I'm Here!

I am now in Germany and kinda, sorta settled. The house is great and has a very Danish/Scandanavian/German style because Anette is actually Danish. I have my own little apartment in the basement that looks like a page in the Ikea catalog! It has it's own bathroom and even a little kitchen, although I wont be using it much because I eat upstairs with the whole family. It also has a seperate entrance with a little porch and chairs. Pretty neat for them to have all those things for their au pair. If I can figure out how, I will post pictures up here soon! (;

The kids are rather cute. I feel bad because I don't really know what to say to them though. By the time that I look up a word or two to make a sentence or ask them a question, the opportunity has passed and they are onto something else (that I also don't know how to say in German!) I can understand some of what their German Grandma says; at least enough to say ja or nein in response. She's staying here to look after the kids so that I can get situated and until they start school again next week. I can also understand some of what the children say, but Jonathan, the almost 5 year old boy, slurs alot and uses his pouty voice...which if there was any hope of me understanding him before, it goes completely out the window when he is pouting. He is upset that mostly the children on the block are Ann-Katrin, his 9 year old sister's, age and therefore are not interested in playing with him for very long. He's totally okay with playing with them because he just wants the company, but, of course, they want to do big-kid things without him. Ann-Katrin is sweet and sort of a little-mini teenager. She say's that things are "cool" all the time and it's very cute. Hopefully I will be able to manage them better when they are in school. They have lots of activities during the week and Jonathan is at school almost all day, so that should make it easier. Plus, he'll be happier when he has school friends to play with again. Hooray for kindergarten!

I have wanted to give up pretty much all day, everyday. I have no idea what I was thinking in choosing to do this. I feel bad that they are spending so much time, energy, and money on someone who can't even speak to their children! I'm excited to learn German because I think that will be a very helpful skill to have later in life for travel, business, and what have you, but I don't know how I am going to be helpful to them when I can't figure out how to communicate. I am really hoping that it will get better when I am a little bit more adjusted to the time change. Right now though, I am very tired and I am finding it very hard to stay awake for a whole day! I got up a little earlier today but now all I want to do is sleep.....where is my Starbucks when I need it so bad?! Haha. Cross your fingers for me that I can stay awake till dinner!

I had my first little shopping trip today. I walked with Jonathan and Oma to the grocery store right after breakfast, but all I did was look around. I will figure out how to talk to people at the grocery store....at a later date.....I hope. (: After that though, I walked, all by myself I must add, to the little toiletries store in the area. It wasn't too bad, although, I must have stared at what I believe was the aisle of shampoo for 30 minutes before I chose one. Hopefully I did okay! They had pretty much everything I needed (And Daddy, they had several different kinds of Q-Tips, a little expensive, but they had them nonetheless! And, in a cute little container!! (: ) They didn't have any make-up powder, but perhaps I can get that in Stuttgart tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to get Ann-Katrin's new guitar for her lessens that start on Monday. We are also going to go to this fancy shop that I read about online, Merz und Benzing http://www.merz-benzing.de/ and go to the book store to buy my German book for my German lessens that start the 25th of September. (Oh yeah, did I mention that I tested into the 2nd level of German? I'm not a complete idiot I guess!)

Anyway, that was probably more than any of you ever wanted to know and I am going to have a cappuccino with Oma! I will write more very soon!

Cori