And then all of a sudden it feels like home

Hola a todos! Disculpa, hace mucho tiempo que escribo un post nuevo! I'm sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. The last 3-4 weeks have sped by. The fact that we are almost to December is unbelievable to me, I've also been on this island for exactly 2 months. What has happened? Working with the students has gone very well, we've been working on grammar and talking about Thanksgiving. I showed them a powerpoint about our holiday's history and the students drooled at the pictures of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. I made some pumpkin peanut butter bars for them so it wasn't too torturous, they liked them :). Lets seee I went to a wine festival in a pueblo called Muro a couple weeks ago which was pretty amazing, it was around this courtyard in the open air inside of a church-like building with live music. Earlier that day I woke up at 7:30am to see this special occurrence that happens at the Cathedral only twice a year - the sunlight perfectly came in a rose window of the church to reflect a gorgeous colorful pattern of light right below the other main rose window across from it.

The Cathedral was full of people, it was incredible how everyone knew about it and how many people were actually there before 8am on a Friday morning. That weekend I also saw Can Picafort, a little beach town that was kinda dead from the lack of tourists, which was extremely beautiful. You can see the mountains of Alcudia and surrounding cities right on the Mediterranean, the side that is near Italy. That same weekend there was a feria in Pollença, another pueblo on the other side of those mountains. Ellen and I hiked up the mountian there then checked out the fair afterwards. A "feria" is like a very large festival/market that takes up the entire town, people travel from all over the island to go, and they sell everything from clothing and bags to fresh fruit, wine, olive, and cheese, animals, tractors...you name it. Winter here is full of different ferias around the island. Last weekend I went to Sóller with a few other auxilaries and a native (one of the room mates) to hike. Let me tell you, that was ammaaaazing. The mountains were rockier than the other ones I had seen, there were less trees and a lot of stone and gray everywhere. I took a few pictures that are on the post. I also went to three wine tastings in Santa Maria with Ellen and Melody the day before, soo fun! Can't wait to show my parents all around the city :) They are coming in one month now and I can't wait.
This past Sunday a bunch of auxilaries from the program all got together to have a Thanksgiving potluck. There was so much food and even more people! Both Spanish and English speaking. I think at least 45 people came and left by the time the night was done. Everyone had really delivered though, the host apartment even made a turkey ! Our apartment also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner on the actual day, but it was much smaller, we all sat down at the table together and passed dishes, etc. It was also potluck style, but much more relaxed. I think it was the best Thanksgiving I could've possibly had given the circumstances - since I couldn't be with my parents and brothers, I was with the family that I've made here. I'm so thankful for those people and don't know what I would do without them! It was a little sad that it was my first Thanksgiving ever without my parents, and I couldn't be the second in command chef in the kitchen with my mom like every year.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. The ones with mountains do not come anywhere near how amazing they were to see in person , but you get the idea.

raw brownies!!

a glimpse of the potluck we hosted

Pollença

Una cascada en Soller

Kind of unable to write more at the moment, but will update sooner!!

Amore

Bianca

La cuarta y quinta semana !

Hola de la isla del sol, cómo va?
It has been two weeks since the last post, I hadn't taken many pictures the week before so I wanted to wait. But a lot has happened! Two weekends ago we surprised Ellen with a birthday party, it was perfect because she had noooo idea since it was an entire week before her real birthday.  I made her come shopping with me and then we went to this wine store that sells wine out of the barrell by filling up the bottles in front of you. It was fantastic, this little hole in the wall with an "art gallery" in the back, and it was jam packed with people. Then we went back to our piso and...SURPRISE! It was great having everyone over, we'll probably do that more in the future. Afterwards we went out dancing 'till 6am again. The club we went to was pretty big and played a lot of good American music (which is also extremely popular here).  Teaching at the schools has been going very well, this past week was full of Halloween activities! For the primary school, I made sugar cookies, white frosting, and orange frosting and brought them to class for the kids to decorate with rainbow and chocolate sprinkles (fideos), blood (strawberry syrup), skinny tubes of chocolate icing. They absolutely loved it, half the time though they were just eating the syrup or sprinkles, jajaja.

Of course I couldn't find any Halloween sprinkles, the baking aisles here have nothing compared to the stores in the states. I could only find 3 different types of sprinkles. They got the idea though :). It's really interesting see an American holiday like Halloween celebrated in a different country. The costumes here are actually focused on being scary and not neccessarily anything.
This past Saturday I went to an amazing vineyard with some friends. It only took half an hour on the train to get there (at 1,30euro roundtrip ticket) and was so easy to find. The tasting was free and all the wine was delicious. We swore to come back at least a couple times, I think I want to take my parents there when they come for Christmas! Anyways, Ellen and I are going to try to visit more vineyards around the island, the only trouble is getting there, as the Mallorcan public transportation can only take you to specific places.

towards the vineyard!

interesting glass art

hallway, all those are empty wine bottles!

i think this is a fancy tasting room

Peter, Michael, and Ellen :)

room full of wine barells 

Sunday was Ellen's actual birthday, so we made Veggie, Salmon, and Tilapia sushi!! That was my first time making it, and I will definitely be doing that again. It's so much fun! I also made a three layered- raw ice cream cake, which was also amazing. The first layer was "brownie" (raw almonds, raw cacao, dates), second layer was strawberry "ice cream" (frozen banana, frozen strawberries, almond milk), and the top layer was chocolate "ice cream" (raw cacao, soaked raw cashews, dates, sea salt). 

Yesterday was Halloween and I worked in Santanyí. We had parties in two of the classes (with food and games) and then in the other ones I simply talked about what was typical of Halloween in the states. Later in the evening I put on my costume with my roomies and we hung out before giong to an Italian's costume parties then to a dance club.  I was basically the girl from Flashdance, Ellen was a mummy, Laura was an "art teacher from Hell," and Patty and Melody were both ghosts of Las Vegas hangovers. We were a pretty fun group to see walking along the street :).

l to r, melody, laura, patty, y ellen

Today was a holiday, Día de los Muertos, aka All Saints Day. It's a common holiday here in Europe, it actually has the same root as Halloween, but it kept its religious meaning after all these years and thus did not go down the certain secular path it did in America.  Anyways, I went running with Ellen along the Med Sea and then worked on law school stuff. Lsat is just a month away! Can't wait until it is done. Here are more glimpses de la vida mallorquina

Sifoneria, the wine store

the amazing daily flower market down La Rambla

These are called "Ensaimadas," kind of pastry cake thing, very Mallorcan !

El torrent

 Es todo para ahora, con muchísimo amor,

Bianca