Where Romans Tread

In my bordem this afternoon, I found myself doing something very out of the ordinary. Homework. I was slowly reading my Catalan history book, translating words with a Catalan-to-Spanish dictionary, and then a Spanish-to-English dictionary. I felt like I was reading the Rosseta Stone. Fortunately, the text wasn´t difficult and I understood almost everything. We´re learning about the Romans, Visigoths, Musulmans, and Vandals. This chapter of history is often looked over quickly in America, as it really has no direct impact on our history. We all learned about the Romans in grade school, and about how Ceasar was assasinated by members of the Roman senate. Et tu brute? Here its diffirent. They teach Rome and Musulmans like we teach the Revolutionary war. In New Jersey, we can boast a handful of Revolutionary War battles and a few sunken Nazi U-Boats off the coast. Here they can boast carnage. Palma, the city I go to school in, was laid seige by dozens of diffierent armys in the past two-thousand years. Romans, Vandals, Moors; everyone wanted a piece of Mallorca. And who wouldn´t? Not only is it beautiful, it also maintains strategic point in controlling the Medditeranian.
Just last night, Jaime, Miguel and I went walking through the old section of Palma. Castles, walls, and old fortifications command the city. One can almost imagine hoards of pissed off Vandals running up the street that I was eating my dinner on. I did a little research and I discovered that several major battles were fought right under my feet in what is today Palmanyola, the town I live in. There is alot of history here, more then America, and you can actually feel it.
After I was finished history homework, I got to work on enjoying my Sabado. I went out with Maria to El Corte Ingles to look at cell phones. I´ve come to the conclusion that it is actually impossible to live without a cellphone nowadays. I found a really cheap one, prepago. Not too pretty, but it gets the job done. Afterwards, I had dinner at Maria´s and we watched a Spanish movie (naturally), with Spanish subtitles. I got the jist of it, or at least I hope I did.