Friday I thought it might be spring. I know it’s still February, but I thought a premature end to winter could be like our reward for putting up with all the snow and negative teen temperatures in the first month and a half of 2012. 99% of the snow melted away this weekend, and on our way back from the Kinderkrippe I took my coat off because I was sweating. Saturday morning was disappointing because it was overcast and jacket weather again. But okay, even if it isn’t quite spring yet, Julia and Beata are both healthy again, which means this week I’ll have a big chunk of time to myself during the days. 
 
Last week I thought the same thing, but Beata was home the entire time, Julia was still sick on Monday, and Tuesday was a holiday so I had to pick her up at noon. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I should have had time to myself, but with Beata at home I always found myself stuck in conversations about genetically modified soy beans or origami or the bad experience her friend had with US customs with no polite way to get myself out. So I didn’t get much writing done last week which stressed me out a bit.

It also didn’t help that Gregor came back on Wednesday night unexpectedly. Gregor is Julia’s father, and he sometimes lives with us, but his exact relationship with Beata is kind of unclear. All I know is that Gregor isn’t allowed to know about Helmer (Beata’s German boyfriend who lives in the Alps), and Helmer isn’t allowed to know about Gregor. Anyway, Gregor, while I guess being what one would call a ‘nice guy’ is also kind of annoying. Last night for example, he thought it would be appropriate to interrupt my pre-sleep reading ritual so that I could come translate the French song in the movie he was watching. But Gregor does make my job easier. He takes care of Julia and takes out the biomull, which is the only trash I really mind taking out. And for the moment he seems to have himself a day job.

So I’m optimistic that this week will be better. Not that last week was anywhere near as tortuous as a typical week with my last family. And this week is my last week before my German class starts again. I’m taking the Monday-Wednesday-Friday one in the suburbs. I signed up on Friday. And Ader is coming in 18 days! And after that long weekend, we might be seeing each other over Easter, maybe in Brussels or Amsterdam? But I don’t want to think too far ahead and jinx it…          

I forgot, until about mid-morning yesterday, that it was Valentine’s Day. They really don’t celebrate here. I guess that’s okay. Next week is Fasching, the vacation before lent. It doesn’t mean much for me, except that I have a little break before my next German class starts, and that I have a larger selection of doughnuts to choose from at the bakery.

Speaking of my next German class, I don’t know where that’s going to be. The test I took on Saturday was a rip off. Instead of lasting from ten to twelve, it lasted half an hour tops. It was on line and cost and additional five Euros (a surprise), and consisted only of paragraphs with missing words that needed to be filled in. That was it. Why I needed to go all the way to the Gasteig on a Saturday morning and pay a total of fifteen Euros for something that was graded automatically by the computer is beyond me. The best part is that according to the results, I should go back to A2, the course I took when I first got here five months ago. The lady I spoke with after the test was unwilling to consider that this evaluation was inaccurate or entertain the possibility of me skipping a level.

So my choices are a class in Ottobrunn (the town next to Putzbrunn) and a class in Perlach, the neighborhood of Munich closest to Putzbrunn (although still farther away than Ottobrunn). The class in Ottobrunn is the one Beata would prefer that I take. It’s taught by the same teacher who taught Patrycja’s last class. Based on what I hear, she’s not great. But I’ve only heard the opinion of two people, neither of whom have world views identical to my own. It’s conceivable then that I would like this teacher even if Arina and Patrycja don’t. It’s Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which limits my opportunities for taking long weekend trips. But, it’s only from 9-10:30, so I’d still have a large chunk of time before I’d have to pick up Julia. Plus, it’s cheaper by about 100 Euros, and I think that’s the main reason why Beata prefers it.

