[my-life-in-palma]

Week Número Tres

Monday, September 9th, 2013

Luckily Monday was a holiday after Sunday's night out. Which holiday you might ask? I have absolutely no idea. The only thing that I know is that 1. the woman at the supermarket told me in Spanish that they were closed on Monday (which I understood yaaay me) and that it kicked of a week of nightly celebrations from the church that is across from us but more about that later. 

In the evening around 8pm our street was all of a sudden filled with people. There was a group of people drumming, people dressed up as demon's were hitting children and there were firecrackers. It was basically a parade that was a mix between New Year's Eve and an Austrian Christmas tradition, during which naughty children get chased and hit by people dressed in really horrific masks.

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013

Unfortunately Tuesday meant that we had some more Catalan classes and that the exam was in only two days, which quite honestly freaked me out! I think we learned two more tenses that day which didn't help me at all because I might be able to form the Present Perfect of "to go" but I still have no idea how to construct a Catalan sentence but who needs that anyways… After freaking out a little during class we all decided that we should probably study and get our shit together that night, which I did. Alongside some really really good spaghetti with tomato sauce, the tomatoes are exceptionally good here in my opinion! When I finally put away my books to get a good night of sleep around 10pm, this evening's celebrations started. This time it was a concert of some spanish rock group, that were probably local. The only thing I really know for sure about them was that they were loud. It felt like they were playing in my room even with my window closed.

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013

One day until the final exam. There was more freaking out that day, especially after our teacher told us what was really necessary for us to know to be able to pass the exam. Lucky for us during our lunch break he sort of accidentally, totally on purpose, left the exam that he was going to give us the next day on his table. I am really not the sort of person that goes and takes pictures of exams but there is always one person who will rise up to the occasion. So yeah we had the exam. Which meant no more freaking out and basically learning that shit by heart. It even had the questions for the oral exam so it wasn’t really a challenge anymore after that. Not really sure what happened after that I am writing this 4 months after the fact mind you.

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

The day of the final exam, which as previously explained was just us copying the exact same things that we had studied the day before. At one point our teacher even left the class. The only really annoying thing was that we had to wait until about 4pm to get our oral exam done which meant we were wasting away another day at uni that could have been spent on the beach. 

Friday, September 13th, 2013

Friday the 13th, also the day we got our certificates for the Catalan course. We all passed, there wasn’t really any surprise there but they made a really big deal out of it. The Director of the language department came and a bunch of other apparently really important people handed us our certificates. It was also sad because most of the people that had been taking the Catalan course with me weren’t staying in Palma but going to different unis around Spain so that was the last time I would be seeing them. 

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

We went to the beach that day, a  really really nice beach about 20 minutes by bus outside of Palma called Calle Major. I think I got sunburnt but that’s a really distant memory and could have really happened on any other beach day too. Jay, Nikol, Adriana and I went to have Indian food that night but other than that, that Saturday really wasn’t significant, I think haha

[my-life-in-palma]

Oh boy I am really shit at continuously blogging about my life...

I have about 2 more weeks somewhere in a rough draft and since my life in Palma is almost over, I guess it's time to write a review on the past 146 days on this island :)

[my-life-in-palma]

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

At 11 we had an hour lecture about all the information that I didn't understand which meant that I spent the hour on my phone, mostly tumblr. My friend understood a bit so she tried to tell me everything afterwards but it was hard for here too. We quickly made our way to the International Office because we had all the necessary paperwork filled out and only needed a signature from them to be able to enroll into university. Unfortunately, just like the day before nobody really wanted to help us. One woman said that she would rather do it today than tomorrow, in the time she said the sentence she could have already signed out paperwork and we would have been on our merry way. I was really pissed off because they are supposed to be there to help us and not to make everything more complicated! They only work from 10-2pm and get really pissed if you need something maybe a minute after 2pm. 

After being turned away I waited for a bit outside the office and I saw a younger employee who was responsible for the International students, she was talking to a couple Chinese people and once she was done I went over to ask her if she could maybe help me and she did! Rita is the most amazing person because she helped me even though she didn't have to with me being an Erasmus student. Once I finally had the signature I could go to my department where they were finally able to enroll me into UIB. Lorence, the guy who enrolled me was really nice, had a perfect British accent and showed me really everything I needed to know about my courses, their online system and my student ID card. After all the people who were rude and unwilling to help me he really made me day. 

