A Day in the Life, Holly the Au Pair - Today, Wednesday, January 18, 2012

7:00am - "dadada da da da da da da" Alarm goes off.

7:06am - Roll out of bed. Try to wake up. Grab hoodie. Turn on computer.

7:12am - Say good morning to very important person.

7:20am - Make bed and open window shades.

7:30am - Grudgingly pick out clothes for the day from dresser and wardrobe. Take a nice hot shower.

7:49am - Finish shower and check the time. Need to be downstairs beginning work by 8:00am.

8:00am - Open the children's room windows, pull the blankets down and give them a shake. Fluff the pillows too.

8:03am - Clear off the dining room table from the children's breakfast. Load up the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen.

8:12am - Finish up. Make own breakfast (all organic, of course): schwarz und weiß müsli (mit schocolade und kakao) [black and white müsli, with chocolate and coconut] with kefir on top, and frühstückssaft.

8:20am - Host mother gives the run down for the day. She is expecting three packages and I need to sign for them if she's not home. The two girls (oldest and youngest) will be home around 12:15pm. She may or may not be around which means I need to be back from my German class by 12:00pm.

8:25am - Close up children's windows and make their beds. Need to be out the door by 8:30am at the latest.

Two youngest kid's room.

Oldest kid's room.

8:28am - Host mother asks question about the weekend. Don't really have time to talk.

8:30am - Leave the house to go to the bus station.

No matter what I tried, this picture ended up being sideways. But this is my bus stop from the house.

8:40am - Bus arrives.

8:51am - Bus reaches destination. Walk to classroom building.

School hallway.

Class schedule, I'm the class at the top.

Classroom.

9:00am - Inside classroom. The teacher is not yet here.

9:05am - Teacher arrives.

10:30am - Class is over. Talk with two classmates and I walk out of the door towards the main building.

10:40am - Walk into the reception area. Ask the receptionist if she speaks English. She does. Tell her that I would like to officially sign up to take the course as it is a suitable level for me. Cost is 99€. Pay the fee. Also, I need an official letter from them stating that I am taking course B1. (The reason for this is because in order for me to get my working permit I need to prove I have substantial German. My high school records were not enough to suffice; they need proof from Germany, as in a certificate for class A1. Since, however, that class is very low level beginner and I am further than that, this letter is supposed to inform the immigration office that in order to take B1, I needed to have more German than the A1 and A2 class.)


10:50am - Have my letter and receipt and it's back to the bus stop to go home. Contemplate taking the train back because the bus doesn't come until 11:15am, and the train station is only a five minute walk. Hmm. Since I don't know the train timing, better wait here.

Park that I walked through to get from the main building to my bus stop.

Clothing store near my bus stop.

Sideways returning bus station sign.

Another sideways picture of a really tall tree across my bus stop. I am going to try to fix these pictures.

11:15am - Bus arrives. I walk on to the bus and an official bus guy (yes, that's the technical term - "bus guy") asks me something in German. However, he said it so quickly that I did not hear him and ask if he speaks English. He doesn't. I realize he's trying to make sure my ticket is valid for where I'm stopping at. I inform him. I'm in the clear.


11:26am - Bus stops at my destination. Walk into Tengelmann (chain grocery store). Do I have time to do some light shopping? Probably shouldn't knowing how long I take in a grocery store and my inability to make quick, or any, choices. Walk out of Tengelmann.

Tengelmann!

11:35am - Arrive home. See there are two packages at the door. I walk inside with the packages and place them on a dresser. Put my coat and school supplies away upstairs. Thirsty. Grab an organic juice box from my dresser. Hmm. Do I have time before the children come home to clean up a bit? Probably. Clean surfaces, mirrors, sort laundry, and sweep.

Full picture of the house where I'm living.

12:00pm - Finish chores. Not sure what to eat for lunch.


12:12pm - Host mother returns.


12:32pm - The two girls arrive home. Still don't know what to eat for lunch.


13:00pm - Host mother gives me a run down of what will happen tomorrow. I am invited to go to a museum with the littlest girl and her class. Would I like to go? Sure. I am also given paperwork for tomorrow when I go to the immigration office.


13:15pm - Ask the mother if there is anything I can do to help with lunch. She says I can peel and cut up the potatoes into semi-thick circles, and chop the carrots into sticks. I don't think I did that too well.  I think I 'll have an organic roll and organic goat cheese coated with herbs. Yum. The middle child (the boy) comes home with a friend.  I set the table for six. Mother makes potato "chips" and sausage for lunch for the kids.


14:20pm - Clean up the table and kitchen after lunch. Run the dishwasher.

14:52pm - Finish clean up. Go up to my room for a small break. Contemplating what to eat for dinner. Looking up how to get to the immigration office from the museum.


15:15pm - Oldest girl comes in and wants to know how I crochet. I begin to show her. She learns pretty quickly.

My crochet things.

15:39pm - Girl is called downstairs to do homework. Back to research on the computer.


16:00pm - Mother comes by my room. I ask if the directions I looked up were accurate. She confirms then asks if I could play with the youngest girl or read her something in English. Finish quickly the crochet square I had started with the oldest, then walked into the playroom. She doesn't seem to want to play with me, would prefer to play with the two boys. Hm. I like puzzles... and there are lots of puzzles in this room... okay. I'll grab a 100 piece puzzle and see what happens. The little girl watches me pick up the puzzle and practically beats me to the floor. Build puzzle in record time. She is surprisingly good at puzzles.

Two puzzles. This picture didn't even need to be rotated. The pictures look fine on my computer, but don't work out on blogspot. Will try to fix tomorrow.

Two Puzzles Later - Oldest comes in. Leaves, then returns with my crochet stuff. She likes it. Says it was fun. I start thinking of looking up yarn stores in the area.


17:00pm - Boy's friend goes home.

17:10pm - Begin to look up yarn stores with the oldest. She says she wants to make a teddy bear. Huh. Good idea. Find some yarn stores.


17:30pm-ish - Oldest is called. She says she has to go somewhere. I ask where and she says she doesn't know. The mother and the three children disappear. Find lots of craft, hobby, yarn, and organic stores. Look up directions.


19:04pm - Still don't know what to have for dinner, or where the family went. Start to put away clean dishes from the dishwasher...


19:06pm - Family returns. Ask the oldest where they went. They said to the ski store. Mother begins putting together leftovers for dinner. I'm thinking about sauteing a zucchini with three mushrooms, a scallion, some olive oil, and a touch of salt and pepper. And to drink: pure blueberry juice. Yum.


20:00pm-ish - Dinner time. Oldest and youngest girls try my blueberry juice. Hilarious. Made very funny faces and said it was much too sour.


20:36pm - Clean up time for dinner. Accidentally dump host mother's white wine down the sink while cleaning. Nervous. Hope she's not mad at me. Boil water for rose tea. Have a little honey and hazelnut butter for dessert (it's delicious).


20:56pm - Make very important phone call.


21:00pm-ish - Beginning typing blog entry.


22:37pm - Look at time. Yuck. Have to be awake at 7:00am again for another busy day.


23:16pm - Finish blog post. Exhausted. Will be going straight to bed.

Gute nacht!