free to comment on the wall and let me know how you are all doing! Miss you....

Lindsey

TaPalma and the beach

Ok so we finally got a secure internet connection! I'm thinking it will be easier to keep up a blog now.... I wont have to keep saving what I write after ever other word to make sure that it goes through! :)

So since last time I have actually done quite a bit...

This last Friday I got together with some others here in the program with me. We had all only met once at our initial orientation, so it was really great to catch up with them all. Plus, it's nice to know that I will have people to hang out with if I need to speak English for a change. I brought my roommates with me, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. They claim that "American parties" are a blast, much different than here. Everyone here seems to think of what happens in the movies when referring to the United States, like we all are members of frats and sororities and that we drink, dance, and party all the time. Although, I must admit that our most recent gathering did seem to resemble that... heeehee. One of my students asked me the other day too whether I knew Lindsay Lohan. I think the States are so far away that people assume they are smaller and that we all live closer to each other than we really do. When I explain to them that I have not even visited a third of the States they are always surprised. And everyone thinks I live in D.C. too when I say Im from Washington. It's pretty cute.

Monday was a holiday here in Spain... El día de la Hispanialidad, which basically means a day to celebrate being Spanish. These crazy Spaniards can always find an excuse to party. It was also Christopher Colombus Day, which is a national holiday here. So this weekend there was celebration all over Palma, and all the local restaurants participated in what's called TaPalma. Tapas+Palma=TaPalma.... that means that local restaurants put out special deals on tapas and drinks, and you could even follow a map of all the places to go with their prices and everything. It was actually still really expensive; thats because its actually a really touristy thing to do. But man did I have some good food! The great thing about tapas too is that they're really small so you get to try a lot of different things. I had some Spanish meatballs (albóndigas to you mom), a roasted pepper filled with some type of veggie puree and covered with serrano ham, croquetas, and we even found this place that made Amercan tapas (I had the spicy chili)... It was great. I went with the roommates and some of Encarna's friends, who were really very entertaining. They also insisted that I give them personal English classes too and that they want to pay me for them. We'll see what happens I guess...

After all the food we decided to go out for a little longer. Sounds kinda strange but we actually went to two different Irish bars after that: Hogan's and Shamrock. It was hilarious because they were playing a bunch of Blues and Jazz at Shamrock... There was actually a live band there from Michigan! Crazy. Palma is truly a mix of all types of cultures; it's pretty awesome.

On Monday (I usually have Mondays off even when it isn't a holiday) we went to the most gorgeous beach. It's just outside the pueblo of Calvia, and it was indescribable! (although its in the picture at the top) It only took like 10 minutes to get there by bus. The weather was wonderful and the water was still at a comfortable temperature to swim in... Not used to that in October in the Northwest, are we? Nor are we used to half-naked bodies walking by all the time; Europe really is a whole different world. But wow, we swam to this other little island and climbed to the top and we saw the most gorgeous view! I couldnt help but think about how easy I have it here... I only have to work 12 hours a week and I live in paradise :)

Classes started again yesterday and everything seems to be running smoothly still. The kids are so sweet! Yesterday in one of the 5th grade classes alone I already had 3 different girls give me bracelets that they made for me... ¡Qué mono! (how cute! in spanish...) and another girl colored a picture with my name on it... they're just adorable. I'm starting to really get the hang of things too. I'm becoming more comfortable with the teachers I work with and we seem to all get along really well. It's really cool to see how much progress they have made since the first week too; they are really talented. I'm not supposed to speak to them in Castellano at all while in the classroom, but every once and a while after I have tried to explain something in every way I can think of in English I will talk to them in Spanish. Now I know why they didnt want me to though; they're tricky little buggers. They teacher will tell them that Im just trying to learn Spanish so I know a little, but now they know I'll understand them in Spanish and so will try to have conversations with me in their native tongue. I now just listen to what they say in Spanish and answer in English. It's kinda funny actually.

All I have left to do now is to get my NIE card (basically an extended Visa that says Im a resident) so that I can get discounts on touristy stuff like the locals do. I guess the computer system has been down at the police station here for over a week now... so we haven't been able to make an appointment to get one. Funny how different things work here :) But on Monday we're going in and after I have it I plan on visiting the Cathedral and the old castle up the hill. Should be awesome... I'll keep you up to date! Miss you all... we'll talk soon!

Getting Settled

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd start a blog to let everyone know how things are here on the island! Where to begin.... ? Well, when I first got into Palma I thought this place was too good to believe. As I stepped out of the airport I was surrounded by palm trees, blue skies, and beautiful weather. One of my roommates picked me up at the airport which was very helpful (considering I had planned on winging it when I got in), and from there it was only a short 5-minute bus ride to my apartment, which is right in the city.

I've been here for a little over a week now and things are all starting to come together. I now share an apartment with three other girls, one other seattle-ite from the program named Carly, one girl who has grown up on the island (Helena), and another Spanish girl from the province of Galicia (Encarna). I feel so blessed to have come across these girls! First off, I will have so many opportunities to improve my Spanish. Helena actually studied in the United States for a while and speaks English very well, but Encarna only speaks Gallego and Castellano (Spanish). So, while at home we all try to speak only in Castellano. We already get along so well :) Helena actually is sensitive to gluten and dairy too, and she has helped me to find gluten and dairy-free products here. I swear, they have an even bigger selection here than they do in the states! I was really surprised. I even found gluten-free beer :) We have already begun to plan trips to the mainland together too... Im thinking this living situation is going to work out perfectly.

I love the school I work at. Its called CP Eugeni López i López. The teachers have all welcomed me with open arms and have been so helpful. Before I arrived here I was contacted by Joana, the main English teacher at the school, and she offered to come pick me up at my place and show me personally how to get to where I needed to go. I am helping in two 3rd, two 5th and two 6th grade English classes. It's really cool because they try and teach many subjects in other languages here. Kids as young as 3 begin taking classes in English, Catalán, and Castellano here, and many of their normal subjects are taught in a different language. For instance, Im helping the 3rd graders do arts and crafts in English! Its really fun, and the kids are really great. Some of the girls were already hanging on me after the first day :)

I am situated in the perfect location. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to my school, and 15 minutes to walk to beach in the other direction. I went to one of the main beaches on Paseo Marítimo the other day. Didnt make it until about 5:30 or 6:00 and the water was still great :) I'm going to try and make it to some less-touristy beaches here in the next couple weeks while the weather is still great.

Well, that's about all for now.... Hope all is well in the States and I'll try and keep you all updated on what's up in Mallorca. ¡Adios!