5 Days in Mallorca

Or maybe it´s six. I seriously have no concept of what the date is anymore since coming here, though somehow I manage to know what day and time it is...

Anyway, on Sunday I went to a different part of the island. I think the town was called Alcudia or something. It´s a really old Roman city with old stone walls and old everything, but it´s really pretty. There was a sort of "museum" there where we could tour this park and garden. There were many statues from a sculptor who had lived in the area, I believe. I really can´t remember everything. There was also a garden which was nice. And it grew opium: haha.

On Monday I went to class and had orientation as well as a regular class. I don´t remember anything else from that day. I´ve done way too much since I´ve gotten here. I think I might have walked around the city with my host mother, though. I think we went to a museum of contemporary art or something.

Tuesday was classes again, including the incredibly difficult Spanish culture class. Which is only difficult because all my classes are in Spanish and understanding what´s being said is difficult, especially with things that require a lot of conceptual things and... yeah. The language class isn´t that bad, though; a lot of it´s review, which would make sense since I technically learned everything I was supposed to about the language structure last semester, minus the detail things. But it´s also a lower level language class that I´m taking because it equates to 250 back at school, which I haven´t taken yet.

We also had several tours that day. One was to the cathedral in the city, which was fascinating because it was very historical. The other was a tour of the city (the old parts), which I understood little of because at that point my feet hurt so much that I could think of nothing else let alone pay attention to someone explaining comoplicated histories in Spanish. The fun part of that day, though, was when I lost the group on the way to the tour of the city becauase I was trying to get this picture of a horse. I guess they thought I was with them, because when I finally finished, they were gone. So first I waited around a bit, then I thought to ask someone for a phone, but I didn´t want to ask passersby because that would be weird. So I saw a policeman/authority figure of some sort and asked him. This conversation was entirely in Spanish. It went something like this:

Me: "Do you have a cell phone I can use? I lost the group I was with and I want to call them... so they can find me."
Him: "No, but I´ll try to flag down a police car so you can." (Note: I thought he was directing me to the police station, not trying to find a police car)

It´s also important to note that there were many, many stutters and re-explanations on both our ends because I had to say a lot more about my situation than is listed there. I also had a bit difficulty explaining some things, but for the most part I think we understood each other and it was really cool. But after that last point, the director of the program had found me and the two men exchanged a dialog detailing my situation and thanking the guy I´d asked graciously.

We also got our bus passes that day. Took two hours because I swear the processing was slower than the DMV.

Yesterday was class again. Had to turn in some homework things which weren´t a big deal because they´re just for the teacher to check our (not) skills. Then I had to move to a new house with a new family because the old place I was living at had a lot of stairs and no elevator, and since my vision is bad, the stairs were kind of problematic. Especially since it´s an old kind of city and they all sort of wend around and blend together. It´s kind of a shame because I really liked the lady I was with; she was a really cool person. But I can still talk to her if I want, which is good. She was a vegetarian anyway, though, which might have gotten a bit... old for me, but I´m not here to complain, really. Though I will say I think we were talking in English a bit too much, which was really my fault because when I´m tired, I can´t erally think in or understand Spanish very well. But the woman I´m with is nice, too, and I´m also living with another student in my program, so the company´s kind of nice. She also has this really goofy cat that I took pictures of and a video of earlier today/yesterday. The thing´s hilarious. XD I´ll have to upload those when I go home because I don´t have the cord for my digital camera here.

I´ve got homework to do over the weekend. It´s kind of lame, but not a big deal. It´ll also give me a chance to play with my computer at the house I´m staying at. I hope she has Internet. I think she does... but I´m not sure.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say, I don´t know where EmP was when he came here, but I have plenty to do. LOL He should´ve gone out more or something because I think I was busier in one day than he was his whole stay.

God damn this post is really long. Jesus. Meant to do daily updates or something but was too busy. I´m only at school practically all day... Haha.

But yeah. I´m having fun here, despite not getting much "me" time - most of my free time is spent doing other things like visiting places and such - but that´s alright. At least the workload´s not too bad, though I am a bit worried about that culture class... there´s some paper I need to write that´ll be longer than any paper I´ve ever had to write in Spanish, but that´s not due until the end of the... program, so... I guess it´s OK. I should ask about starting it next week, though, because the days go by quickly with 2½ hour classes, and if I wait too long I´ll be rushing and that´ll be bad.

The food here is also great. It really is. So that makes me happy.