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.
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