Maude´s last Weekend in Tenerife : (

Friday night there was a fashion show in the the Gran Sur shopping center, which really surprisedme. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would, despite the lack of talent on the Male Moldels´ part. It lasted about an hour and a half and I commented the whole way through. Poor Maude and everyone standing around us who had to hear that. I got to know a few of Christian´s, my host brother in the US, friends. Afterwards I went to visit an old friend, ´Pepita´, in McDonald’s.

 Over the weekend Maude and I were planning on hiking in the Barranco de Infierno and had made reservations and everything, but due to the severe Calima (very hot temperatures, a lot of wind and dusty dry air) the trails were closed.  I enjoyed hanging out in the house all morning, then after lunch Teresa and I went to the Supermarket to buy ingredients for out cooking adventure that would take place the following day. That evening there was an art exposition with the paintings of Marcus´s wife which I was set on attending in hopes that I would run into their good looking son. Maude and I had just planned to stop by shortly, but somehow both Laura and Teresa winded up going. I managed to slip Mrs. Cabrera one of my exchange contact cards, and though I was planning asking her to give it to her son, but it was even better when she thought of the idea that she should give it to him, so I didnt even have to ask. 

Maude and I chilled at the house for a while and ate some white chocolate, then went to Los Christianos to meet our with our Moroccan friends. With them we went out for a drink, I had a great piña colada to compensate for the shitty one from the week before, then we went to casa blanca and danced until about 4. These boys really surprise me, at first I was a little creeped outby the fact we were hanging out with these strangers, but the more time we spend with them, the more comfortable I am with them and the more I like them (although no so much in the way that Maude ´likes´ the one).  They really are what we call in Spanish´buena gente´ (´good people´).

Sunday Teresa and I cooked. Everything was going great up until we finished the Russian Salad (a mix of potatoes, olives, onions, asparagus, hard-boiled eggs, and tomato all mixed together with olive oil and mayo) ((yumm!)). Our second dish was to be a ricey type stew, but after getting the portions wrong (we were cooking for 8 people following the directions for a 4 person recipe, only half the time did we double the ingredients) and then over cooking the rice so that it absorbed all of the broth and burnt on the bottom and then having to delude it with extra water to make more broth, it ended up being a worth while disaster. Only one person ate our stew, and that was Teresa´s mother; although she said she liked it, we all knew that it was purely out of kindness. At least we made the dogs happy, who went to bed with full bellies that night.

 

Juliette`s last days on the Island and no school because of Strike

Monday, after the excursion, I slept in until 11:15. Damn that felt good. I never get to sleep in here. That day I did pretty much nothing but re cooperate from the excursion and watch Desperate Housewives. I`m so upset that I just completed the third season on DVD and now I have to wait until the fourth season comes out. I don`t know how I am going to pass all of my free time now, I guess its re-runs until then.

Later that night Juliette came over while Maude was in aerobics class; since it would be her last night on the island, we had planned for a night out. Juliette and I hung around Los Christianos trying various strange dried fruits (pears and lemons and something else i couldn’t recognize all shriveled up….all of which tasted like disgusting balls of sugar, by the way); we ran into a friend we made in the discos the Thursday before. We met up with Maude around 10 30 or so and walked together to meet Abdul, this fairly good looking guy from Morocco who Maude has the hotts for, and his friends, all of whom we were acquainted with when we went out Thursday night. We ate at a restaurant where one of them worked and scored a free meal. Later we hit it up at Hooters, and then headed for a club called the Buddha Bar which I have been wanting to go to for quite some time, mostly because the name made it sound interesting. We had some drinks there and took some crazy photos. We ended up leaving around 2 am, we had to get home fairly early because Juliette had to catch her 11 o clock flight which was from the North and we would have to go in guagua. Before I entered the taxi to get back to the house, I had everyone sign this `I <3 Hooters` balloon that I had taken home with me from the restaurant. The boys signed it in their fancy Arabic letters (with translations in English) which they had fascinated us all with earlier that night. I will forever cherish this balloon.  ; )

I got up late because I pushed snooze so many times. I threw on the first pair of clothes that caught my eye and left the house at 7 15 am without even having a coffee or running water over my face to wash off the oiliness from taking cheek on cheek photos the night before. I literally went running to the bus station in Las Americas, which is a relaxing 40 min walk (I never have to use this bus stop, but this is where the bus starts to get to Santa Cruz). I made it there in 20.  At least Id finished early with my workout for the day. I JUST made it, I hopped my sweaty self on the bus two seconds before it was about to depart, and from under my winded breath, I managed to whisper `to Santa Cruz` as I slipped my bus ticket in the slot.

