Week 17

Friday (12/5/14)
Today was a big day. And by big, I mean that a lot happened. I spent the morning/afternoon with Dolores and Svenja and after lunch (I had a chicken sandwich with toasted bread that literally massacred the roof of my mouth) Dolores went to meet up with her brother and his wife, also here visiting Tenerife, at the casino. On the way back home with Svenja I stopped at one of the street shops to buy some clothes; on the way down towards the beach with Dolores earlier, I'd seen a really cool touristy shirt that I wanted, so I made sure to go back haha. While I was there I looked around and ended up buying the original T-shirt I'd seen plus 2 other tops, and a few gifts for people back home. Like my mom. :) The guy at this store was different than most other shops I've come across; he was actually helpful, without being pressuring. If he saw me trying to find something or looking confused he'd come over and help me or give me some info to help me out, but then he'd immediately back off and give me my space, which is EXACTLY how to make me happy. Be helpful, but not overbearing. Ah, so nice. I often walk past this place and I always take a quick look to see if there's any excuse to give him more of my business. I would not hesitate at all to shop there again.

ESPAÑA

Peter's cousin, Christian, arrived to stay for the weekend (he was here in Tenerife on the North side taking a Spanish course) before his flight home to France on Sunday. I didn't know he spoke English until dinner when the English neighbors Steve and Lynne came over for dinner. He'd only spoken to me in German up until that point. He lives in Paris, speaks four languages, and works as a tour guide. He's an interesting dude. 

And yes, later in the evening we all had dinner with Steve and Lynne, our English neighbors. They are fabulous. They live here permanently and own a real-estate company called Tenerife Properties. Not gonna lie, I LOVED getting to have real, adult conversation, in English, at the dinner table. Sometimes with all the German that I still struggle to understand, I feel like a toddler. Lynne brought up the fact that they were going to a comedy club tomorrow and I responded with, "There's a comedy club here? Where?" And then she said she had an extra ticket if I wanted to come along. Really? Awesome! I loooooove stand-up comedy! But then they both showed concern that I wouldn't get the humor. Hahaha oh silly people, I was raised on BBC and English comedy. And I watch stand-up videos on YouTube from comics around the world. Part of me just felt like they were trying to back out of the invitation, which made me feel super awkward because it's not like I self-invited myself. I had merely asked where the club was, because yes, I would have definitely checked it out on my own. But nonetheless at the end of the night, the invitation stood. After dinner, Christian tried to converse with me in German. That was rough. Thankfully Peter called him away for a night swim or something, so I was left in peace. 

Saturday (12/6/14)
Went to the beach today with Tamara, Svenja, Peter, and Christian. This guy is driving me NUTS. It's such a love-hate. He really is a cool, interesting guy. But his teaching tactics do NOT work on me. In fact, they make me want to never speak ever again. Where's a black-hole when you need one? Then he just gets insulting. He says to use other words to describe the word I mean. *Facepalm, facepalm, face-freaking-palm* Don't you think if I COULD do that, I would?! I don't know enough words! At this point, if I don't know the ACTUAL word, chances of me having other descriptive words to describe the original word, is pretty low. I eventually said, to everyone in the car, "You all take it as me not trying, but if I could FIND the words to say I would SAY them; it's not like I'm just sitting here knowing German but refusing to speak German." Thankfully it wasn't a terribly long car ride and once we made it to the beach I was much happier :) 

Swim in the Atlantic Ocean, check!

Christian, Peter, Svenja

Christian thought it was a big deal he was in a Speedo,
like I've never seen an old dude in a Speedo before...
Europe isn't all that special in this regard lol.

Some signs outside a little grocery store. Oh, the grammar.

So for dinner we had leftovers (usual low-key dinner). BUT Tamara had brought home some leftovers from her dinner out with Peter the other night... Octopus. She had leftover OCTOPUS. I was hesitant to have any, but I promised myself before I took this job, that I would at least TRY new foods presented to me. Which anyone who knows me really well, knows it's a big deal. I don't particularly enjoy trying new foods, let alone "weird" foods, and weird textures freak me out. GUYS, I ATE OCTOPUS! Honestly, it wasn't that bad! I even had it cold; apparently it's better warm, but it really wasn't so bad - to the point where I had like four pieces. I'm SO proud of myself! 

Eating OCTOPUS like a BOSS!

Tamara said I needed to take a better picture that
 actually showed the tentacles haha

 After dinner Christian and I were in the living room while I was waiting to go meet Steve and Lynne outside for the comedy show. Christian thusly decided, it was again time for another Deutsch. Oh goody (sarcasm). So the conversation awkwardly volleys back-and-forth, 'til finally he brings up politics. Of course. Alright, let's talk about Obama, and how much he sucks, shall we? But he wants me to make my point in German. HELLO! I barely know enough to talk about me and my family, let alone politics! Give me a break. So after awkwardly rummaging through my head for some words, that I couldn't come up with, he says "Should I just give up on you, Rebecca?" to which I curtly replied, "Well since you're leaving tomorrow..." Even Peter told him to back off (just nicer). And then I left ...like 15 minutes early to wait for Steve and Lynne outside. 

Then we were off to the comedy club, Showtime Tenerife, when Peter (not my host Peter, another Peter) came and picked all three of us up. There was one table of SUPER obnoxious drunk patrons, and another slightly less obnoxious table of drunk patrons, which I'm still kind of shocked no one threw any punches, but it was a blast! Almost everyone was from some part of the UK; I was DEFINITELY the only American, and no I did not advertise, nor did I allow any of my English companions to advertise for me. The first comedian was English and hilarious. The second comedian was Dutch, and whilst most of his material was fairly vulgar, he too was weirdly funny. The third comedian, who was apparently supposed to be the main attraction, I didn't find funny at all. I thought he was a bit witty, but mostly just bumptious. It was definitely a very pleasant night out though. I really enjoyed Steve, Lynne, and Peter's company and their friends. 

xoxo,

     Rebecca

Week 15

Monday (11/17/14)
This is a post I put up on facebook:

So this month is all about thanksgiving and today I was smacked in the face with just how grateful I am for MY parents. Our relationship is imperfect at times, but I'm so blessed to have a mom and dad who read to me, sang with me, took me to the theatre, taught me good manners, gave me many opportunities for learning and growing (cooking class, summer camp, girls camp, music lessons, singing lessons, dance classes, karate class, freaking "hooked on phonics" and every type of flashcards on the earth, swimming lessons, etc...) but most of all, they gave me their time. Whenever I needed it. My mom has spent hundreds of hours reading stories with me, helping me late at night with homework and last minute sewing projects (she sews... I watch... Ha) and talking or just listening to/with me, and my dad is ready at any given moment to drop everything and help me with anything. Sometimes even when I don't want the help haha. They came to almost every performance, every recital, every award ceremony, every graduation... Besides my Heavenly Father and Savior, they are the absolute constants in my life. And not everyone can say that about their parents. So I think I can count myself as pretty dang lucky (even though luck has nothing to do with it).

Friday (11/21/14)
I got all dressed up to go out tonight, and it turned into a big ol' fail. I went down to where the "young" folks hang out, and it was just not my scene. I didn't even bother going into any of the places; dancers on poles, alcohol, young drunk idiots... not my thing. So I wandered around, and sat for awhile people-watching other people wandering around. When it got relatively late I headed back home, but I needed a break from walking in my heels and I was super thirsty so I started looking for a bar that was still open where I could grab a Fanta Limón. I couldn't really find anything and was going to just go home, when I decided to go into this one particular place - a guy dressed in African dress said he loved me as I was walking past. I just thought he worked there and was trying to get customers; I even kept walking. But he had just made me smile after my failed night out. So I went back, walked down to the bar and asked the bartender if they had the soft-drink I was looking for. They did, indeed. So I sat down and hung up my shoes. There were two bartenders. Both named José. It's like the beginnings of a popular sitcom haha. They were both super friendly (but not in a creepy way) and it was so fun to practice my Spanish. I also met Titch. I thought he was the owner (he's not; Martin, one of the José's brothers is) and he thought I was Spanish hahaha, and he introduced me to Pablo, who's real name is Paul, but when in Spain... 
I already love this old English bar. 

Sunday (11/23/14)
This Sunday was awesome. Brother Sena, probably one of the oldest and wisest members of the ward, invited me to come have dinner with him and the missionaries. He's Italian and he'd made homemade pizza and an awesome salad, along with a Spanish tortilla we all got a taste of. But that's not all. For dessert he broke out a panettone (not homemade, they are really complicated to make, so most people get them from a bakery) which is basically an Italian fruitcake - sweet bread with fruit mixed in. But unlike an American stereotyped fruitcake, it was SO good. It had all kinds of yumminess mixed in, like raisins and orange zest. AND THEN he gave us ice-cream bars. We definitely did NOT leave hungry. After we ate, he gave what I'm sure was an inspired lesson about the roles of the twelve-tribes of Israel, but I didn't understand any of it. My Spanish-language learning didn't ever really include religious words and topics, so I definitely have some catching up to do. When we were finished at Brother Sena's, I went with the Sister missionaries to an appointment they had scheduled with an African family. The husband seems fairly interested in the gospel, while the wife couldn't care less, but it might be because they are all learning Spanish so everyone's understanding is at a different level. They have two kids, a boy and a girl, and they are SO FREAKING CUTE! The little boy gave the closing prayer, and in it he said "Please let Rebecca come to our house whenever she can." OHMAHGOSH. Someone get a mop, cause I'm a melted puddle on the floor! And they both taught me their secret handshakes. Adorable.