I really didn't think that getting everything done would be this difficult, but it apparently was and I still have to get my Residence Card and my bus card at the town hall which is gonna be a whole other disaster waiting to happen. But I am officially a student at the University of the Balearic Islands to that's a start!

[my-life-in-palma]

Monday, September 16th, 2013

I swear I will write about what happened during Week 3 in Palma, I am just too damn busy these days (not that I really mind)

After that too all of our dismay we were supposed to get up and introduce ourselves, in front of all those people. Mr. International Guy called it an "Ice Breaker Game" uhm right… Once we all got through that I was relieved to find that I wasn't the only Austrian student at UIB this semester. There was some food and drinks and we all kinda just stood around trying to meet as many people as possible. During that time I also found the other "austrian" guy who turned out to be German. At first I was pissed and then I realized that I was unique and I have gotten pretty good at being unique these past few years so I embraced it. I went to all the people I had already known and go introduced to the new people they had met. There were a couple of Irish, British and American guys that were really nice so I think that might have potential there. 

At 9pm we all met a Placa Espanya to go to a bar, which I thought was impossible because we were a lot of people, but they actually found one that was big enough to fit all of us. I met another British person there and we talked for a bit and all of a sudden he went "So which part of America are you from?", which was just awesome for me because he thought I was American because of my American English accent *insert me smiling like an idiot here* There bar was okay but we were all exhausted from the days activities because meeting new people is really exhausting and went home around midnight. I walked up to our apartment which is on the 6th floor and I was awake again so note to myself, if you are tired don't try to do sports!

[my-life-in-palma]

guess who finally found the time to read up on your blog posts!?!?! comments to follow :)

Ani??? Ani??? Aniiiiiiii??? :D

[my-life-in-palma]

Week 2

Oh boy I am missing like 2 weeks, ups, needless to say I have been very busy!

Shall we begin?!

Before I start with what I did on Thursday, I have to add something to Wednesday!

When Nikol, Helen and I were on our way home a fight happened right in front of us. That was the first fight I have ever seen and it was bizarre! We were walking along our street which is also a pedestrian street with lot's of restaurants and shops and there was a waitress yelling at some. A guy from the opposite restaurant came over and started punching the guy the woman had yelled at and someone was throwing a chair, two other dudes started fighting and a dog got involved. I felt like I was in a shitty cartoon and any second now somebody would blow up. We walked away as quickly as we could but not before making sure that somebody had called the police (several people had)

Thursday, September 5th, 2013

Honestly I didn't really do anything except for whining about my hangover, swearing that I would never drink Sangria again and trying to get through a very boring Catalan class. I swear to god it is getting worse by the day!

Friday, September 6th, 2013

Friday was more exciting because after Catalan class we all went home and got ready for a house party that Jay was throwing. Hanna, a girl that i had met online, arrived and we hung out a bit before going to the party. She is really nice and we get along well. At the party there was more Sangria and like I already expected I broke the promise that I had made only a day earlier. Jay's apartment that he shares with 2 other people is really nice and it's only 5 minutes away from our place so that was very convenient. I like seeing how other people live and hearing their stories about their flatmates, it most of the time confirms that I made the right choice. At one point we tried a drink that the Germans said was really popular, it's called 43 with milk and I have never heard of that before but then again I am not really an expert in drinking and alcoholic beverages. It's some kind of schnapps with milk and tastes like ice cream to me. It still shocks me how many people we are and we actually get along great, here is a picture of all of us at Jay's flat. 

Saturday, September 7th, 2013

Trying to remember what I did on all those days I really hard, I should write everything down after it happened because my memory is horrible, partly why I am doing this blog after all. 

Oh I remember, I slept in after the party at Jay's and then we went on a trip with our Catalan class. We went to see "Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró", which is basically an art gallery and also the work place of Joan Miró, who is a very important Majorcan painter. I am not really into art but some of the pieces were really nice and I also learned that when you are a famous artist you are allowed to paint on the walls around your house again, something to aspire to for all of us who are still three years old at heart. After the quick tour we went to Castell de Bellver, which was built in the 14th century and is one of the few circular castles in Europe. It wasn't all that impressive but you get a beautiful view of the city of Palma, the port and the ocean. 

