Fraser on Tour!: A week of Firsts, Protesting and Samba Dancing!

Hi Everyone! I'm now into my third week in Mallorca and finally getting settled in. Here's what I've been up to this past week.

On Thursday, after just finishing the previous post, I headed out on the town for my first night out in Palma. Last Thursday was Arthur's Day, an annual celebration for the anniversary of the Guinness brewing company, so it only made sense to go to the Shamrock Irish Pub on the waterfront to grab myself a Guinness in honour of Arthur Guinness (the founder of this great drink) whilst watching some live music. Thursday also marked the longest amount of time that I'd ever been in Spain for so there was even more for me to personally celebrate. Whilst at the Shamrock, I got talking to two Germans called Danny and Steffan who soon became my friends for the night. They were very friendly and insisted on buying most of my drinks as well as a pair of sunglasses in exchange for my company as neither could speak any Spanish! Due to the lack of atmosphere,older crowd, uninspiring live music and 5 euros for a pint of Guinness, we decided to leave and ended up a few minutes later in Made In Brasil further down the promenade. As the name suggests, Made In Brasil is a Brazilian themed bar where we spent most of the night Samba dancing. For those of you who know me well or have been lucky enough to have seen me grace one of Manchester's many sweaty; STD infested dancefloors, I am by no means a good dancer. This was and never is helped by the alcohol in my system so I was hideously slow and out of time but nevertheless it was good fun. I wouldn't mind giving it another go sometime but for now I'll stick to my cheesy novelty dance moves like the Sprinkler or the Inbetweeners dance (if you don't know what they are, go and youtube it!). Overall it was a good night out and I hope to go on a few nights out while I'm out here when it is possible. As well as my German friends I did meet various Spaniards, Brits and I met people from Sweden and Norway for the very first time which was all very interesting and especially amusing when a Norwegian man approached us asking us "What does the Fox say?"-for those of you not up to date with the most recent terrible dance music I suggest you youtube that as well.

Picture I took while Samba Dancing in Made In Brasil. This guy was the dance leader and he was incredible.Kind of looks like I'm taking a picture of his ass here though... awkward

Continuing on the theme of first times, on Friday we headed out to Alcúdia for the weekend and that evening I tried out Japanese food. This was actually a crucial test for me in terms of my University course next year as I am currently trying to weigh up which third language I should start studying when I arrive in Southampton of which Japanese is on the shortlist. I always feel it is important that when learning a language that you appreciate and enjoy the culture of the country or area where it is spoken as this makes you more interested in learning it and what is more significant in culture than food!? I must say, having tasted it now that I like Japanese food except Wasabi, that stuff is waaaaaay too spicy, however I doubt I would choose to have it if someone offered me some other type of foreign cuisine. Guess that's a point in favour of Chinese and Arabic on my list- I haven't tried any Portuguese yet so I'll have to try that sometime soon (well, unless you count Nando's as Portuguese food...). Friday also marked the first time that I played Rummikub. It turns out this is a really popular game amongst the family here and they all know how to play so I wasn't expecting to play well against them however after overcoming the confusion of Marta explaining the rules to me it all made sense and I managed to win my very first game as well as another two that night! Must have a hidden talent for it.

FOOD OF THE WEEK: My first Japanese meal!

On Saturday we all reconvened with the family at the Sports Centre in Sa Pobla to celebrate Aina's birthday who turned 22 on the Friday. The rest of the day was largely uneventful as I spent most of the day down at the local bar in Alcúdia watching Spanish football with Josep. Between marveling at how cheap the beer was (1.50 Euros for a bottle of Estrella) we first watched Barca (Josep's team) beat Almería 2-0 then later returned to see the Madrid Derby-Real vs Atlético which Atlético won 1-0 despite Real's best efforts and an appearance from Welsh wonderboy Gareth Bale, shame.

Sunday marked the day of the big demonstration against the unpopular TIL education laws. The whole family plus myself headed into the city centre clad in our Green t-shirts to protest and make as much as noise as possible to show our support for the Anti-TIL movement. It seemed that literally all the island was out demonstrating en mass with approximately 90,000 people dwarfing the protest we attended the previous week. The demonstration began in the Placa d'Espanya parading off down the main roads of the city before finishing up on the Passeig De Born again where leading figures of the movement spoke about education laws on a raised platform which was greeted with cheers of agreement and lots of clapping before the whole crowd started singing a traditional Spanish song that was sung during the era of Spain under Franco. There were many banners of which I'd helped to make a few at Simó and Júlia's school on Friday that displayed various Anti-TIL messages which included some in English. Part of the new law is that certain core subjects like Sciences and Maths were to be taught in English so many banners commented on the poor level of English that would be learnt as many teachers wouldn't be able to communicate effectively or correctly in English. It was all a very strange experience for me as we never really see protests of this scale up in Manchester but it was interesting none-the-less and satisfied my interest in Politics. Since then, negotiations between the campaigners and the government broke down last night so Marta and Josep rushed out of the flat at about 10:30PM to join various others in an impromptu gathering to demonstrate against the government. They returned just after midnight with the news that the government said they felt threatened by this sudden gathering and stated they would make a decision on the proposals of the campaigners at some point today. We all really hope an agreement can be reached soon so that the kids on the island can all go back to regular lessons. It may not really affect Simó or Júlia as they are still in primary education however in terms of kids in the secondary schools and colleges who will be taking important exams this year, the lack of learning they've had so far this academic year could be detrimental if it continues for much longer.

Making posters at school on Friday

One of the many banners during the demonstration

Demonstrators impersonating political leaders of Mallorca

This week I started my language exchange with Pau's girlfriend Silvia which I would say has been successful so far for both of us. Due to all the Catalan being spoken around me, my Spanish has become a little rusty so it is good for me to be able to talk with someone of Castilian descent (Silvia is from Bilbao) and hopefully I can keep up and maybe even improve my Spanish while I'm here. The other side of the exchange is also very beneficial for me as I am currently doing my TEFL course online and speaking English with Silvia is giving me a chance to practice some of the things I've learnt on the course so far. I may not have completed the course yet but I already have my first student!

Today marks 19 days till I turn 19 so to celebrate that coincidental fact I am going out tonight with Pau and Silvia to check out Oktober fest in Sa Riera park. I PROMISE I'm NOT an Alcoholic!

FP

#FraserOnTour