Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Jayna!

Well first I will start off with Happy Valentine’s Day! Woohoo! Yes, I do think that this is a pointless holiday, but it is not because I am single and feel bad for myself. It is just so overdone and commercialized. It isn’t that way in Germany as much and sometimes today I wondered if people even knew it was February 14^th. February 14^th is important for another reason because it is Jayna’s birthday! Poor girl, how much would it suck to have your birthday on Valentine’s Day, when everyone is busy going on dates and forgets to celebrate your special day. Regardless, Valentine’s Day or not, the last two days have been two of those days when nothing seems to go right.

Yesterday I had a doctor appointment and I don’t know why but whenever I go to the doctor and it is in German I just want to cry. Not because I am in pain, but because I am so frustrated with the fact that I can’t communicate over important matters. It is the time when I feel as if I cannot express myself. My German is good enough to communicate, but it is not like I learn doctor terms in my German class. All I know is that I was there and I had thought the doctor told me to take my pants off so he could look, but I guess he didn’t so I probably looked like a freak. Then he got a shot and I was unsure what was in the shot or why I needed it, but I just went with it. He said to not panic, so I guess I didn’t. After that fiasco, I was headed to my director and his wives house for prayer and to hang out there for the night, which is about an hour from where I was. About two train stations away I found out that I am supposed to go to watch our practice game (let me remind you it is outside), which was on the other side of town in about two hours. So that left me about 45 minutes with Kevin and Lisa. Annoying. Oh well though. Finally got home from my day at about 10:15 pm and just crawled into bed.

Today started out great and I Skyped with Jayna before German class (9 hour time difference is the worst). After German class, I went grocery shopping to get supplies to bake a dessert for my brother’s birthday party tomorrow and to make homemade tomato soup. I was making a peppermint chocolate dessert that my mom always makes. The problem is they don’t have cool whip in Germany, so last time my host sister and I had to improvise and make it by mixing these other two ingredients. Once I began I realized the middle layer needed to be mixed with cool whip, so I mixed the ingredients and then realized I didn’t have an electric beater, so I tried stirring as fast as possible. Didn’t work (I think the air needs to get in and make it fluffy or something). Next I tried putting the lid on the bowl and shaking it as much as possible. Didn’t work. I quit and just mixed in the runny liquid. The bottom layer is supposed to be crushed up vanilla wafers, which I found something similar, so like Paul Bunyan I was hammering away. Then I had to crush Candy Canes (my mom brought from America) to put in this layer. They were a little large in size, but hopefully nobody breaks a tooth. Then came the next layer, which is chocolate pudding. I thought, "Okay, there is no way you screw this up. “I mean what I could translate from the directions I figured I knew what to do. Guess I still am not sure where I went wrong. Pretty much I have a liter of chocolate soupy pudding sitting on the stove with floating chocolate chunks. I thought maybe it needed to sit to thicken. Yeah, that didn’t happen either. After that I quit the cake and tomorrow I will buy already chilled pudding and use that. The cool whip layer I will hopefully figure out at my host family. Seriously I am done trying to bake and cook in this country. I was literally grunting and yelling in my kitchen.

Up to this point I was somewhat over it. I figured now for my lunch. Tomato soup. Can’t screw that up. I went to open the cans and either I am stupid or the can opener is stupid. It didn’t work. I tried for like 15 minutes. At this point I was so frustrated that I was about to hammer the lid in. Instead I decided to walk to the store and get a can opener. Little did I know they are NO WHERE to be sold. I went to one grocery store, didn’t have any. Then I went to two places that have EVERYTHING, and by everything I mean everything but a can opener. Then I walked the entire street of stores that I by my house and there was NOTHING. So I went into this designer store called KaDeWe, which is huge. Well let me tell ya, they had a can opener. For 40 euros. I was desperate, but not that desperate. So last resort I decided to hit up the grocery store I had already been to today, and sure enough they had one. Now that I had spent 45 minutes walking all over to find a stupid can opener. I got home, made my soup, ate it, looked at my runny pudding and disaster dessert and took a nap. Only to wake up and write this blog. It is one of those days where you just need a big hug from someone who knows you. I had planned on writing my next blog about what God has been teaching me, but then today happened and I think he was trying to teach me patience, which I lack. My day doesn’t even sound that bad probably, and it wasn’t compared to most people, but the things just added onto each other. My next blog will be about what I have been learning.