So I just finished my first week as an au pair for Mimi, and I cannot believe I am actually getting paid for this. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I attend a language class in Starnberg, which is a tourist destination about 10 minutes from Stockdorf (where I live) with a GORGEOUS lake behind which you can see the Bavarian Alps. Please open a new tab right now and google-image Starnberger See if you haven't already seen my facebook pictures. It's really breathtaking on clear, sunny days. This class is from 8:30 til 10:30am, but the semester is almost over and I will likely be in a class that goes from 10:30 til 12:30 next semester. After language class I have a few hours to relax, then I go to pick up Mimi at Kindergarten at 2pm. Stef, the mother, gets home between 5 and 6pm normally, aside from Thursdays, when she doesn't get home until 9pm. OH and she doesn't work on Tuesdays. THOSE ARE MY ONLY HOURS. Of course, not every week will be identical, but that is a standard week. And Mimi is so adorable it doesn't even feel like work. She has the wildest imagination and could entertain herself for hours. She repeats these phrases all the time and it's so cute coming from her high pitched German voice:
"Oh dear!" "Yyyup!" "Look it!" and "Much better!"
There are plenty more but these are just the most common. She’s obsessed with trucks/construction/cars, but she also has a really cute girly voice and loves playing with dolls. I think she does this to defy gender stereotypes, but I haven’t asked her. Now let's discuss food. I haven't actually eaten a meal outside of their house yet, so I'll write more about eating out in a few weeks when I've actually done so. But in the meantime, I'll tell you about what we have in the kitchen.
Contents in fridge: Like 6 different kinds of cheese, 1 pack of cold cuts, 2 or 3 German sausages, weird spreads that I cannot identify and therefore do not eat, a random variety of vegetables, 4 cans of jam, can of mustard
(If you haven't already deduced this, it is a pretty bare fridge. I have no idea if that is typical, or if it’s just because the parents work a lot and don’t eat most of their meals at home)
Contents on counter next to fridge: Various types of bread
Contents in freezer: Frozen meat, Frozen spinach
Contents in pantry: They don't have a pantry! Doesn't exist!
Contents in sweets drawer: Delicious German cookies that I strategically eat one of every day from a different container so that it appears as if none were taken…. Even though they said I could help myself to anything, I think they might find it odd if an entire row of cookies was gone just a few days after my arrival.
So to give you an idea of what my daily eating schedule looks like since I got here...
Breakfast: Bread with jam
Lunch: Sandwich with cheese, lettuce, mustard
Dinner: Sandwich with cheese, lettuce, mustard
Snacks: Cookie, cheese, bread
I can't wait to go grocery shopping this week!
On an unrelated note, I also added volleyball to my weekly schedule. I joined a team that practices on Wednesday nights from 8-10pm and goes to tournaments on some Saturdays. Also unrelated, I want to quickly return to the business of picking up Mimi from Kindergarten, because I laugh out loud when I think about it. On Wednesday and Thursday, Opa (Mimi's grandfather) picked me up and drove me to Mimi's Kindergarten to pick her up. Painless. Today, however, I decided it was time for me to find my way by myself and pick her up by bike.
http://www.berensundreus.de/bilder/kinderanhaenger/chariot-im-einsatz-2.jpg
I bike 15 minutes to her Kindergarten with a Kinderanhänger (link above) attached to the back of my bike, which has a 6 foot high yellow flag on it to alert anything and everything that I have a child in tow. It. is. so. funny. I have to ride down very busy main roads with this thing- it's serious. As I was writing all of this down on paper earlier, I was sitting on a chair in the bathroom while Mimi took a bath, and she was singing the phrase "DRAGON INSIDE A BOX WITH A WALLY DANCE" over and over and over while swimming in a circle with a pig bath toy. It was so funny I could barely write. I have off all next week because Stef has a medical conference in France. I decided to stay home and explore, so hopefully I'll have plenty of adventures to write about!
No comments:
Post a Comment