Feeling international..

The past days were not only German.
Last week, Gaëtan had his mother and brother over in Hannover, and invited me to join them on wednesday for a visit to Johanna in Hildesheim! Great to see her again, and her city (which has a beautiful old innerpart), the city with the 1000-year old rose-tree.. But secretly also nice to hear people talk french again (or agreeing with me that nearly all men are blöd! :P). And what does a french family do in a German city? Buying croissants and going to parfume shops, of course.. lol!!
To my happy surprise, I appeared to be invited again on friday, to enjoy some french haute cuisine.. with Johanna and Benjamin as well ! The tartiflette Gaëtans maman made was delicious and we played nice old Jungle Speed afterwards, which I lost shamelessly (as usual) but was big fun (as usual, too :).
One can find this story 'international' already, with 3 french, 2 germans and 1 dutchie, but the next day, I also met an american (Ashley) and an australian (Amy)! Two enthusiastic, cheerfull girls who also happen to be an au-pair in the district of Hannover. Girltalk, hot chocolate (at 'World Coffee'!) and a little book shopping: just what I needed :)
But that's not all.. yesterday night, I also met some really nice people from Indonesia, India, Kenia, Poland, Tjech Republic, Russia and Shri Lanka! It was at my first Deutsch Sprachkurs lesson. It was a hard reality shock: they immediately recognised my dutch accent, and my grammer appeared to be in such a deplorable state! Fortunately there was tea, and a delicous, really delicious Chinese cake.. when at home, a typical german dish awaited me: sauerkraut !
But the greatest thing to be here stays, that after a busy day of bringing Malte to Kindergarten and walk back, returning to Kiga because we forgot his bread, going with Gunnar to the bakery, changing his two poop diapers, building zoo's, "telling" books, putting little cards endlessly out and into boxes, etc. Malte comes home and tells his parents: "Today was really nice. Silvia ist so lieb, sie musst für immer bei uns bleiben..!" :D

Uhwawa

The second week was a little less easy..
We discovered a problem, when Gunnar discovered his father would be letting him alone every morning. And he protested fiercely against it.. Then, the tooth brussing turned out to be a mission impossible. Impossible to talking him into opening his mouth, except for when he started to cry.
Third problem: I'm suppossed to take him out every morning for half an hour at least, but when I put him in the pram, he falls asleep. And then he won't fall asleep at twelve. Last friday, I read him 3 books and sung about 25 songs, but his eyes stayed wide open.
But, this morning, we got some solutions: I have to rise earlier (jeej!) so he can get used to me sooner, and when we go out, I should talk to him all the time. The last thing not really effective so far, but working on it :) The toothbrushing however stays a dramatic event.
The afternoons were also a little more heavy. To see where everything was, I went with them to Maltes turnclass (and joined the childrens gymnastisc, hihi), Gunnar's "spielkreis" in the church, the Kindergarten again to practise riding with the kids on my bike, and the far-away libary (they gave me a pass!) where I read thim this fantastic book about an elephant who turns into all kinds of 'contradictions' (ever seen a mountain-shaped elephant? hihi), incredibly funny. I also did some extra babysitting, just for a help.
But it's starting to produce results, I guess the kids still like me (Malte: "you're wearing a funny fur today, Silvia!"), Gunnar even cried my name when he woke up this morning! Well, my name, that is, what he makes of it: "Uhwawa!" :D
The second weekend was also heavier, because of Valentines day (of course..). The nice cold snowwalk however and the lovely family (who also offered me to go with them to the swimmingpool, but I was too tired) warmth, made it fine after all. I'm so happy to be here, I feel so 'adopted'! :)

Malte is back !

