duetschkurs.

it is beginning to look as if i will be a success if i can tell you about my life once per week. this week during the week the weather was terrible. 50ish, rainy. now this weekend it is gorgeous. i'm not yet sure how i pull this off, but i like it. monday we hit the playground at the marktplatz (market plaza) mit moritz und xandric (i don't know how to spell that, it comes from alexandric, i think). moritz is super cute, and i think he kind of has add. he would do something for one minute or two, then throw a shovel across the playground, kick over the buckets of sand max and tom were playing with, step on the dumptrucks, and then at one point walked up to this little girl who was playing by herself, shoved her over with two hands and walked off. if i wasn't in charge of him, i probably would have found it a little funny. i don't think she did anything to him. he just thought it looked like a good opportunity to push someone i think. tuesday we had to get more shoes for the boys, and then went to a playground on Ploeck (this is a street). wednesday afternoon i took the boys to a playground by myself. we met moritz. he was totally tame. thursday, hmm, i really can't think of what we did. oh wait. it was raining. we baked a cake (kuchen backen) which you do here by weight of the ingredients, not putting them in the measuring cup. interesting cultural difference there. then we had bath time and watched the jungle book. friday, a day at the zoo. i'm going to be pretty good at animals in german by the end of the year. friday was also the last day of the erst monat of the duetschkurs. i still spell deutsch wrong half of the time. but i am learning things. tuesday night i went out with gosia and caterina. i met another american. he was a complete butthead. i would prefer to hang out with max and tom thank you. wednesday night i went out in a double (this is rowing) with a canadian girl. she was nice, but wow were we ever terrible at rowing. the good news is that it can only get better. oh yes, and i have my first cold of the season. on friday night i went out with gosia, caterina, and some others from my class. caterina's last night! boo. but now i get to visit italy? yeah, um hmm, tell me if you want in. everywhere was super crowded because university resumes soon and also there is a big festival this weekend. we wound up in one place were there were a lot of very intoxicated american military guys, and girls. they were completely loud and obnoxious, and i was a little embarrassed to be american. if i had to describe them, i would say the best i can do is say they are the stereotypical jersey boy (kristy i love you). yesterday i met gosia for the heidelberg herbst. it is this giant fall festival for the weekend. apparently around one-quarter of a million people are expected. only 140,000 live in the city, so that is pretty big. it was super crowded but good fun. there are vendors around, lots of bratwurst, german bier, and probably 5 different stages with bands. also, i heard a marching band type band, which did make me miss clemson football. this morning i just rowed in a 3. yes, a 3. and apparently they don't have these in canada or the netherlands either. so i'm wondering if these are a heidelberg specific kind of thing. now i need to study. and maybe sabine and i will take the boys to the heidelberg herbst later. this wednesday is a national holiday. german reunification day, i think. and on thursday morning, very very early, i am off to mannheim and then dresden and bautzen for the weekend. so maybe i will have something a little more interesting to tell you about my life next time.

i am a professional bike rider. almost.

