Friends and family, I have decided what to do with the next year of my life, I will be moving to Freiburg to be an au pair. It was more difficult to make this decision than I ever thought it would be. I will be leaving my American safety net and actually be emerged completely in German culture and life. I have also been doing some research and found several German language schools I'm interested in. Hopefully after some time and hard work I can be a functioning member of the German speaking society. Luckily, Stefanie, my host, lived in London for most of her adult life, so she can speak English with me and also help with my studies. I'm excited to be back in a classroom, but I know that will fade after the first session. The thought of studying is always fun until your actually doing it. I already warned Marcel about how frustrated, annoyed, and whiny I'm going to act when I have to study. For some reason he didn't seem that surprised...
So, just to give you the run down on what I know right now. I move to Freiburg on September 16th. I will be staying with Stefanie and her daughter, Iysha, in my own bedroom off of the main entrance. I also have a private bathroom just down the hall. The flat is located just a couple minutes from the city center and is really nice. When I met Stafanie there it was disorganized and cluttered. Her excuse was that she was in between cleaning ladies, so I'm really hoping that whole situation has been worked out. The best news is that her phone plan allows for free calls to U.S. land lines AND she has extremely fast internet for her job as an at home IT consultant. This makes me more than happy. I can finally skype with all of you guys with video, no disconnection or distortion. It's great! So, with my job as the au pair I will be responsible for taking the daughter to and from school, light babysitting, some housework, some meals, yada yada yada. Stefanie seemed really laid back and flexible about everything, so I'm pretty positive it will be an easy going environment. I should have more details about the job within the next couple of weeks. I'll update as information becomes available.
More great news. Marcel got an internship in Garmisch at a children's hospital working on the administration side of things. He'll be here for just under a month and I can't wait for it. We've already decided we can't act like we are on vacation while he's here. We tend to eat out every night and enjoy too many beers when he's around, so after his last visit I felt like I gained 20 pounds. His internship ends around the same time my contract does so it will be so nice to have him help me pack and move my things.
Our trip to Lake Constance was great, as always. It rained the whole weekend. Despite the weather we had a great time. On our last day we visited Insel Mainau, an island with botanical gardens covering every inch. The highlight of the island wasn't the beautiful butterfly house, it was when Marcel got stung by an angry bee. "Yen what is it!?!?" as a huge yellow jacket is hanging from his neck with his stinger in. I flicked the bee away and watched his neck turn more red and swollen than it should have. I kept assuring him that it didn't look that bad and I casually asked if he was allergic to bees. Luckily, he isn't. It wasn't until it started to calm down that I told him it actually looked terrifying, but I didn't want to freak him out. Anyway, the real highlight of the trip was our convertible smart car. I'm in love with these cars now. They're so little! The weather only permitted us to take the top down a couple times. I was thankful for that because the car already draws enough attention, no need to look like a douche bag with the top down for 5 minutes in between the rain showers. For our entire trip we spent $37 on gas. 37!
Have I mentioned I'm coming home for Christmas? EEEEK! I have the best Mother ever. Not only does she send me great cards and care packages, but she is getting me flights as my Christmas present :-)
Oh and the title of the blog is a short shout out to Daddio Martinez. Love you, Dad!
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