Tiger Faces and Black Easter Eggs

Hey Everyone!

I'm making an effort to blog more! Last week was the best week I've had in a long, long time! Every day was really great. The weather was beautiful, the kids were happy every day and everyone was just in a good mood! We watched Jurassic Park Friday night, which was awesome. I really loved that movie as a kid (and I still do!). On Saturday, the weather was kind of gross, so we went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch and then came home for a nap. We finally had our time change this weekend, so we're all getting used to it. It's amazing how one hour can make such a huge difference!

I'm starting to get ready for coming home. I still have a little over 6 months, but I guess it's okay to prepare ahead of time. My friend Steve has been helping me search for apartments, well he's actually been doing most of the work haha. It's greatly appreciated though! I'll start the job search in a few months too, so I hope that goes well. I'm worried about keeping a full time job and going to school as well, but I'm sure I'll make it work somehow.

I'm really determined to do all of this without any help from my parents whatsoever. Whenever I talk to them, it seems as though they're just waiting for me to screw up with something and it's really depressing. I know I'm not perfect and made a lot of mistakes at home. I'm not on the path my parents want and my Dad keeps trying to make my decisions for me, or he disapparoves of them when I share my thoughts and ideas with him. The more my parent's divorce progresses, the more ridiculous they both get and I am SO tired of it. I know I'm not the only one and it must be worse for my sisters. It gets old fast and I'm really worried that my relationship with my parents will be even worse over time. I thought that being away from home for a year would help everyone "forgive and forget". My parents, sisters and myself included. I'm still being blamed for a lot that goes on at home, which is funny since I'm not even there. I talked to my Dad a little over a week ago and he said half the problems at home were because of me. It seems like he thinks he does no wrong, well I think he's screwed up the most, so he has no say in it. It's not like he's been around for most of it lthe past few years anyway. I'm not too worried about anyone reading this either, they know how I feel and it's not like they even come here anyway. So, I'll end that little rant :)

Charlotte and I have become really close and I love it! She has finally stopped testing me and I guess she accepts me. Whenever I drop her off at her daycare/pre-school, she always has to run towards me so I pick her up and throw her in the air, and she gives me a HUGE kiss in the cheek and says bye. It's so sweet and I'm happy she feels like she can depend on me when she needs to. Nicholas and I have been getting a long more as well! He talks to me more and it's really nice. He asked how long I was staying and I told him until October, and he got a little sad. I hope I make a good impression on them, so they don't compare me too much with their next au pair haha. I mean, I think things are going well. We have a nice routine set up and we stick to it. I can goof off with them too.

Charlotte is pretty hilarious. I think it's so funny how a 3 year old can come up with the craziest sayings. I can't imagine the thoughts swirling around in her head. At her daycare, they colored easter eggs last week. I was getting everything out of her cubby to take home and I saw this black piece of paper. I glanced at the other cubbies and saw all these cute, colorful easter eggs. Hers was jet black! What kind of demented 3 year old colors an easter egg jet black?! It was pretty hilarious. On Friday, they were having their faces painted when I went to pick her up and all of the girls were made up to look like Princesses. Except for Charlotte. She decided to have a Tiger face like many of the other little boys there. She was growling and crawling all over the place with them. She is so fierce and I think it's hilarious how much she shows it. Okay, so I didn't think her fierceness was so hilarious at first, but now I do. She's a really unique little girl :)

That's about all I have for now. Tomorrow is our last class so I might post a blog with a few pictures! I hope everyone is doing great!

-Jess

March Update

Hey guys!

I guess it's about time for an update. I need to blog more often, I've been slacking a lot lately! Things are going much much better around here! Graziella and I have been getting along well this whole year! We've had a couple iffy days, but for the most part, it's pretty awesome. Charlotte is better too! She listens more and her temper tantrums are short lived. I can't believe I've been here for like 5 months already. I feel comfortable here, so that's nice.

German class is going well, next Thursday is the last day! I'm not sure if I'm going to take a follow-up course or not. I feel pretty content with my German right now, and it'll get better the more I use it. I can understand pretty much everything I hear, or bits and pieces and I can just put it all together. Speaking is still the hard part, but I'll get there.

I am feeling a vacation pretty soon. Things are better, but having a routine like this is getting kind of old. I do like being in a routine, but the weeks just go by so fast when you do the same thing everyday. I'll have to see what I can do. I may have a small break next month if the family goes away for Easter or a short vacation, which would be awesome! I need some alone time! Sorry I have nothing too interesting to report, I'll have more to share next time! Later guys


Jess

Horses!

Guten Tag!

I went on a fun walk with Charlotte on Saturday, the weather was beautiful and we saw several horses. Here are a few I took. It's always so fun to see Charlotte get excited whenever we see them. I was able to get them to come over the fence, and I helped her pet them. It always makes me nervous because they're cautious animals and I don't know how they would react to a 3 year old being too aggressive or something, but she always listens when I tell her to be gentle with them.

Thank God for The Beatles.. Seriously

If it were not for The Beatles.. I would probably be in prison right now. I would have lost my temper several times and maybe even murdered a couple of kids I watch.

30 Minutes of screaming non stop, biting, kicking, dirt throwing, and hitting...
Ticket to Ride saved me!

A 9 year old telling me to shut up and go away after I tell him to turn the TV off after 3 hours of cartoons...
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da life goes on!

