filling up that calendar

Would you like to come and visit me in Mallorca? Let me consult my sshhhedule…

I happily live in a very wonderful part of the world at the moment, and just as I am visiting lots of friends all around Europe, lots of friends are returning the favor. At the moment, I believe my calendar looks like:

It’s going to be a busy spring! I wrote in November about how I love to have all the boxes in my calendar filled in: well, for this spring, they certainly are looking full! It’s strange for me to have so much free time (my whopping 12-hour-a-week job isn’t all that taxing) and so I’m making sure to fill as much of that time up as possible. This weekend, for example, I went on a great hike with a teacher from the high school and his friends. It was one of the most fun Saturdays I’ve spent here on the island! We went to the Castell d’Alaró, an originally Moorish fortress on a high hill overlooking the snow-covered Serra de Tramuntana on the one side, and the central plains of the island on the other. It was a very cold day—there was about 1cm of snow at the top of the knob, and the entire group was going crazy. “SNOW ON MALLORCA!!!” People made all sorts of baby snowmen and had mini-snowball fights. It was great. After the hike, we went to a homey, cozy restaurant where you had to shout at the waitress for her to bring you anything, and the food was delicious, and I ordered in Mallorquín! “Un poc més de vi, per favor…” (un poco más de vino, por favor; a little more wine, please) We had “un poc més de vi” for quite a while, and for desert we had flaming rum. Amazing. After that, it was still light out, so we drove to another town to have coffee. This town, Orient, was one of the most romantic villages I’ve ever seen in my life. Apparently, other people have thought so, too; they say the population is 95% foreign. The day wasn’t over yet: we then went to somebody’s house to have tea. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

As for the rest of the weekend: Sunday, day of rest = day of housework. Lots and lots of housework. Today is Monday, and since my work schedule has changed, I no longer work on Mondays. I’ve been a downright bum, playing computer games, studying a bit of Catalan, baking cookies, and lolling around. The laziness has been great, but I’m also feeling antsy: I need to get out and get at ‘em, otherwise I’ll go stir-crazy. Or else I’ll become a master at Age of Empires 2! Next weekend I’m going to a bonfire with the same group of hiking people, but I’m going to be a couch potato for 2 out of the 3 days of my weekend (especially now that we have TV in Spanish as well as in Bulgarian) and I know I’m going to drive myself wild. This has been a really good year for me to have lots of alone time, which I need, but there’s only so much time I can spend with me, myself, and I. I hope to find a good balance between work, travel, connecting with people here, and relaxing by myself; I’ll let you know how it goes after the next 4 months.