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early but passed our cherished last moments quickly by trying the free chocolate covered banana samples taking yet more ridiculous photos. Sadly, Juliette had to depart, Maude and I waved her goodbye as she disappeared down the terminal.

Maude and I hung around Santa Cruz for a while before returning to the South. We stopped in La Corte Ingles and window-shopped on about every one of the 14 floors and tried on formal dresses for fun. On the guagua ride down we ran into a friend from school, Laura. Good company for the hour long trip. We arrived in Los Christianos just in time for me to get to painting class.

Wednesday was my first day of school in almost two weeks. What a bore. Maude has decided not to go for her last bit of time on the island since she is leaving next Thursday. Who can blame her, I too would rather go to the beach than school.  Wednesday I came home from school with nothing to do, since I had no more Desperate Housewives to keep me occupied. I got bored so I went to painting class that night to compensate for my missed days the week before.

Thursday the teachers were on strike again (like tuesday, which I  think I forgot to mention before), so I slept in, then met up with Maude and our new Moroccan friends at the beach Playa del Duque around 12. The day was perfect and the waves were big. We stayed there all day until about 4 30, got some Ferrero Rocher ice cream, and then I went to paint as Maude went to  her dance class.

Today is Friday and there is Calima and the weather is hot and miserable. Tonight Maude and I will be going to a fashion show in a nearby shopping center, then tomorrow, since I dont have sailing this weekend, if the weather permits us, we might go hiking in the Barranco de Infierno (`the pit of Hell`).

Excursion to La Palma

…From the swimming pool in Los Christianos I waved goodbye to the girls as I watched them grow smaller out the car window. It was fortunate that Chris just so happened to be there at that time to giveme a ride, because I just barely arrived to catch my group boarding the boat. The boat was massive inside and out and pretty luxurious. I have traveled to the other Islands via boat several times, but never in this one. The first twenty minutes i did nothing but wander alone to explore the boat. I stopped when the workers started asking me if I was lost. Which i wasnt, just curious…

From the group of 40 kids going on the excursion, I knew one. Well…1 and 1/2 if you count the boy with whom I´d had a prior acquaintance. The trip was intended for the 1 Bachilleratos and I am in the 2nd, so everyone there was in the level below mine in school, including some other younger ones who like me had tagged along with the last minute invitation. So, considering the age differencethat I have with the kids in my grade, the 2nd Bach., to me these kids were nothing but under-aged, juvenile brats. And they were Spanish. What could be worse. I didnteven play the ignorant friendly role with these punks, I just kind of did my own thing.

We arrived on La Palmavery late, around10 or so, then it was about an hour long drive to the place we would be staying to sleep. Finally around 11 30 we arrive at the top of the mountain to this isolated little hostel. There were no discos or bars to be seen, this gave me the impression that it wouldnt be like the El Hierro trip and that I had packed my high heels for nothing… oh yeah, it didnt matter, i was with a group of minors.

 The place was freezing. When we entered the dormitories filled with rows of bunk beds, all I could think about was curling up in a ball and getting some sleep andrecuperating from the other night before I had to wake up early to hike a mountain. The kids would not shut up. Normally, I would take such an opportunity to chat it up with the fellow students, I felt a little antisocial curled up in my sleeping bag with everyone around me playing cards and having fun, but I was certainly not in the befriending mood, nor was I very interested. The friends I usually make know how to use a tampon, or know what one is anyway. It was probably about 330 when they finally shut the hell up and turned off the lights. Between that time and when I had started trying to sleep I had been in one of those in and out sort of dazes. In other words, I hadnt slept well and I woke up tired and grouchy. That and was a little sick with a sort throat.

