June 1-2 – First 2 Days of Classes

On Tuesday, June 1st, I woke up at 7:30 AM for my first day of classes. I was definitely not a fan of how early I was awake, especially since it was only 1:30 AM back home and most of my friends and my parents are/were probably still awake! I got dressed, ate Frosties and drank café, and walked to the University.

My first class of the day is Literature, taught in Spanish, and it goes from 8:45 – 10:45 AM. The professor’s name is Rosa and she was really nice. We answered some questions about ourselves such as what do we know about Spain’s history, how does the culture and customs in Mallorca differ from the U.S., what other countries we’ve been to, and why we chose to study abroad in Mallorca. We didn’t start actual work on the first day, which was nice. She also told us that we wouldn’t have to buy a book because she had photocopies of everything. After class, I had a break from 10:45 AM – 4:30 PM. I decided that today would be errand day. The first thing I did was go back to the bus pass place and get my official bus pass. It has my name and university on it and I can use it to get on and off of buses in Mallorca. The second place I went to was a store called Vodaphone in order to buy a Spanish cell phone. A got a red Samsung phone and it only cost 19 Euros. It comes prepaid with minutes for calls and for texts. The U.S. (a.k.a. my parents) can call and text me and it’s free for me, but they pay.

After that, I returned home for lunch with my family. Josh and I had arranged to have our very first Skype date at 8 AM his time before he left for work and 2 PM my time. The Internet cooperated with me and I was finally able to see his face and celebrate our 35 months anniversary together (1 more month until the big 3 years anniversary!!). After I took a ½ hour siesta (because I wasn’t really used to waking up so early) and soon it was time for my 2nd class.

My second class of the day is Spanish Language and Grammar and it’s from 4:30 – 6:30 PM. When I went to the school in the morning, our program director had the results of our placement exam and distributed a list of which students were in which level. I am happy to report that I got into the Advanced Level, which is Level 3 of 3! My professor’s name is Miriam and she is a chatterbox, pregnant, and really fun. She gave us 2 books and didn’t say anything about paying for them so we’re not sure if they’re free or not. We talked a lot about the differences between Mallorca and the United States and she told us the stereotypes she had about Americans, which was pretty fun.

After class, I returned back home and left shortly afterward with my host mother Loli and the abuela, Paca, and we went to Loli’s daughter, Eva’s, house. We were supposed to go out with them to some town but there wasn’t enough time so we only went for a visit. I got to play with the daughter/granddaughter Sira and was given a tour of their house. I took pictures with everyone (which you can find on Facebook). The third floor of their house leads to their roof and there’s an amazing view of the landscape and countryside below. I took photos and it was a lot of fun!

We drove back home and soon it was time for dinner. Dinner time has become either grammar lessons or current events time with my host father Jaime and me. Sometimes he’ll help to correct my grammar or conjugations which I appreciate because it’ll help me to improve my Spanish. And other times we talk about stuff going on in the world like the Israelis, the royal family of Spain, or Rafeal Nadal, the Mallorcan tennis player. I’m also proud to report that I can add another new food to my list: “guambo.” There was some confusion of what it is exactly but I was told that it’s a “crustacean from the sea” and I correctly guessed that it was shrimp. It was served with some spaghetti noodles and some other things. I tried a few pieces, but wasn’t a big fan. After dinner, I struggled with the non-existent Wi-Fi and attempted to Skype with Josh and my parents. And then came bed.

The next day (Wednesday the 3rd) started out the same way. Woke up at 7:30 and went to class at 8:45 AM. Today in Literature class, we discussed the 3 types of literature: novels, the theater, and poetry. And we discussed ancient works of literature like Oedipus, Hamlet, The Illiad, and The Odyssey. I was proud of myself for remembering a lot about Oedipus and The Odyssey, which I read in high school. I gave a summary of them in Spanish in class. After Lit. class, my friend Ashley and I decided to explore the city. We first paid 18 Euros to get an unlimited bus pass for 1 month. Now we can get on and off any bus and we don’t have to pay each time. We went to the Plaza de España and walked around and took pictures. We started a collection of taking pictures of restaurants and things that we have back home and we came up with Dunkin Coffee (Dunkin Donuts), Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, KFC, and a sign with Winnie the Pooh that said Hawaii. We had lunch at an outdoor café and ran into Alice, the housing officer from our program. She took us with her to the bookstore and then the Mercado (supermarket), which was a fun adventure. She also gave us some suggestions of what we can do during our long break in-between classes.

At 4:30 PM, I went to my Spanish language class. There’s been a lot of confusion because some kids that were placed in Beginner Spanish feel that they should be in a higher level so they’ve switched their classes around. But because of this, the Beginner 1 teacher now has 0 students in her class. So they decided to split my Advanced class of 8 students into 4 and 4, all at the same level, to give us a smaller class size (and so the other professor has someone to teach). I really like my old professor and didn’t want to change classes, but I’m not sure yet if I’m going to remain or change professors.

After I got home from class, Loli told me that her husband, Jaime, was going to drive me to the mall to see the store that their daughter Eva works in. The mall has these really cool things that look like moving sidewalks (from airports) but they slope either up or down so they serve as escalators without steps. Eva works in a young children’s’ clothing store, which is pretty convenient since she can buy clothes for her 3 year old daughter there. The place was very colorful and the store was really big. She showed me around and we talked for a bit when she didn’t have customers. We also recently added each other as friends on Facebook so I was showing her different things on my profile and the pictures I had recently uploaded of her and her family.

By the time we got back, it was close to 9 PM which meant dinnertime. I finally encountered my first meal I had to say “no gracias” to: tuna and mixed vegetables. Luckily for me, there was also steak that tasted like chicken and I ate some fried potatoes too. I didn’t offend my host parents and they just thought it was funny that I don’t eat fruits or vegetables. My host father Jaime also says “Ohhh los Americanos!” but he also says this about the Españolas y other groups of people. I commented on this at dinner that he makes fun of his own kin and both he and Loli laughed. After dinner, I attempted to connect to the Internet for over an hour to Skype back home, but it didn’t work. It’s very frustrating not having Internet in my house when almost all of the other students do. Ah well. Hasta luego!