I don’t know anything about the teacher for the class in Munich. I know this is unfair and illogical, but I have this prejudice that the teachers who get to work in Munich proper must be better than the ones who got pushed out to the suburbs. I don’t know why I think that way, and I could totally be wrong, but the thought exists in my head nonetheless. It’s Monday through Thursday, which gives me at least the illusion of a three day weekend, and lasts from 9-12:15. The positive side is that I’d learn more German; the negative is that I’d have less time for writing and such. I still need to think…       

I hate winter. It’s been about the same temperature of the single coldest day I experienced in Albany for two weeks straight now. I was half an hour late for class on Tuesday morning because the roads were freshly coated with more snow and ice and the bus was driving slower than I could have walked. Not really though because if I would have walked I would have died of hypothermia. I wouldn’t have been the first person in Europe this winter. Insider every building the floors are coated with melted dirty snow. I would love to just hibernate but I can’t.

Tomorrow I’m taking a test to see if I can skip a level in my German class. It’s not that I think I speak German especially well, but I have learned the language before. Just about everything in B1 is a review. It’s a much needed review, but ich langweile mich when I’m in a class with people who are processing all the information for the first time. And there’s a chance that this next course will be my last. It’ll probably last until about May, and after that I don’t know if I’ll be able to take another one that finishes before I go back to the States on July eighteenth. So if I can be done with the Mittelstufe classes before I go to law school, then I can feel better about adding to my resume that I speak German.

It’s been decided that I start working next Thursday, February sixteenth, which is also my last day of class. And then it’s exactly a month until Ader comes to visit. I’ve taken my vacation days and booked our hotel and he’s booked his train. This time we’re doing a proper long weekend, unlike when he came in November and only stayed for the two shortest days of my life.

Speaking of adorable international couples…I know February is a little early to start thinking about what I want for Hanukah 2012/my twenty fourth birthday, but I went to a book reading last Saturday for The Globalization of Love by Wendy Williams and now I really want to read it. If you google Wendy Williams you come up with the talk show host—the author I saw is a different Wendy Williams. She’s a Canadian who married an Austrian and wrote her book based on her own experiences plus interviews she did with other ‘glo-lo’ couples (her term).

It got me thinking it might be interesting to try and write a non-fiction book that way, maybe about the experience of being an Au Pair? At least then I’ve found one use for my German.   

  

It’s February! 2012 is already one twelfth over, and, more importantly, it’s the last full month of winter…I sincerely hope. And only thirteen days until Valentine’s Day, fifteen days left in my German class, and at most nineteen days until I start working again. Valentine’s Day isn’t such a big deal, but I do enjoy the cards and chocolates and the consequential slight lift in the collective mood. The super cheap candy the day after is nice too. At least that’s what I’ve come to expect of Valentine’s Day. But who knows, this is the first time I’m spending it in Germany.

It will be nice to not have to commute one hour each way anymore. And I’m interested to find out who my next teacher and new classmates will be. In other words, I get to experience the nerdy excitement of the first day of school all over again. But I’m also kind of nervous that my next teacher is going to suck and that I won’t like any of the other people in my class. That can happen. I’ve heard stories. Unfortunately, as far as I know there’s nothing equivalent to rate my professor for the Münchner Volkshochschule, so all I can do is hope that I like my next class as much as I like my current one.

I’m also kind of looking forward to working again. As thrifty as I try to be, Munich is freaking expensive and I have spent (almost) all of the money from my generous Christmas/birthday gifts. I’m obviously not going to get paid on my first day of work, but if will be nice to take that first step towards no longer being broke. Actually I guess the first step was finding the job, so the second step. I’ll also have to spend more time at home, which will eliminate some expenses like the krapfen I buy at Ostbahnhof almost daily because it’s an excuse to go into a warm bakery while waiting for my bus, and I need something to tide me over for the long ride back to Putzbrunn. Healthy choice, I know.

I’m not sure if once I start working I’ll get the bedroom and it will be Patrycja who sleeps in the living room. In a way, that seems only faire since that’s part of how an au pair is paid, with her own room. But I would also feel awkward kicking Patrycia out. If she offers to switch and really sound like she wouldn’t mind then we’ll switch. If not (and I’m expecting not) then I’ll continue sleeping in the living room until April when she goes back to Poland, which is fine.

The other good thing about February is that it’s short, so before I know it, it will be March and I’ll have my long weekend with Ader, wherever that may be.