This week has been exceptionally crappy. If that’s true, then I can deal with this. If this is how every week is going to be then I need to find a new job before I find myself in a mental hospital. Here’s what I mean: I don’t especially like being an au pair; I didn’t honestly expect to and that’s why it was a last resort before being an illegal alien/bum. I don’t think anyone enjoys cleaning up after other people, and watching these kids kind of sucks too. But I think I could deal with a crappy job for four hours a day if that was it and I liked my life otherwise. Tuesday marked my first week here, so it really hasn’t been that long even if it feels like it has. I haven’t got my visa yet, which I need in order to open a bank account, which I need in order to get paid. My German classes don’t start until October fourth and my social life is thus far non-existent. So can you blame me for being stressed and unhappy?

Monday morning I was all ready to go to the Volksschule and sign up for my German classes. I was excited because being able to communicate better is also a big part of me being happy here. But then Axel comes into my room and tells me that Robin is sick—“nothing serious, just a bit of a temperature”—so I’ll have to stay home with him. What he doesn’t say is “I’m sorry, I know you had something important that you were looking forward to doing today and now you won’t be able to…” But okay, it’s in my contract that I have to stay home when a kid is sick. I guess I just have a different definition of sick, because Robin seemed perfectly fine to me.

I wasn’t going to let this get me down though because on Tuesday morning I was going to meet Amy, another English-speaking au pair in Munich for some much needed social interaction with someone my own age. But no, Robin still has a temperature so we’ve got to cancel that one too. Oh! And Axel has to go to work early, so I get to drop Sofie off, bringing Robin with of course. That means half an hour less of sleep which of course I don’t mind. Wednesday Robin went back to school but that day I had to drop off both the kids and pick up Robin and clean the house in between, so no time for myself that day either. Today I had a (mostly) free day so I could go and sign up for my German classes, plus I have tentative plans to meet up with some other au pairs. I’ll stop feeling sorry for myself soon.