We made the decision to come to Santa Cruz in Tenerife in November when we did a "scouting trip" to Costa Rica and felt pretty unsure of going there for the whole 8 months. In our small hostel room - yes jacob and i stayed in a hostel one night- we called Lily, a dear friend of my dear friend Tamar- who lives in Tenerife and asked her if we should come there- and well she is a very good spokeswoman for the Island...i keep telling her she could have a side hustle. Her life sounded idyllic and she had kids around the same age as us and was pretty convincing that we should join her! So while we knew almost nothing about the canary islands, we knew that we would be on an island with lots of nature, spanish language and culture, and a european feel. So here we are...
View from a hotel down our street that we snuck into to use the pool!
Parque García Sanabria right next to our house
We entered our airbnb that we rented for the first 5 weeks and it was a complete 180 from our home in costa rica- its completely white washed, with no art on the walls, its an apartment on the first floor with two patios that are enclosed. Apparently this is a thing in europe that is common for ground floor apartments but it was news to us! Essentially we dont see the outside world at all from the apartment, unless we look up from the patio and can see the sky throough the whole that goes up 5 flights. I went from a work station with the jungle and mountains surrounding me to a work station facing a white wall. BUT- everything was new and working, there was a microwave and a dishwasher- both of which we missed in Costa Rica! And there were no critters!
The apartment is right on this beautiful city park with two brand new playgrounds and a botanical garden like feel to it. But as soon as we arrived Shiloh was pretty sick with a high fever- and this lasted for 8 days! This made the transition pretty rough- he missed the first week of school, one of us stayed back with him at all times while the other was mostly taking adira to and from school and circling for parking. The kids school is in another city just 20 minutes away in La Laguna- its called Kaleide International School- to learn more watch this video. We chose it because it was bilingual, had an alternative curriculum and was really focused on nature and outdoors- which is what I think their education in Brooklyn is lacking. Adira jumped right in and found friends pretty quickly, her demeanor has reverted back to Brooklyn Adira, skipping down the sidewalk, exuding happiness and confidence.
I asked Adira if she missed costa rica and she said "No, it was too hot, there were not enough playgrounds, and i had no friends :(" All of these statements are in fact true. But I missed it, i missed the ease of the community, just walking to the pool, constantly meeting new people, and always being in nature. Here we were in a city, no one talked to us, we didn't see the same kids at the playground every day, and we weren't among all expats- so I really started to feel my low level Spanish.
I also realized how lovely it was to exercise every morning and not have to think about it, i just showed up! Now I had to plan my workout, and the 20 minute HITT classes i pulled up on my phone just didnt feel the same as the in person classes surrounded by neighbors I knew. But I have done it in the park and just this week I joined Lily in her boxing class :)
One of the first things I do in every new place we are in is go grocery shopping- i both love it and hate it. I love seeing how each culture emphasizes importance on different foods- here there are aisles and aisles of canned fish and olives! and ham, oh do they love jamon. But peanut butter- there is one, and its easy to miss it on the shelf :) Food has certainly challenged the kids on our journey, nothing tastes like home and so it takes a while for them to find what they like. Just today i found baby carrots- which they havent had since leaving the US and shiloh was jumping for joy- until he ate them and realized they didnt taste the same. But before costa rica they did not eat beans or lentils, and now they ask for them- so we will see what they take from here!
The other reason the transition was tricky was Lily arrived a week after us and then her family came down with COVID so we didnt see them until we were here for about two weeks. But the first time we met them we went down to the south of the island to a beautiful beach with dramatic coastlines and amazing freezing swimming holes - and spent the day together- the kids hit it off right away, and I told Lily I felt like i was meeting someone i had been texting with on a dating app- but we feel like lifelong friends already. This has been particularly amazing for Shiloh as he hasnt quite hit it off with friends at school, and was pretty dysregulated our first two weeks here- but having Ari fulfills his friend needs and then some. I love hearing their conversations as they walk and talk away about everything from what are fair screen time rules to how hard it can be to make friends in new situations.
View from our Airbnb in Alcala -rooftop garden- those are the kids in the playground
This week our nephew Miles who studied abroad in Madrid came for a quick visit- it was super fun for us all! We went to the beach and did shabbat there friday and saturday hiked in a forest that looks like it belongs in the bay area. We had intended to go see the volcano but it is actually 1.5 hours away so our late start this morning put a wrench in the plans but we discovered this forest! The island of tenerife has many microclimates allowing it to have both tropical forests and pine forests, mountains, desert and beach all on one small island!