To continue my last article.. the german weekend was sehr gut! Sunday, we had a very nice "family trip" to the interesting Landesmuseum in Hannover, which has exhibitions about nature, physics, archeology, art and so on. Because we had only 2 hours we couldn't see all of it, but I stayed with the kids to watch the fish, the animals.. and a giant dinosaurus which Malte had to show everyone :)
The theaterplay "Acht Frauen" I went to see, was brilliant. Very nice play, exciting just like the movie (but unfortunately without the songs!!) and I surprised myself about how well I could follow the german conversations..!
This week, Malte went back to Kindergarten, better and cheerfuller again. Before beginning at dinner, the family takes each others hand, says "Guten Apentit" and sometimes sings a short (religious) song as well. So sweet! Yesterday, they asked Malte which song he would like to sing, and he answered "that of the sun, because Silvia is here.." :) His mother remarked "but Silvia is now always here" and then he smiled surprised, as if he still couldn't believe it.. hihi! And after dinner he wanted to sit on my lap (for Gunnar had already taken his mothers') and said that he would use it as a "nest", for he wanted to cuddle a bit.. so cute.
But, he didn't loose his temper and his wits as well.. today I was in the kitchen when Malte walked in, and promptly remarked: "hey, you look like Grandma!" Eh, pardon?? I just hope it was because I was wearing a brown vest..
This morning, I had it quite quiet, because I only had to take car of Gunnar. But we went out for a walk (well, walk, more like mouse-stepping 5 meters in the wet snow and stalking the neihgbours' cat..) and I (tried to) play some childrens' songs on my flute. And on the kazoo! Haha. Except for the teeth brushing (which is used to be a drama), everything went well and so I passed the Gunnar-sit-test :)
This afternoon, Friederike had to go to the dentist, and so I had to entertain the two kids again for a few hours (she gave me an earlier break in the morning for it). An opportunaty which Malte of course fully used! For example to help him play his famous "Schwimmbad": his blue matress on the floor, little chairs next to it, and voilà, there you go! As I remember how fun it was as a child to jump on a matress (VLEDTOEGO!! :D ), I heartly supported this game, that he also played on the first day that I met the family in December..

Le bilan after one week au-pairing..

Today I'm enjoying my first weekend in Neustadt. One 'work-week' has passed and I'm still feeling good, although the last two days were somewhat more heavy than the first. Thursday morning, I would have to bring Malte to the Kindergarten, but when we rose he appeared to be still to feverish. And he had contaminated Philipp.. so we hope the whole family doesn't get the fever now (fortunately I rarely get sick, but I still catched a cold already). And we all hope that Malte can return to the Kindergarten soon, because he is driving us crazy! When I play too long with Gunnar in the mornings, he gets 'jealous' of attention and tries to sabotise our games... also, he won't eat much at dinner and instead cries or plays with his food all the time. Sehr anstrengend!
Gunnar however is a magnificent baby. Most of the time he is pretty quiet and I had no trouble yesterday, when Friederike came home later, putting him to bed for his afternoon-nap. But he was already tired, at half past 12 he almost fell asleep on the ground! As instructed, I changed his diaper (party time: he had "geschittert"..), read him a little book and sung him some songs in Dutch, until his eyes slowly closed and he started to snor. So easy, I couldn't believe it! Then, the not so easy part.. keeping Malte quiet, which he tended to use as a bribing method: "Let me do that, or I will make noise!" But happily he didn't say that often and did really his best to lower his voice when I asked him too.
This morning, Malte came to wake me around half past 9, for his mother had made us some porridge for breakfast. On saturday, they also like to eat warm at lunch, and for a change, they let me choose and cook the dinner. Not knowing so many dutch dishes (apart from 'stamppot' and 'boerenkool') I decided to make my favorite mexican meal: nachos with chees, red unions, tomatoes, paprika and crème fraîche. They found it a little strange (tortilla chips for dinner?) but liked it, or so they said :)
Now that I'm writing this, they're giving me a suprise as well: Rainer bought me some small speakers for my laptop music!! From Logitech, but they work very well. I'm so spoiled here! Talking about spoiled.. I still get some birthday cards and letters here, thank you so much :D Philipp is also happy with that, for he collects "Briefmarken".. so please keep sending me that stuff, with nice dutch stamps :P
So, what else does one do on the weekend in Neustadt? I still have to find out, but I heard some rumours that tomorrow, we might go to a museum in Hannover.. and for tonight, I also found something interesting: a theater play of "8 Femmes", a french murder-musical-comedy that I know by heart, so if I won't understand all the german talk, it won't matter! And maybe Gaëtan, who -of course- likes this movie too, will join me, so then we'll have already some french colonisation as well..
Juhu weekend in Deutschland, ich freue mich! :)

Eins, zwei, drei..

