The settling in period is over. I’m finally on German time. I didn’t take any naps yesterday, crashed early, and woke up at seven ready to go. Which is good because Friday is the day that Aga and I clean the whole house. This will probably be my least favorite part of the job. It’s not hard or disgusting as some cleaning jobs can be, just boring. While scrubbing someone else’s bath tub, it’s hard not to wonder at some point why I bothered with college.

After the house was clean and Aga left, I walked over to the organic market. They left me money to buy milk and whatever else I wanted. I got some vanilla-mango yogurt, which is heavenly by the way and the first thing I will make anyone who comes to visit me try. I had a few hours of “free time” which I spent on skype with the law school admissions counsel trying to figure out why the website isn’t letting me send my application to the University of Florida. No one’s figured it out yet.

Then it was time to pick the kids up for the first time by myself. I went with Aga yesterday and it’s really not complicated. Even so she wrote out detailed directions and then made me recite them to her. First I go pick up Robin, the five year old son. He’s the only Bavarian I know who actually wears lederhosen (every day) and a spelunking light on his head (most of the time). Then we take the bus one station and the S-Bahn one station to Sofie’s school, then back to the S-Bahn and the kids have their snack while we wait for the train back to Gauting.

Today, as Aga suggested, I brought two bananas. Robin started eating his, then Sofie decided her banana had too many brown spots on it and threw it out. So of course Robin’s banana then had too many brown spots on it also and he threw his out. I’m glad that no one would mistake Sofie and Robin for my kids (they’re as Aryan as they come) because the looks I get on the train are less control-your-damn-kids looks and more you-poor-foreigner-stuck-with-these-brats looks.      

Wow, this sounds really negative. Truth is that overall this job is not so bad and Munich is awesome. And I expect life here to get much better once I enroll in my German class and start meeting people my age, which I’m going to see about tomorrow…so more positive entries to come very soon!