2-day School week

End of the two-day school week already… and I’m exhausted.  I had to do a 40-minute presentation on Canadian immigration in a class with the comprehension level of 6 yr-olds.  It was so difficult.  Other than that, things were ridiculous as per usual.  Yesterday in music class, I danced a traditional Mallorquin folk dance with a kid who’s literally 4 feet tall.  And today, one of the lunch monitors mistook me for a student so she was telling me I couldn’t leave the building.  Ridiculous.  I do not look U-17!  Plans for the afternoon: sleep!

Adventures in cooking Parte II

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Piquillo-Peppers-Stuffed-with-Goat-Cheese-358729

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers for a night of Trivial Pursuit

Wait… when did this become a foodie blog?

Adventures in cooking

Found a nice recipe on Epicurious for “Roasted Mackerel and Avocado Salad”

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Mackerel-and-Avocado-Salad-355474

I found out how to clean and cut fresh mackerel into fillets… so you learn something new everyday, I guess.  If anyone was curious, mackerel is fairly popular in Spain, and its name in Spanish is caballa. 

It was a delicious, rich recipe that I will definitely make again!

Playa Maricel

About a 20-minute bus-ride from my apartment

The week’s end

Well, my three-day work week is over.  It was tough work, but somebody has to do it.  We have Columbus Day here too, but it’s called Dia Nacional de Espana.  So, right now I have a five-day weekend followed by two days of work.  Tough life.  

School was fine for the rest of the ‘week’.  To address Maura’s inquiry, I did play “If I Were a Rich Man” for the kids in one of my music classes.  The teacher left the room for a  quick minute and the kids were getting unruly, so I pulled it out as a secret disciplinary weapon.  The kids went NUTS.  They started applauding me and screaming and throwing their hands in the air like they just didn’t care.  I think they were just shocked after all the hunting and pecking I was doing trying to read the music for “Big, Big Girl.”  Anyways, the kids are really cute and seem to like me and there are a couple really great teachers.  I have an hour break every day so I’ve been walking to the Church plaza and reading or writing over a cup of coffee.  Quite tranquil. 

Wednesday night, a group of us went to one of my friend’s apartments and played Spanish trivial pursuit with her roommates.  Some of the questions were more focused on Spanish politics and sports so it was tough, but I learned a lot.  On a very interesting note, one of her roommates is from Mallorca, and she hangs in the same circle as Rafael Nadal.  So, when he’s in town, she said she’d let us know where he goes out.  I guess he spends his time in Manacor when he’s in Mallorca because the tourists in Palma (a.k.a. me) would harass him. 

This whole weekend there is a tapas fair going on throughout the city called Tapalma.  Basically, it’s like the tapas fair Emily, Phil and I went to in Madrid last year, except for that instead of being in an arena, there are tables set up outside the actual bars, and you walk around sampling.  It’s a competition for the restaurants; so, it’s pretty good, unique dishes and they capped the prices so its a good way to experience some of the more chichi places here. 

We walked around for a little bit last night, and there was an Indian restaurant that won last year that was good.  I asked them if they have chaat papri, and they said they do; so, dad’s prayers have been answered, and they gave me a lot of props for knowing my stuff.  We ended up getting full after like two places so we walked around for a bit and went to the billiards bar across the street from my apartment for a drink, or so we thought.

Remember my travel tip about asking a local if there is a good regional drink?  Well, I did that and it was definitely awesome.  We had all these rounds of Tunel on the house.  Tunel is a liquor made of sweet herbs, and it was quite awesome.  We met some really cool people at the bar.  It’s sort of a towny dive, and it was really great asking the locals questions about how to say certain things and general stuff about the area.  We were only going to stop in for a drink, but we ended up staying till like 4:30AM.  When I got home, I even skyped with mom and dad.  It was a great night/morning, and I didn’t have to work today so I went to the beach!  This weekend, some of us are talking about doing a two-day excursion in Mallorca, but we haven’t decided where yet.  I’m going to a movie tomorrow night, but I’m not sure it’s dubbed or subtitled.  Hopefully the latter!  I hope all is well in Norteamerica!

