Week 19

Monday (12/15/14)
My hair looked AMAZING today and I felt like getting "dolled-up," which led to the capture of some sweet self-portraits:

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty!" Also, I sang karaoke at the Wali Haii tonight. It wasn't a complete disaster. 

Tuesday (12/16/14)
Pretty sure Titch is going to make me sing every time I come in to the Wali Haii now. Had a rough start tonight, but then he gave me "Lipstick On Your Collar" by Connie Francis. That's mah jam, and I KILLED it. I met a LOVELY Scottish family from Edinburgh at the end of the night. Everyone I've met from the UK says the Scottish are really hard to understand, but I had no problems understanding them (which is more than I can say for some of the other areas I've come across). I also met the parents of one of Titch's acquaintances (she's around my age, hallelujah!). They were SO drunk haha. It was so weird trying to have a conversation with two grown, intoxicated adults haha. They were extremely friendly though and they even gave me their phone number and told me if I ever wanted a job in Australia, they have a son working there who could either give me one, or probably knew someone else who could. Yay networking!

Thursday (12/18/14)
Back to Switzerland!!!!!!!!!! :D

Friday (12/19/14)
Tamara gave me a free day today because she didn't need help with Svenja and everything is already clean in the house, so I slept in. YAY! And then, when I finally crawled out of bed, I unpacked and decided to go see the new Hobbit movie, "Der Hobbit: Die Schlacht der Fünf Heere" at the kino (cinema/movie theatre) in Konstanz. 

All bundled up!

Yes, it was in German. No, I didn't understand 99.9% of what was going on. I ran into Benjamin while I was there (he works there) and we talked for awhile since I was about an hour early for the movie. He didn't know I was back from Tenerife yet so he was surprised to see me. He asked me what my plans were for Saturday, and after I admitted that I didn't have any, suggested we hang out and do breakfast. Um, BRILLIANT. After I got out of the movie, which I found slightly disappointing (had nothing to do with the language barrier), Beni wrote down the train schedule for me and said he'd meet me at the train stop by his apartment in the morning. I then went out and wandered around and I found the Weihnachtmarkt (Christmas Market) Tamara had mentioned. It was HUGE and so much fun to wander and see all the fun little shops that were set up, and smell the delicious aromas of food. I bought the CUTEST hat, and eventually I caved and bought some baklava which turned out to be the WORST BAKLAVA EVER. It wasn't crispy OR flaky. It was SOGGY and NASTY. So disappointing. I couldn't even eat the whole piece, I just threw it away.  

I love bows!

Saturday (12/20/14)
I did not sleep. So. Tired. I was chatting with my friend Garrett all hours and blogging, and then I was afraid I wouldn't wake up for breakfast with Beni if I went to bed. I'm a genius. Anyhow, he did indeed meet me at the appointed train stop and we walked to his apartment where we prepared a scrumptious breakfast together. 

A twist on French toast, tomatoes, apple cider, banana milk. YUM!

goof

Afterwards we went on another walk to a park close to his place and goofed off in the FREEZING cold wind then walked back and watched a movie before he had to go to work. I went with him and he gave me a free ticket so I could go watch the new Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay (yeah, in German). But I slept through the majority of it. Oops! :P So tired! Before the movie I had like three hours to kill haha. I was so tired though, I didn't do much. Wandered a bit, grabbed some food from a sausage stand outside the Lago (big shopping center in Konstanz) then went and sat inside the Lago after eating and waited.

White curry-sausage and bread. So friggin' delicious.
It's the simple things.  

Baby Christmas trees! 

Sunday (12/21/14)
SO HAPPY TO BE BACK AT THE KREUZLINGEN WARD! And all the Elders are still there! After church when we were all sitting and talking, Arlette (one of the Müller/Riesen clan - they make up just about the entire ward haha) asked me what my plans were for Christmas and invited me to join her and her family and all the missionaries! OH MY GOSH I'M SO EXCITED! Gonna be such a great Christmas! 

xoxo,

     Rebecca

Week 18

Monday (12/8/14)
During the afternoon I noticed some gunk in Svenja's eye. I thought it might just be a wet "eye-booger" so I wiped it away with her scarf and we carried on playing. Later though, I noticed more at which I realized it was pus and I IMMEDIATELY diagnosed it as "Pink-Eye" in my brain. Especially since she goes to a "guarderia" twice a week with other little germy toddlers. I asked Tamara to take a look, but she'd already seen it, and I voiced my opinion as to the diagnosis. And lemme tell you I went into hyper OCD mode. After being sick (and STILL recovering) I was NOT going to come down with pink-eye too. Sunglasses on, so I wouldn't accidentally rub my eyes, and handwashing to the max. 

Tuesday (12/9/14)
Svenja saw a real doctor this morning. Pink-eye confirmed. I win. 