When we arrived at the path, it was amazing. There is a reason they call it ´La Isla Bonita´ (´the beautiful island´), I guess there is a song by Madonna about La Palma, but ive never heard it. Everything was luscious and green and being that it was spring, all the flowers were in full bloom; I was seeing an entirely different color spectrum than that which exists on Tenerife. Because of the high altitudeof the island, it is closer to the level of cloud condensation, which allows for the growth of more moisture demanding vegetation.

The trail followed along a natural spring (something lacking on the rest of the canaries, and most islands in general) which you could directly drink out of, and it was perfectly clean and tasted great. The trail also consisted of a series of caves. Some of them seemed kilometers long. Almost nobody brought flashlights so i was depending on the light of the boys behind me. It was so amazing and adventurous, It felt like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. The best parts were the caves that had the water dripping down from the ceiling, which at some part were more or less waterfalls, nobody came out dry. I could have done without the echoing shreiks of the girls, but it was 198% worth it. We stopped on the path for a quick lunch then carried on walking. I dashed across some big boulders to pass up the whiny girls who cut me after we started up again after eating. I particularly enjoyed this because its easy to notice their competitiveness amongst other girls, and they hated it and there was nothing they could do. Mwah ha ha. Stupid Spanish girls. They never eat at meals because ´it doenst appeal to them´, so then they go buy cookies and chocolate bars to snack on and pretend that they are anorexic and convince themselves that they are thin.

Anyway, I had an amazing time hiking for hours and breathing the fresh, cool air of the high mountain. I lost track of how many times someone would ask ´how much farther?!´ only to hear the response ´half an hour´ again and again. My legs were sore and I was ready to be done  when we finished, that means it was a good full day of activity. We waiting about an hour for the slow kids to arrive. The trail took more time than expected, so we missed out on bathing in the natural swimming pools, instead we went to visit a goat farm and got some AWESOME almond roasted cheese samples. Non-fake cheese is the most under-eaten food in America. Goodness knows I will miss the stuff.

That night at the hostel, I was once again the first one to fall asleep, only this time by accident. I was planning on staying up late to get to know a little better my weekend companions, but I guess I got bored. That and being just a little sick made me especially exhausted (convenient how I am ALWAYS sick on excursions). Next thing I knew the sun was out again.

Sunday was to be a bit more laid back. After our lengthy hike the day before, nobody was much in the mood for walking. We mostly toured the Island in the bus. We visited the highest point of La Palma, ´El Roque de Los Muchachos´ (´The Boy´s Rock´), whereabouts lies one of the worlds largest andmost important observatories. I later found out on the Internet newspaper that we were the first educational group ever permitted to enter the observatory. Coool. Next, we visited the famous crater where the volcano had erupted so many years before, I want to say that It was called the crater of San Martín. With our extra free time at the end of the day we took a stroll in Santa Cruz de La Palma, the island´s capital. I went on a hunt to find what is called ´queso dealmendras´ or almond cheese, which is a signature treat of the island. It was Sunday and all the stores were closed; I was the last one to get on the bus, but I hadnt come back empty handed. The cheese actually ended up not being cheese at all, but something similar to chunky Marzipan. Im still deciding if it was worth the 5 euros which I paid for it.

The boat ride home was short and relaxing. I sat in the very front of the boat and gazed out the window at the full moon as the boat gently rocked me to sleep. We arrived in the port around 1 30 am. Getting home and lugging my back up the stairs to my room, I realized my bad was carrying more weight than when I left. It was late, however I made no rush putting myself to bed. Tomorrow I would not be going to school.

Juliette and Leilani come to Tenerife

Maude and I had been expecting our special guests for some time, we deliberately planned it so that they would be here for the same week so that we could be a big fun group of crazy NorthAmericans. They both arrived Sunday, the 13th, so I went up in the guagua to SC to pick up Leilanifrom the airport while Maudewent with her family to get Juliette. Later that night, the four of us met up in Adeje Pueblo for a Hindu festival. We tried some spicy cracker samples and decided that Hindu food was not the preferred choice. Leilani and I received stickers that symbolize the word ´hummmmm…´, yeah, like the sounds you stereotypicaly make when you meditate. We ran into Dani and Tarik, my hindufriend from school, (I love these boys) how ironic. It was a little lame and dirty, the used junk sales stands were a turn off so we hitched the bus to El Farro, the classiest disco out there, to watch a free Jazz. On the way there we made some British friends and ran into Dani and Tarik AGAIN, what are the odds? Unfortunately we pretty much walked in and they stopped playing, but it was a good place to chill for a little first night bonding.

