Monday I was up early to go to my language class in Erlangen. Two new people came who weren't there last week. One is Spanish and one is Brazilian. At one point the Brazilian was telling the class that her spoken English is much better than her spoken German. I jumped at the opportunity and said, "Me too!" Everyone laughed. After class I had to rush back to Nürnberg. Since I'll be going skiing with my host family in Italy in January, I need ski clothing. Aldi Süd had a bunch of ski attire in the store on Monday so I made my way over there and bought basically everything I need: jacket, pants, goggles, pullover, socks, and undergarments, all of which are specifically for skiing. Aldi Süd is known for being very "inexpensive," and I managed to get everything I need for about €90. It's not top quality, but if I'm only going to use these items for one week this year, it's a pretty good deal. I also made my way over to a store called the "American Store." I was really excited, thinking I would find some food I'd been missing. But no, it was about 99% military attire and 1% over-priced junk food. I was a bit disappointed, but I haven't given up on finding more American food quite yet. The rest of the day I spent at home with the host family. I also finally baked the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin we carved over the weekend. They were a huge hit with the host family. HM and One in particular couldn't stop eating them. I'm proud of myself, as it was my first time baking any on my own.
Tuesday was a long day. HD left early that morning for Karlsruhe. While we were all eating breakfast One made a funny comment. Him, Two, and HM were still eating while I was unloading the dishwasher. One looked at me and said, "You're like a papa!" HM and I tried to ask him what he meant, but he instead he went on to say that he has "two mama's." I'm not entirely sure what to make of his comments, but I think it means he's accepting me as a part of his family. I went with HM to drop the kids off, then I dropped her off at work, and finally I had to run some errands. I went to Aldi again, but this time to buy some ski items for everyone else. I couldn't find everything I needed at one store so I had to drive 10 minutes in the other direction to another Aldi, where I still didn't find everything but I found more of what I needed. Then I came back home, loaded up the car with the yard waste, and drove to the recycling center to dump all the waste. We left the house at 7:50 and I didn't make it home until 10:30. I returned to pick the kids up at their normal time. When I walked in to where Two was, none of the workers recognized me. I had never seen any of them either. One of them came over to me and asked me who I was and who I was picking up. They couldn't find the paperwork that said I was allowed to take the kids, so they ended up calling HM and then asked me to show my ID. When I went out to the car to get my license, Two watched me leave and started crying. I laughed to myself because if any of them knew him, they'd know his crying was proof enough of who I was (he only cries when he cares about the people who leave the room). It was eventually all sorted out and we carried on to get One. A worker near Two laughed when she saw me and said, "They didn't know you, huh? I did!" I had the kids for most of the evening by myself so that HM could work late. I was surprised by how smoothly it went. There was not a single meltdown from either kid. I managed to get them both ready for bed at a good time, which happened to be just as HM was getting home. It was an exhausting yet successful day.
Wednesday was another busy day, though unexpectedly so. When everyone was gone, I went back to sleep, woke up awhile later, went for a run, and then got ready to head into the city. I had been waiting for a package from home for a month and it still had not arrived. Two weeks after the package was sent, my mom found it returned on the doorstep because the customs form had fallen off. She re-sent it, but this week was another two weeks since it was re-sent and it usually takes about a week to get mail. I just so happened to check the mail as I was leaving the house. I found a letter from the Zollamt (customs office) informing me that there was a package that I needed to go and pick up. I made my way all the way out to the Zollamt, which ended up taking an entire hour. I had to take the train to the Hauptbahnhof, wait 10 minutes, grab another train 10 minutes south, and then walk 20 minutes. When the guy finally came back with my package, he made me open it and show him what was inside. There was a variety of things, but two of the items were children's books for the kids. When the guy saw the books, he laughed and asked if they were for me. Clever. This "little" adventure ended up eating up my whole afternoon. By the time I made it back to the house, there was only 30 minutes until everyone got home. The evening of work was typical for a Wednesday. One has been in a good mood lately and seems to be more pleased with my presence. That evening he looked at me and asked me if I remembered the day I arrived when I met them all at the bus station. He said he remembered that I spoke German with him and that he didn't know who I was then. He's said this kind of thing to me a few times before. It's always at a very random time, so I'm not sure what to make of it.
Thursday I went over to M's to help L with some English homework. Most of it was easy for me, but I had to look up some of it. If I'd ever learned those concepts in school, I'd forgotten them. Overall I think we were pretty successful and L seemed to understand. It took and hour and a half to get through half of his homework, so we called it quits for the day and said we'd work on the rest at a later date. Afterwards, M and I cooked some pasta bolognese. I was starving and it was delicious, as her meals always are. That evening someone came over to inspect the damage done to the wall downstairs. About a week or so after I got here, HP rearranged some furniture and HD fastened a huge wardrobe to the wall next to the front door. He unknowingly drilled through a water pipe. Water had been leaking into the wall for the past month. He noticed the water behind the wardrobe last week and someone finally came Thursday to check it out. The guy was here for a good hour or so. Now we won't really be able to use either of the bathrooms upstairs until the problem is repairs (could be several weeks). There's one bathroom downstairs, and it's just a half bath with a toilet and sink. Looks like I'll be "showering" in the kitchen sink for the foreseeable future. HM went to dance after dinner. HD was talking to One about who would get him ready for bed, saying it could be him (HD) or me. One chose me! I was a bit shocked. When he was laying in bed, he turned to me and called me "Papa." This could have been a complete accident, but it was still strange.
Halloween is this weekend! I can't wait to see how the Germans celebrate.
No comments:
Post a Comment