I had quite a hippie adventure in Formentera, a small island off Ibiza, a small island off the coast of Spain near Barcelona, where I went for new year. It was great to be with Nico, an Italian friend living in Spain who is now officially part of my extended family.

Nico speaks four languages fluently and I gave him two weeks of english immersion, since I speak no other. He read to me and we talked about pronunciation, concepts, slang, and exceptions to rules. He cooked for me, took me for walks all over the island, and we had great conversations about life, art, music, and movies.

The cinema was open on Tuesday nights and we saw 'Badlands' the first week and 'Wizard of Oz' the second--in english with spanish subtitles. On the boat to Barcelona we watched 'Stranger than Fiction' in Spanish, but I remembered the script so well I didn't need the language. What great acting, you really notice that when you don't have the dialogue.

In the little house Nico rented, we layered up to stay warm, listened to techno/electronic/hiphop/rave music and watched movies I would never see at home. Check out 'La Haine' if you can find it, and 'Bad Boy Bubby'.

It was cold though, and damp. there is no fresh water on the island and no natural gas. Water and propane are shipped in, so we had limited heat, hot water, showers, etc. The last two days, in Barcelona, I stayed at a hotel in Nico's neighborhood, because I wanted heat and needed space to start separating from the wacky wonderful passage in time I was leaving.

As cities go, Barcelona is one of my favorites so it was a pleasure to be there. Nico's a great cook and the times we ate out in both Formentera and Barcelona, the food was exceptional. I came home wanting to cook and learn a language!

A map and info at: http://www.guiaformentera.com/ing/ingzonas.htm
Our house was in La Savina, near the port.

The People

The Hippie Compound

The Island