Morroco

Last night Evan and I went out to a delicious dinner for our 4 year anniversary. We were originally planning on going out afterwards but just ended up picking up a forty of beer and heading back to the piso.

After watching a couple episodes of South Park, our roommate Naz called us out to the living room. Him and Mounir, our roommate from Morrocco had made some DELICIOUS Morrocan food. It was amazingly seasoned lamb with flavorful sauce, prunes, and hard-boiled eggs. We ate it with bread using our hands. So good! Mounir showed us videos and talked a lot about Morroco. Naz lived in Morrocco for 11 months. So pretty much we have 2 Morrocan experts on our hands so we should try and go to Morrocco because we are super close!

We are going to Sevilla in a week and a half and that might be a perfect opportunity to just hop on over to Africa, as we will be practically there in the south of Spain anyways.

They are going to try making another traditional Morrocan dish tonight and I am so excited!!!

Rainy Day

It is raining today and will continue to be raining for the rest of the week. I am happy because I like the rain but unhappy because I didn't do laundry before the rain started so now I have to wait until after it is over so my clothes will properly dry.

Last Thursday, Evan and I went to this amazing agricultural fair (largest in Mallorca) and stuffed our faces. You can read about it here. Or, if you don't understand any Spanish, at least look at the amazing pictures that Evan took.

On Friday we went with our friend Lyda to Valldemossa for a spectacularly beautiful hike. If you want to know/see more go for here plants and here for beautiful views. It had rained recently and was absolutely beautiful. That day is also when I found out that there are reruns of Sex and The City on tv here and I am definitely heading to Lyda's one day to hit that up!

Saturday did not see much action, most of my time was spent catching up on blog posts and relaxing. On Sunday I went with Lisa to help with the Es Verger project. The Es Verger project is a small garden outside of Manacor that the volunteer group runs to help pay for some of the costs of the group by selling vegetables. They also have an old run down house that they are trying to fix up to create a nice place to people to work and relax. I don't have any pictures of this place but Lisa took a ton so I am hoping to get them soon. I helped till the soil and pick out rocks and then I worked planting peas, garlic, onions, and leeks. It was a beautiful spot and I hope to go out there the next time they have a work day. The people out there were awesome and it was great talking to them about the environment and gardening techniques. It felt so good to get my hands dirty!

 That day was also really successful for me because I was told multiple times how good my Spanish is. I felt like I was able to understand just about everything everybody was saying and I even new some Spanish plant/garden words that other people didn't. That day made me feel like I could definitely be fluent at the end of this program if I keep surrounding myself with Spanish speakers and practicing.

Sunday night we went to a Thanksgiving potluck put on by a couple of the other people in the program. We got to stuff our faces, yet again, on a delicious mix of Spanish and American food. Yay for pumpkin pie and empanadas gallegas.

Today we decided rather spontaneously that we are going to go to Sevilla, in the south of Spain for 6 days for December 5th through 10th. We have that Tuesday and Thursday off for holidays and I requested Wednesday off as well. So we are flying out Monday night with our friends Mary, Naz, and Emily and coming back on Sunday. I don;t work on Fridays so that day wasn't an issue. We don't really have a clearcut plan of what we are doing besides renting a car and driving to Granada at some point during those six days. I am really excited to see another part of Spain and be in a place where they only speak Castellano and not Catalan! This is also an opportunity to scope out places we might want to live if we decide to do the program again. 2 weeks away!

On a sadder note, our awesome roommate Ewa (she's from Polland and speaks excellent Spanish) moved out to go back home for a few months while her airport job is not available. Luckily she will be back in the spring, we just won't be able to live with her again. She also told us (Evan and I) that we could come stay with her in Polland on our winter break if we like! She lives in the very nothern part of Polland on the ocean so it is probably going to be freezing there so we will see what the weather starts looking like come December.

Here is the strange part: in her place a 50 year old woman moved in. This is a house of people under 30. Weird. She is a music teacher and mostly keeps to herself and it very quiet but it has set a rather weird vibe for the apartment. The day before she moved in our roommate Mounir put it perfectly "Mom is coming". Dun dun dun! So far there hasn't been a problem but it has only been 4 days.

