OK, I finally have a little bit of time. Monday was my first day working, and it was a pretty long day. I worked from 7:30 AM to 5 PM. I think that will probably be the longest day of the week. I had Dominik in the morning and both in the afternoon. We picked Johanna up from kindergarten at 12 and she was a little bit shy with me, which is funny because she talks so much and is so loud! It's a little bit weird to speak English to the kids when they speak German back to me. I feel like I'm not getting enough practice speaking German, but it's definitely improving my comprehension skills. I can almost always understand both of them now. But the thing is, they yell a lot. I never realized this before, but it's a lot harder to understand what someone is saying in an echo-y place. The house is very open so they'll yell from upstairs, and I honestly cannot understand one single thing they say when they do that. It's good though; that way I can say, "I can't understand when you yell!" and it's not a lie!

The only thing was bad about Monday was that it rained the whole afternoon and was really cold in the morning. Johanna and Dominik have so much energy that it's good for them to go outside to burn it off, but we couldn't. Johanna threw a few temper tantrums, but I think that's pretty much a daily thing. She gets set off by the littlest things. I made noodles with meat sauce for lunch and she was really excited--until she decided, right as I was about to dish it out, that she wanted egg noodles. Dominik was really provoking her and she was about to launch into a full-on fit, so I just said, "Johanna! These are egg noodles!" And she said, "Really??" So crisis averted!

Yesterday (Tuesday) it didn't rain the whole afternoon, but it rained probably every half hour. It was almost worse though, because we were going to go to the playground and we got all prepared, and then as soon as we walked outside--it started to rain. So we went inside and played a little bit and then we saw the sun was out. So we got ready to go again, and then--it started to rain the moment we got outside.

Then after Stefan got home, the old aupair, Joy, came. She had been travelling around Europe for the past few weeks. She came back for one last day to say goodbye to the family. She also had a farewell party last night, so I went with her and she introduced me to a few of her friends. She met most of them through a youth group, which I'm going to this Saturday. I'm not too crazy about all the singing and praying and stuff, but it's a good way to meet people my age who don't party all the time. Today was Joy's last day, so she spent the day with the kids for the last time. It actually was nice--I was able to vacuum and hang up the laundry without Dominik getting antsy. She also showed me where a lot of stuff goes, so that was really helpful.

Aaaand of course it rained all afternoon again. It was raining when I went to pick up Johanna from kindergarten, so I rode my bike to be faster and took the anhänger (I don't know the word in English; it's this thing that attaches to the back of the bike that a kid can sit in while the person on the bike pulls them behind). It poured the whole way there and back, and then, just as we got back to the house--it stopped! We have had such bad luck with the rain! It stopped a little while after Stephanie got home, and then after that I rode my bike to Dettingen, mostly just to find my way and see how long it took. It's really nice riding through the farms. There are hardly any other people back there, so I don't have to worry about going around people or cars coming at me. The only downside: it stinks. I don't know whether it's a good or bad thing that I'm starting to get used to the manure smell.

I posted some pictures on facebook of my room, the kids, and the area, so if you're friends with me, you can see them.