Mallorca

For getting all of an hour and half’s worth of sleep last night, today has been stellar. The dearth of sleep was due to the fact that I slept in the Palma de Mallorca Airport and the stellarness is due to a variety of things. I finished my book, a map of the Sierra Nevada Mountains arrived after three weeks of waiting, and most of all I just finished up an awesome weekend; Miguelito, Pato and I accomplished a lot…a Thursday evening departure and a Monday morning return (with a taxi to class) helped make this three day weekend to Mallorca just top notch.

Saturday evening found us checking the bus schedule in the minuscule village of Lluc in northwestern Mallorca…and what do you know the last bus out just left and tomorrow happens to be Sunday…always a slow day in Spain, only two buses will be coming to Lluc and not really in the direction we hope to go or by the time we hope to leave this one horse village. But we are relatively wiped out after a mondo day in the Serra de Tramuntanas, a mountain range that seems to rise right off the coast, reaching elevations as high as 4,300 ft. We’d trekked from the mountain village of Sóller with the plan of either staying at a mountain ‘refugio’ or making the full 25-30km trek via the GR-221 trail to Lluc. The first refugio we saw was a ‘bring your own food to cook’ type location, and all we’d brought to eat was lunch + snacks…a scrumptious array of Mallorca produced cheese, ham, fresh baguettes, apples, peaches, and bananas. OK, so the bananas and maybe the melocotones (peaches) could have been imported to be sold at the local ‘mercado’ where we purchased breakfast and lunch Saturday morning in Sóller.

In any case, we were going to walk all the way to Lluc because we had not purchased dinner materials and were making good time on a gorgeous day through some freaking cool mountains.The climb up from Sóller was steep; a stone walkway with hundreds of other seemingly hand created stone walls and walkways covered the valley as we ascended. You don’t get the same atmosphere hiking the Whites. We consistently saw sheep throughout the day roaming the mountainsides along with cattle. I’ll mention this again, there were heaps of rocks!

Being stuck in Lluc, we choose to do the only thing anyone seems to be doing and reserve a three bedroom room for $46 euro at the local tourist hub; a monastery! Don’t see any monks. We wake up to $6 euro breakfast buffet and decide to get a quick dayhike in before the first bus comes at 1. Not much to do in Lluc as it turns out. However after about 30 minutes of walking we see the GR-221 sign posted with ‘4 hours 45 minutes’ to Pollensa, the next pueblo (town) on the northward track of the ‘Camina per Mallorca.’ Miguelito and I jump on the idea and convince Pato it’s the only thing to do. This day is close to as long mileage-wise, but it’s almost all downhill valley and flat country road walking. My feet are certainly feeling it as we amble into the small village around 3 and find the bus stop and a convenient bus to Palma at 3:30!

First night we spent in Arenal, a German and Dutch tourist dominated Hampton Beach type suburb of Palma, and stayed at the quality ‘Hostal Tierramar’ where we were provided with a bar and some solid information about the island. Friday we explored the city around the Catedral de Palma and even walked out of the main city a bit and climbed up to the Castillo de Bellver to catch some views and check out a castle. Yesterday evening was spent along the coast of the city.Over dinner Pato regaled us with stories of geology and the good life in Kansas. So awesome.

-Nick

The Phantom Menace

Well, well, I finally returned from a fantastic three day weekend in Mallorca and was anticipating a much needed siesta until I found this...

El Gato!

Lucio (el gato) is at it again!  Over the last four weeks of this war I thought I had claimed sole sovereignty over the bed and desk despite conceding the corner of the room (including my rucksack) to el gato.  We had since agreed upon an armistice-- but this is a clear violation of the cease fire and such a sneak attack will not be tolerated!  I will update the blog with stories of our journey in Mallorca soon but I must first attend to the more important matter of pushing the battle front away from my bed and into the corner of the room again.  I will not retreat to the chair for my siesta!

-Michael

Busy Busy Busy

Hola!  I've been meaning to update this blog more but I've been pretty busy with things- last night I had to read 40 pages in Spanish with all sorts of tenses and vocab I haven't even learned yet.  I've definitely been getting a decent amount of school work to do which is good cos I forgot what it was like to actually be responsible for doing work after I spent the first half of the year on coop..