The lady of the house going through my room and getting in my face...
Happiness is a Warm Gun

I'm sure you all get it now. Whether it's John and Paul's soothing voices, or Mr. Harrison's uplifting lyrics, they get me every time. I can listen to

"Little darling the smiles are returning to their faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun
and I say
It's Alright"


and I feel much better! All of the angry feelings and thoughts escape and I feel calm. I'm pretty happy that it works every time, no matter how bad the day is. I even have lyrics from The Beatles picked out for my tattoo, and I know I won't regret it when I'm older. I think hell would have to freeze over a thousand times before I disliked The Beatles!

It's February!!!

Hey Everyone!

It's finally February! It feels like I've been here way longer than a couple of months. I guess I'm working on 4 now. I keep losing track of time. All of my days are the exact same, kind of boring I guess. I have the same schedule everyday besides Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my classes, and on Sunday I have the day off, so I just sleep in and read most of the time. I know it may sound mean, but on Sunday, I don't want to see anyone's face! I just want to be alone, no kids arguing no diapers to change. I even skip dinner because I don't feel like pulling through a conversation, it's kind of sad, but when it's my day off I don't want to deal with anyone.

Happy Groundhog Day, by the way! It's not anything special over here, I actually forgot about it until I scanned the news this morning. We'll have an early Spring.. that's nice! It seems like 2009 is going to be a good year. A lot of nice changes have been taking place and most of them are good changes for the most part. I work out a lot now, especially with extra time on my hands. Losing weight kind of sucks though I can only wear a few items of clothing I brought with me, so I need to suck it up and go shopping eventually blah. I'll just hold out until the Spring. There's no point in buying new clothes when it's about to get warmer.

I went back to the Foreigner's Office today and took my little language test. I'm kind of worried, but not too much. I missed a few questions, but overall I think I did alright. It was a verbal test, a woman just sat with me and asked me basic questions, and I was able to answer most of them. She sent the results and a photocopy of my language course enrollment letter to the Employment Office, so once she hears back from them, she'll give us a call. It's pretty simple and it'll go two ways.

1. I know enough German now to have an official "Au Pair" visa and status
2. I do not know enough German, and I can re-take the test once my course is
completed.

I'm hopeful that it's going to be okay!

February seems like a pretty eventful month. There are a few birthdays my cousin's wife is having a baby and there are a few holidays. In the states, I always saw all the Valentine's Day decorations go up as soon as February 1st came around. Here, I have not seen any. The big holiday this month here is very similar to Halloween in the states actually. It's pretty much the same thing. I don't think they go around door to door for candy or anything, but they dress up in scary costumes. The purpose of the holiday is to "chase away Winter." Well.. that's about all I have to share for now. I'll check back in later. Take care everyone


Jess

Finally!!!

Hello Everyone!

I am finally enrolled in a language class! It happened pretty fast, but I feel very comfortable with it. I honestly didn't even think it was going to happen. When we were taking care of my visa at the Foreigner's Office in town, they never mentioned a language test being required. Well a day after we were there, the woman we met with called and told us she checked into it again, and I do have to take one, so Graziella finally started calling a few of the different language institutes. She found one that offered classes at a convenient time in the day for me, so she dropped me off at the institute and I met with the director for a placement test. I was expecting a written test, but I just ended up sitting down with her and chatting. I'm surprised I knew as much as I did. It's easy to pick up and understand the language, but speaking is a different story. She said I was doing great for being here 2 1/2 months, so she placed me in an intermediate class. I feel more confident with my German now and I'm not worried about taking this language test for my visa anymore.

My class is every Dienstag und Donnerstag (Tuesday and Thursday) from 9:15am to 10:45am. Since I missed Tuesday, today was my first day in the class. I was very nervous about it and to make me even more nervous, last night Sven informed me that I would not be able to use the car and I would have to take the bus. I knew where to go, but I was nervous about being on time. This morning before my alarm even went off, I got a knock on the door and I was asked to take Nicholas to the swimming pool, his school goes to the pool every other Thursday for swimming lessons. He said it would only take like 10 mins and he had to be there at 8am. Well, it took 45 mins because the rest of the kids were late. I sped home, turned the hair straightener on and started getting ready as fast as I could. It was 8:20am by the time I got back, and I wanted to be gone by either 8:30am or 8:45am. I missed the 8:30am bus, so I wanted to catch the next one. I had to help with Charlotte, so I missed the 8:45am bus as well... When we realized I miss that one, Graziella just said "Oh well there is no way you will make it there on time.." Thanks a lot! I hate being late, I really do. It was already bad enough that I missed the first day of the class, but being late on my first day?? I was so mad, so I just walked to the bus stop and waited for my bus. I ended up being 15 minutes late for the class, but the teacher (lehrerin) was very nice and welcomed me in. There are 4 other people in the class. I'm the only American!

We have:

Sybille - Teacher (German)
Tizano- Italy
Sergio- Chile
Penlu- Taiwan
Ester- Venezuela

It also amazes me that English is such a universal language. Everybody can speak English in the class. It makes me feel silly in a way. I can speak Spanish decently, but that's about it. If any one could not understand something in German, they asked for help in English!! That's crazy! They all have a hard time learning German too, so I feel better. I got to know Tizano and Penlu a little too as we were all walking to the bus station together. Tiazno is pretty funny. He is a student here, Penlu is as well. I might invite her to lunch next week if she is not busy with a class after our language course. She is pretty nice. I'm glad I am more outgoing there, I think I will be able to make friends easily now. Well that's it for now. I'll have more to write about after the weekend. Take care everyone! Tschuus!

Jess

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