Monday: worked until 5:30. Johanna had gymnastics at 4:30 and Dominik had swimming at 6, so it was a busy afternoon. Dominik's friend Lukas got back from vacation (in Mallorca..!! I'm only a little jealous) so he came over to play. That kid is adorable. Since I always speak to Johanna and Dominik in English, I asked Lukas if he understood English. He made a face like nothing could be worse, and said no.
Tuesday: No work! I don't usually work Tues mornings anyway, and in the afternoon Johanna went to her grandparents' house and Dominik played at Lukas' house all day. I rode with Stephanie to her practice (she's a dentist) in Heidenheim in the afternoon and walked around. All of the pictures here are from Heidenheim. There's a huge old ruin of a castle high on a cliff above Heidenheim and it looks freakin' awesome from below, so I walked up to it. Umm I had no idea it was so high up. Either that or I had no idea how out of shape I am. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures from up there. I tried to post some on here, but it's really way more trouble than it's worth. If you want to see pics, all of them are on facebook. I also walked along the Fußgängerzone (pedestrian mall) in Heidenheim. There're a lot of stores, but it's not really that impressive. They do have an H&M though, which gives them more credibility in my eyes. I also found the train station and the post office, so now I can both travel places and mail letters. I also ran into someone I know...I hardly know anyone here, and every time I've been to Heidenheim I've seen someone I know!
Aside: I met an older couple at the farewell party for Joy, the Eders' old aupair, who have a daughter who lives in Easton, PA! Apparently she went to Rutgers and has an American husband. Small world!
Tues. continued: I also conquered the bus from Heidenheim to Heuchlingen. I even managed to put money on my bus card! It's really expensive though; Heidenheim is about a 15 min drive away, and the bus trip cost €2,25 (about $3).
Wednesday: I worked until about 2:30, then I went for a run. There are paths through all the farms here, so I've been running on those. It's really nice because the farms are so beautiful and there are no other people or cars. The only downside is that it smells like cow poo.
Thursday: I worked until about 1:30. Went running on the farm paths again, and somehow I ran all the way to Dettingen (it makes me feel really accomplished when I see a sign in Dettingen that says 1 km to Heuchlingen, even though I know it's not even close to a mile). I'll pretend it's really far away.
Friday: No work again! It was Dominik's first day of school, which really meant that there was a big party at the school with lots of different kinds of cake. Stephanie's sister and parents came for it too. The party wasn't until the afternoon, so all I had to do in the morning was fold the wash, do some ironing, and vacuum. The weird thing was, the party was proceeded by a church service that all of the students went to. I don't think it's a religious school, but when I tried to ask Stephanie's father I don't think I really conveyed what I was thinking. I think the gist of what he said though was that most schools in Germany do something like this for the beginning of school, and it often involves a church service. I'm not sure though; all I know is that would never be tolerated at a public school in the U.S. We also would never have such a first-day-of-school celebration in the U.S., so I feel that one 30-minute church service was worth it for all that cake.
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