It was so hot today, that I preferred to stay in the shadow after a lovely swim in the rocky water of Cala Sant Vicenç. It was turquoise blue and unfortunately shared with reddish and small jellyfishes with looooong tentacles. They got Francesc. It’s good to know that AfterBite and Fenestil Gel are good for such things too.

Yesterday late night I had my first new language class. Catalan with whiskey and gin-tonic. Catalan with style.

We’ve already done today’s class, and it’s not easy! The pronunciation is quite tricky. Whatever is written as an “e” and has no accent and neither has the emphasis in a word is to be pronounced as an “a” (at least in Barcelona, because linguistically it’s something in between a-e).

It’s the same case with the “o” which then turns to an “u”… and so on.

And even if I understand it, it just doesn’t want to come out correctly.

I remember not pronouncing half of the word in French (that was always our joke when we learned it), and it’s coming back somewhat with the Catalan too. Though in a different way. Chileans didn’t pronounce the words’ endings neither, so it was really hard in 2007 as I spoke a lot less Spanish than now. And then eventually I learned their ways.

So here we are, hooked up in Catalan pronunciation. Sigh. I’m getting there. <3

When I moved to Barcelona in 2012 and I got close to Catalan speakers, I thought that if the Moon had a language that would definitely be Catalan. It just sounded like it with all its weird sounds. It still does.

As you see, for us it’s not just “holidays and doing nothing”, we like doing nothing while progressing with little big things. Those we kept postponing and postponing since a while. It feels good to get things done and complete whatever was suspended for the lack of time.  And there is time for everything. Mostly, it’s time for each other, and occasionally, to progress with tasks or to be alone. That’s what’s deeply relaxing here.

From Mallorca, with love.

xx