Tea, treatments and total relaxation

Well for those of you who read the previous post you know that I went to my first BLS tea on Monday. I was a little nervous about going to someone's home that I had never met and being in a group of british women that had already forged friendship being the new person. But it was all for no reason. Every Monday the British Ladies Society meets for what they call coffee mornings. Really it's just a time to get together and catch up with other ex-pats living out here. I had a wonderful time once I got over the akwardness of not knowing anyone. The group is a little small right now with most of the people away on vacation for the summer but I would say we still had 30+ ladies there. I met a lot of great women from all over the world not just the UK. There were several Americans, even one from Austin. I also met some ladies from Australia, New Zealand and Holland. It was great to talk to different women and find out how long they have been here and the different knowledge of the area that they all have. There are stitching groups, and library groups and just all sorts of activities that branch off of the BLS. I think you could be busy everyday of the week if you wanted to be with activities. There is also an American Women's Association but they are on break for the summer. I am hoping to go to a couple of their meetings and see what that is all about too. What a lifesaver these groups will be for me!



Now, I feel compelled to share some of my spa experiences with you because they have been pretty wonderful all-in-all. The first day we arrived I went to the spa to have my roots done. But they immediately looked at me and asked when I was going to have some waxing also! They were most fascinated with the hair on my forearms even though it is blonde! The women here have all their body hair removed. I have had my legs and eyebrows waxed before but never my arms. So I went back a few days later and had my arms waxed and then eventually my legs. It is a totally different experience here because they do arabic waxing and it is pretty much pain free. In the states the waxing I have had done previously involved warm wax being rolled on and then the strips of material and ripping out the hair. Here they use a very soft wax and apply it by hand in lines and then they gently lift and the hair is removed before you know it. After they wax you they apply parrafin to the area and the result is the smoothest skin you have ever felt. Now as far as the eyebrows are concerned. They believe that wax is way to harsh for the face and instead do threading. It's an ancient art that I think originated either in India or the middle east. I actually had it done once in Austin before we left absolutely loved it. It goes very fast and my eyebrows looked the best they ever have and afterwards you are not even the least bit pink. So I was totally onboard with the threading for my eyebrows here.



I have had one massage since I have been here and it was amazing as well. It was a two hour massage, which I have had as well in other places, but not to this extent. Of course here you will only have a woman massage and woman and a man massage a man for discretion which is totally okay with me but Andrew says he will pass! Anyway, she did a great massage with essential oils but before she worked the area she applied warm damp towels or hot water bottles to the muscles. That was interesting but also good because it helped the muscle relax before she started working on it. Just about the time I thought the massage was over she put this gel on my legs and arms and wrapped them individually in warm towels for about 15 minutes. The gel must have had some peppermint or some similar oils in it because it wasn't long before I could start to feel the skin tingling and then it was the coolest sensation of blood flowing in those areas. She said it was to improve circulation and I believe it did. She ended it with a fantastic indian scalp massage and I was just a big lump of jello after that. I know I won't be going every week for these massages but I sure am glad that I did this once.



Now for an update on the housing situation. We had signed the pre-contract with our sponsor for the apartment. But when it came down to signing the final contract the landlord had changed his mind and decided he wanted more money to have a seaview apartment. He proposed putting us in an end unit which would have us looking over a sand lot and other buildings. Even though the inside is amazing we decided we really didn't want that as our view for the next year. So we asked our sponsors to start looking for some smaller villas with swimming pools in a good area. The downside to this is we will be stuck in a hotel for at least another month or more. I supposed the upside is we are accumulating points. But we both believe that good housing is the key to being happy here. We are hoping to find a home in the area that most of the ex-pats live in because it will make it easier for me to get to the meetings and get togethers with the other ladies. We will have to be patient and see what they find.