So Jordan is coming to live here in Palma for 4 months starting around Febuary! I convinced her to take the spring semester off and come live here and be an English tutor! There is a huge demand and it is a well paid job with flexible hours. She has also been saving up for a while to come visit us anyways. This is going to be really awesome because Jordan is fun to travel with (not to mention that she is my best friend) and we can graduate together from HSU in fall 2012! Our roommate Mounir told us he is moving out in February to go back to Morrocco and finish his PhD so his room will be available! Que buena suerte!

My Little Plant

I found this little plant while visiting our friends Brigette and Jason in Manacor (across the island from Palma). We were taking a walk around the town and suddenly, there at my feet was a little helpless baby spider plant! I looked up and sure enough, there was it's mommy plant sitting on a balcony above us with tons of little babies hanging off. So I stuck this little one in my pocket and then into a glass of water because it was looking a little worse for wear. I promptly forgot to bring it with me back to Palma, so Brigette and Jason brought it in a little plastic baggie with some water when they came to Palma the next weekend.

I let it's little roots grow out for a bit then I took the only plant (dead) in our piso and yanked it out and planted my little spider plant. It has not shown much signs of growth but at least it isn't looking worse!

After this little episode I realized what was missing: plants! I usually have 3-4 houseplants wherever and I am living and before little spidey there were 0. I needed some kind of hobby that can keep me occupied in the house besides the internet. But, I didn't want to go out and spend a ton of cash of plants that I can't take back to the US.

So you know what I did next? I started to keep an eye out for easily accessible Philodendrons. Philodendrons are very easy houseplants like spider plants and you can snip a chunk of one, plunk it in a glass of water for a couple weeks and let the roots grow and then plant it in soil. The next day I found on in my 5th grade classroom! And conveniently located next to a box of scissors!

I am still staying vigilant about easily accessible plants that can grow from a cutting to grow my little plant army! I will probably have to break down and buy a little bag of potting soil and some cheap pots to house my little plants but that will be way cheaper than paying 8 euro for one plant. And buying a full grown plant is not nearly as satisfying as growing your own!

What a cutie!

Evan's parents are coming to visit in 6 weeks! We told them to stock up on contact solution (the kind I use costs 24 euro as compared to 7 dollars in the US. Yikes!), deodorant, and sunscreen. I am really excited to see them!

And Jordan is coming out here to live for a few months starting in the middle of January! I am super excited! It is going to be so much fun traveling and exploring the island together. And then we can go back to HSU and graduate together! I am so happy she can make this opportunity work.

Evan had his first English tutoring lesson this Thursday and I think it went really well. He has been getting more and more emails in the last few days so I am hoping that he is able to work around 10 hours every week to pay off his new camera. I might start tutoring as well to earn some cash to either: a) be sensible and save it for when I get back to the States or b) blow on a trip to China during spring break to visit Waldon??? That is, if he is living there by that time lol.

The shop sent Evan a video of the Miata engine running, which gave him a joy boner (please refer to this episode of the Daily Show) lol.

Excited to go on a hike tomorrow! I will definitely NOT forget my tree book like I did last time!

I will also find out this week if doing my botany project on lichens is a possibility!

La Sifonería

Another eventful night at La Sifoneria! We went there with a bunch of friends and wound up staying for several hours until Juan Carlos (the owner) decided to shut down so we could go grab some burgers. La Sifoneria is amazing for many reasons: dirt cheap wine that is really good, awesome people, and a great atmosphere. Evan and I spent 10E on drinks but we probably had about 10 drinks between us. While there we met an interesting woman from Texas, who apparently wants to hang out with us all the time now, and a Spanish guy and I ended up talking to this Italian guy for a long time.

It was really cool talking to the Italian guy because I told him all about my family that came over to the US from Italy and how they (we) grow their own vegetables just like back in Italy. And how my grandpa made his own wine in the backyard. It was great because he was all into organic agriculture and had seen/read a lot of the same things I have seen/read like Food Inc. It made me really excited to go to Italy and now I really want to take an Italian class! If I end up becoming an Italian citizen it would come in really handy! We were speaking in Spanish but it was cute because you could totally hear his Italian accent.

Juan Carlos is totally in love with our friend Italis and it is so cute!

Evan and I in La Sifoneria.

We went to this bar after La Sifoneria and before the burger place and they had this amazing drink that was gin with lemon...SO GOOD! Also, really good because we got our drinks paid for by some Spanish guy we were hanging out with. The gin they used is made in Menorca. They are definitely speaking my language with local gin.

Feeling good after ginebra con limón!

