Yippee!

Joyous news in Palma! Although it's rainy and cold outside, Andy and I have been planning up a storm inside and we finally booked our tickets for an amazing trip in June. We officially leave June 2nd and fly to Istanbul. From there we meet up with my friend Rachael and travel to Greece, Southern Italy (Naples, Pompeii), Croatia and finally up to Northern Italy (Venice and Milan) where we fly back home on the 25th. Wow! I think it will be a trip to remember. I couldn't sleep very much last night because of excitement over the whole thing. We also counted up the money we've been saving from tutoring and we were both pleasantly surprised at the sum.

So, next week we leave for our Spring holidays on Thursday. We'll fly to Rome, travel through Tuscany, Florence and the coast and then back to Rome. Overall, we'll have 10 days of Italian adventuring! So I am also gearing up for that trip now. In other news, my students seem to be progressing very well as I am consistently hearing English being applied in the classroom. That makes my job here truly worthwhile.

This past weekend, my friend Ashley who we stayed with in London came to visit us and we had a grand time exploring Palma and even hit the beach on Friday. It was a great weekend and it was nice to return the favor of a place to stay for her. Hopefully we'll have more friends come and visit as it continues to heat up here.

On this Thursday Afternoon, A List:

1. After 45 minutes on the phone and a great deal of whining, I finally changed our plane tickets to August 8th. I fought for a waiver of the $300 service charge because they added a leg through Chicago to our flight and I failed on that account but I did manage to wrangle a landing in Portland instead of Seattle. I am satisfied.

2. I had a pretty wonderful class with the terrible 3rd graders. The school finally split the class into two classes with 10 students each so it's so much more manageable. They are re-learning how to behave in a classroom so it's slow going but everyday I see progress.

3. Last week, one of my students asked if I was pregnant and the next day the four year old I babysit told me my tummy was "a bit fat." Geez louis. I think I need to cut back on the baguettes I'm eating. Or just teach these kids some manners! I definitely do NOT look pregnant though. FYI.

4. I had a lovely time watching Terminator 2 at our Mallorquin friend Irene's apartment on Friday night.

5. We decided for sure that Portland is our destination next year and now I am day dreaming about a future apartment where Andy and I will live together without roommates for the very first time.

6. My student loan grace period ended on March 4th. Ugh.

7. I started a new tutee and she is three! It was a rough first half an hour because she wouldn't leave her mom's lap but by the end we were playing with paddles and balls and giggling up a storm.

8. The sun has been out consistently and thus my spirits have been soaring.

9. This weekend there is a classic car rally around the island so I am hoping we can watch a leg of it. We're also having a spring party at our flat on Saturday so I will be sure to write about that after. I need to think more about the menu . . .

Hilarously deformed yet still delicious PB&J

Happy tree.

Hikin' along, singin' my song!

We made it!

Realization! Yes!

So after a lot of soul searching and a fair amount of research I think I've decided I'm not ready to move to Korea to teach English next year. I actually didn't discover this fact until I was chatting with Jill last night after babysitting her kids. I was explaining the pros and cons and I ended up explaining that I think I would really like to go home and pursue formal teaching training before I commit to a full year of teaching/lesson planning/managing a classroom. The experience I've gained here in Spain has been tremendous but I still feel like if I want to be a valuable teacher then I could really use training in classroom management and lesson planning. In Korea, I would have a lot more responsibility than here. And I still need to figure out if teaching is in my future. I feel very comfortable admitting that I love working with kids and being in a classroom so I think teaching might be coming into my future. But I still want to explore journalism further despite the fact that print journalism is having a really rough time in the economy right now.

This past weekend, we went on a spectacular hike from Soller to Deia that lasted pretty much all day on Saturday with a group of 16 couch surfers. It was a bunch of fun and we got to meet a lot of cool people who live on Mallorca. The views were soul lifting and I felt pretty awesome about getting outside and doing some more island exploring. Every time we are able to leave Palma and get outside, I fall a bit more in love with life here.

My Life Plan, In Progress

Today I have the day off so I've decided to engage in a bit of life planning. Serious stuff. One of Andy's friends from his last trip to Spain sent an enlightening email about the status of job hunting back home and it sounds pretty much awful. I have faith that if we really wanted to go home and find jobs, we would. These things always take time and I'm sure that it would just take some extra time to find something. But with the pressure of student loans looming and the urge to find a job with health insurance plans, I'm starting to think a bit outside the box. And thus, I sent an email today to a recruiter for an English teaching program in South Korea. The company recruits for Korea, Taiwan and China. I am most interested in Korea because I have friends that have taught there and had amazing experiences. I emailed the recruiter inquiring about teaching in public schools because I really don't want to teach at a language school. I would prefer the challenges and age ranges of a public school. So we'll see what he says. I also asked him about the health insurance coverage for Mr. Holmes. Hopefully he'll be able to enlighten me. But honestly, the program pays fairly well with rent and plane tickets and health insurance included so I feel that I owe it to myself to at least look into it. I think it could be a really amazing adventure and I am always up for adventures. So perhaps the economy failing will end up being just the push I need to change things up even more and continue on my travels. We'll have to wait and see. But I honestly think it could be really great. I'll keep you updated.

Here's the website that I was looking at for placement: http://reachtoteachrecruiting.com/index.html

Giant Creepy Mc. Creeperson Ant for Carnaval.

Carnaval!

Ouch. The facial expression for getting hit on the head by candy. Ouch.

Hiking at a beach near Deiá

Journalism Fail!

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_miserable_cities/2.htm.

Oh man. Serious reporting fail. Is this a joke business week? Just thought I would share.

A Little List

Things that have happened since I last posted:

1. Japan fell through because the director of the program said there would be no way for me to find a job there and I would be super lonely. That´s about the time I said, "I´m out!"

2. Booked tickets to Rome for Easter Week and then I couldn´t sleep because I of my excitement to go to Italy.

3. Cooked some super yummy foods such as: White Bean and Cabbage Soup, Vegetarian Chili and Blue Cheese and Mushroom Fettuccini.

4. Came to the full realization that I adore traveling and want to spend the rest of my life doing so.

5. Dressed up as a hippie and painted Andy as a skeleton to attend a rockin´Carnival party a week later than Carnival which meant we recieved a number of very confused looks on the bus ride.

6. Started a new painting in my favorite color of all time: purple!

7. Decided to stay in Palma until August but have yet to bite the bullet and pay the fee to change the plane ticket.

8. Went and layed out on the beach on a mildly warm day and day-dreamed of Mallorcan summer.

9. Hosted some super awesome couchsurfers.

10. Took up jogging/walking on the boardwalk and fell in love with living on the med. all over again!