Monday. Beach. Duh.

Priorities first, so we went to the beach of course.  When one goes on vacation to an Island, going to the beach is the above all expected activity, and it is expected that you return home a few shades darker, which we did. But with more of a reddish tint. Leilani bought a ten euro ipod stereo which would come in handy for the rest of the week. After basking in the sun all day and drinking shitty watered down five euro piña coladas delivered by our beloved waiter Abdul, we all went home to rest up for the upcoming events of the week.

Tuesday. Loro Parque.

Maude and I managed to score some free Loro Parque entries since the man who owns it is in out Rotary Club. We took an early bus to Puerta deLa Cruz and passed the day watching animals do unnatural things. I had already been there with my host family over the holidays and it is ten times more boring the second time through. We entertained ourselves by flirting with the penguin men through the big soundproof, weatherproof windows. We managed to give out several of our Rotary cards out that day to various good looking men. There is nothing more fun than acting like ditsy bimbos in a crazy group of flirtatious girls, somethinewe would partake in excessively through the entire week. After visiting the penguin center several times through, we decided we´d had enough animals for one day, so we hopped the free train to catch a ride into the town. We took a nice stroll in La Puerta de la Cruz to get to the guagua station. Arrive home. Sleep.

Wednesday. Los Gigantes. Garachico.

Because the west coast of the island is the most complicated to travel due to lack of highway and cascading mountain slopes, we had to be creative with the transportation (we had to switch guaguas several times) in order to arrive at our destination, Garachico, to bathe in the natural swimming pools. First we took a detour in Los Gigantes, where we drank some nasty free wine, and slathered on enough sunscreen to protect the burns from the days before. After ´darring la vuelta´ there and checking out the beach, we were up and leaving on our second bus swap which took us down the scenic mountain passes. The bus ride was long, but very enjoyable, as it is one of the loveliest places to drive on the island. We took crazy photo shoots and sang out loudwith the stereo to pass the time. We really were the perfect group, the four of us. We had to take another unexpected stop in Icon de los Vinos, then FINALLY at about 3 30, we arrived in Garachico, about five hours later. The weather up north was overcast and chilly, so we didnt even end up swimming in the natural pools, but we climbed on some lava rocks (or maybe that was just me) and enjoyed the tranquil beauty of the adorable pueblo. Waiting for the guagua, we lost track of how many beeps we got from flirtacious passing boys. Juliette pretended to be a bull, and i the torreo…that scored some honks. It was a long but enjoyable ridehome, filled with conversation, shared stories about the exchange, photos and singing; the kind of light hearted ambiance that told in a story seems unimportant but really has a lot of significance.

Thursday. Los Chrisitianos.

We took the day off from adventurous excursions and chilled in good ´ol Christianos, which the girls had yet to see too much of. We went shopping and found some good sales. I think three of the four of us bought the same 5 euro dress. We tried on some clothes in a china store and amused ourselves with the shelves of junk. We finally made it to the beach, thought it wasn’t an ideal beach day, it was overcast and chilly. Maudeand Juliette left to eat lunch with Laura, Maude´s host mom, so Leilani and I did a bit more window shopping, then took a short siesta in a grassy yard just off a sidewalk in Las Americas. We went home to dinner, then prepared for a long night out in the discos. I wore my little black 5 euro dress. We met up in San Telmo and encountered one of out prior good looking aquaintancesof that day with some of his friends. We hung out for some time, one of them invited us to come eat for free in the restaurant at which he works; we swapped numbers then ditched them and made our way to Las Veronicas. On the way we madea pit stop outside an Irish pub to use the bathroom/drink and befriended yet another random acquaintancewith a man who works at Aqualand, a water slide park, and invited us to go one day for free. Being friendly to people really does the wallot good, as you can see…or maybe that is being good looking and female. But friendliness helps. A few drinks later, we finally arrived at our destination in las Veronicas. We danced in Tramps for a while, then migrated to Rags, where I got hit on and being that it was the week of friend-making whores, I figured what the hell and gave him my card. We were ´chatted up´ by several more British boys before the end of the night, and then finally left to go home around 5am. Leilani and I cleaned up the room and packed before going to sleep, and finally got to bed at 6am. I would be soo tired for my excursion to La Palma.