As Nick said we went to a Hercules match last Sunday with some friends and it was a lot of fun despite being on the losing side.  Monday I went to el barrio to practice Spanish with our friend Adam's Spanish amigas.. They were running on Spanish time (real late) but in the end it was worth the wait to practice mi español with locals.. I even had part of a dream that night turn into Spanish!  Tuesday we went to play soccer up behind the castillo de san ferdinand.  We crushed a pretty lazy local group of españoles in a small sided game.  Last night I worked on my homework for hours and now here I am, ready for a three day weekend in Mallorca!  Weather looks a little sketchy, but maybe we´ll luck out.

Catch ya on the flip side

Michael

Learning Spanish is hard when you aren't a 'niño' anymore

I attended my first Hercules CF football game this Sunday con Miguelito. It was a derby game against Valencia (our close neighbor to the north), plenty of fun. I even learned a bit of colloquial soccer vocabulary which is kind of useful. 'La puta madre' is used regularly for yelling at Valencia's team and fans, and also for any sort of unfortunate play. Hercules lost 2-1, but the crowd and players didn’t give up in any way. Not even when Valencia scored two early goals that were a class above what Hercules had to offer. El Estadio Jose Rico Perez was at 80%+ capacity(which is 30,000 or so). I live a 15-20 minute westerly walk to the stadium and Miguelito is even closer.

My other classes have been starting up this week. Human Resources Management, while it won’t teach me everything I might find interesting about Spain…is taught by a Spanish professor and it has an international feel to it that standard CIEE classes don’t have. There are fellow students from Norway, Finland (four blonde babybabes), Australia, Germany, England, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Gibraltar, Ghana, Netherlands, and Switzerland in addition to a handful of fellow Americanos. Quick trivia question; which one of the above mentioned is not a country? Why? Prize is the opportunity to spend 3 months with me working here, http://www.workaway.info/4617972854a8-en.html, in late summer/fall of 2012. I'm mildly serious.

I believe that the website workaway.info was brought to my attention early this year by my buddy Liam who was studying in Florence, Italy, but for whatever reason I never gave it a good look-over until yesterday. Such an awesome deal…you agree to volunteer 25 hours+ of your time each week and in return receive free room and board from ‘workaway’ hosts that are all over the world. Achieving my dream of working on a ranch in Mongolia never seemed so near. http://www.workaway.info/5343392244b5-en.html. Who doesn't want to learn to drink vodka the traditional Mongolian way?

-Nick

Nada

Just thought I'd go on record saying Eva Longoria is even hotter with a Spanish voice dub-over, thus making Desperate Housewives much more palatable to watch in Spain than at home.

Happy Friday everyone!

Michael

Some Ramblings

The refrigerator in my apartment is impressively unorganized. Containers of olives/olive oil all over the place and random food everywhere. Some of the Dipper in me came out last night as I was trying to put away the salad bowl. There is now one small section of the fridge that is well put together.

I’ve spent much of the last week struggling to acquire a certain language learning program. I think that I succeeded, and I’d like to thank Mark for my strategy in trying to make it happen. Look things up on Google and then follow directions.

This morning I made instant coffee with regular coffee grinds and micro-waved water. A small miscommunication with mi madre.

It rained hard (it's only drizzled once or twice before) for the first time today while a few of us were at the beach. Which brings up the point that I’m abandoning my goal of not talking to people about the weather (arbitrarily that is). My Spanish skills will need to become more creative before I can avoid ‘hace mucho calor’ in any normal conversation about my day.

I am debating the merits of having the next book I read be a Spanish one. As in, written in Español. Rate of chapters finished and nuances comprehended may decrease, but on the macro scale it should increase those rates (my life in figurative terms).