It was already 6pm by the time we got back to Placa Espanya and it was once again time to go home and change for an evening out. Seriously I got even more appreciative of the fact that we only live 10 minutes by foot from the Placa Espanya because otherwise the last week would have been a real pain in the ass. Anyways, we went out for Tapas, which were really good! Especially Pan amb Oli, which is white bread with crushed tomatoes on it and a special Majorcan dish. But that was not the most exciting part of that evening, I MET MY FIRST AUSTRALIAN PERSON. Being from Austria, I can't even count the times that my country was confused with Australia once I said where I was from. Matt was really nice but didn't have as much of an accent as I had expected, anyways I met an Australian dude haha 

Sunday, September 8th, 2013

During the day I did all the boring stuff that comes with living with flatmates, like doing laundry, sweeping and washing the floors, cleaning the bathroom etc. But at night it was time to make one of my nightmares come true. For everyone who doesn't know Mallorca is known for one of its beaches called "S'Arenal" or "Ballermann" by the Germans. It's basically a place Germans/Austrians (mostly Germans though) go during the summer to get shitfaced for a whole week. There are clubs with terrible German folk music and cheap beer. It was the first thing everybody said to me when i told them that I was going to Palma de Mallorca to study ("Yeah right study, you are going there to party"). So far I have probably done more partying in the three weeks I have been here than in the past 4 years of my life so maybe they haven't been totally wrong.

Anyway we went there! We got on a bus for 40 minutes, got ourselves a bucket, filled it with Sangria, got super long straws and drank it on the beach, which was actually super fun. We were a big group, with lots of good conversations and too much alcohol. So far the first thing you are supposed to do there wasn't all that bad.

With that done we made our way to the first club, Megapark. Thank god we only went in there to take pictures because that was weird! The next stop didn't get better, "Bierkönig", another one of the infamous clubs you are supposed to go to. I have to admit I had more fun that I thought I would have, but that was more because of the amazing group of people I was surrounded by than the music or club itself.  A few girls and I decided at around 1am that we had enough so "unfortunately" we didn't get to go into the "Oberbayern". Despite everything it was a fun night and I was glad that the next day was a national holiday around here. 

Here is evidence of me actually having fun in a club, who would have thought that was going to happen...

[my-life-in-palma]

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WOOOHOOO

Well it was yesterday anyways. Having only been here all of 10 days I didn't really expect anything. To be honest, I thought I would go the Catalan course, get home, cook myself something nice for dinner and then relax in bed with a good book. Turns out I was wrong. I asked the day before if some people who i got along with especially well the first day wanted to come and have a drink on Wednesday and somehow half the course ended up going out with me for my birthday. But let's start from the beginning.

While I was having breakfast I decided to check Facebook, because nothing is more amusing than seeing people wish you a Happy Birthday that you don't normally talk to during the year. The first post was from Sara, which was sweet and cute and already made me miss all kinds of people, then Carina who made me miss everybody even more. My parents both sent me a voice message on Whatsapp and finally my grandmother called, at which point all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry while eating a shitload of unhealthy food. But I didn't do all that, got myself together and made my way to the cathedral because we had a guided tour through the old town and the cathedral planned that morning.

When I got there the girls who were already there started singing Happy Birthday for me and one girl even had a gift (I got three unexpected gifts in total :D) for me. I was more than surprised to say the least. The tour was really interesting and the cathedral is absolutely breathtaking. It's right next to the water and you get a stunning view across the port and the beach. I love the small streets that lead nowhere and everywhere all at once and just the overall positive vibe the city has. We had an hour and a half lunch break and were supposed to have class from 12:30 till 16:30 but for some reason our teacher let us go at about 14:00. I wasn't about to complain and secretly still think that he knew that it was my birthday and that it was the reason we were let out early haha

I did some boring necessary adult things, because that's apparently what I do now and then took a nap. I met up with the girls and boys from the course at 8pm and we got tapas, my first real tapas since I have gotten to Spain and they were delicious. We had Sangria and all in all a really good time. Here is a picture of us around midnight before we all decided it was time to go home because of course we had Catalan class the next day, bright an early for Spain standards at 10am. 

