Longbottom Days

I hear you Neville. Truly I hear you. I think these days always happen when you didn't get enough sleep the night before. For the past few days my roommate, Naomi, and I have been staying at a hotel because our host Frau has not come to collect us. Today, after about 5 hours at our first day of school we finally got to meet Frau Feest (faced). We were assured that she would be very embarrassed and sympathetic about the misunderstanding that landed us in the hotel a few extra nights. The first thing she said to us was that she didn't understand how we didn't get into the apartment because her neighbor was waiting there for us... chastise much? So a lady at the institute called a cab for us because we need a large one to go pick up our extra large baggage. But this was not fast enough for Frau Feest. So she hailed a taxi on the street while the other one was on the way. As she yelled at us to hurry up and get in the taxi, Naomi gave our director’s wife Jeanne a look that she hoped conveyed the message, “help me!”

Once we got the baggage and were having a hard time fitting it into this randomly chosen taxi, Frau Feest called us “verrückt Menschen.“ Yep. Crazy people.

Once we got to the apartment she showed us to our section of the apartment, separated by a few doors from her section of the apartment. She showed us our bread, butter and tea bags for breakfast and told me "breakfast separate" when I asked if we could breakfast with her. Her English was about as good as my German so I got really confused when she told us a French boy exchange student would also be staying at her house. Uncomfortable? ya. (I found out later he won’t be sharing our bathroom so that makes me feel better.)

Once she was gone we started to unpack and I went to try out my converter in the outlet. Sparks and a fried circuit? Check. Electricity failure? Check. So... go tell Frau Feest? Hesitation? Check. Outright Fear? Check. You know it's bad when she comes in and all you can understand is "Sehr schlecht! Sehr schlecht!" (very bad, very bad). Luckily it was an easy fix. Moral of the story: American appliances=schlecht. Then I had a second realization: today I received Mother Nature's monthly gift. How thoughtful of her.

Never Fear! There is good news to the bad! We have a beautiful view and our magic windows shut out all the noise!

But unfortunately the bad news doesn't end. On Mondays the LDS Outreach Center, where the missionaries and LDS young adults hang out, have dinner for only 1.50 Euro and then FHE! Awesome right? So we set out for the Center and got there with no trouble at all! Perfect ending wouldn't you say? Well we got there about 7:05 and they stop serving food at 7. Out of luck. After everything that happened to me today, it was a struggle to hold back tears and I think the mission pres could tell cause he took pity on us and fed us anyway. Some mercy at last! Dinner, an FHE lesson in German, and cupcakes to boot! I think this day has turned around at last. Neville's killed the snake and the Dark Lord can now be vanquished!

I believe that every time someone makes a big decision, they always have that moment or day when they think “What in the WORLD have I gotten myself into?”. Up until this point I was naive enough to think that I had escaped having one of these moments. I guess Heavenly Father just wanted to lure me into this false sense of security so my unforeseen and unanticipated conflicts would frustrate me enough to give him a good laugh.

It could be worse. I could be in the Psych ward at St. Mungo's cause Bellatrix tortured me to insanity. Man, those Longbottom's have it rough.