Two of my buddies here, El Jefe and El Cocinero are taking a class entirely on the ‘Camino de Santiago,’ a sacred Catholic Pilgrimage on which to take part you only need to step out of your front door and walk to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. I really enjoy the idea of such a trek and all of the history behind it. Thus, I’m getting daily secondhand lessons from El Jefe and El Cocinero on the subject. The class is actually going to be doing a mini-Camino de Santiago during fall break and it doesn’t sound too tame (120km in 5 days =24kms a day).

OK, hasta pronto amigos, Nick

Start of Classes

Nick and I, along with our friend Patrick, are heading to Palma de Mallorca for a three day weekend next week.  The other day Micaela informed us that she would be joining in the fun!  Well, I just found out she booked her trip for this weekend and not the same weekend as us!  Oh man it's kind of funny, kind of sad, I was looking forward to meeting up with her.. guess that'll have to wait for a bit.

Anyways, my regular classes for the semester started this week.  I have a double Spanish course every morning Monday through Friday with the same professor from my intensive course.  On Monday I had my first History of Spanish Art class.  Our teacher is really laid back and I think the course will be more fun than work.  My Spanish Cinema course is a little different, as we got crackin right away on watching a full movie.  Tomorrow I have to give a ten minute oral presentation about different aspects of the movie- in front of my full class of three people!  The Spanish grading system is quite different so its hard to say how I think I will fare this semester..

Yesterday my friend Adam brought along me, Nick, and our friend, El Jefe, to meet his Spanish novia and her friends.  We got to the bar, waited around, had some cervezas, waited some more, then realized they weren't going to show up!  Stiffed by Spanish chicas... until today Adam received a text saying something happened and she forgot.  Who knows really.

I feel as though I'm finally in a good routine here, between classes, meal times, and siestas.  I am absolutely crushing the delicious food mi madre prepares for me.  I think even Mark would be proud of me.

Hasta luego

Michael

I think it'd be funnier if I didn't explain why we're hanging out with some ostriches in this picture..

A Fateful Day

Yesterday, to celebrate the culmination of two weeks of intensive Spanish, the group took an afternoon trip to the Bodega de Santa Margarita, a winery about an hour’s drive out of the city. As it turned out, there wasn’t the slightest pressure to spit out our wine after tasting…and the good people at Santa Margarita happily brought out more bottles. Looking back, it was really a shrewd business move on their part; I’m judging that they sold 50+ bottles as we were leaving.

Additionally, with the wine, they served salchichon(sausage) that was from pigs raised right there at the winery. There was also cheese with our wine! And heaps of other delicious snacks! And excess quantities! I had a slight headache by the time we got on the bus.

Upon my return, the family wasn’t in sight so I immediately took a siesta for two hours. Waking up to some banging sounds and some loud talking. Walking into the living room, my second person plural greeting of ‘como estais’ was responded to by a ‘third person plural pointing to’ of the cast on my madre’s right leg and her informing me that she broke it ‘en la calle’ (on the street). She had broken a couple ‘fingers’ as my sister called them. (Dedo means both finger and toe over here apparently). Ileana (65 years old) was practicing walking around on arm-extension crutches and was giving reasons to believe she might break more bones before she went to sleep that night. Thankfully a far more stable walker was procured from her storage locker at a warehouse.

Elena (sister) was pretty stressed out, periodically hitting the back porch to have a cigarette…contrastingly, Ileana was the opposite of stressed and was practically making a point of trying to help me improve my Spanish. We had an enthusiastic conversation before I went out about the subtle differences between ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’. Fairly outrageous scenario.

On a different note: I returned from the beach today at about 6 and went straight to a café/bar with my friend Derek...we watched the Hercules CF vs. Barcelona game with lots of locals. We won! 2-0, a real miracle, with one terrible and one great goal by Valdez. Home game next weekend vs. Valencia. I hope to be there.

May all be well with all of you! Love, Nick

Quieres Bailar

Whew! What a week.. I crushed the final for our intensive Spanish course yesterday- wait, just kidding, it was super hard.  Important things aside, after our final CIEE took our group out to a tour of a bodega (winery).  We took a tour of the facilities which was actually quite interesting.  The process of making wine is a incredibly controlled process.  When the grapes are fermenting they are kept in HUGE tanks that must stay between 19 and 21 degrees celsius.   After they are transfered to a vacuum machine that super cools the wine to kill bacteria.  Then the wine goes into barrels for a year or so.  The barrels cost 1200 euro each and hold 250 bottles of wine.  I would explain better if I could, but I think the most important thing I learned was that it is a very controlled process from start to finish.