Friday. Last Day together. I leave for La Palma.

I woke up surprisingly early at ten. Crazy, I always do that after going out. Four hours of sleep under my belt for my big weekend in La Palma. Nice. I packed that morning while Leilani slept until one. We met later with the girls in Los Christianos for a few hours, I had to leave at 5 30, so it was just enough time to say goodbye and cherish out last moments of reflection on the wonderful week we´d had. We ran into a bit of a coincidental conflict with both Maude´s and my host parent about my duffel bag and some carpooling, but everything turned out just fine. We madeour closing video clip for the documentary that we had been filming for all week. Withall of us standing in a huddle with a flower in our hair, it ended something like this: ´Adios, ´hasta luego, TE QUIERO TENERIFE!!´.

Excursion to La Gomera

I woke up at 6:45 Saturday to catch the bus for my excursion to La Gomera. I love going on these tours alone, beacuse although you are in a large group with a guide to advise you where to go, but you have the freedom of going through with discovering any spontaneus curiosity that you have personally, as long as you come back to the bus in time. There is noone to share the decision making, and noone to slow you down.

We borded the Ferry at 9 am (I was one of the first of MANY people boarding the bus, I think it would have been more convenient to meet at the boarding dock at quarter ´til 9.  We were one of the last groups to board, and so there were literally no seats available. There happened to be a band playing in the dining area, so I bought my half way asleep self a cafe con leche and managed to snag a seat at a dining table with people I didnt know, who didnt know each other and who didnt speak my language. It was great, one man was playing the accordian, another the guitar, one man singing, and everyone around dancing and singing along and having a great time.  The pure spontneaty of the whole situation was gorgeous, it was cultural and genuine and i felt lucky to have been right there to witness it.

We arrived on the island 40 mins later started our loop of the little Island on the bus. We drove up to the highest peak; it was incredible how enourmous Tenerife looks from La Gomera, especially when my normal view is seeng La Gomera from Tenerife.  We did a little path hiking; how incredible it is to breath the cool fresh air of the damp, mossy woods at the peaks of the island. I felt There was alot less to see on La Gomera then on my home island or El Hierro, but I was glad to get to know another one of the Canaries. For lunch we all ate together, the whole tour group, it was included in the fee. I ended up having to sit by this Scottish man who earlier that day cought me taking a photo of him from the bus window. I didnt know earlier that he was in our group, but when I saw him dressed in that kilt, I couldnt help but snap a quick one. Apparently, I wasnt quick enough. Who wears kilts, anyway?, even if you are from Scottland. Regardless, the situation wasnt wierd, I told him my last name was Scottish and that my grandfather had come from there. We ended up becoming freinds and trading cards. He has a farm there, and has cards for it, haha. You wouldnt beleive how difficult it is to understand a Scotish accent, I felt embarrassed that I had to ask him to repeat things several times. I also made freinds with two Polish girls who are working in England.

After lunch I bought some Goffio in a tourist shop, its a very typical Canarian cornmeal poweder that is used in cooking, or you can also drink it with hot milk and sugar (I had tried it for the first time the mornign Maude and I spent the night in La Laguna for the Rotary meeting and liked it alot), it is supposed to be very nutricious.

Many photos later, we were boarding the ferry to return to the Island. I found a seat this time and slept most of the way home, exhausted from a long day of adventure.

Class Concert and Rotary Meeting in La Laguna

Wednesday i had a concert with all the students who take singing class. I sang two songs in Spanish: ´Por los años que me quedan´ by Gloria Stefan and ´La camisa Negra´ by Juanes. I was really dissapointed after the concert because I worked very hard on both of the songs, which I am very confident that I can sing, but I got nervous, which is unusual for me, and choked in front of the audience.

