first week and a half!

I arrived in Spain on Sunday, February 5, and since then have only had access to the internet at cafes and at school, so please excuse the lack of posts! I’m hoping to get internet in my apartment by the end of the week, so I plan on writing a lot more.

So, a summary of what I’ve been up to in the last week and a half since leaving my family at JKF.

 

here I am at the airport  

I arrived at the university’s residencia, where I was allowed to stay for up to a week while I looked for an apartment, (http://www.residenciauib.es/index.php?lang=en) on the afternoon of the fifth, glad to be in Spain but quite dismayed to see snow on the ground. My travel-addled brain was confused—where was the beach? A few days later, I learned that that snow was the first Mallorca had seen in 56 years! 

I guess I just brought a little taste of northern Vermont to Europe with me! I didn’t do much the first night except relax, shower, and meet my temporary roommate, since my orientation didn’t begin until the next day.

The next morning, Monday, I met all of the other international students at an informational event hosted by the International Services office. The number of countries represented here is amazing—Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, China, England, Mexico, Peru, Italy, France, and more I’m sure I’m forgetting. After meeting each other and getting a bit of information about the school, we all went to take the placement exam for our Spanish language course. I spent the rest of the day doing errands and getting to know the few other international students who were staying in the residencia better (I learned that most students were already in their apartments, having been advised to find housing before arriving here; my American friend John and I were told the opposite).

The next day, Tuesday we had more informational meetings and a campus tour during the day, with free time during the afternoon and evening, when I went out to tapas with some friends. 

Wednesday was a guided tour around the old part of Palma, which was very lovely but would have been even nicer if it hadn’t been cold and drizzly. I took too many pictures to post here, so if you're interested, check them out in my Facebook album.

So far, the weather has been incredibly weird—very cold (30s and 40s, which is extremely unusual for Mallorca), rainy, and cloudy. Most of the clothes I brought are of the sandals and sundress variety, so it’s been a little tough, but the weather should start warming up by the end of the week.

On Wednesday night, John and I stayed at our friend Alvaro’s apartment because we had found the residencia to be pretty unwelcoming—freezing, unfriendly people, bad food, and it’s located on campus, which is actually about 5 miles outside of the city—and were eager to have a night in the city with friends. We left bright and early on Thursday morning to take an old wooden train to the nearby town of Soller, which has a beautiful, famous port.

             John and I moved out of the residencia that afternoon and, after a long string of bad luck with apartments, finally found and moved into our beautiful place that evening. We had all of our afternoons and evenings free all week, so I got to spend a lot of time eating, going out, and spending time with new friends, which made me feel much more comfortable and at home here. Friday was our last day of orientation, which consisted of a big group dinner and then some of us went to the Paseo Maritimeo, a part of the city along the water where all the clubs are.

We spent the weekend eating, shopping, going out with friends, and settling into our apartment. 

            Classes started this Monday, the 13^th, but John and I weren’t able to actually start until today. I really love this country, and love the school so far, but all of the bureaucracy and administration is incredibly disorganized and lackadaisical. We had a difficult, stressful time enrolling, finding our classes, and getting our rent money from the International office, but it seems like things are finally almost sorted out.

Even with all the stress, things have been quite fantastic. I’ve made so many amazing friends here from all over the world, and we’ve been spending every day together. Some of us have been taking turns cooking typical cuisines from our country on different nights and having people over, or going to cafes together, or shopping, or out for drinks. It’s all been a ton of fun and I’m glad we all got a little more vacation time together before school started. I went to my first classes today and they went pretty well! I’m still confused about assignments, syllabi, and books, especially since I missed all of my classes on Monday and Tuesday (which were the first two days of classes), but I felt comfortable learning 100% in Spanish and the content seems pretty manageable.

So, there’s a rapid-fire (ish) summary of my first week and a half in Palma! More to come soon!