Week 2. Rootbeer, Drop, and a P-Day/Birthday trip.

Today is Karoline's birthday, and I was hoping it would be a good one for her. Apparently there is a senior couple working in the same area and they took the sisters on a little excursion.  (see the mission blog)
 One of the things I've asked Karoline to share are the things that are "different"; the things that will become so common and normal that she will quickly forget they are not what she is used to.  For example,  when I first arrived in Switzerland, I was amazed at how many things came in a tube-- not just toothpaste but mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard (many many varieties of mustard), garlic, etc. And it's wonderful hearing about her experiences and the opportunities and challenges that await them as they open this area.

Let's start with some sad things: they don't have rootbeer, boxed macaroni, or microwave popcorn here, and no, my bike is not purple :(. It's gray actually. That was pretty much the saddest part of my week. Apparently, they think rootbeer tastes like cough medicine. Whatever. So they have this Drop stuff here. That's pronounced drope. Anyway, have you heard of it? It's like this black licorice stuff, and sometimes it's full of salt, or othertimes rock hard. There's so many different kinds. Anyway, it's disgusting, and it's also everyone's favorite candy so they give it to us a lot when we visit people, and you just kind of have to choke it down. So we have our first teaching appointment today. And how we found her is funny. So we were biking a long and we pass this surinami food truck thing, and my companion is always talking about how good that food is, so I said, "Ï want to try surinam food so bad" and Zr.Raun was like then we are just going to have to find a surinam lady to teach. And so we bike down the hill and stop a lady and she was from Surinam! Anyway, she's hindu and not interested in changing religions but is interested in what other people believe so she invited us to come over. We didn't even have to ask. So yeah.

So yesterday was the first real Sunday. I did have to introduce myself. I said a whole 5 sentences. But this lady said I have super good Nederlands for only a week out in the land, I'm just looking at her, like um yeah no, but thank you. But Dutch people are super frank so it's possible she really thought that. It's interesting, because pretty much everyone speaks English here. One of the sacrament prayers was in English, but I think that was because that priest doesn't speak dutch because I know his parents don't. During relief society a sister translated for me, which was nice, but I didn't really need it too much. Oh! so yesterday sister Raun and I got separated for a long time. In the pouring rain. We were on our way to church, which is an actually church btw, just super duper small, and Zr. Raun was leading and got a little lost and I had my hood up and around my face so I couldn't see her too well, anyway she was in front of me and went around a corner, and these neighborhoods are super twisty turny and such, and when I turned the  corner, I had no idea which way she went. So I went back to the place I lost her thinking she would come back for me, but it didn't quite work that way, so finally I went to the church and she was out with the senior couple in a car looking for me, but anyway it was like half an hour, but yeah. The bad part is that we were drenched, and we definitely looked like it too. So the lesson here is to wear dark colors in the rain so that no one can tell that your skirt is soaked. The bad news is that we were freezing cold for the next four hours.

 Yes our apartment has everything in it, so I don't need a pillow or blanket or anything like that. Although i do kind of wish I had a blanket because we only have our bedding and no extra blankets, but it's not too big of a deal. I figured that yall would google earth the apartment. Did you see the casino to the right, and the "coffee-house" kiddy corner to us? You know what that is right? Anyway, it really is a good area to live in, and we are close to everything.

We knew there was a missionary broadcast, but we don't know anything about it. Supposedly all the missionaries around the world were supposed to watch it, but as far as I know none of us have, so if you want to tell me things about it that would be nice. .

For P-day today we are going to Inkhuisen? Maybe that is how you spell it. It's a town up by den helder that is on the coast of the north sea? Maybe, is that the north sea up there? Anyway, the senior couple wanted to take us out to do something special for my birthday so that is what they decided on. Hopefully I can take a nap on the way there :) I hear it is really pretty up there so yeah. We havent had district meeting yet because we had zone conference last week, so we will go to amsterdam tomorrow for that. Zone conference was fun, so long though. so so long. but it was also really interesting. I did see some people from my MTC group there as well. My companion is from Lindon. Thank you for the weather report. I'm glad it will be cool this week. But really the 60s feel like 40s. If this is summer, I dont know how winter is going to work out. We did have one really hot day last week, I think it was Tuesday. It was also really muggy, which is great to ride a bike in. Speaking of which, riding a bike all day makes you sore, not something I thought of. Anyway, I think that's all for this week. Thanks for everything.

Love you guys!

Karoline.