Thursday Maude and I went up to the North with a Rotarian, Marcus, in order to give our powerpoint presentations about our homes to the Rotary Club of La Laguna. First we arrived in Santa Cruz and walked around this beautiful garden (it was nice to geta bit of nature), then met up with a Rotarian, Elena, looked at her shop and some wedding dresses, and then did some window shopping in SC. We stopped in the art gallery where Marcus´s wife takes classes; it was neat, we got to meet with a real professional. We went to Marcus´s house with his wife to eat and get ready before the Rotary meeting. He jsut so happens to have a very sweet and attractive 19 year old son ( I am kicking myself for not getting a screen name or something, but I am hoping that we will meet up again sometime in the near future). We went to the meeting and gave out presentations, chatted with crazy old men, then went to bed late.

We woke up early the next morning to walk around the college town of La Laguna, an ended up finding there was a free hour long tour group, which worked out too convenientely. We did a little shopping, I found three euro shoes, and then learned some Laguna History with the cutest tour guide ever in a tiny group of four, Maude and I, and a couple visiting from Madrid. After La Laguna tour Marcus picked us up and we all went together to La Candaleria to meet with another Rotarian. There we watched a documentary and learned how Las Guanches, members of the first civilization on the Canaries, made their claypots without spinning wheels and with this powder dust. It was really interesting, they had the whole recreation proccess down to a ´T´, and we watched them work a little. Marcus bought us both necklaces as souvenirs.

After that we went to lunch and had fresh fish and papas canarias. We ended the excursion with a look a the basillica of La Candalaria, the largest, oldest and most historical church on Tenerife. We were dropped off at the guagua stop to catch a ride home to the south and made friends with a wandering German woman who happened to speak both English and French.  The busride home was quite and relaxing. Then I went home to watch about 8 consecutive episodes of Desperate Housewives. : )

Excursion of Tenerife….six months later

Anna works in a hotel, and being that it is such a touristic area, the hotels often arrange for their guests optional excursions and she was trying to arrange for me to go for free to La Gomera with one of the groups this Saturday, but it turned out that the excursion to La Gomera is actually NEXT Saturday so, instead, I got to go on a tour of Tenerife and this coming saturday I will be checking out the other Island. Beleive it or not, though I have been living on this small speck of map space for the past half year, when I went on the tour, we visited some places that I´d never been that were so different, so incredibly beautiful that I could hardly beleive I was on my Island at all. First we went to Teide and La Puerta de La Cruz, both of which I have already seen, then when we moved onto the North eastern tip which was completely different from the rest of the Island. We went through two adorable pueblos, Maraca and Garachico which i loved, and it was where we ate lunch and had a longer hour and a half break. It was very representative of the Canaries rather than scumming itsself up with the tourist filth of the South. My favorite of which I saw was Buena Vista, ´Good View´ in English, and trust me, it lives up to its name. It was like a scene from Lord of the Rings, only less sprawled out because of the ocean; It was a deep sharp, mountanous valley, rocky but green, with a tiny

Later that night I went with Maude to see a Jazz concert in the Cultural Center. It was small and intimate in a darkened room. The band consisted of only three men, a pianist from Brittian, who also sang a bit of scat, a drummer from southamerica and a spanish bassist/songwriter, there were no trumpets or saxaphones and they played with this style that reminded me so much of a Charlie Brown episode. They were okay, not amazing, but just seeing and hearing the live Jazz made me so happy. Clay Stevens, I thought of you. ; ) haha.

Today is Sunday and since we didnt have Sailing this weekend, Teresa and I had made plans during the week to cook together, so today we brewed up what is called Potaje de Berros, it a stew of pumpkin, zuchinni, potatoes, pork, and an herb called Berros all brewed together in a big ´ol pot. I am trying to learn a little bit of spanish cooking before I come home, because the greatness of Spanish food is non-existant in America.

Right now I am halfway through watching the third season of Desperate Housewives in Spanish on DVD. I dont know what I will do when I finish this season, since they are currently airing the fourth season on TV. Recommendations of lame passtimes? Anyone??

PS: Just a side note, wordpress has changed the setup of their webpage and I cant seem to find the Spell Check button, so please excuse the spelling errors and understand that when I write it is usually quickly and I rely on spellcheck to fix my errors, so…if you come across an awkward word that doesnt look Spanish, just be creative ; )