Poor little thing, she's got it in BOTH eyes :(

Friday (12/12/14)
Tonight was girls' night! Dolores, Tamara, and I went out to see "MALIZIA, an adaptation of Rigoletto" and have dinner (bought with the show tickets - was a buffet at a hotel down the street from the performance). I was thinking the production would be like Rigoletto the movie... And of course it was nothing like the movie. It's a musical that incorporated live music, dance (majority Flamenco, duh) and opera. While there were aspects that were spectacular, the overall show was kind of a hot-mess (trying to modernize it with hip-hop was a HUGE mistake; the hip-hop choreography was juvenile and the dancers were obviously not trained in that style). I felt like they were trying to incorporate too much into one thing, that just dragged on and on - the entire show ran about 2 hours. Several dance scenes blew me away and a couple of the operatic singing scenes were glorious; I found the story line utterly depressing however. It was one of those "You're definitely not in Kansas anymore" moments. In the end the bad guy won, the good guys died, and there was no resolution whatsoever. It was... exaggerated realism. We NEVER make shows like that in America. It goes against everything an American hopes, dreams, and believes. Good always conquers evil. The fairytale always ends with the Prince and his Princess sharing their hard-earned kiss of true love.  This was the exact opposite. And it shocked me, but then I remembered I wasn't in America haha and that lots of other countries and cultures love a good tragedy, with no romantic upswing, or resolution. Because in real life, things often go unresolved. I definitely don't regret going. It was a lot of fun and the flamenco was superb.  

We look GOOD :D 

Hard Rock Cafe

No guy, no cry!

Red carpet glam :)

the stage

Saturday (12/13/14)
It's been four months! What!?

xoxo,

     Rebecca

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 16

Monday (11/24/14)
Went back to the Wali Haii today. Everyone remembered me. Let's get real, who wouldn't? :P I kid, I kid. No one was excited when Titch, the karaoke master, announced that there was an American in the house - like crickets chirping awkward - when he tried to call me out to sing, enticing me with MoTab hahaha (for those of you who aren't LDS that stands for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). Pablo was there again, and he introduced me to his friend Garreth who's another sweet old British dude. I do believe I have found my permanent "watering hole." 
Things are starting to look up :) 

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day (11/27/14)
Thanksgiving.
Sick in bed all day. Woo hoo.

Sunday (11/30/14)
Feeling a lot better, but still sick. After church I went with Tamara, Peter, and Svenja to Arona and we took a little hike by the Roque del Conde.

Peter, Svenja, & Tamara

Svenja, keeping it real

Tamara dug up what appeared to be a couple
of onions... Proudly showing them off :D

Lots of goats grazing about...

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

Week 14

Monday (11/10/14)
Today we moved to the other house, which is just a ways down the hill from where we were originally, AND Tamara's mom arrived with her dog, Asia, and cat, Luna. There's no internet at this house. KILL ME.

Tuesday (11/11/14)
I called my parents tonight to get an update on my dad and also... with a huge desire to completely break down. You know those times when you talk to your parents and they start in on how proud of you they are and that life is just glorious, and all YOU want to do is cry and go on about how you don't think you can do whatever it is you're doing anymore? Yeah. I never considered backing out or going home, until now. I never thought that watching someone else's kid would be so challenging. I mean, I HAVE being doing this for 12 years. Granted, not on a daily basis and never with a child that didn't eventually (and rather quickly) warm up to me. To say I'm frustrated and abundantly overwhelmed with trying to keep my cool, stay polite, and keep my mouth shut, whilst getting beat up almost daily by a two year old, is the understatement of the year. I did feel a little better though, getting to hear my parents voices and knowing they are surviving without me haha. My dad's also much improved so I can stop freaking out about that. 

Wednesday (11/12/14)
Dolores and I went out for lunch today. Peter's sick of restaurant food and Tamara wasn't hungry. We found a little place a stone's throw from where we live and I had some amazing fajitas and tried a traditional Spanish dessert. 

I was thinking this would be more like
crème brûleé, but I misunderstood the description.
It was still pretty good, despite the freezer-burn

In the evening, Tamara and I went out to dinner while Dolores watched Svenja and Peter had Poker or Soccer with the men. 

Thursday (11/13/14)
Three months. 

Friday (11/14/14)
We all went to breakfast this morning to Harriet's Tea Room & Restaurant (ranked on TripAdvisor at #4 of 78 restaurants in Costa Adeje) for another English breakfast. This one was WAY better than Hemingway's. The sausage was edible and you had an option for a fresh slice of tomato instead of a nasty canned one (still didn't eat it though haha). So if you are ever in Tenerife and you have a hankering for a real, traditional English breakfast, check out Harriet's Tea Room!  Afterwards we went to the beach for a little walk.

Isla La Gomera 

In the distance, the peak on the left is the active volcano El Teide

Sunday (11/16/14)
Man I am so weepy this month. I totally broke down after church in front of this one family, cause we were all talking and they started asking me about friends and if I'd met anyone to hang out with and then they said they were planning on planning out an activity for the "young" people in the ward and the dam behind my eyeballs exploded. The daughter was so sweet, all like "Oh my gosh, don't cry! Do you like cats? Do you want to come see my cat?" hahaha I am a 24 year old woman bawling, and in all seriousness yes, I want nothing more than to go see this 17 year old's kitten. I miss Kreuzlingen. I miss the Elders and Daisy; I miss Tania and her family; I miss Switzerland. I have absolutely no friends here and I feel totally cut off from my friends and family back home with extremely limited internet access, which I have to search for outside the house. Anyhow, this little family took pity on me and invited me over to hang out. We played on their Wii haha, watched a movie, and then the mom and daughter and son (who just got back from a mission in... SWITZERLAND) showed me around Los Cristianos a bit. Afterwards, they dropped me off at home. They are SO friendly and charitable. They made me feel so much better. So grateful for such a tender mercy. 

xoxo,

     Rebecca