After the tour we were treated to what the dignified world calls a wine tasting.  With 28 American students, I'd call it more of a free for all.  We were offered a grand spread of foods and wines, red and white.  Everyone had a smashing time, including our professors!  HA!  Once the fun was over we had the afternoon to nurse our mini resacas before going out to El Barrio.  (Barrio is the word for a neighborhood or district within a city- for instance, I live in the San Blas barrio).  El Barrio is the name for the compact area in the center of town close to the beach where a crazy amount of bars are located.  The weekend scene is always hopping, with the fiesta starting a little before midnight and carrying on pretty much til sunrise.  My late night stamina has slowly been increasing; it's pretty crazy to start and end so late.

Alright, time to hit the beach!

~Michael

Taking in the sights last Saturday morning at Guadlest

Quick Update

The inside of my head is fuzzy from all of the Spanish I have been studying this past week. Four hours a day! + Heaps of studying…and more to come this evening for the final exam manana. I digress. I’m actually mildly psyched on the amount of learning I’m trying to fill my brain with. Also psyched on chasin' that tan; not really too elusive in Alicante, Spain as it turns out.

Things should immediately chill out for me after tomorrow. I will be taking two business classes (need them as credits to graduate Spring 2012) at the international business school at the Universidad de Alicante along with regular CIEE Spanish class… and as it turns out the UA classes don’t start for another week and end in late November!

Quick shout-out to Liam and Kyle. I think last time you guys were ‘Juniors’ the season ended pretty well eh? The below is direct from Nazarath College's website. My man!

'Brockport dominated play during regulation and overtime with 13 shots to Nazareth's two, but Nazareth goalie Kyle Connolly made eight saves for the shutout in his first career start for the Golden Flyers.'

One Week

Alright so today was the first free day we've had since arriving in Alicante, and by that I mean no scheduled activities.  Just time for fun activities, or funtivities if you are a fan of The Office.  My funtivities for the day included sleep, more sleep, a plethora of delicious food at lunch and dinner, and a bullfight.

I'll start with the food.  Mi madre, Charo, is an excellent cook and I have been eating vast quantities of delectable foods.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, lunch is the most extravagent meal of the day.  Today I had bread, pasta, chicken leg, potatoes, grapes, and a chocolate croissant to top it all off. So yummy.  Dinner was just as spectacular with a couple of grilled ham and cheeses, bread, and a plate of this vegetable mix.  I'm eating quite well.  The biggest difference between eating here than back home is I eat colossal meals but snack much less.  I'm definitely eating healthier here, although there are a few KFCs scattered around the city I'll probably get to trying pretty soon cos you know I like my chicken fried...

On a lighter note, I woke up this afternoon and sat down to watch the television with mi padre.  It was pretty much the Spanish version of America's Funniest Videos, except at one point it featured a topless woman trying to get guys attention at a horse track race.  I just thought, wow, this would never be on mainstream tv on a lazy sunday afternoon in the United States when kids and families are probably watching.  But then again it makes me wonder why we are so tolerant of violence in American media but are so uptight about the human body and sex. I mean, guns kill people, and boobs don't.

Now for an abrupt transition, this evening, as Nick just posted, many of the American students went to a corrida de toros (bullfight).  It was in a circular stadium type venue that must be a couple hundred years old.  It wasn't a bullfight with huge adult bulls and adult toreros (bullfighter), but with torero apprentices and younger (but still tough, fast, and reckless) bulls.  There were three toreros whom I would guess were around my age, and six bulls..

The bulls get killed, and it's not a quick death.  One at a time, each torero went up against a bull while at the same time a horn section would blare music.  After maybe ten minutes making the bull dance around, the horns would stop, the crowd would fall still, and it was time for the torero to slay the bull.  This involved lining it up, making it charge, and piercing with a three food sword through the top of the bull.  The bulls would need to be stabbed two or three times before they would collapse with blood pouring out the wounds and its mouth.  Like I said, it was not a slow or painless death.

One of the toeros got cocky and tried to go around the back with one of the bulls and got absolutely bundled and didn't return to fight his second bull.  The champion of the day ended up killing three bulls.  It was quite and experience that I don't know how to fully put in words just yet- and I'm still trying to make up my mind on how I feel about bullfights.  Either way, el hijo de mi padre (my padre's son) who is in his thirties and came to lunch explained to me (in Spanish, and I'm pretty sure I have the translation correct) 20% of Spaniards like the bullfight, 20% are indifferent, and 60% despise it.  I've heard its even banned in Barcelona now.  Anyways, here's a few pics other people took:

Ole

Stabbing the bull

It's not exactly pleasant to watch

I've got a full week of intensive Spanish class lined up- four hours every day!  Tomorrow we get our first exams back.....

~Michael

My First Bullfight

This evening at 6:30, a multitude of study abroad students chose to attend una corrida de toros (bull fight). By 8:30, around half of them were in some other part of the city as the sixth and final bull collapsed (over/under was 6 departures, and the under never had a chance). It was a decently shocking experience. They really kill the bulls. They don’t die quickly.

On the micro outlook: we were watching the final ‘exam’ of ‘La Escuela Taurina,’ bullfighting school, and there were three circa 18 year old matadors competing for the title of top matador at the school. They were matched up against tenacious (maybe not quite full sized?) bulls. These young matadors have BALLS. After matador #1 finished a near flawless round, matador #2 came out and immediately went for the ‘behind the back cape hold.’ He got absolutely NAILED. #2 then proceeded to grind out the rest of the fight with what looked to be a broken hand and a mauled femur. All three had some sort of wildly dangerous contact with a bull at some point during the corrida.

On the macro outlook: I don’t think I’m particularly against corridas. For me, it might not even be as bad as supporting the United States’ large-scale CAFO-based meat industry (though it’s certainly a much more personal experience of support than eating a double cheeseburger at McDonalds).

I'm mildly confused about how to move images where I want to.

I’ve been living in Spain for more than a week now. Poco a poco he aprendido la idioma.

Yesterday after the exam, a 20 minute tram ride north brought us to a part of the endless beach around San Juan. Blue sky, soft white sand, volleyball, not crowded, waves, ability to walk 50+yards into the ocean.

Below are a couple of photos from today’s group trip to Guadalest, a mountain estate from hundreds (didn’t pay enough attention) of years ago, in the countryside outside of the city. The landscape reminds me of southern Colorado/New Mexico. We also visited the small provincial village of Altea (where the church was) and went to a new beach. Things are going swimmingly!

-Nick

Vamos a la Playa

Alright so its Friday morning and my exam is in one hour... but afterward we are hitting up the beach.  I heard it has been pretty hot back home so hopefully this lifts your spirits as well.

Vamos a la playa
A mi me gusta baila

"let's go to the beach
 I like dancing"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgE0fDNtvqY

~Michael

El gato

Alright so this afternoon I had to force el gato, Lucio, off my bed so I could take my siesta.  After a quick scuffle I managed to escape with no injuries, most likely because of my quick reactions as he tried to attack me.  Luckily I felt a huge adrenaline shot sweep through my body and juked out of the way.

After siesta I made sure to shut my door before going out to study for the big exam with classmates..  Well, I just got home and el gato somehow snuck his way in.  I'm not sure if he has a secret tunnel into my room or what but it this is becoming quite nerve racking.  Right now he is sleeping underneath my desk dreaming of ways to retaliate.  What do I do?

-This entry has been brought to you by procrastination-

~Michael

Brief Recap

OK, like Miguelito, I also take a siesta every day to supplement my evenings slight lack of sleep time...kind of like Cragged, but dissimilar in that the lack of sleep time has not been from an excess of fun, but rather because we have been placed in the most intensive Spanish group out of the three that make up our program! Mucha tarea. This intensive course lasts one more week before regular classes start, and my espanol has been improving rapidly. Another reason for this is that I live with a sixty five year old widow and her thirty seven year old daughter. Both are great; include me and provide me with lots of food. We eat dinner late! 10pm is normal.