I had an amazing day and even though I was missing everyone at home like crazy I am really happy that I found a couple of nice people who were willing to celebrate my birthday with me even after only two days of knowing me. I am actually surprised how easy it was to get along with all of them, seeing as I am usually convinced that everybody hates me. Well onto another year of my life, I can't wait to see what it has in store for me. 

[my-life-in-palma]

What do you mean I am not here to only go to the beach and enjoy the sun?

On monday I had the first day of the Catalan course which meant that I had to get up before 7, which was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise right in front of my room. Taking the bus to Uni didn't take as long as I thought it would so I arrived an hour before the "student reception" started which turned out to only be a "hello we are in this building, see you in an hour". There are way too many German girls in our group, but some of them are really nice so it's okay. 

I met a few more nice people, one guy in our group is from Poland, another polish girl and one more girl from the Czech republic. Our teacher is really nice too he never introduced himself and he doesn't speak English, only a few words and the course is held in a mix of Spanish/Catalan and very broken English. In the beginning it was so exhausting and horrible but you get used to it after a while and now I at least understand what he is talking about 70% of the time! I can't wait to see what tomorrow will hold for us but it's probably only going to get more exhausting. 

After class Nikol and I went to IKEA, I love that some things just don't change no matter in what country you are in and IKEA is one of those things. Going to IKEA without a car is a pain in the ass though because as in almost every city it's on the edge of town and getting all out stuff back was exhausting. I bought some stuff that will make my room feel more comfortable and cosy and once I clean it up there will be a picture of it coming soon. That night it felt like my own bed for the first time, because I now have three pillows and that's all I really need to feel at home. 

We got home at shortly before 7pm and I was ready to go to bed. It was the first time I had to get up before 9am and all the new people, the language and the trip to IKEA was enough to make me wanna go to bed at 8pm which I did, even though I should have probably studied for Catalan.

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013

Bright and early I wanted to get some of the administrative crap out of the way that i have to go through to register at Uni, get my residence card, get my bus card and  get 50% off flights to mainland Spain. I couldn't believe my ears when someone told me I could request something that would get me 50% off flights to Spain, Imagine Dragons concert here I come!!! Anyways step one was supposed to be go to the International Office at the Uni but they were really rude and telling me that I need to write my coordinator first and that they aren't even supposed to be open until 30 minutes later, good thing I didn't really have an emergency.

Catalan was more of the same from yesterday. I was better prepared though and our teacher has endless patients and is really positive about absolutely everything! Every teacher should be like that I seriously adore him for all the effort that he is putting into teaching us Catalan. After class I was determined to study and even bought another notebook at a chinese shop, that has absolutely everything, next to our apartment but then my parents wanted to Skype and all my determination went out the window. I really have no idea how to pass the exam that's coming up next Thursday. Someone should really ask him what kind of exam this is going to be, I really need the credit! It's safe to say that I have realized now that it's not just going to be 6 months of me laying on the beach and sipping Sangria but that there is actual studying to be done too - not sure how I feel about that yet ;) 

[my-life-in-palma]

Sunday = Funday

The first real adventure of the day was trying to cook with a gas stove for the first time in my life. Having never done that I was actually really scared but I was also really hungry so there was no other option that to cook something. It took me 5 tries and the help of my flatmate to actually get one of the flames to start but I did it in the end and I think I will feel safe doing it now. My first home cooked meal in Palma was risotto with green beans which was delicious, I still have something left over for tomorrow after school which is good because I probably won't be in the mood to cook after what we have planned. 

Then it was time for the beach and I met up with a guy from London that I met in out Facebook group. It was nice to finally meet someone else except for the people in my flat and just get information from someone who has been here for over a month already but who hasn't actually been here for too long either. It was nice weather for the beach, not too hot and not too cold but the water was  bit chilly. I don't know if I have mentioned it before but there are hardly any people at the beach we go to and the water is really nice and clean. I still can't get over the fact that i live in a city that has a beach in walking distance, a dream come true for me! 