1st Day Jitters

So, today was my first day at school.   Off to a great start, the train came about two minutes early; so, I missed it and had to wait half an hour for the next one to come.  So… I was a little late, and I was sweating by the time I got to school because it was so hot out.  I know you guys back at home can’t commiserate with that whole warm-weather situation, and I’m  sorry for that, but in this one particular instance, I would have been loving a brisk autumn breeze, or at least my pits could have used it.  Anyways, the secretary reassured me when I got there and I went to class, where the teacher said he didn’t even know I was supposed to be there today.  Anyways, it wasn’t a big deal because I guess they decided I would spend the first week just observing classes, which is fine by me…

Music class was a bit chaotic.  The teacher told the kids I don’t understand any Spanish, which of course fueled giggles amongst a group of “cool” boys, the ringleader of which goes in spanish, “WAIT.  So she can’t understand ANYTHING.  I’m saying.  RIGHT.  now!??!?!” and I was sort of thinking, “oyyy,” but I said in English, “Just because I can’t understand you doesn’t mean you can talk about me!”  That’s when I realized they really had no idea what I was saying and they are going to have a hard time understanding me…

ANYways, we were singing this song called “Big, Big Girl” that isn’t even really 100% grammatically sound, for the record, and then the teacher tells me to go on the piano and try to play.  I was mortified!! I haven’t read music in like 10 years.  It wasn’t really that bad, as the kids in the class were all playing recorder and singing, and the teacher was playing guitar.  When a girl came out on the bongos is when I realized that this whole situation was turning very School of Rock very quickly.  Basically, all I could do is laugh all day.  The poor kids in the music class were so cute but really had trouble with english.  At the end of class, one kid ran up to me in despair and shouted in Spanish, “but how can I talk to you if you don’t speak Spanish?” It was so sad.

Then I went to a class where they were teaching English grammar, and they asked me about myself.  Weirdest questions. ever.  I think they were confused whether I was Canadian or Canarian (from the Islas canarias) because they were asking me if I knew Javier Bardem.  They were hilarious, but it was VERY difficult explaining that I’m both American and Canadian.  Other questions that were funny: “Why is your skin so dark?” haha, um, “are you a yoga teacher?” hhaha absolutely no idea where that came from.  The next class went the same, except they were a little more advanced, and I had a little posse of girls wanting to know everything about me and if I was coming on the trip to Germany in November (unfortunately the answer is no).  I’m pretty sure I’m not going due to finances.  I mean, I spent my 20 minute break having a lecture in catalan about how the economic crisis has affected education jobs and budgets and how we have to focus on the quality of public education despite cutbacks and the 40% drop-out rate… or at least that’s what I think the guy was saying… again, another situation in which I could do nothing but laugh in my head because he could have been talking about anything, and I was just sitting there letting it wash over me while putting words in his mouth.

So, yes, it was quite the funny first day.  I just got back from tapas hopping on the Tuesday night route and met some new friends, two girls in my program, a guy from Uruguay and a spaniard, all in all a great evening, much spanish was spoken, good times were had, etc.  I have to wake up in 5 hours which is a little bothersome, but, what can ya do!?  hasta luego, amigos

La copa mundial y yo

Today, the WORLD CUP was being shown for 7 hours at “La Caixa,” an art gallery and cultural centre.  They were showing it in a room on the second floor that has a Manet exhibit going on.   Virtually none of the foreign tourists here knew what was going on because they only advertised that it was here in the Diaria Mallorca, the local Spanish paper.   I waited in line for about an hour, and the Spanish couple behind me in line was talking about how it just looked like everyone was in line to see the Manet exhibit.  Literally, there were no signs saying that the World Cup was there, and everyone was being very secretive about why they were in line.  At one point, a British guy asked the lady who works there what the deal was, and what was showing there… and she just told him it was a temporary exhibit and gestured toward a poster advertising the art exhibit.  Kind of brutal.  The kids in front of me in line were playing POGS with wrestlers pictured on them.  It was sort of awesome to see that such a ridiculous fad has spread to Spain.