Saturday, November 27th

Katy and I in the bus on the way
to Palma

Today we got up at 9:30 to eat our free breakfast buffet. It was so good! We had eggs, bacon, fruit, cereal, orange juice, and tea. I was very happy with the food!

Palma cathedral

After breakfast we all decided to go back to bed for a while. I took Niquil Friday night because I wasn’t feeling well and it hadn’t worn off all the way so I passed back out until after 1.

Finally Katy drug our butts out of bed to go into Palma center. The bus ride was only about 15 minutes from our hotel, but when we got there practically everything was closed. We went to a little café for lunch. I had a grilled ham and cheese. I know that is so un-adventurous, but I wanted some “comfort” food. J

gooooofy :)

After lunch we walked back to the palace of Palma. It had already closed, but it was still super pretty from the outside! Iman and I found a playground and went swinging for a while. We tried to go to the cathedral too, but it was already closed for the day as well. November is off-season for Mallorca, so most everything closed super early or wasn’t open at all.

Christmas Market!!

We did end up getting to visit the Roman baths. It was pretty cool to see such an old structure, but I don’t think I need to see another one. It was just two little rooms and a short video about the baths and the island. We were literally the only 4 people in the entire museum!!

After touring the baths, we went to Plaza Mayor. There was a Christmas market set up so we walked around looking at different tourist items. We all ended up buying junk food at one stand. I literally ended up with the BIGGEST cotton candy I’d ever seen in my entire life! It was MASSIVE!! I couldn’t even finish it, I know, cardinal sin. J

love me some cotton candy! :)

Next we headed to Plaza España, which also had a sweet Christmas Market. There were also a lot of kiddy rides and a portable ice skating rink. We wanted to go ice skating but the line was crazy long, so we gave up!

We found a café restaurant to split tapas. It was alright, but nothing like the tapas in Seville. We split two salads and some meatballs. By this time it was about 8 and we realized that the last bus came at 8:30, so we decided to head back to the hotel. 

Katy and Iman went out to find some more bread so we could dig into the food bag that my senora had packed for us! Mikaela and I stayed in the room and relaxed. The girls couldn’t find a supermarket that was open so they came back with a veggie pizza! They had found this cute café with cocktails and live music, so they convinced the two of us to go back out with them.

cocktail bar! :)

The bar was so much fun. It was a very chill, sit down place, but the atmosphere was awesome. I ordered a Sex on the Beach and Katy had a Pina Coloda. Iman and I split hot wings too! J The musician was an older man playing the guitar and singing. He was hilarious and kept singing American songs like Sweet Home Alabama and Proud Mary. We kept singing along and cheering for him. It was seriously a blast!

poor sick Katie :(

After we got done at the bar (around 10 pm), we decided to call it a night. I worked on my blog and some homework and fell asleep around midnight! J

Friday, November 28th

view from our hotel terrace

Friday I woke up feeling sick again. My immune system is really starting to tick me off! My first grammar class was meeting at a chocolate and churros place instead of the school, so I was really upset I had to miss it, there was just no way I could stomach it. Instead I went back to bed for a couple of hours before meeting Katy at the airport.

sunset on the beach

Since it was Thanksgiving weekend and we knew we would be homesick and missing all of our friends and families, we booked a weekend in the island of Mallorca. Seemed like the best idea in the world at the time, but it’s awfully cold here for an island! It’s seriously only in the 50s! :-\

Katy, me, Mikaela, and Iman
in Mallorca!! :)

Katy and I’s flight was at 1:30 for just under an hour. Mikaela and Iman had flown to the island the day before. When we got to our hotel, we settled in and then headed to the beach to watch the sunset. Katy and I were determined to get a tan, but the sun set too fast and it was too chilly, therefore our northfaces never came off to show off our bikinis! L

Katy and I

After watching the sun set, we came back to the hotel and cleaned up to go to dinner. Our hotel had a 12 euro all you can eat buffet and it was EXCELLENT!! I had a great salad, cheese, ham and bread, pasta, ice cream, fish sticks, and some fruit. SO GOOD! We found out at dinner that we can’t drink the tap water here. It’s not super unsafe, it just has lots of minerals in it or something that might give you a stomach ache. I’m already sick enough so I’m not chancing it with the water too!

Thursday, November 25th

Me, Teresa, and Jaime

Thanksgiving Day!! … not quite so exciting in a foreign country. One of my professors bought chocolates during our lunch break to celebrate with us.

The 25^th is also Saint Katherine’s Day, so I celebrated a little with my family. My Spanish mommy bought me this super cute black tank top and my sister got me a stuffed puppy (I think that’s a hint that she wants Pablito – her stuffed doggy – back). My Spanish uncle and cousin got me a little action figure of a Spanish soccer guy. I’m not really sure who it is, but Jaime told me he’s super hot and all the girls love him. Fine by me!!