The guy was really nice and my czech flatmate joined us too. He showed us this really cool restaurant which serves montaditos (which are tiny sandwiches with all kinds of stuff in them) and everything in  the restaurant is only 1€. I had my first pitcher of sangria which was really delicious too. There were a lot of people because they only serve the food for 1€ on Sundays and Wednesdays and I have  a feeling we will be going there more often in the future, because it's also a cool place to hang out. 

My graving for churros and my amazing nose led us to a Latin American festival. There were all kinds of different booths with food from everywhere and clothes that could be bought, as well as a stage where a group from Bolivia was dancing. I was dizzy watching them so I don't wanna know how they must have felt. The churros were amazing, if a little expensive though. I was really glad that today turned out to be so amazing because I was missing everybody at home a lot this morning. (here is a crappy video of people dancing http://instagram.com/p/dukvL6OgZG/)

Before I left I made a letter for each month that I am gone for my 6 year old cousin and today she sent me the picture of the Hello Kitty that I put in the first letter for her to color. Her dad wrote the email but I could tell that she was the one telling him what to write. And because that made me feel down a bit I decided to open another one of my friend Carina's little notes which had the lyrics to Blink 182's song "Family Reunion" (if you don't know the song you should google it, or not haha) in it, which made me literally laugh out loud. My friends are the best :') <3

(She is going to be a famous painter some day! ;))

[my-life-in-palma]

MOOOOOOOOOVING DAY!!!!

It is especially with two heavy suitcases and the sometimes very crappy sidewalks here in Palma. Both my hands hurt so much and we even got lost once because well I have only been in this city for less than a week, I didn't really expect to find the new place right away. The nice thing about Palma is that it's really windy all the time so even if it's 30 degrees outside you don't really feel it. 

There was nobody home when we got the apartment but there were little post it notes everywhere telling us what we could do or how to use the gas oven which I still haven't tried and I am a little scared to try to be really honest. I will cook something tomorrow though so we will see if I burn down the house or not… There was a welcome note on the fridge and did I mention how awesome my flatmates are? Well they are amazing! I finally feel like it's not just a vacation but that I am really staying here for 6 months.

That's mainly because I finally got to unpack my suitcases and organize everything. I hung up the pictures/postcards that all of my friends send me and put away my clothes. Speaking of clothes, I was going to go to IKEA today to get stuff like more hangers, a place to put dirty laundry in, a new pillow(s) and maybe a lamp for my writing desk but i ended up going shopping in the city instead. I only bought one shirt though because I need to see how much money I really have to spend so no big shopping sprees right now and in September, at least not for clothes. I will just have to get used to have fun at grocery shopping. 

Here is my little postcard/picture collage and the little corner with all the stuff my aunt/cousin made me

Speaking of grocery shops. I am making a list of things that I think are "weird" in Palma but the supermarket is like the weirdest thing every - at leads to me. The supermarket that is like three houses away from ours is only a sliding door with a big sign on top of it, which made me think that it was a small one with only the most necessary stuff. Oh boy was I wrong! It has at least 3 entrances and absolutely no order to it whatsoever! In Austria supermarkets are all pretty much the same, you go into the door and get into the veggie/fruit section, then the yoghurt, cheese, eggs, milk, meat and then the bread and sweet stuff. 

Since  all the supermarkets I have been too have at least 3 entrances there is obviously no logic to it, which drives me crazy. Every time I thought I had figured it out, i was lost again. Also they have like three different fridge sections that are all on different ends of the store. One has yoghurt and milk (even though most of it is not stored in a fridge for whatever reason, same goes for eggs?!), the other has meat and cheese and the third has frozen vegetables and fish…….. Sugar is also not next to flour which makes no sense too. I hope I am not the only one who feels that way or I will sound like a total crazy person right about now. I did manage to find everything necessary for tomorrow and Monday morning because everything is closed on Sundays here just like in Austria. 

