Palma de Mallorca!

Hola!

Only 6 more weeks until I am back in the States and I couldn't be more excited! Of course I am going to miss it here. Who wouldn't want to only work 15 hours a week and be able to travel any where in Europe on a cheap budget? I am so grateful for this experience but in the end I miss being home. After being a foreigner for a year I think I have had enough. I know a lot of people are doing this program for a second year but I don't think I could put myself through another year. Anyways.... about Palma de Mallorca!!

My roommate Raquel and I found some cheap airfare to take a little weekend getaway to Mallorca which is part of the Baleric Islands ( kind of near Barcelona). I imagined it to be a small beach town but in reality it was a huge city!! It had lots of beaches of course, but it was a lot bigger than I had orginally thought it would be. We also found out that mostly british people vacation there. In fact, I barely heard any spanish while I was there. It was a toursity island with lots of english foods such as hamburgers, pizza, etc. Although right now there were not too many people because this isn't their high tourist time of year. There was actually one restaurant called "Ruby Tuesdays" Raquel and I got really excited and we went to go check it out. We thought, maybe they even have a salad bar?! When we got there, it was not even close to a Ruby Tuesdays. We were fooled!

We were able to found a decently priced hotel with a great balcony view that overlooked the ocean! It was nice waking up to this view every morning...

Raquel even scored us a free breakfast buffet at the hotel because our internet had a bad connection. ( You would be proud Mom and BJW). At first they offered us a free coke but Raquel wouldn't accept that as an answer, she did good! haha

We had some crummy weather, in fact it rained just about everyday but on Saturday we were able to get some good beach weather. We beached hopped and went to the Magaluf beach and then to the beach 10 minutes down the shore called Plama Nova beach. That night we went out to a nice Italian restaurant and I ordered the best pizza that I have had in Europe so far. Too bad I was having stomach issues and could only eat a small part of it. Raquel took one for the team and was able to help me out :).

The other days we did a bunch of touristy things such as walking in the downtown area and checking out the old town. We also visited this old Castle that sits on top of a hill. It was pretty neat!

The last day we did not know what to do because not only was it a Sunday and there is nothing to do on Sundays as it is, but it was raining! So we had only a few options, either go to the aquarium or go to the English movie theater. So we decided to see the movie! The movie was called 3 X twenty. It was really cute! It was about life, love, and growing older. It was the first British moive I have ever seen, it was fun to hear their accents and just to see what their movies are like.

With the flight we took the company RyanAir. For those of you who don't know, RyanAir is the discounted flight agency that sells really cheap tickets but they try to rip you off any way that they can. Bringing on carry on's is where they get you the most. They have everyone put their carry on into the metal bin to make sure that your bag fits the restrictions. And lets just say they are VERY strict about their luggage. Poor Raquel has a carry on that fits the measurements for RyanAir's policy exactly. Every time she has to fly with them she gets anxiety waiting in line to put her bag into the "death chamber". Flying to Mallorca she had the biggest problem. She had to put on 5 layers of clothes from her suitcase on in order for her bag to fit into the container. The airline lady was giving her a hard time but Raquel was like " See it fits! I dont have to pay!. She tried taking out her bag and she couldn't get it out so a man came and helped her get it out. So the airline lady said, " Im sorry 'mam but if you need assistance getting your bag out of the carrier then it is too big and you will have to pay to have it checked". Raquel then got angry and said " Please, show me where it says that in your guidelines." Luckily the man that helped her said " That is ridiculousness, I will claim her bag as mine because I can take it out of the bin and Raquel can claim my bag as hers." And then they were fine... after 20 minutes of arguing...

On the way back, we had a tottally different situation happen. The lady was coming around to check bags and she skipped Raquel and I because I was in the bathroom so she said that she would come back. She never came back, so we never had to have our bags checked, it was a Sinch the second time! Word of advise, always travel with the smallest bag possible while traveling with Ryanair because they will getcha anyway they can!

Picture of Raquel at lunch!

A cute place we ate lunch at on Friday

Our flight going back to Sevilla was kind of a nightmare because the flight was orginally suposed to leave at 10:15 ( already pretty late). When we got to the airport it said that our flight was delayed another half hour so it was pushed back to 10:45. When we got on the plane the pilot said that we missed our slot in line to take off so we had to wait ANOTHER half hour. In the end we had to wait until 11:30pm until we finally took off. I did not land in Sevilla until 12:50am and didnt get home until around 1:30am. It was a long night and an even longer night because I was sick!

Overall, it was a great trip! I am glad I got to spend some one on one time with Raquel. She is going to be doing a lot of traveling and she leaves in 4 weeks so I will not be able to spend much time with her. It is sad because most of the friends I have made here are from all over, so it is going to be a while until I see them next!

One last bit of news, I was accepted into UIC! I am still watiing to here back from University of Southern California until I make any final decisions but UIC was my top choice last year and it was a VERY good school. I met a few MSW students and they all told me that if you are going to go to school in Illinois that you need to go to either UIC or U of I. Looks like i'm on the right track for now.

Miss you all and I can't wait to see you in 6 weeks!

Besos!!