Mallorca!!

I've been back in Valencia for 2 days, and I have a few minutes, so I thought I'd write about my trip to Palma de Mallorca this past week as well as some other tidbits of information pertaining to my life.

There were 10 girls from our ISA group that went to Mallorca this weekend--Marli, Sam, Kat, Elyssa, Ali, Marlo, Val, Rosy, Maddy, and me. We all left on different flights, depending on when you were done with class. I ended up on a flight Friday night, since I had class until 5. I took the metro to the airport with Kat. I am sad to announce that the faithful travel size shampoo and conditioner bottles that my family has had for YEARS are no longer with me. They were confiscated at security by a very mean inspector who did not like Kat or myself. I carried them on the plane during my trip to Greece, and I had no problems whatsoever. Kat had her bottles confiscated too. All of our bottles were the correct size...this guy was just MEAN! The flight was very very short. We went up and then we went down. Only 30 minutes in the air. I seriously doubt the pilot we had would be able to fly in the US...our descent was a little scary. From the airport, we took a bus to our hostel and met up with the others. We talked for a while and then headed to bed. We woke up in the morning and were thankful that the sun was out. We got ready and headed out to get some breakfast. I think I mentioned before in an earlier post that restaurants often have people outside their establishments trying to get people to eat there. Mallorca was no exception to this--and we ended up at a restaurant after talking to the person outside. This is when we discovered a very strange fact about Mallorca-----it is overrun by GERMANS.

I never would have imagined that there would be so many Germans. We would start speaking in Spanish to people, and they would just look at us and then say something in German--then eventually we'd both be speaking English--best way to communicate in Mallorca. We spent most of the day at the beach--laying in the sun when it wasn't covered by the clouds. Had a very very late lunch at 5-6pm--then rested for a while back at the hostel. We went out to a place called "Mega Park"--and again it was overrun by Germans. We met some neat people there of all ages--a few highlights--dancing with 2 older couples from Germany, talking with people who "only" spoke 5 languages, and watching random German music videos that were playing on the screen. Later we went down to the club at the same establishment and stayed there for a long time--it was pretty late to say the least. I was mistaken for a Californian that night, as well as a German--2 guys came up to me and started speaking German, and I just looked at them and said "English?". A fun day. Sunday brought a little tour of the city, including a 40 minute bus ride into the center of Palma that left me with some motion sickness. Note to self: riding in the seats facing backwards in a bus is not a good idea...especially when the driver makes very fast turns, and the roads are bumpy. We visited the Cathedral and just relaxed. Then we spent Sunday night at the hostel and came back to Valencia early Monday morning. It was a very relaxing time--a nice break from lots of touristy things. I failed at taking some good pictures--so I got some from Rosy, Marli, and Sam--I put those up earlier today--so take a peek!

Other than the trip, the week has gone pretty well. The flu is spreading through the ISA kids, and I'm trying my best to stay healthy. Marli woke up ill yesterday morning--so I'm being very cautious-hoping she doesn't give it to me. We have some house guests this week--2 boys from England, ages 14 and 15. They are here with their school for the week and hardly speak any Spanish. Dinners are very entertaining with Marli and I serving as translators and having to help them form sentences. Then on Friday we have an ISA excursion to Barcelona, and we will return to Valencia on Sunday night. We have 2 free afternoons on the trip, so I have been looking up things to do in Barcelona. What else...I saw "La Cruda Realidad" (The Ugly Truth) last night with Sam and Kat. It was my first movie in Spain. It was dubbed in Spanish, and I had a hard time not looking at the actors mouths since the voices and their mouths were not saying the same things. I guess that's it--I think I'm going to call it a night early and catch up on some sleep! Buenas noches.