Enough ranting about supermarkets. Tomorrow we will go the beach again which I am really really looking forward too and on Monday my Catalan course starts so I am a bit nervous about that too but at least I will meet some new people :) 

[my-life-in-palma]

Your new home is beautiful. Love the video :)

Thank you <3

[my-life-in-palma]

Day 4 in Palma de Mallorca

[my-life-in-palma]

Most amazing farewell gifts

(also me shamelessly bragging how awesome my friends and family are)

Read More

[kiwiikink]

You forgot the (10 ways to get drunk in Mallorca) uhm I mean what to do in Mallorca book!

[my-life-in-palma]

Oh god yes I did, I am sorry. I got an amazing book with 50 things to do in Palma one of which we are going to try to do tomorrow if it's not raining :D

[my-life-in-palma]

Most amazing farewell gifts

(also me shamelessly bragging how awesome my friends and family are)

All this stuff I got from my parents. Basically everything that won't make me forget my hometown. They got me a bear that starts yodeling if you press its belly, an "I love Graz" magnet, a super sweet card and a vegetable peeler because one of my greatest fears was that I had to peel my vegetables the old fashioned way in Palma haha

This huge card is from my grandparents. My grandma was so worried that she wouldn't find something that I would like so I told her to just give me a card and write something nice and they did. My grandpa is always so creative when it come to stuff like this and I love every single sentence of it. I miss them a lot because they are the only people I can't reach over Skype whenever i want!

All those little presents are from my aunt, uncle and my 6 year old cousin. She was absolutely heart broken when I told her that I was going away for 6 months so she made me a pencil case (a Hello Kitty one, but because it's from her I love it), a key chain, a heart and she even drew and painted me two pictures. There was also a picture frame with her picture in it but it was way too heavy and would have broken in my suitcase so I just took the picture with me. I love how every little gift had a note that came with it and so everything has a special meaning.

Next up is a gift from the lovely Carina. We haven't been friends all that long but fandoms and lots and lots of geekery have made us practically inseparable (except for the fact that she is going to Manchester and I am in Palma now lol). This present helped me a lot on Monday because it has little notes in it and those notes contain all kind of cute stuff, so far I had a pony, a cartoon about the Avengers and a picture of John Watson and Sherlock hugging. If all this doesn't make sense to you, it's okay, but it makes me unbelievably happy. Since you should be reading this I wanted to thank you and let you know how much this means to me <3 

This is another really sweet letter but this time from one of my longest friends, we have known each other for over 10 years now (oh my god I wasn't even aware that it's our 10 year anniversary this year). She is my rock and I was able to count on her with no matter what for the past 10 years. We might do different stuff and have different interests but I know we will always have something to talk about because that's just how we work and I am insanely grateful for that friendship.

These two pictures belong to an amazing gift my friend Sara made me. She wrote me 10 post cards, all of them related to her hometown Munich and on the back it had everything from a poem she wrote about us, to one postcards with random facts that make me smile, to sweet messages for when I feel down. The stakes where high because she always makes me the most amazing gifts but I was not disappointed. I also got to take her little ducky with me, that when she was in America was allowed to stay with another friend of hers, now it's in my care :D  Thank you honey <3

And last but not least, all the amazing post cards that I got from all my friends around the world (I can say the world because I got one from Los Angeles) Thank you so much guys :D

[my-life-in-palma]

Day 2

I had a horrible night! Seriously something must be wrong with the thunder here because it is so freaking loud and kept me up for like an hour before I was able to fall back asleep at like 3am. Despite the horrible night my day turned out pretty productive after that. I might have procrastinated a bit in the morning, read a bit and watch "The Glades" but then I got a reply for one of the apartments I was interested in. It's in a very nice shopping street and the girl that is already living there is so nice. The room and the whole apartment is amazing too! Unfortunately there is a guy who looked at it before me so I would have to wait to find out if I got it. Little did I know that today would get even better.

I had lunch at McDonald's which had Wifi so that was cool and I could find a thing called "the phone house" to get my sim card. Luckily the lady at the counter was speaking english otherwise I would have definitely had a problem! So now I have a prepaid spanish sim card with 500mb internet, 20 sms, 20 minutes and all that for only 10€. It's so weird because the country code for Spain is +34 and the one for Austria is +43, so I always wanna do it the other way when typing in numbers. After that I got back to the apartment to wait for my czech flat mate who arrived today.

