One woke up tired and grumpy on Thursday. He wasn't interested in eating breakfast and would only drink his juice if there was a straw in the cup. When it was time for everyone to leave, I went ahead and put One in his car seat. I was apparently not doing it correctly because he said to me, "Du machst alles falsch!" Or, "You do everything wrong!" To be fair, I had never put him in that car seat yet (the ones in the other car are different), so I hadn't been shown how. However, he's right, he needs to be buckled in correctly. I then proceeded to do it as he showed me and I asked him if it was up to his standards. He just looked at me and my host dad laughed. I shut the car door and took a step back and my host dad looked at me, laughed, and said and said something like, "kids are such a joy, eh?" I think I'll refer to him as HD (host dad) from now on, and my host mom as HM (host mom).
I had to go to the bank to set up a bank account on Thursday. There's a branch right down the road from the house, so I walked there. Everything went smoothly at the bank. I was able to open an account right then and there with minimal English. The bank employee knew immediately that I wasn't German, 1) because he knew I'm an au pair, and/or 2) he heard my accent. He asked if I wanted to speak German or English. I opted for German, but did mention that if absolutely necessary we could speak English. The whole process took about 20 minutes and he only spoke English once. I should have my debit card by next week.
HM asked me on Wednesday if I wanted to make some kind of soup to have for lunch throughout the week. I said yes, and opted for my favorite potato soup. HD bought all the ingredients that night and I went ahead with cooking it after the bank. The whole process took me about 2 hours. I had to convert all the measurements and find all the utensils I needed. The stove was also all touch screen. There were no words and no outlined buttons, just symbols against a black background. I eventually figured out how to get it on, but I'll definitely have to ask my host parents (HP, from now on) some follow up questions about how it works. HP tried it later on and thought it was good. HD actually said, "Finally, someone in this house who can cook!" as neither him nor HM like to cook. All in all, I'd say it was a successful first cooking attempt. I threw some laundry into the wash while I cooked. Figuring out how the washing machine was a lot easier than the stove, but I still probably sat there for 10 minutes looking at all my options.
The whole language aspect is more difficult than I was expecting. My German has regressed entirely too much since I was in Mainz, even more than I realized. Part of the problem is nerves and not wanting to sound stupid, but a good bit is just not having the vocabulary. For example, never have I needed to say "zipper" in German. Or hole puncher, or clutch, or shifter, or clothes hangers, and so on. I often find myself tripping over words. German word order is very structured and is completely different than English, so I often have to retrace my words to remember which verb I was going to use. For example, in English we say, "I want to drink some hot chocolate" In German the construction is more like, "I want some hot chocolate to drink." Basically, the conjugated verb comes after the subject, but all other non-conjugated verbs come at the end of the sentence. Sounds difficult, right? It's even worse with different tenses and with clauses. If I'm not actively listening to a conversation, I can't understand most things. You might not have realized this unless you speak another language. In English I can be doing something and then also talking to someone or listening to something and have no trouble with comprehension. In German or French I have to entirely devote my brain power to actively listening while looking at the person talking to me, absolutely no zoning out allowed. When I was in Mainz I kept a notebook of new and useful vocabulary and sayings. I brought it with me and have already filled up a page. Hopefully that will help with committing everything to memory.
Two doesn't speak yet. However, I can understand his language of pointing and grunting very well. One often says things I don't understand either because of the vocabulary or because he's facing away from me or mumbling. One really doesn't want to speak English with me. Sometimes I get him to say a couple words here and there before we do something, sometimes not. Too bad for him as I'm not going to stop! He also gets a bit mad if he says something and I don't understand him or if I say something and he doesn't understand. It's only the first week and I have faith that will change soon enough. I'm anxious to get to the point where both kids trust me and like me. I'd say they both already like me well enough. I have a lot to learn about them: what they like, what they don't, how they do things, etc. I also have a lot to learn about my HP and how they handle situations with the kids. I don't want to react to something in a way they would never do themselves. Like any job, there's always a steep learning curve.
This weekend I'm going to practice driving the car. HM is going to be away for a few days the week after next so the sooner I can drive the car, the better. I'm nervous about driving the manual car for a number of reasons. 1) I can't drive a manual very well, 2) I'll be in someone else's car with someone else's children, 3) some of the driving rules here are different, 4) most of the road signs are different, and 5) I don't know the area. I guess I just have to get over all of that and just do it. Sink or swim, eh?
HM told me the first day that she likes watching sitcoms in English. She used to watch Friends and another show that I can't recall at the moment, but they were looking for something else. I suggested Modern Family. The three of us started watching it the other night and they're both really enjoying it. A few times they've asked me about what something means in English. I won't lie, it's nice for the tables to turn sometimes.
Today I may go out and do some exploring. I still haven't had a chance to really look up what I want to do here. If I can get it done today, I'll go out before the kids get back. As soon as I'm comfortable with the city I'm going to find things to occupy my time. Maybe a language table, maybe something at the university, maybe even a second job. I'd like to really explore my options before I commit to anything seeing that I have so much time.
I don't have any real plans for the weekend yet, but hopefully something comes along!
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