As previously touched upon, the center of Palma is with few exceptions a maze of streets that the average American would find difficult to sort out. During the first days after my move there the old city seemed very large to me. At first I stuck to the area immediate to the alley on which [...]

Not long after I’d begun teaching in Majorca a student asked me if it were true that people eat lots of “trash food” (“fast food” or “junk food” rendered in his particular Spanglish) in America. The question got my attention – not just because of his mistake, but because I’d never thought about it while [...]

Hostal Pons is on a street that would be better described as an alley. Up the stairs and through a lovely courtyard is a dimly lit pension with cramped rooms and hallways, filled with ancient beds and furniture that most likely hasn’t been replaced since the Spanish Civil War. All of this is watched over [...]

My daily commute to and from work in Palma takes me through a wide and variegated slice of ciutat (“city”), as Majorcans are apt to call it. It weaves from my apartment in the immigrant-heavy Pere Garau neighborhood, through the old city, through neighborhoods trendy and trashy, as far west as one can go on [...]

I remember once reading an article about the American palette that claimed America’s favorite flavor was ‘crispy’. Synesthetic quips aside, there’s a certain truth to this assertion, and I think that it’s not in any way limited to those of us who hail from the United States. As sure as the sky is blue and [...]

I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon Can Angel, but it was relatively soon after I arrived here, quite possibly a random encounter while wandering the circuitous alleys of Palma’s medieval center. Regardless of how I arrived there, it became very quickly my favorite place to go out in Palma. It is informal. It [...]

One of the qualities of Spanish city life overall that strikes an American is the way people live large chunks of their lives on the street – sitting at tables in front of cafés, taking perfunctory walks in the evening with their family, etc. Majorca, as independentist graffitti shouts loudly on walls around the island, [...]

I’ve lived in Majorca for a little over nine months now. In my relatively short time here I’ve come to know a lot of details about the island, meet a lot of people, see and experience what it is like to live in a place of intense physical beauty – a beauty which attracts the [...]