The month of sickness

Hmm, I guess I should get back into posting. How long has it been since the last one?

Well, not a ton has happened since I posted about my Italy trip. I was sick after I got back, but I got better pretty fast. Last Saturday was my last German class, which I'm glad about, but it was also kind of sad. The class had a really good group dynamic, and we were all on about the same level. On the other hand, I'm glad I don't have to get up early on Saturdays anymore! And this also means I can start traveling more. I enjoyed the German class, but honestly, I didn't learn that much. It was too easy for me, but it was still a good review. And on the last day the teacher "took requests" and went over some stuff that we all had questions about, like passive. I would say the best thing about the class was that I got to meet some other aupairs, plus I got to brush up on passive and subjunctive.

I went to Gegenwind on Saturday night, and it was nice to be able to go out and see other people. Now the kids are sick this week, so I've had to work a lot more (they have chicken pox, so they can't go to school at all). It's not that bad, it's just that I have to work more hours, plus since we can only stay inside we wore out all of the games and activities in about the first two days. Hopefully they'll be going back to school on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I know they're both sick of being here!

Eveline (from Gegenwind) came over on Friday night and we watched "Message in a Bottle"--in English, which was nice! If you haven't seen it, I don't recommend it. We were both looking forward to watching a girly movie, but even for us it was disappointing. It's kind of boring, actually, and it was definitely too long.

I didn't get to go to Gegenwind last night because Stefan and Stephanie went to a Fasching party in Heuchlingen. Fasching is pretty much the German equivalent of Mardi Gras. There's a ton of parties and people drink lots of beer and wear crazy costumes. Stefan dressed up as a German woman, complete with dirndl, blond braids, and blow-up breasts. Stephanie dressed up as a German man with lederhosen and a painted-on beard. I have to say, they were disturbingly convincing.

Tabea is having a Tupperware party on Friday, so I'm going to that. I've never been to a Tupperware party, though--I thought people only had those in the '50s. I don't plan on buying any Tupperware, but it'll be nice to get out of the house. It's kind of unfortunate that my excitement threshold is so low. I'm actually looking forward to a party where someone will be selling Tupperware, all because it means I'll be able to get out of the house and interact with other people. The good thing is, I now expect everything to be more fun than sitting in Heuchlingen doing nothing, so I have fun pretty much everywhere I go. Hmm, maybe I've just discovered the secret to living an exciting life--have a low baseline, that way everything else vastly exceeds it in comparison.

I'm really looking forward to going to Barcelona in less than a month! I saw in the newspaper today that it's 17° C there today. If it's that warm in January, it'll be even better in February! Ahh, I can't wait to experience some warm weather! Although I have to admit, even though it's cold here, it's finally been sunny for the past few days, so it's beautiful. Everything is finally starting to look green again, instead of just brown. I guess because there aren't that many houses here and there's a lot of farms, but the sky looks so big here! It reminds me a little bit of Montana, but no sky will ever look as big as it did there. I love being able to see stars here at night, too! I mean, when it's not cloudy (which it usually is).

Just to prove I can actually speak German: Ich wünsche Euch alle eine schöne Woche! Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland!