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.

Tired

My first day of work was yesterday. There's a lot to write about, but I'm too tired to make a real post.

I'll leave you with this fun fact: Germans drink carbonated water. I made the mistake of trying it and I swear, it burned my throat. Man, that stuff is strong! It has more carbonation than soda, bleeehhh. So if you are an American and you visit Germany, warning: ask for "Wasse ohne Gas".

Oh oh, and today I was offered something called a "Käsfuss" ("cheese foot"). Apparently when your foot and sock are all sweaty in your sneaker after being outside or running, people here call that "Käsfuss". (The Käsfuss I was offered was a cookie with cheese on it, not an actual sweaty foot.)

OK, maybe a post tomorrow?

Fahrradtour und schwimmen

The big event today was when we went on a bike ride (fahrradtour). Heuchlingen and the nearby villages sit basically in farmland. There are farms completely surrounding us. Running through these are routes that I'm assuming were built so that the farmers can drive to the correct field and do all their farming stuff. The roads are public, so people can walk and run and bike on them also. We rode around those for a while and also stopped by the woods to walk a little bit. It's really beautiful here! The only downside is since they're farms, they STINK. There is manure everywhere. Actually, the whole town kind of smells; fortunately not where the house is, but on the outskirts it does (Heuchlingen is so small that from the middle to the edge is maybe a two- or three-block walk).

They also showed me the path through the farms to take to get to Dettingen, which is the next town over. It's huge compared to Heuchlingen, at least twice as big. I was going to go today, but by the time we were done with the "fahrradtour", it was a little bit too late to go. Maybe some day this week after work.

After bike riding, Stefan and Stephanie made applesauce. There are a ton of apples here. Practically everyone has an apple tree somewhere on their property in Heuchlingen. Stefan said that there are very distinct rules here: when something hangs over the fence, whether it's just a regular plant or if it's plums or apples, etc, anyone can eat it. If it's off that person's land, they have no control over it. While we were out they ate some tiny plums (I think that's what they were...even fruit is different here!) and Johanna had an apple. Another weird thing: they only wash their fruit if it comes from the grocery store (because of the chemicals). If they got it from a garden, even if it was sitting on the ground, they don't wash it.

After that, I went swimming with Dominik and Johanna! They have an indoor swimming pool. It was nice after a long day to relax in a heated pool.

And, tomorrow is work! I think it will be good. They are generally well-behaved and active kids, and now they're a little bit used to me and I to them. Ahh, it's so weird to have a full-time job!

I watched a really weird movie last night

Here is a description of the movie I watched. It was a British movie dubbed into German, called "Die Baby-Krise". OK, here's the gist: Rosie and Vincent have been married for 5 years. They want to have a baby. They try for a year, but Rosie doesn't get pregnant (insert montage of sex scenes). They go to the doc, and she says, something is wrong with V's sperm, they're weak or something, and maybe they should consider a sperm donor. V is p.o.'ed. Later, R's former pen pal Benoit (who she has never met) shows up and is all, "hey, what's up?" R invites him to stay at their house and he does. V gets more and more ticked off b/c B is clearly in love with R and she doesn't see it. Meanwhile, V is off humping another woman who he and R once had a threesome with.......(I know). So, eventually B tries to kiss R, she's all "no this isn't right" then she finds out about V and Threesome Lady and she decides she wants to leave with B. V is even angrier, and hunts them down and tries to shoot B. During the shooting scene, V tells R that the doc called and she's pregnant, and then all is forgiven. The end.

Yeah. It was weird. But back to real life. Today I played with the kids a little bit. I think it helped them get a little bit used to me. It also helped me get used to speaking English with them while they speak German back at me (the parents want me to speak only English with the kids all the time). It's a little bit annoying since, you know, I want to learn to speak German. But I think it will be helpful in some ways because they both speak pretty slowly (since they're kids) and don't use very big words, so they're right on my level. And Dominik understands almost everything I say, so when I don't know a word in German, I can ask him in English.

And for lunch we had carrots and rice cooked with sugar over them. It sounds weird, but it was actually pretty good. Then for dinner we had chili, thank goodness for American food! A bunch of Stefan's old friends from college came over so he made a big pot of it. I don't usually like chili, but this was really good. It's hard to believe that it was the first time any of them had had chili, Stefan and Stephanie included.

Side note: the kids eat pretty much noodles with tomato sauce. Johanna sometimes eats rice and a little bit of other stuff, but noodles with tomato sauce is the extent of Dominik's diet. He refuses to eat anything else. So when I say "we ate this", I mean me, Stephanie, and Stefan.

The weather here is definitely a change from home. It was 85 or 90 at home when I left, and here it hasn't been over 65. They said that summer is over and now it's fall. It's pretty disappointing. I was hoping to not have to wear sweatshirts until maybe the middle of September.

I was going to bike into Dettingen today (the next village over), but it was windy so I didn't feel like it. I probably will tomorrow, as long as it's not too cold out. Dettingen has a supermarket! We don't have that here in Heuchlingen. We also don't have a bank or a post office. We have: a butcher. But one thing we have that probably no town of 900 in the U.S. can boast: two bus stops! So at least I can take the bus into Heidenheim and the train from there to anywhere.


