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 13 - Bienvenido a Tenerife!

Monday (11/3/14)
Cleaning. Packing. Blogging. Tamara's mom came and helped tag-team between watching Svenja and cleaning. She also brought treats :) cause she's the best.

Tuesday (11/4/14)
Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we had plenty of time in the morning to take care of all the last-minute preparations and we STILL left rather early JUST in case we ran into traffic. I was a little apprehensive about how Svenja would be on the plane... My stereotypical thinking beforehand was that the only good thing about flying with a toddler was that you get priority boarding. Not gonna lie, it WASN'T the worst flight I've ever had. She was a little fussy at times, but it could have been WAY worse. At one point Tamara had asked me to walk with her in the aisle. I felt really awkward walking up and down the single isle of this tiny plane, trying not to touch or disturb any of the other passengers. But it was either that, or a potential screaming, crying baby. Thankfully none of the people seemed to mind. 
When we landed we grabbed some food and water at an airport cafe (you can't drink tap water in Tenerife, unless you boil it) and then got a taxi to the house.

Algäu Airport - Memmingen, Germany

Isla de Tenerife, Canarias, España

Serious flashbacks of living in Hawaii

Wednesday (11/5/14)
Today Tamara, Svenja, and I went out and walked around for the majority of the day. Tamara showed me around so I was able to get a pretty good lay of the land. 

View from my balcony.

People have amazing talents.

Sand baby! :) 

The clouds may look ominous, but the cloud-cover is a
welcome shield against the hot sun.

Thursday (11/6/14)
Peter arrived today! He left a couple days before us in the van and drove all the way to mainland Spain to hop on a ferry to Tenerife so we could have a car with us here. Also, we were able to pack a lot of stuff to bring over IN the car. Major bonus :P 
We all went to dinner later, and afterwards baby girl found some toys... 

Too cute!

Friday (11/7/14)

This morning we went to breakfast to try an authentic English Breakfast at Hemingway Cafe-Bar. 

Hemingway Cafe-Bar

English Breakfast: toast, egg, beans, tomato, sausage, "bacon"

I was not a fan of the sausage. It was like... bready. And I'm picky about tomato's so I didn't touch the canned one provided. Everything else was good though :) Also. Bacon. Bacon here is just like a slab of ham. It's not thin, or crispy. And I keep forgetting. I miss real bacon... 

Mountain view

Confession. I totally had a meltdown today. Tamara and I had a small misunderstanding later in the afternoon, and Svenja had been fussing and crying with me ALL morning, and I was pretty sure I'd already made Peter annoyed or upset earlier, so when Tamara got upset, it was like the last thing I could handle and though I tried with all my might, I couldn't fight back the tears. So I went into the bathroom and turned the sink faucet on and just let it out whilst trying to get back my composure, but when I came out Tamara was there and asked if I was ok and that she'd heard me, and then I started bawling again. *facepalm* I HATE crying in front of people, and crying in front of your BOSS is like the epitome of embarrassment. So we sat down and talked (everything's fine), then I took a break and went and showered, STILL crying (what the heck man?! Turn it off!) and then I fell asleep for awhile before getting back to work. 
I think we are all a little jet-lagged and Peter and Tamara have a lot of stuff going on with the houses so they are stressed, and I'm worried about my dad and missing Switzerland, and we're all trying to figure out the new routine etc... We're all a bit on edge. 

Sunday (11/9/14)
Today I went to church, of course! The barrio (ward) meets in Los Cristianos, right by the big guagua station. It's about a 15-20 minute drive. I ended up taking TWO taxis because the first one dropped me off NOT in the right place. The second taxi driver was really nice. After learning I was going to church he started talking with me about God and how he didn't believe in God. So I totally pulled a Count of Monte Cristo spin on him and said it was ok, cause God sees him... to which he said he was fine, he has a job and works, but God should see the poor children that need help etc... I felt so sad that he obviously had no clue how to see or know that of course God sees them, and is aware of them. Of all of us. Anyhow. I finally managed to get to the right street. I thought the building in Switzerland was humble. This place looks like some kind of rundown classroom building. Doesn't matter though. The Spirit can be present, no matter the circumstances :) Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, but I couldn't help but miss the Kreuzlingen ward. There really is something so very special about that ward. Anyway, they also seemed pretty surprised that I could speak Spanish, and fairly well haha. There's 2 missionary pairs; some Elders AND some Sisters! I didn't catch one Elder's name, but he's from Peru. Then there's Elder Saltzman (Utah), Sister Thunborg (Utah), and Sister Rojas (Colombia). After church I went back to the area where we're staying and walked around until late in the evening.  

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días

Some African ladies accosted me, then took
a RIDICULOUS amount of money for this
stupid braid that I did NOT want. Ugh. 

Free food. Waiters love me. Long story short, waiter hit
 on me as I was walking past, gave me free food, then his
phone number hahaha. No, I didn't call him.
No, I'm not going to call him.

I went to Restaurant Martini for dinner. I felt SO awkward being in there alone. Just throw a glowing neon sign over my table-for-one in the corner of the balcony haha. Whatever, I know how to treat myself! :) It was probably one of the fanciest meals I've ever had, and it was SO cheap. OMAHGOSH. SOOOOOO cheap. 

~ Halibut, veggies, and Canarian potatoes with 2 sauces (not shown) ~
They brought the fish out covered in sea-salt lit on fire, then
the waiter cracked open the salt and prepped the fish in front of me.
Faaaaaaaaaancy.  

Sad version of a chocolate lava cake, with ice cream

They gave me a glass of champagne on the house after I paid,
then when I told them I didn't drink alcohol, the manager
had the bar tender whip up a non-alcoholic beverage.
I'm pretty sure it was just watered down grenadine,
but 'twas pretty! :) 

xoxo,

     Rebecca