Crema de Cacahuete

I finally broke down and bought some peanut butter when I found it in the store. My friend Lisa has been making pb and j's on rice cakes and they are delicious! Peanut butter (crema de cachuete) is somewhat hard to find here in Mallorca but there are tons of different kinds of Nutella, so it is kinda funny.

Here is the local tangerine and lemon jam I bought. The label is written in Catalan like everything Mallorquin here.

Mmm...que rico....These aren't rice cakes, they are tortitas de maiz (corn cakes!)

I am excited because I have Monday and Tuesday off this coming week! That means I only have to work for 4 hours next week! And hopefully I will get paid then! Halloween is on Monday, and it is definitely not as big of a thing here as in the States but we will probably get dressed up and go out for drinks or something.

I can't believe that we have been here for almost a month. The weather is still pretty nice, it is raining today but not super hard. It is quite warm too. Everyone has been worrying about having a heater in the winter but I feel like it isn't going to get nearly as cold as it does in Humboldt so I think we should be fine without it. Not that the circuit breaker in our apartment could handle it anyways, lol.

Have to go! Going out for a night on the town!

La Vida en La Cuidad

I guess the title of this blog is pretty obsolete now that I am living in a city of 400,000 people. It has been 3 weeks now and I still feel like I belong in the country. Being in the city is perfect for this kind of experience because there is always plenty to do and see. That way, you don't really have time to get lonely or dwell on the fact that you are almost 6,000 miles away from your loved ones. We are so lucky that Skype exists because it feels like you are in the same room with the person you are talking to!

I went running through Palma yesterday around dusk and it was absolutely beautiful once I made it out to the boardwalk that runs along with coast because everything was lit up. I ran for 40 minutes, which is pretty good considering I probably haven't ran in like 2 months. There is a 10K coming up here in December and I may or may not enter depending on how tight we are trying to keep the budget around that time. I will probably start working my way up to that distance anyways just for fun and because I have lots of spare time.

Some days I feel like my Spanish is improving dramatically and others I feel like I can barely speak Spanish or English. I really want to be fluent by the end of this program so I really want to keep putting myself into situations where I only speak Spanish. It has been 3 weeks and overall I feel that I have improved a lot so that makes me hopeful that I will reach my goal.

Next Thursday I am going to meet with a botany professor at the University of the Balearic Islands and I really want to be able to express my thoughts about the flora here and in the US as clearly as possible so I can make a good impression. Hopefully I will get some borrowed plant books out of it.

We are renting a car tomorrow and driving to Manacor to go to a festival and also to visit Brigette and Jason. We are going to try and hit up some beaches and hiking spots that you can only get to by car. The weather should be pretty decent (around 23 degrees C) so beaches and swimming here we come!

Skinny Dipping

I did it! I went European and went topless when Evan and I went to Playa Palma today! It felt so liberating and made me feel so self confidant! I think I am really starting to appreciate how low key it is here. At first seeing a bunch of topless and naked people is a little shocking because being from the US you never see that. It is refreshing to get away from a more uptight mindset. Yes, I didn't really need to see a 70 year old man's penis and testicles but I can deal with it. I guess I it makes me more knowledgable about different human anatomies.

Palma de Mallorca

I am not even going to try and recap everything that has happened to us since we arrived in Mallorca because that would be like writing a novel and Evan already did a nice summary on his travel blog: http://tekstravels.blogspot.com/

Today is Sunday so essentially nothing will be open besides a few restaurants. We were going to be in Manacor today but because of bad luck and stupidity we didn't bring our passports to go pick up the rental car last night so that didn't exactly happen.

Last night we watched the Castle Builders do their thing:

This was really cool to watch but terrifying when one of the "structures" collapsed. The way they set it up though, everyone that fell, fell on the backs of the people supporting the base so no one was hurt. The very top of the pyramid is usually a couple 4 year old kids with helmets so it is very nerve racking!

Last night was also the march of the Manifestación, which was basically like Occupy Wall Street. There were a lot of people out marching and there were some cool signs and acts.

Today I am going to try and work on my spanish and botany projects and catch up on some good old Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert so I can see what has been going on in the rest of the world!

Also, Evan and I's spanish has improved immensely since we have been here but we really need to study grammar and new vocabulary to keep up with all the new things we are learning!