xoxo,

     Rebecca

Swiss Chocolate

Because you can't talk about Switzerland without chocolate coming up :)

From Frommer's "Food & Drink in Switzerland":

Chocolate Superpower

Cocoa beans are chocolate's raw ingredients. First publicized in Europe by Columbus, who noticed them growing on trees in Nicaragua in 1502, they were traded as currency by the conquistadores in the New World, who viewed them as an elixir of physical strength. Back in Spain, royal cooks mixed the pulverized beans with sugar and hot water and served them with great success to the royal family. The Spanish-born Anne of Austria introduced it to the French court at her dinner parties after her marriage to Louis XIII. And in a kind of chain reaction to the bean's original "discovery," London's first chocolate shop was established by a Frenchman in 1657.

Nineteenth-century attitudes about chocolate (as perceived in North America and in Europe) were widely different. In 1825, the leading culinarian of the French-speaking world (Brillat-Savarin) declared that chocolate was one of the most effective restoratives of physical and intellectual powers known to man. In contrast, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the American-born moral crusader and woman of letters, declared chocolate unfit for proper American tables, and -- in a burst of prudishness -- commented suspiciously on its French and Spanish origins.

Despite Ms. Stowe's invectives, the market for chocolate continued to grow. This fact was immediately noticed by the canny Swiss from their politically neutral bastion in the Alps.

From the early 1800s, the Swiss began investing heavily in what they perceived as a long-range moneymaker. Pioneers of the industry opened the country's first chocolate factory in 1819 at Corsier, near Vevey. What's now a massive multinational concern, Suchard, was established near Neuchâtel in 1824. In 1875, Swiss-born Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate by adding condensed milk to his brew of pulverized cocoa and sugar. In 1879, the first chocolate bar was created (the Lindt Surfin bar). In 1899, the Sprungli and Lindt empires merged into a Zurich-based chocolate-making dynasty. The Tobler and Nestlé organizations were founded shortly afterward.

Switzerland today is the largest chocolate superpower in the world, leading the globe in production. Both secrecy and precision have always been cited as Swiss virtues, and both of these qualities are required during a complicated blending process that transforms the raw ingredients into the final product. The allure is aesthetic as well as gastronomic: Swiss consumers expect new artwork on their chocolate wrappers at frequent intervals, and an army of commercial artists labors at yearly intervals to comply. The Swiss eat and drink more chocolate per capita than any other nation in the world, fueling their bodies for the bone-chilling temperatures of the alpine climate. (No self-respecting mountain climber ever embarks without the requisite chocolate bars.) Swiss factories maintain "chocolate breaks" for sugar-induced bursts of energy, and swiss housewives usually don't buy less than a kilo of chocolate at a time.

Read more:   http://www.frommers.com/destinations/switzerland/798116#sthash.SlK40VpY.dpbs#ixzz34gQu9bZI

xoxo,

     Rebecca

Aren't you nervous?!

People keep asking me if I'm nervous about moving to a different country. I am WAY too excited to be nervous! haha There are so many things I'm looking forward to! This is going to be life-changing. The only things that have given me some slight trepidation are some random bizarro nightmares and... food. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am one of the least adventurous eaters on the planet. I'm the girl who has one or two dishes/meals at various restaurants that I ALWAYS order and I rarely deviate from those items (it seems that whenever I do try to have something new, it's always such a  disappointment). I know what I like, and I'm extremely hesitant to try anything outside of that box, ESPECIALLY when it comes to textures. My best friend and her family constantly tease me about "weird ethnic food" but they have managed to open my palate and my mind to some new foods that have actually become personal favorites now, because surprisingly, Utah has a pretty eclectic variety. 
I haven't been TOO worried because, as far as Europe is concerned, I feel that Switzerland is one of the more mild places to be exposed to new kinds of delicious cuisine. And because of its close proximity to so many other countries, there is a cross-over of German, French, and Italian dishes, depending on which area of Switzerland you happen to be in. 
I've just decided that I'm going to try everything at least once. It's not gonna kill me, right? :) Besides, from what I can gather in a five minute Google search haha, the Swiss are big on fondue/cheese, potatoes, sausage, and of course CHOCOLATE ...I think I'm gonna be ok :) 

Here is a link of recommended foods to sample:
BBC Good Food: Top 10 foods to try in Switzerland

xoxo,

     Rebecca