Y ahora, Espagnol

because I'm in Mallorca, which is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean. I've lost all of my Spanish abilities gained during the 6 years I studied it in high school and everything I say comes out with a french accent, interspersed french words. Tant pis!

I'm staying with my friend Steph, who's parents live here from May til September in a house belonging to the boss of Steph's dad. It's in a very mountainous, rustic setting. And they have a pool with a pretty cool cliffside backdrop, which I've enjoyed. The goats are a little lower down the hill, munching on the weeds.

We've taken several drives around the island to soak up the scenery. This was on our way to Valldemossa.

And this was some castle we saw.

I've sort of lost my interest in the intellectual and historical aspect of ruins and cities, either due to saturation of that topic or because I'm in vaca-mode full throttle and only care about sitting in the sun alongside the ocean. So I really have no idea its significance other than it was old and uniquely circular, with a great viewpoint of Palma, Mallorca - which is the capital.

Saturday we went to the beach at St. Elmo.

I have to say that I've never swum in more beautiful water. Looking out into the ocean you saw varying shades of aqua and blue, but the coolest part was when you were IN it. The sand was white and clean and you could see better than in a pool - 100 feet out. Which of course was fabulous for me because I had no cause to get scared over what iffy thing my feet might brush against down there where I couldn't see. I COULD see.

There WAS a matter of a jellyfish

but no injuries.

Sunday after attending church (in Spanish) we took a little drive in a jeep at Steph's dad's boss's finca - which is about 2,000 acres and includes a mountain. It was breathtaking. I've never really experienced landscape like it.


And tomorrow I head home. Which should be a sad ending to my amazing adventures in Europe but I must say that I'm fairly excited. So that's prob the end to my little bits and thoughts I've disclosed in this blog. Thanks all for sharing with me. See you back in America!