Mallorcan Mensajes: Escape

I’ve been dreading this day for a while, but it’s finally here. Today, I feel like I could be in Maine. It’s windy, overcast and probably about 55 degrees. Yes, I’m still wearing shorts, a tee shirt, sunglasses and flip-flops but people I passed in the street this morning were wearing winter coats. These people legitimately wouldn’t survive in a climate with real seasons. Regardless, tonight is some kind of courting ritual type thing in Mallorca called “Día de las Vírgenes” where teenage guys get in groups and serenade the girls that they like at their houses. It’s a nice Mallorcan tradition and what’s even nicer is that the girls are essentially obligated to give their serenaders donut type things called “buñuelos” (slightly bigger than Dunkin Donuts munchkins and made with potato dough). How is this relevant to me? Well, I’m glad you asked. Due to the impending holiday, they’re being sold on the street all over Mallorca right now, so I bought ¼ kilo of them (more than ½ pound) and ate them on my way to the University this morning. I didn’t want to eat all of them, but I had to in the name of culture. It’s the same reason why I buy a chocolate filled croissant on my way to class every Monday/Wednesday. 1.) Stimulation of the Spanish economy, 2.) Appreciation of the culinary culture. I’m obviously not just doing it because I’m fat.

Since my last post, my group went on an overnight hiking trip to Soller. Having been in a city for the past month, it was refreshing to be in the mountains. I’m slowly dying of second-hand smoke inhalation here in Palma (everyone smokes) so a mountain escape every once in a while isn’t a bad idea. We stayed in a “Refugee Camp” which was more of a nice hostel situated next to a lighthouse, overlooking the water. I really don’t understand why it’s called a refugee camp. No one there was a refugee (they were mostly German tourists) and I saw no evidence of people camping. There was a place to eat inside, tables outside, a huge room full of bunk beds and pretty nice bathrooms. Apparently it was €11/person so I think I’ll go back at some point. Soller itself is gorgeous and, believe it or not, I woke up early enough on Sunday morning to see the sun rise over the mountain. At around 10 that morning we left on what was supposed to be a three-hour hike, but it took us a good deal longer. Our “guardian angel”, David, rolled his ankle on the first day’s hike so our Sunday pace was painfully slow. It was fine though. We weren’t in any kind of rush and it gave us time to stop and look around/enjoy the landscape. Given this immense amount of waiting time, at some point on this journey I saw a fruit growing on a giant cactus and thought to myself “that looks delicious. I think I’ll eat it”. So, being the prepared Maine resident that I am, I took out my knife and cut the fruit off of the cactus. I thought that I had managed to break all of the prickers off of the soft exterior of the fruit, but, of course, I hadn’t. Instead I ended up with dozens of hair-sized needles stabbed into my fingertips and another five or six more in my lip. Moral of the story: do not eat cacti or their seemingly (and actually) delicious fruits. You live and you learn.

Speaking of learning, my classes are going well. I have one more this afternoon then I’m done for the week. I’m actually getting on a plane at 10:20 my time and leaving for Sevilla (southern part of Spain) until Sunday. Going to visit some friends in the CIEE program there so it’ll definitely be a good time.

I feel obligated to put some serious commentary into this post so here it goes. After meeting with my intercambio group this week (the one with three girls) I realized to a greater extent how lucky I am to be an American college student at such a distinguished university. They’re all trying to get into study abroad programs so they can study English in either the U.S. or England. However, this is really hard for them to do because they need to coordinate a lot on their own and there are extremely limited scholarship opportunities for studying abroad. Out of the entire University of the Balearic Islands (about 15,000 students), there is one, yes one, scholarship per year given to a student in order to study in the United States. At Colby the percentage of students who study abroad is close to 70% (30ish % of students electing not to go abroad), so we take this kind of opportunity for granted. This is just something that I’ve been thinking about for the last few days.

Sorry this post was so short, but I really don’t have much else to comment on. I’ll post extra pictures to make up for it. Until next time.

Matt