Oh yeah, and I tried to load photos onto the computer, except somehow when I tried to move them from my memory card to the drive, they disappeared! And I can't find them! Luckily they were just pictures of my room and stuff so I'll take some more, but I hope that doesn't happen again! Check out facebook to see them, which is where I'll put them when I upload them.

Second day

So, I'm completely over my jet lag! It's amazing what no sleep one night plus 14 hrs the next night can do. It was really nice to sleep in, especially since it will be my last time on a weekday for a while. I start every day at 7:30 AM. Good thing I can get ready fast--I'll definitely be getting up at 7:15 every day. Good thing my commute is short!

OK. Today I went with Stephanie to pick up Johanna from kindergarten (I think kindergarten here is pretty much like daycare in the US?). It's really close, which is nice. But, even so, I still have no idea how to get there. Fortunately Dominick does and he doesn't have school next week so he'll be able to show me how to get there.

After that we had lunch, which was "zwiebelkuchen", directly translated "garlic cake". It's a little bit hard to describe. I guess the closest thing would be a pot pie. It had egg and garlic in it. It was actually pretty good. But later, Stefan asked me if I had felt what the garlic does to the stomach, and I said no....then he said it makes "Luft" (air)...!!!! I guess here it's not taboo to ask someone if they have gas!!

After lunch I walked around Heuchlingen a little bit, just to see what it's like. It is REALLY small, but very cute. Imagine a German village. It's exactly like what you're picturing. The only weird thing was there was no one else walking around. The people that I saw when I was out all stopped and stared at me, it was a little unnerving.

Then when I got back, we all went into Heidenheim, where Stephanie's dental practice is. Her office is really nice. Everything looked so new. And then we walked around the pedestrian mall for a little bit and ate some (extremely cheap) ice cream. I love that ice cream is so cheap here and so much better than at home! And Stefan gave me my first months' pay, so now I have some money. Apparently very few places in Germany take credit cards, so it looks like I'll have to use cash for pretty much everything.

After we got back we had dinner, then I watched Stefan put the kids to bed (since I'll have to do that every Thursday) and now I am done. I might even attempt to watch some German TV later!

Made it in one piece

So, I made it! I'm in Germany! And fortunately, Stefan showed me how to change the keyboard from German to English, so I don't have to type Zs where my Ys would be. (Especially annoying: where is the @ sign on a German keyboard?)

Fortunately none of my flights were delayed. I left JFK at 5:40 (after sitting in the airport for about 4 hours) and got into Dublin at 5:10 AM. Left for Munich at 7:10 AM and arrived at 10:45 (yet another time change). Stefan and Dominick were waiting at the airport for me, but for some reason the baggage claim was inside the security area instead of outside. It was like that in Dublin, too. I guess it's some European thing? Also, security in Ireland is not the strict. I only had to show them my boarding pass to get through the security check point.

Anyway, I'm here. My room is in the basement, but it is FREEZING down here! It's actually not bad outside, maybe 75 or 80 degrees, but I'm wearing pants and a sweatshirt down here and still cold! I'm too tired to actually take pictures and post them, so I'll do that later. It's nice though--I have my own TV and computer and my own bathroom. And other aupairs have left stuff through the years, like books and maps and ski pants. It's so weird that this is going to be my room for 11 months.

Well, one good thing is I can tell that my German is really going to improve. I was doing pretty well earlier, but I've gotten really tired over the past few hours and I'm having trouble concentrating when they talk, which I have to do constantly to be able to understand what they're saying. Esp. the little kids. Dominick isn't too bad (he's 6), but Johanna (she's 3) I can only understand when she speaks very slowly and says only a few words at a time. Hopefully tomorrow will be better when I'm more awake.

Oh yeah: I asked if there are any other aupairs in the town, but there aren't. Which kinda sucks. But Stefan said there's other girls my age and if I go to the aerobics classes I'll prob meet some of them.

Leaving Tomorrow

So, I'm leaving tomorrow. Flying from JFK to Munich! Not direct, thank goodness. Not sure how I feel about it....I'm pretty nervous, but mostly I'm dreading the really long flight, plus still slightly in denial that I'm leaving so soon. The only thing that I am actually nervous about is meeting people my age to be friends with. Since I'm not doing this through an aupair agency, I don't have a built-in way to meet other aupairs. Hopefully the family knows some that I can be introduced to.

My suitcases are huge. I thought my black one was big, but then Julie lent me hers--that thing could eat my suitcase for breakfast. And I keep walking around my room trying to see if I'm forgetting something, and I'll see my Chapstick and think, "What if they don't have Chapstick in Germany??? I better bring these extra ones just to be safe." Or I think, "I HAVE to bring this shirt with me. I haven't worn it once in the past three years, but what if I want to wear it in Germany?? Better pack it."

OK, I plan on taking pics once I get there, so maybe I'll even be not lazy and post them.