For class Thursday I had to do my education class all alone. Even though I like the teacher, 3 hours, one-on-one is pure torture! She even made me do a project on my own – I had to come up with my own company in class and present it to her. It was working out fine, until the permanent marker bled all over the table!! Instead of saved by the bell, I was saved by the marker! She found some rubbing alcohol and we scrubbed the table the last 20 minutes, trying to hide it whenever her boss came by. Hilarious!! J

Juanjo and me! :)

Thursday nights are my language exchange nights with my Spanish uncle. We did our normal walk around the block, end up at VIPS. He’s reading a book in both English and Spanish, so he had a ton of vocabulary words to ask me about. A ton is seriously an overstatement. In the two hours we spent together, we only got to page number 3 in his book! One of hi vocabulary questions was about what “Peter” means and a “childish stub” and “sprouting”. When I read the paragraph where all these words were coming from I realized that it was about a boy “coming of age”. Talk about AWKWARD! I also had some papers that I wanted him to look at, so my awesome sister printed them out after she got done with classes and brought them down to VIPS. Jaime also joined us for the last 30 minutes. I’m pretty sure Juanjo will not be inviting them back because they were way too much of a distraction.

The best part of Thursday was getting to talk to all of my family. Even though it made me super homesick to see everyone enjoying Thanksgiving at my house, it was great to see everyone. Teresa skyped with me too to meet all my family. She couldn’t understand any of the kids which made me laugh. My littlest cousin kept showing me his monster cookie saying that he had a cookie monster. He tried to feed it to me through the computer too.. Adorable!! J

Tuesday, November 23rd

8!!!!!!

Day number, 8. We lived.

Monday, November 22nd

Monday I woke up feeling sick. I swear it wasn’t the single glass of tinto de verano I drank the night before, I legit was sick. Since I’d been up most the night, I knew I would be worthless in class, if I even made it that far, so I emailed the coordinator and went back to bed.

My abuela was so sweet with me. She heard me up in the night, so she got up and made me tea, brought it to me in bed and sat with me while I drank it. Throughout the day she would stop in and make sure I was still alive and tuck me back in. It felt great to be pampered! J

Later that afternoon Teresa and Ana came home. By then I was feeling a lot better so I ate lunch with the two of them and we ended up talking and hanging out later that afternoon.

That night, Teresa and I were being goofy and kind of freaking out because it’d been a week since we’d watched The Ring (in the movie, 7 days after you watch the movie you die). We kept texting each other and saying that we heard Samara (the killer girl). 

Sunday, November 21st

Dani and I -- Mahomet Girls! :)

Sunday I woke up not feeling 100%, but pushed through and got lots of homework done. One of my senora’s good friends came over for lunch. Again, we had a huge feast. These Spanish people sure know how to cook for guests!!

After lunch, I hit the books again. I also ended up skyping with one of Teresa’s friends on my computer because her webcame wasn’t working.

Teresa and I in the metro

I wanted to meet up with Dani again before she headed back to Murica, so Teresa and I met her at 100 Montanditos (she’d never been, so of COURSE I had to change that) for a late snack that turned into dinner. It was great to catch up with her because it made me think of home. J

Saturday, November 20th

the hair stylist herself

Saturday we couldn’t sleep in too long because we had plans to go to a relative’s house for lunch. Conchita must have come in Teresa and my rooms six times trying to get us to get out of bed! Teresa and I kept arguing over who would take first shower. I finally decided I better get up so I didn’t get left!

After my shower, I got desperate for a haircut, so I asked Teresa to give me a trim after my shower. She was so nervous that she was going to mess it up, but I just wanted her to get rid of my split ends, so it wasn’t a huge deal. You can’t even tell that my hair is a different length, it just looks healthier.

 

Lunch was excellent. First we had some snacks in the living room. We ate ham, which was WAY saltier than anything I’ve ever had in the states, and some sort of cracker spread. Teresa wouldn’t tell me what the spread was until after I’d tried it. It was duck liver.. nmb.. Absolutely disgusting!! Since Teresa and I are basically the same person, she doesn’t like it either, but the rest of the family loves the spread!

Lunch was ridiculous the amount of food they served us. First we ate this steamed vegetable dish that was delicious! Next there was this seafood dish with clams, shrimp, fish, asparagus, and eggs. It was so good! Next we had a huge cup of fruits. We ate pomegranate, peaches, mangos, and apple chunks. After that they brought out platters of little cake like desserts. Again, delicious. Next we had coffee and then the uncle/cousin gave me a shot of some after dinner liquor. I felt awkward because he asked me first and I said sure I’d try it, but then everyone else declined the offer. I didn’t want to seem like the alcoholic, but I also didn’t want to be rude at that point, so I tried it, hated it, and gave it back to him. My alcohol taste testing was amusing to him, so he proceeded to make me try cognac, which I’m pretty sure severed my nose hairs (although it tasted much smoother than it smelt).

 

After dinner we all sat around talking and hanging out. We finally went home around 6 or 7 pm. Teresa went over to Monica’s house to study and I was planning on going out with Dani and a bunch of her friends from Murcia. As the night went on I started feeling punier and punier and in the end I ended up not going out.