Today is already my third day as an au-pair in Niedersaksen, and I still like it :)
The first night, I slept very good but had a strange nightmare: I dreamt I went to buy some things, and in the Yves Rocher was a man who offered me a short workshop. But that turned out to be a means to secretly hypnotise the customers and to use them for experiments! Fortunately I got away in time because I discovered he was stealing my money as well. But then I got home much too late and the Merkels were very dissapointend..
Happily, that didn't happen for real :) But we did have some bad luck: Malte (the 3-year old) was having the fever, and so Friederike couldn't go to her doctors appointment with Gunnar (the one year old). So she used this morning at home to learn me how to take care of Gunnar. Changing diapers, preparing his siësta.. She said I could read him stories and sing songs in Dutch, for she wanted me to learn him my language. How cool is that! In the afternoon, she took us out for a walk in Neustadt, to show me were Maltes Kindergarten and their church was. She had a big backpack where Gunnar could sit in, and big Malte was lying in the pram because if his illness, so that was a pretty funny sight. The houses in the streets of Neustadt are beautiful, big, new, and very colourful. There are also a lot of gardens, which makes the city nicely green. It was still very cold (brrr).
The next day, they told me to be ready at 7h45, but when I got there for breakfast, Rainer told me that poor Malte was still ill. But the good thing was, that Friederike could use this morning to go for a little shopping with us in the town's centre. We went there again with the pram, the backpack and the kids. Bringing your kids is very appreciated in Germany; they got a present from the salesmen in almost every shop we went! In a T-mobile shop, I got a 'gift' too: a Sim-card of 10 euro for only 0,99 euro! It was a sort of a promotion.. In one of the many bakeries there, we bought a little snack - mmm, my first bretzel :D Friederike also bought me some stamps and changed my internet cable - 10m turned out to be too short, and now with my 20m, I'm almost able to walk with my laptop throught the whole house and still have internet :)
Back at home we had lunch (also german bread) and I had nearly finished it, or Malte took my hand, pulled me to the stairs, and cried excitedly: "SPIELEN!!" Impossible to escape.. but of course I glady played with him for a while. Which was very funny and very good for my german; he talked to me non-stop and asked repeatedly: "verstehtst du das?" It took me some time however to understand some things he said, cause he had much trouble saying the "R" and sounds like "malgelitte" were not easy to link to a flower directly. In revanche, his mother told me to learn him some dutch words, and to count to 10 in Dutch: something the whole familiy finally managed to do, with only some difficulties pronouncing "negen" (9). They still can't believe how we dutch pronounce the "G" so sharply :)
In the evenings, the family cooked as always a very good vega dinner or "Abendbrot". They told me not to do anything for it, but I proposed to help them sometimes, as I'd like to learn the German cooking art.. Today, they made a typical sweet "abendessen": milchreis, een soort rijstepap wat men eet met kaneel en appelmoes. Lecker! The only thing I pity, is that the family doesn't do desserts often, and I'm suddenly missing the dutch "vla" :) But as a compensation, they make my ideal breakfast: muesli with cruesli, fresh fruit, banana chips and milk, the whole without raisins. Mmm!
Today, I woke up with radio FFN on my alarm clock. It's not Aero Jazz, but still made me cheerful :) This morning, I would be left alone with Gunnar and Malte (who was quiet better, but able to contaminate the other kids) until 11 o'clock. Friederike thought it might be to "anstrengend" for me if I would have to take care of both kids already for a long while, so she came home earlier. But I didn't had such a hard time, the boys played cheerfully and Malte had a lot of fun learning to take pictures with my camera. So in the afternoon, I still had energy to take Malte with me for a walk to the "Neukauf" to buy some lotion and.. Kiri !! The other cheese from the factory in France that I like so much :) Unbelievable that we can find things from Sablé-sur-Sarthe in my "German" Sablé"..
P.S. pictures are on my Facebook profile!

Jetzt geht los!!

Da bin ich dann, in Deutschland.. und es geht mir gut! :)
So, my birthday started on last saturday night, officially also, because I was born on 0:02 h. We played some games (on the table and the Wii) and listened to Virgin radio, with which Fritz still managed to get some french colonisation ;)
The next day, I opened Janes present (so sweet) and went with Gaëtan to Enschede City, to show him the Oude Markt at least. Then at 4 o'clock, Willem walked (and biked) with my heavy suitcase and us to Enschede Drienerloo, where Gaëtan and I took to train to Hengelo. There, at 16h58, left our train to Hannover.. For the whole time, we were more or less speaking in French, English and German, but when we would be passed the border (around Bad-bentheim) we agreed to speak only Deutsch for now on - at best with a french accent :) Arrived in Hannover Bahnhof, the elevator appeared to be broken.. but a nice German offered us some help on the stairs with my bike! (although Fritz already managed it). Around 20h, we got on the train to Neustadt am Rübenberge, were we arrived a small half hour later. Happily, there Rainer was with the car, so we didn't have to walk all the way with our heavy stuff. But when I got my feet on Neustadt ground, there was a small layer of snow, and it looked so nice, snow on my birthday! Inside the Merkel home, Friederike, Philipp and a lovely vegetarian dinner awaited us. There was even some French cheese of Sablé (Babybel) ! And a birtday ice-cream! I also got as a present, a tourist book of Hanover, a huge Ritter chocolat and a very sweet card. It was a strange birthday, but I still felt spoiled :) We also drunk some tea afterwards and when Gaëtan left, it was already past twelve. Very tired but also very happy, I fell asleep in a warm big bed in a beautiful room..