That Time I Tried to get to Belgium on the Fly

I really hate not having a solid, no loop-hole plan. If you've known me for anything more than 30 seconds, you know this about me. So that time I quit my job, and decided, yeah, I'll go to Belgium for a week by the cheapest means possible, all within a two week period--well, I think I may have gone a little off my rocker.

This morning I was supposed to catch a ride share to Brussels. The driver wanted to meet at Karlsplatz (which if you don't know Munich, is a huge square in town, with busy streets cutting through it, shopping centers, every kind of Munich public transport, and during Oktoberfest it's swamped with tourists). This was bad decision number one. Instead of making sure he knew what I looked like and I knew what he looked like and we had a clear "we're meeting on this corner at this time and I will be wearing this color" plan; I decided that no, I'll fly by the seat of my pants.

So of course I missed my ride. I actually saw him an hour and a half after we were supposed to meet, driving away to the Autobahn on ramp and looking very angry. Understantable.

But then what did I do? Admit defeat? Go back to the family friends who keep me so well fed? Drop my stuff at the train station and go to Oktoberfest? Wouldn't that have been clever.

Nope. I went to the Reisebuero (travel agency) and asked for directions to an internet cafe, which I couldn't find, but spent a good 20 minutes walking the cobbled streets looking for. I bought a charger for my new cell phone. Which was not the ideal kind of charger, and is also redundant, since I forgot that I brought my American cell phone and charger with and they are packed and perfectly functional in my rucksack. I went and sat in another internet cafe for an hour trying to find another ride for today. But nothing was free and the man who I called three times in a row had to explain to me three times that his car was full. And then I carried my thoroughly beaten butt home (slowly). Listened to funk music (while the guy standing behind me on the S-Bahn kept looking over my shoulder at my song choices). And gave my family friends a good laugh (I mean, I was supposed to be half way to Belgium at that point). Mind you. I did all of this while wearing dress clothes, boots and dragging behind me 45 lbs of clothes, books and camera, all intended for my vacation.

6 hours of waiting and trains and dragging a roller suitcase with one wheel that gets jammed on bumps over cobblestone streets, I'm home and fed and trying to make plans that don't involve me laying on a couch reading instead of visiting a beautiful European city. Hopefully this time with a little more security and experience to back up my choices of transportation and hosts.

Of course there's always that ride to Gent on Wednesday. Yep. I'm totally off my rocker.

A Start At Au Pairing

My life has quickly become hectic, very strange, and all in German. It's a miraculous thing, how stepping off a plane in a country where you have some basic grasp of the local language means that you converse in that language all of the time. But that's not the point of this post.

I've worked at day camps, school/over-night camps, baby sitting, and have you heard about my clan of 78 family members? But nothing so far in my life has quite been like this. As the youngest child I never had any full time "younger siblings" (with one exception). But in the last 10 days I have had to adjust quite suddenly to living with a 3.5 and a 6 year old. Not to mention living in a new city, country, house, room, culture and language. I thought I had prepared for this with my previous experience with kids. I was kidding myself.

Being an Au Pair is like being some strange combination baby sitter, big sister, parent. So far I've done everything from cause trouble at the dinner table to put a kid in a very harsh time out for repeatedly saying Scheisse. From the moment I stepped off of that plane the expectations were entirely different from any job I've had before. These people feed me, talk to me about their days, watch the evening news and crappy movies with me. But I'm also "on duty" 30 hours a week, alternating between discipline and entertainment with their kids, calling their kids Schatzy. It's all been very crazy.

And for a moment there (daily) I got really really homesick, and was on the verge of tears walking home from the morning Kindergarten drop. And then one week in, Sunday barbeque happened. And the crazy family, the grandma and grandpa who never sit down to eat just keep pushing food on you, the sarcastic exchanges that I was able to understand, and the table of people all trying to get someone's attention, it all made me feel so at home. I think they thought I had cracked when I started laughing. But I was just happy. It all felt... right.

Kidos picking berries and playing in the backyard

Music:
Legally Blonde the musical, the entire soundtrack. Just, omigod you guys.

2 weeks

The 2 week countdown has more than begun. It is fully upon us. The fact that it's bringing on severe senioritis and I have a paper due at midnight and some thesis editing to do this weekend is probably not good. But it's here none the less. And amazingly, it gets closer every day.

I got really excited yesterday when I looked up my soon-to-be home town on tumblr. Beautiful pictures below!