Entschuldigen, Ich spreche Englisch

Guten Tag Everyone!

I have been putting a new blog off for a long time, so this one might be a little lengthy, so if you choose to stick around thanks, and if I bore you to tears with my rambling, es tut mir leid!

Christmas went well here. I was pretty homesick through the holidays for about 2 weeks. I really missed everyone at home and the family here has different traditions, so it really never felt like Christmas. In our house, the presents accumulate under the tree the entire month of December until Christmas morning, which is fun because everyone gets to shake and make guesses. Here, they keep the tree clear until Christmas Eve, and then the children go upstairs and play, while Santa and his angels come and bring all of the presents. He then rings a bell and then the kids get to come downstairs and open their gifts. It was pretty neat I guess, it was hard to keep Charlotte and Nicholas entertained the entire day, but once family members began to arrive, they had sometime to do until dusk. Graziella's younger sister, Raphaella, had a friend visiting from the U.S., so it was really nice to have someone to talk to. There were four languages (German, English, Spanish, Italian) swirling around the house for a week too! It was alright though, I could catch parts of most of them, obviously English. My German is still not the best. I was supposed to start a class at the beginning of this month, but not enough people signed up for it, so it was dropped. I hope we can find a new one soon! Thanks for all of the Christmas cards guys! I even received a few care packages, which are greatly appreciated! My mom hooked me up with some good old junk food (Chex Mix, Pringles, Sunflower Seeds) but uh thanks.. now I have a minor case of porkeritis since I'm out of it all! I went through a bad porker withdrawl when I moved here, no junk food or chicken! Food in the U.S.A. is the Devil's food for sure, it's so bad.

Here is the Christmas Tree. A little fat and kind of bare



I now know why mother's are SO excited when kids go back to school after a break! It is so hard trying to keep two kids entertained with as little TV as possible. I miss sleeping in on the breaks. I was up bright and way too early every morning, usually around 6 or 7. Charlotte was up and ready to play, so the mornings went by fast. She didn't nap much though, which was NOT fun. Nicholas played with friends most of the time so that was nice, one less worry I guess. I started trying to find videos that Charlotte would like, so I torture myself and listen to The Wiggles. She really loves them and can even sing along to their songs in English. They aren't as bad as I thought a few years ago, but as long as she is happy and entertained, I'm happy. The tables kind of turned with the kids too. I don't have as many problems with Charlotte now, but Nicholas... oh boy. Charlotte and I get along pretty well and she will listen to me. I can "threaten" her with silly things and make compromises with her so she will cooperate, and it always works. Nicholas.. not so much. One thing I really hate is when I am trying to get Charlotte to cooperate (example: I am trying to blowdry her hair after a shower at night and I need her to sit down, so I tell her she can't have her bottle of milk at night if she doesn't sit down) and Nicholas will come in and tell her not to listen to me and when I try to talk to her, he tells me to be quiet and says Sh! over and over. It makes me crazy! If I did that when I was a kid, I would have been spanked. It's pretty rude. I talked to the parents about discipline and all of that a few weeks ago and they said no spanking, which is fine I would feel weird spanking them anyway. Nicholas has only been spanked once and the dad felt so horrible, he told himself he would never do it again and I am pretty sure he hasn't. I guess it is a big deal. I think a good smack on the butt or two is good. You don't have to spank kids often, usually just once will do the trick. When I was a kid and I was being bratty, the threats to go to the bathroom always shut me up. I kind of wish they had spanked him more! He has really strange habits too. I take my showers at night after the kids are in bed, and the bathroom doesn't have a fan, so I crack the window to let the steam out, and then close it about an hour later. Nicholas cannot sleep at night unless he knows the window is closed. I thought it was just a random thing at first. He comes in my room about 20 times a night going "fenster, fenster" (window, window). I just say it's okay and I'll close it in 20 mins. He comes back 5 mins later... fenster fenster. He also goes into the batrhroom EVERY time I leave, which is funny. Last night I was messing around with it to see if it was in fact, every single time. I would go to the bathroom and leave, he'd go and turn the light on, check around, go back to his room. I would go again like 10 mins later and get water or something, and then the same thing would happen! We went back and forth for like an hour, it was pretty crazy.

Damien.. err.. Nicholas and Charlotte

I actually go out and about by myself now, which is a huge improvement. I used to be SO scared of leaving the house alone, but now I can do it with no problems. "Entschuldigen, Ich Spreche Englisch" is my most used phrase. It means, "I'm sorry, I speak English." I try and use as much German as I can when I talk to people, but when they lose me in a conversation, this phrase is a life-saver. People will usually smile and use their English and others will just nod and say they can't speak it, which is cool. Both of us will make it work and finish the convo with both languages. The weather has been nice, but I can now say that I am sick of snow! It's melting now, which sucks. 1. The roads are horrible, covered in thick layers of ice and all that fun stuff. 2. Everything smells like horse poo... We live in the country side and there are a few stables around, so after all that snow vanished, it's finally thawing out.



I have a pretty good feel for the town now. I'm used to all the crazy driving too! I get pretty impatient like everyone else with slow pokes. The road rage must be contagious or something. When I do get frustrated on the road, I'll usually just say "Oh my God!" Which is funny because Charlotte has caught on to it, and she says it when she is frustrated now too. Better than another phrase I guess. In one of my care packages, I received one of those awesome cassettes that play your ipod through the sound system in the car. The radio here plays English music for the most part.. but as most radio stations do.. they over play songs way too much. If I hear another Pink, Katy Perry, or Beyonce song.. I might end up driving through a guard rail off the road, into the valley and I'll probably die in some catastrophic accident. Now that I can play the ipod, I sing all the time, so the kids say I'm crazy, but I really don't care. I'll belt out any song I like.

Today we finally went to the Foreigner's Office in town and turned in all of my employment paperwork. They extended my stay until March 30th, which is nice because my tourist visa expires on the last day of the month and I doubt I'd get all of my crap back by then. It kind of makes me sad that I've been "The Mexican" here. I've been working while I have been here, but I never had the legal permission to work. Oh well, I hopped an ocean instead of a fence!

I don't really have anything else to say for now. I'll try to blog more, I just get caught up in other things. I think you all should get skype! It's a life saver, especially keeping in touch with people, so if you do choose to get skype, my name is Jess Campbell in Tubingen, Germany! Take care everyone! Tchuus!

Jess