Wind Mill Diaries

In one week I'm gonna finishing my one year European Solidarity Corps project. It's been a weird year, with the Covid Pandemic and everything, but all things considered has been a great year to me. I've learned a lot: about Menorca, about Spain, about Spanish and Catalan, about not formal education, and expecially about myself. I feel changed, I feel different from when I arrived here, grown up, more confident and peaceful. The quarantine and the global health emergency were painful and difficult but they contributed to my work of self-analysis and introspection. And all in all, this island is not so a bad place where to spend a quarantine: here the cases have always been fews and the nature offers a lot of outside activities that can be done without risk. So, even if I didn't have the opportunity of living a "regular" year as European Solidarity Coprs Volunteer here, I'm still happy of my choice and plenty satisfied with the experience. Torre d'en Gal...

This month I'm obsessed with Audioiko's remix of Carla Morrison's song "Disfruto". It was recommended to me by two of Fanny's friends from Madrid who came to visit her in September. I'm listening to it on a loop ever since.   

Thanks to the discounts for island residents, I was able to travel a lot during this year. Well, I probably would have traveled more if it hadn't been for the pandemic but ... es lo que hay ("it's what it is"). I've been in Mallorca (three times), in Granada, and in Valencia. I was supposed to go to Italy in spring but they cancelled my flight due to the pandemic. So it's almost a year that I don't see my parents and friends. I start to miss them a lot. In Mallorca I've visited Palma and I had an exciting excursion through the Serra de Tramuntana mountains with my friends Nina and Fanny. One of the great opportunity of ESC is to be able to travel more and get know better the hosting country. Puig d'en Galileu, Sierra de Tramontana, Mallorca Palma de Mallorca Valencia

I'm planning a trip through all the Balearic Islands, and maybe go visiting Valencia too.   "Será maravilloso,     viajar hasta Mallorca     Sin necesidad de tomar el barco o el avión     Sólo caminando en bicicleta o en auto stop"     [Los Mismos - El Puente]   (El trío Los Mismos, en su inicio estuvo formado por Helena Bianco, Benjamín Santos y Toby Pérez.  En 1968 consiguieron el primer premio del V Festival internacional de Mallorca  con su tema más famoso "El Puente".)

In the last few weeks several sea turtles have born on the beach Sa Mesquida, under the eye of some volunteers from the ecologistic association GOB. My friend Nina has been the first person who saw the first turtle just came out of its egg! The biologists gave the turtle her same name. Nina with Baby Nina Baby Nina's first bath in the sea life rescue center in Mallorca

This version of  Can't Take My Eyes Off You  by Franke Valli (1967), is -if it's possible- catchier than the Gloria Gaynor's cover from the Nineties. Can't stop sing it in the car with my friends, when we go to the playa . Surf Mesa ft. Emilee - ily

Menorcan summer is famous for its traditional folk fests. From June to September, almost every weekend there is one, every time in a different village of the island. They are very typical, the whole population participates and a lot of tourists come from other parts of Spain and from all over Europe to take part too. They are called "Jaleos" and they are the celebration of horses, very important animals in the agricultural history of the island. During the festivals, the horses, festively decorated, as much as the jockeys, parade in the center of the villages, in the middle of the crowd, with music and dancing. The streets are covered with sand, the horses are blessed, and the people throw themeselves under the horses pushing them up to make them walk on two legs. Everyone drinks the typical pomada granizada (gin lemon slush). Dust, crowd, sweat, noise, alchool. Not this year, of course. I'm kind of sad to miss this big typical event. But maybe, from how they described i...