so friday i took the boys to the zoo by myself. i felt like a grown up again. i also successfully returned water to the grocery store and bought more alone. people here really like drinking water with bubbles in it; therefore, they buy it. i am beginning to loathe it slightly less. and you return all the empty bottles to the store. it is slightly more trouble than being a wasteful american, but it is good i think. at the zoo, the boys listened really well, until it was time to leave. and then i had to pick both of them up and carry them to the car. that was interesting. and i got laughed at by at least one other parent. and i would like to note that doing these two activities mean that i drove twice by myself. on saturday, i went to freiburg for the day with gosia (friend from poland) and caterina (friend from italy). it is in south germany in the area of the black forest. it was a nice town, but i think i am glad i chose heidelberg. freiburg is the other german city that i was seriously considering aupairing in. there is a huge cathedral there and a few art museums we took a look at, and we just did some walking around and taking it all in. the also have these gutter things that run throughout the city. they are for draining water i believe. and totally dangerous to tourists who are looking for their next photo-op. for the record i would like to say that i did not fall into any of them. only gosia and caterina tripped. (don't get too excited that i'm acquiring grace, i have a story for you yet). also, i ate subway yesterday. the first actual american food in weeks. and it was gosia's decision, i would have kept not eating it. so we get back to the hauptbahnhof at 9.30 or so. i get onto my bike to ride home. granted it takes me 5 minutes to find it in the incredibly packed bike racks. so i'm riding home, all is going well, i'm being impressed with myself that i know where i'm going and am not lost like last saturday. okay, so then i'm crossing the street, which happens to have the track for the strassenbahn (tram, but strassenbahn is much more fun to say). and then i turn my wheel at exactly the wrong time, exactly the wrong angle, maybe some other things exactly wrong...and i fall into the track. whoa, hallo, terrible idea. i put my feet down quickly and saved myself from a totally wipeout; however, i didn't exactly look like a superstar. the good news is that so far as i am aware, none of the 8 people i know in this country saw it. the other good news: as for all the people that did see it and were standing around making fun of me, i couldn't understand it. needless to say, i did eventually make it home in one piece. today i rowed. i was in a double sculling with one other girl named anne. the good news: she studied english at university, and it is so great, i can't even tell she is german. the not quite as stellar news: i'm not really so great at this sculling things yet. the other good news: she was very nice and patient. it was fun, i will learn. hopefully the other rowers won't grow tired of me before that happens. after this i met gosia and caterina for lunch. i had pasta cooked by a real italian. then we looked around this giant graveyard that seems to be more of a park across the street from cati's dorm. after this we caught the strassenbahn to look at the philosophenweg and take photos around the city. caterina leaves friday and gosia on saturday. this is sad news, then i am back to square one with friends. oh, and i walked into my coffee table again, but no blood this time. it has been a good weekend. also, i hear clemson won.

oh, they understand.

so a quick update on the victories of today...then i have to study. german is surely not getting any easier. and we are only talking about food now. this afternoon, i successfully negotiated with a german speaking two year old. twice. the first was to change a stinky diaper. this may not seem like a big deal, but keep in mind it smelled horrible, i was getting kicked, and tom was yelling. so i said, okay, that is fine, mommy and max will go to the playground and i will sit here with you until we change this. hello. that was like magic, and tom immediately quieted down and let me change the diaper. then after setting up a bank account, eating ice cream (eis essen), and going to the playground with some random friends we ran into, it was time for bath. usually they love it, but today they were none too happy about it. i managed to wash max, wash tom, and wash max's hair. then sabine arrived with the cup that i use to dump water on their head and wash the shampoo out. they were flipping out because they wanted the cup. i said, first, first tom has to wash his hair and then we can play with the cup. that was also like magic. tom slid right into the tub and let me wash his hair. i'm pretty excited about this. however, i just won't tell you how things went down when i took the cup away and took the boys out of the tub. i will let you continue to think i am super nanny. ok, now i have to be super german student and study.

standing shove among other things.