After this we attempted to fit 13 people into 2 taxis and after I got in and sat on Evan's lap the cab driver looked at me like I was crazy so I got out and hopped in a cab with Italis and Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos ended up paying for the cab which was super nice. Of course 2/3 cabs made it to the burger place and my husband was in the one that didn't make it so we had this long drawn out experience of trying to figure out where the other person was via cell phone (Evan using Scott's phone because we only have one). They ended up being really close but only Evan came to the burger place because Emily, Scott, and Helen decided to go home. We got our burgers (fries for me) after Evan found me while using Emily's phone (which we still have lol) and then had to walk at least a mile back home. It was definitely quite a night. I woke up at 11:30 because we went to bed at 3:30 in the morning!

I have a feeling we are becoming regulars at La Sifoneria. This was the 3rd time we had been there.

Things I miss/don't miss about the USA

-I miss stick deodorant, the spray kind really just isn't cutting it.

-I miss sunscreen that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't leave you feeling greasy.

-I miss hot water that is reliable.

-I MISS MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

-I miss my cooking utensils.

-I miss my dishwasher.

-I miss thrift stores because for some reason they don't seem to exist here.

-I miss seeing the mountains all around me.

-I miss stores being open on Sundays and from 1-5 every other day.

-I don't miss my car.

-I don't miss riding my bike in the sweltering heat to the farmers market, but instead walking 10 minutes. Oh yeah, and it is Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday!

-I don't miss crappy Humboldt county public transit, because the bus system rocks here!

-I don't miss school.

-I don't miss speaking English all the time. It is great to practice my Spanish everyday!

So the moral of this post is that if you come to visit bring me some Old Spice deodorant and some Neutrogena sunscreen! And then we will go post up on the top of my building and check out the beautiful view of the mountains and the ocean!

Que Exciting! Que Sexy!

Yesterday was Halloween! We didn't really see many kids trick-or-treating but the young people that like to party seem to think that this is a pretty awesome holiday. The majority of people that were dressed up were very gruesome. Lots of zombies, dead brides, and dead surgeons. It was a nice change to see less skimpy outfits from girls than we usually see in the USA.

We got all dressed up and ate tapas at Lyda's house (pictures to come later or just check out facebook) with Brigette, Jason, Scott, Lisa, Lyda, Ewa, me and Evan. Evan was Justin Timberlake in the hilarious "Dick in a Box" music video from Lonely Island. I don't know what I was...just a person in a dress and wig with lots of fabulous makeup.

We went to this raging house party where there were almost all of the auxiliares that we have met so far this first month. I wound up talking to this hilarious Brazilian guy dressed as a woman that kept telling Ewa and I that we were not nearly as sexy or exciting as he was. So funny! Then we were joined by 2 Russian guys. It was a very multinational crowd with people from the US, Canada, Russia, Polland, Brasil, Argentina, Spain (por supuesto), and Italy.

Then we went back to our apartment so I could change out of my heels and we could all scarf the rest of the pesto pasta from a couple days ago. This was around 2:30 in the morning.

Then too the Night Bus. I was asking Lisa about it and she said "Oh yeah, el bus de nit" and I was thinking what the hell is she talking about?! Wouldn't it be el bus de noche? But of course the bus de nit arrives and picks us up along with 20 other Spanish kids. The bus ride was absolutely ridiculous! People were asking to take pictures with Evan and kept tapping on his box and calling him "El Paquetón" , basically the Big Package lol. When we first got on the bus we noticed a security guard and were wondering what that was all about. The reason became apparent when everybody started singing the Oh-ley oh-ley fútbol song and the most popular White Stripes song Seven Nation Army. Oh yeah and swinging from the bars and jumping up and down and clapping and standing on the seats. It was amazing! And super fun!

We finally got to the strip with all the clubs and got in some quality dancing and people watching. Or should I say zombie watching.

We decided to crash at Lyda's because it was wayy closer than our apartment. After some 5 am pasta we finally made it to bed somewhere around 5:30 in the morning. Yay Halloween.

On a completely different note, I found out today that I have a really good chance of becoming a dual citizen of Italy, thus making it really easy for me and Evan (because he would become a citizen too because he is my hubby after all). Because my mom and grandparents were citizens of Italy it should be pretty simple. That is, if they didn't denounce their citizenship when they came over to the US. Unfortunately I feel like there is a good chance they did because it makes you a citizen of the US easier and faster. Vamos a ver.