I brought one of those surchargers (I forget what they’re called but it’s so you can plug in multiple devices from a single outlet and is the one I use in Colorado)…and when I plugged it in, it nearly blew my hand off. Well ok, it was just a huge boom with a slight shock that turned off all of the lights and appliances in the near vicinity of the house.

Entonces…the first time I tried to go shopping (con Miguelito on Monday with a list of about 6 things to get which reminds me that I didn’t pack quite correctly for spending the semester at the Hampton Beach of Europe; I didn’t bring sandals or sunglasses and my best swim trunks are covered in pine tar from Cragged) included us struggling to communicate, realizing my debit card was frozen, getting slightly flustered, and proceeding to buy slippers (zapatillas to wear around my casa) for $42 euro when I thought they were $27. Shopping ayer (yesterday) was great and I now own an international phone with $25 euros on it. In total it cost less than my slippers.

OK, I’m off to study up hard for the examen manana. Pictures to come!

Nick

Daily Life

Alright so today in la clase de espanol Nick proceeded to inform our profesora that "yo tengo mucho mierda".. literally translated 'I have much shit'...... thanks Nick for letting us into your life.

Anyways I thought I'd quickly write this entry to give you an idea of what the day to day grind has been like so far.  Nick and I started our intensive Spanish course on Monday and basically have covered more in three days than I learned in my five years of high/middle school Spanish.  We have a big exam Friday and it should be quite interesting.  Today Nick and I got a head start studying while hanging outside a bar/tavern enjoying la cerveza nacionale San Miguel.  Its not too bad, but so far my favorite has been la cerveza CruzCampo.  Anyways..

For breakfast, most Spaniards eat very light; for instance, mi madre just has coffee in the morning.  After an early breakfast it is off to la Universidad de Alicante which is about a 40 minute trip via walking and bus.  After four hours of Spanish class we return to the city to our casas for la comida (lunch).  This is the biggest meal of the day and usually occurs around 2 or 3pm.  Here comes my favorite part.  After lunch and up until 5ish is la SIESTA!!!!  I have not failed to pass out during this period once- the midday nap is perhaps the most glorious aspect of the Spanish lifestyle.  La cena (dinner) is incredibly late here- it starts no earlier than 9 and usually is around 10.

Time for some homework. 

~Michael

First Days

-This blog has been translated into English for your convenience-

Alright so the trip out was long and largely sleepless for me.  The cervezas Nick and I had the morning we crossed paths in the Madrid airport were enjoyable.  Then off we went to Alicante where we were greeted to 110 degree heat.  Needless to say I was wiped out.

On the second day I finally hit the beach after orientation and it was amazing.  The sand is as fine and the water warmer than anything I've ever experienced.  A few of us swam out and more or less frolicked on a floating dock.  The swim was a tad arduous, but at the same time it is incredibly easy to float in the water.

That night we hit the barrio for a night on the town.  In Spain the schedule is quite different; people don't start going out until after midnight on the weekends to fiesta.  The scene was hopping- I think its safe to say Alicante is everything Nick hopes Hampton Beach could be and then some..

Sunday we met our families.  I have a madre and padre, along with two dogs and a cat.  I like the dogs- but the cat has been my nemesis so far.  We have had many territorial battles for control of my room so far.  I think I'm starting to make it known this is my room.  Although yesterday I had to siesta in a chair because he claimed my bed.  There's nothing I can do, if i try to move him when he doesn't want to be moved he clasps my hand and tries to bite.. and he knows this is war- yesterday while he was sleeping he was on his back practicing punching in his dreams.  I got a little scared.  Right now, however, I have control of the room.  [most of this story is largely jest, i think we can learn to get along].  Mis padres are very nice.

Anyways, I'm still in the process of getting settled in.  Hopefully in the coming days I can settle into a nice rhythm.  The city of Alicante is fantastic and I think I will enjoy the coming months tremendously.

~ Michael