somehow it is wednesday again. i don't know what i have been doing with my life, but i have been too busy to update you apparently. 16 september, sunday: so i went to a meeting of heidelberg ruderklub. i anticipated that it would be in german, and i wouldn't understand a whole lot. i really went just to see what people were there. so, as it turns out, it was a meeting to discuss the future of the club (they have youth, competitive, and recreational rowing). i think. maybe. possibly. and it lasted for 2.5 hours. the thermometer hit roughly 75* fahrenheit on sunday. i broke out the shorts and long sleeves. it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and people were out everywhere. i got a few good glimpses of a 60 year old in a speedo. i know you are completely jealous. sunday night i kept max and tom and put them to bed and such. this way sabine, nils, and nils' dad were able to go to dinner. apparently this is only the 2nd time since the boys were born...so either they trust me, or they were desperate to go out. 17 september, monday: schule. lektion drei: essen und trinken. (school. chapter 3: eating and drinking.) somehow they held this until chapter 3. last week, in the far more important lektion zwei, i learned how to say things such as refrigerator, oven, and calculator. opa left in the morning, and then in the afternoon it began raining...so we turned it into transportation day of sorts. we walked to the bus stop, then took the 34 (the vierunddreissig) bus to the hauptbahnhof (train station), where we watched trains for a while. max and tom tried to convince their mother that they should bring one home with them (haben haben). after the trains we took the strassenbahn (tram) back to the main plaza for buses and such and then quite the 34 back to the haus. i don't know how it ever slipped my mind, but i was reminded that you absolutely cannot rush a two year old. 18 september, tueday: oh yeah an extra test on der, die, das on tuesday (germans don't feel the need to just say "the"). our teacher, ana, seems to be getting a bit frustrated with the lack of studying. it was an extremely long morning for a lot of reasons. so of course i ate a chocolate candy bar. yes, it helps. however, the bad news is that i have now discovered how close to school these can be purchased. this is bad news. i've already forbidden myself from buying nutella. in the afternoon, the obgyn that delivered max and tom came to visit on her way froma conference in italy back to california. she is adorable. while sabine was getting things ready for her, max and tom and i played outside. which meant we walked around in our rain clothes (gummistiffel = rain boots), "played" soccer with hannah und sofie for about 7 minutes until we got the ball stuck in a tree, and then had the neighbors help us get it down. so i'm finally meeting some neighbors. we even jumped on their trampoline. they have 6 kids. pretty awesome. granted i've only ever seen two of them. 19 september, wednesday: so today during the pausa from class, i walked with gosia to the store quickly, and i saw someone i knew out in public. it was awesome. i think i would even go so far as to say a friend. i mean granted, i don't really know him that well, but the fact that his first language is also english means we are friends. this is the australian guy that i helped with rowing a few weeks ago. so then school, blah, blah, blah. this afternoon kristen was still here, and i had rowing at 18.00, so i stayed home while the boys, sabine, and kristen went to schwetzingen (a small town with this castle and great garden - in case you haven't been reading along with these blogs). soooo, rowing today. i was in the boat with 4 girls that just won the european university rowing championships. won...as in gold medal. i'm completely in over my head. there was also a girl with spandex that said national team on them. i think if you saw her, you would be as convinced as i am that she earned those pants. we started off with a standing shove. yeah, i don't do that even in english. it was cool. (oh sidenote: today on my bike, a bentley almost backed over me. and then on the way to rowing the sun was in my eyes and i almost took out a pedestrian.) rowing was good fun, and it was nice to be in an 8 again. and i figured i better enjoy it because i'm entirely unsure of whether they will ever invite me to row with them again. for a ll i know they were sitting right beside me saying i was terrible. but luckily the bow seat (i was in two...at least that felt normal) spoke english and could tell me what the heck was going on. i had the lost feeling i imagine a novice girl would have if thrown into the varsity men's boat on her first day. i won't lie. i was completely relieved to get back to the duck poop covered (no exaggeration) dock without falling from the boat or doing anything as obviously stupid. then i had a beer with the australian guy i ran into earlier today. today was his second day rowing, and i think he is ready to quit. he said it was horrible...i'm sure speaking german would probably help him out. i had a revelation today. i need to make some friends with people on the army base so i can get in and buy jif peanut butter. also, nils would like some real steaks. ok, i have to sleep. i wish i could catch up on that so quickly as i can catch up on this blog. good night. love you all. it has been a good day. the best of this week by far. oh also, i realized on saturday when i went to france, that i already have trouble refraining from pointing and yelling ooh ooh airplane/paraglider/hot air balloon. i think the rest of the world would probably not appreciate it so much as max and tom.

ein monat.

