Friday, September 7, 2007

I'm back

As I begin this blog I realize immediately that I must apologize in advance for several things. First of all, I am writing on a German keyboard so that means that my Y's, Z's, upper case i's and apostrophies will be all mixed up unless I edit very carefullz, and since I think those mistakes are kinda funny, I will leave some of them in so that you know how difficult this is for me to write, the second thing is that I haven't updated people on my life since I left for Berlin last weekend (which was wonderful, and I will have to tell you about it next blog) because the internet connection has been acting like a spoiled 4 year old. I am also having trouble responding to e-mails at the moment, so parts of this will be directed to persons who aren't zou. I have gotten several requests for a picture of my daily life because I haven't given that yet, so here it is in a blink. Let me remind you, however, that I am working as an au pair, and as such, my life does not display the glamour of the expatriots like Hemingway or Gertrude Stein.

anywhere between 7-8: start grumbling at my ipod/alarm clock which is persistantly reminding me that time flies nearly as quickly as my to-do list grows.
8-8:30 realize that if I do not move very quickly, I will be late to sprachschule (language class), hop on my bike and start praying that it doesn't rain.
8:57/9:01-12:05 arrive at school, climb the four flights of stairs to my classroom, arrive slightly stinky from the ride, and settle into class for the next 2 1/2 hours with people from every continent but Antartica.
12:05-1:00 take my time getting home... dally along the way, sit and read for a spell, or stop at the store to replenish my supply of Ritter Sport.
1:00-1:30 eat lunch with Sabine, then take care of Felix while she fetches Carolin from kindergarten (wich is a German word for all who have forgotten / didn't know)
1:30-7:00 watch Carolin and Felix, which includes but is not limited to feeding, diaper changing, listening to a lot of quatsch (nonsense or gibberish) both in English and German, being chased around, trying to gently motivate Carolin to listen/obey/not get killed etc. (as a side note, Carolin can count to ten in English without help and loves to say 'oopsy-daisy' which comes out 'oopsy-lazy')
7:00-8:30/9:00 Holger and Sabine come home, we all eat dinner (pieces of bread with either meat or cheese on top... kinda strange but I'm getting used to it), Holger and Sabine put the kids to bed while I clean up dinner.
9:00-12:00 I check my email etc. read, watch Firefly, do German homework, or whatever and then bemoan how late I continue to stay up.
So that, ladies and gents, is a typical day. Weekends, I am up to my own devices, and that usually involves going to Bremen at some point which is a 40 min. train ride away.
Thank you Mom, Molly, Mari, Matt, Noah, Nik, Stefan, Teal, and anyone else I have forgotten for your postcards, letters, and packages, they have been such an encouragement. Yes, mom, my language skills are improving quite a lot, I can actually sign on to this blogger account without needing the homepage to be in English. I am also forgetting English words for basic things... I would give you and example, but I have forgotten the word... I am sure that forgetting English is a sure sign that my German is improving. I am on the cusp of making friends here, there are two girls in my language course who I am trying to meet up with for a movie this weekend; Iris is from Nicaragua, and YuChun is from China. So I think it is safe to say that I am just about as settled in as anyone could hope for. That said, it is always nice to hear from home, so feel free to drop me a line.
I hope that the internet will be working properly for me again next week when I hope to post pictures etc. from Berlin. Until then thanks for reading and good luck with whatever I should wish you good luck on.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's a Petrovna? I just saw Mikhail Baryshnikov perform last night. I'm glad I saw him before he quit dancing.

Scarlettah said...

I am still reading faithfully, Val. Jen and Jess both moved out and I have a U of O biology PhD student moved in and an Artistic Administration MA student, also from the U of O, on her way.

In other news, I registered to take a Latin reading class--Caeser's Gallic Wars. Cross your fingers and wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Looking into grad school programs; it's coming slowly but coming. The most interesting one right now is in Austria. We'll see how that goes!

Sounds like you're doing really well with the adjustments! Thanks for sharing your experience.

teal! said...

thanks for filling in the deets. I'm glad you're getting to meet cool people, and getting somewhat settled.

Valerie said...

Petrovna would be one of my middle names if I were Russian (my patronymic). I decided to take my last name off the title. There are a couple of people in this world I would rather not have reading my thoughts. Jem- I'm really glad you saw Baryshnikov, that would be incredible I want to hear more... Scarlettah- thanks for reading. I hope all of the housing changes go well and good luck with Latin. Teal- yes, I wrote this blog in response to you. Thank you for reading.

meg said...

i like the little details you talk of and i'm happy you're not just occasionally posting, cause i like what i'm reading.