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 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 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

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