i've officially been here for one month. i fully intended to sit down on wednesday at the four week point, and write a yay, i've made it to one month post, but clearly that did not happen. i'm already get quite bad about writing this thing. however, life is getting into more of a pattern and schedule, and i therefore have less new exciting stories to report. last saturday night gosia and i went out. it was fun, but nothing stellar to report. we met an american and canadian guy. they were nice, but i will never see them again i imagine. and one german talked to us. one creepy one. then sunday i'm pretty sure i was absolutely useless. maybe with a little running in there. monday through friday i went to school as usual. monday afternoon i honestly can't remember what we did, tuesday afternoon we went to the playground, wednesday i had the afternoon off (which equaled time for running and rowing), thursday we went to luisenpark in mannheim and rode this boat in their pond, and friday i took the boys and opa to the zoo. that is right, i drove, and i handled the boys without sabine. however, opa was there to give me a hand with keeping track of both of them. last night there was a strassefest (street party) for Am Wingertsberg. so i finally met all these neighbors i keep hearing about. there is a 20 year old girl named helena at the end of the street. i think she is taking pity on me and will invite me to do something. she is super nice...and her mother is australian, so she speaks perfect english. i saw a few 13 year old girls which i had already met, and of course hannah und sofie. they are 5 year old twins that live down the street. max and tom loooove them. and call them both hannah. sofie gave my hair a makeover for a good thirty minutes i would say...all in german. max and tom don't talk about drying, brushing, and cutting hair so often. friday i had another test in german. it went alright, but learning mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, etc may make my head explode. oh, also on wednesday i met the guy that is my neighbor. well, by that i mean i saw him. he said hallo, then i said hallo, then i was really smooth as usual and dropped my bike onto my leg. then it got caught on my belt loop or something. i've surely ruined my chances for him to tell his friends that he has an attractice aupair living beside him. granted, he is 17 i think, so it really doesn't matter. yesterday, saturday the 15th: it was a very long, but intersting/fun day. i went to strasbourg, france with a gosia, my friend from poland, and her three friends. gaby from mexico, caterina from italy, and yiit (yeet - this is a guy) from turkey. they all speak spanish as their second language, so sometimes for me it was pretty funny to listen to them all communicate with each other. listening to them try to help the others figure out the word they needed. and then they would look at me and ask what you call something. however, considered they all speak at least 2 languages and are working on a third (and gaby speaks three and is working on her 4th), it made me feel pretty useless. i'm also growing to hate when people ask me where i am. i hate saying the US, because you don't always get such positive responses. when i woke up at 5.15 yesterday morning, i thought it was raining, but luckily it stopped by 6 when i needed to get on my bike for the train station. which i managed to find in the dark without getting lost i would like to add. when i arrived it was only me and gosia, but luckily the other three were just running a bit late. HOWEVER, while we were waiting on the other three i notice this guy that appears to be in soccer warmups of some kind. then another one came in. the next time i looked there were 10 or 12 and the had blue bag with red letters that say rugby on them. i got kind of excited because this guy from our class always is carrying that bag. and just as i am saying to gosia, i wonder if juan is here, he surely enough comes walking through the door. they had a game in berlin yesterday. he is super nice, but sometimes it is hard for us to have half of a conversation because he speaks spanish and i speak english. after we talked to him and saw the rest of the team, gosia started laughing and said she understands why i like rugby. yes, i need to be a rugby groupie. so we finally get onto this train and we need to make two changes. the first one we get off and the wrong stop and have to catch the next train and ride it one stop. but it all worked out alright. strasbourg is really gorgeous, and they have a huge cathedral and a few museums that gosia wanted to see. i remembered how much i hate museums. so i more or less less took a quick run through and then sat outside and attempted to sketch. i went back into nerdy architecture mode. there is a big museum of contemporary and modern art which i did sort of like. and there were a ton of skateboarders out front (who were all pretty terrible in my opinion), so that gave me something to watch. i saw the ambulance come for one guy who broke his leg. and i saw one guy break his skateboard. oh, and of course the girl from mexico is the only one of us that speaks french, so she kept having to ask everyone where we needed to go. i saw a guy in a south carolina shirt yesterday. he wasn't speaking english. please tell me why a foreigner (auslander - there is your german lesson for today) would feel the need to visit columbia. it was a good day. not to mention the weather hit a whopping 70*, maybe more, and it didn't rain. i think i've seen sun for 3 days in a row. it is pretty wonderful. then last night i returned home on my bike around 11. people were nicer than i remembered them being when i went to paris, but i also let all the non-americans do the interacting with the french. also, at several moments i wanted to teleport myself to the third tailgate of the season. kind of crazy to think it will be 11 more months before i see most of you. i love you all.