I didn't tell her about the mold and stuff in the apartment because first I didn't want to worry her and second I wanted her to have her own opinion but luckily she thought the same thing about the apartment as me - it sucks! I had an apartment viewing with a guy that had two free rooms at 6pm so she just went with me to that. It was really hilarious because the guy totally forgot that he had arranged a meeting with me but he was really nice and the flat was clean and spacious too. After the viewing I showed my flat mate around Palma a bit because since i was wandering around all day I actually had an idea of what was where, which was awesome.

We had dinner at Burger King today (I know I am so healthy right now) and the most hilarious thing happened to me. Burger Kind in Germany and Austria has veggie burgers, actual burgers with veggie patties in them. I asked if they had one too, the guy said yes and I ordered a menu. When I went to take a bit out of my burger there were only pickles, onions and tomatoes in it! Honestly I was more amused than mad because come on really?! We hung around the Plaza Major a bit before heading to the last apartment meeting.

That was the most amazing thing about my day. The girl whom I had talked to on the phone was really nice and we immediately hit it off. The apartment and the rooms are clean and there is a lot of light. Did I mention that the other girl is really nice too? We were talking about stuff that we need to know and I mentioned that I was vegetarian. Both of the girls already living in the flat all of a sudden gasped and told me that the one was vegan and the other one partially vegetarian. I felt at home instantly and it was just awesome! On our way back to the apartment we couldn't stop talking about the flat and the girls so I called again once we got home and asked if we could for sure move in and they said yes!!!! I am sooo excited and I can't wait to move in tomorrow or Thursday. Now I only need to tell out landlady that the apartment sucks and that we want our deposit back… 

Now my adventure here can really begin, finally feel like I have arrived and that everything is going to be amazing! 

[my-life-in-palma]

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu

I got on a plane pretty late yesterday, Sunday August 25th, and arrived in Palma around 20:20. Saying goodbye to everybody was horrible, all my family was there and even two of my closest friends. I was excited to go to Spain don't get me wrong but I wish all of them could have just come with me. So I cried a lot on the plane and during the flight which I am sure didn't make me seem like a crazy person at all but that just shows that I have something that's worth coming back to which is amazing too. 

I took a cab to the apartment that I had found online and on my way from the airport to the apartment I got a quick climbs of what my new home looked like. Honestly, I didn't really expect anything but what I saw so far is a typical Mediterranean city with brown/beige houses and small alleys. I have yet to really go explore so I will get back to you on that. My landlady was already waiting for me at the door and we made our way to the third floor in an elevator (thank god because I had three huge suitcases). My first thought was that it was nice because it was simple but clean but unfortunately that wasn't completely true.

After all the formalities were over and done with I went exploring and what I found wasn't pretty. The kitchen is run down, old and really dirty and the same goes for the bathroom (there is even mold on the ceiling). At first I thought "puh at least my room is okay" but unfortunately it is moldy too. A girl that I met on Facebook who is also an Erasmus student will move in here tomorrow too, I am looking forward to hearing what she has to say. 

I basically spend all day today looking for a new room. So far I have contacted 8 people and I have gotten declines from 2 because either the room was taken or they wanted someone until June. It's a bit frustrating to be honest because i really want to get out of this apartment before the end of the month and finally feel comfortable in the new city I am living in now. I will start pestering them again tomorrow because I think I need to give them at least one day to get back to me. I have one viewing of an apartment tomorrow but I want to do more than that! 

I did have time to go exploring today too though. I got completely lost but that is the best way to get to know new surroundings in my opinion. Weirdly enough I found only two supermarkets but at least 5 auto repair shops and 3 hair dressers/beauty saloons. It's a bit weird to me because nothing is hectic or seems rushed. Everybody is walking slowly and is also super nice. I was on the same sidewalk as another man coming towards me, we had both our umbrellas open and it was really narrow. He thanked me for trying to dodge his even though I was next to the house and couldn't really do anything, so that was nice. 

If I get really bored tonight I will do a roundup of all the awesome things my family and friends got me as farewell presents. I hope tonight won't be so much rain and thunder as we had last night and that tomorrow will be better altogether. Comments are as always appreciated and helpful tips more than welcome. Can't wait for the next 173 days of my Spain adventure!