8 months --> 9 months !!

Yep, you see it right. The title of this blog has changed: I will stay here one month longer! The kids are happy with me, I'm happy with the kids and the parents still don't complain :) They even want me to stay longer, as it is hard to find another dutch speaking au-pair. But I'm not sure if that's possible for me, as the future is quite unsure at the moment. Anyways today I'm here for 6 months now and I'm still loving it. The kids are so great and Germany leaves me lots to discover. Unfortunately the language course has ended, which was so interesting (I really like language)! And the weather was so good that I often took my bike to get to Garbsen, to drive a beautiful 2o km hin, discuss the newspaper with the teacher and the other participants, scribble down some grammar rules and cycle wieder zurück. So when I got invited to a Sheakespeare play in Bad-Rehburg (at about the same distance) from Benjamin and Johanna's theatergroup 'Fremdsehen' I took my bike as well.The play was lovely. It was played so vividly and funny, I enjoyed very much this Summernight's dream.. it was already the 3th theaterplay I enjoyed here in german language (after '8 frauen' and 'the death poet society') and again it was such a pleasure for my ears.
The night hower, was endless. I cycled and cycles without getting wieder zurück. Finally I found myself almost in Nienburg! Totally unnoticed I had took the wrong turn somewhere. Being lost at night on an highway is not funny. Happily there was Linsburg, the most unknown smallest town but with the nicest hotel owner. She let me sleep in a room for only 15 euros (all I got with me) if I didn't had breakfast. A room with shower, television and a bed for which I was so greatfull. The next morning, I drove home the easiest way and got there within an hour. An adventourous trip of almost 60 km for Sheakespeare - his play was worth it :)

Meanwhile, the family was on holidays. They went for 2 weeks to the Danish island Romo. I missed them, so I had to listen to other germans during dinner - Otto Waalkes and the Wise Guys, delightful. You must hear them. Then I went to Enschede.

An unexpected visit to my university city, cause I needed to discuss my paper with my thesis teacher. Afterwards I was warmly recieved at "the flat" for dinner and organic gartens and nexus, and I stayed there to enjoy the next day with willem, and took the train back in the evening. Two days later, the family came home and they had a suprise for me: Gunnar could say my name! "Siwwia" sounded at least some more like it, than "Uwha".. suddenly my strange nickname was gone! I don't know how they did it - without anyone speaking dutch there - but somehow he must have remembered me :)

Ein Sommernachtsabentuer..

Here's the circle I cycled to get to Shakespeare (see artikel of August 1st)

Super schönes Gedicht..

Was es ist - Erich Fried

Es ist Unsinn
sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist Unglück
sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz
sagt die Angst
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist lächerlich
sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig
sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich
sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

schon Bergtag..

Ahlala, it has been too long since I last offered the pleasure of reading an update on this blog.. how time flies here ! Now I'm already here for 4 months - halfway - I really ought to give you some news. Where were we?
Ah, yes, the magic.. well, the family did after all manage to "zauber" me away, actually. For they let me have a week of Easter holidays, that I homesickly used to make a very short trip back to my "Heimat". Not exactly in need of, but really nice to see my mother, sister and best friends again. The greatest however was that I also could take some with me back when I had to return: Willem, who I picked up in Enschede, and Herman, who got a few days later all the way from Den Haag! I was so proud to show them Neustadt, Hannover and of course my dear guestfamily, who heartily welcomed my two guests. They took us to a typical german Easter fire and even hided some Easter eggs for us :)
On the end of April, I had to do a short visit to the Netherlands again, for FYEG was having its Spring Conference in Maastricht ! It was inspiring, and so great to meet Young European Greens again. Can't wait for the possible wintercamp in Copenhagen.. But that's not in Germany, so I won't talk about this here. And wat did I do here? Right.. I got sick. Just as the whole family ! Some kind of flu (not swine involved, we're vegetarians!) with heavy stomach aches. And we got it twice ! While back home I couldn't even remember the last time being sick, here I didn't turn out to be so resistent.. But anyway, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so a few weeks later I already regained the force to cycle to my language course: about 20 km "hin" AND "her" through beautiful country sides.. ah yeah I stay a dutchie after all ;)
Then in may some more exciting events appeared. Like, of course, the Eurovison Songcontest.. oh how I love the winner (from Norway) and the beautiful entry of Portugal ! But coolest of all was the chance that I got to return to Bückeburg for some days, to attend their town twinning festivities and also big reunion with Sabé and Nieuwerkerk!! Another great time of doing European bonding activities, catching up with old friends..
Speaking of Europe, I hope you all voted in this months European Elections ?? Unfortunately I could only promote here, but nevertheless the Greens got some good results :) Die Grünen seem to be more popular as GroenLinks: they got 12 % of the German votes, good for 14 seats in the EP. Including the young greens !
Some other exciting news ? Oh yes.. Gunnar can talk!! Well, up to a few two-words sentences (" ich möchte", "MEHR", "koekje ete"- preferably in that order) that is :) But he's learning more and more everyday. It's amazing how much he already understands. Even dutch =D

eine Zauberfamillie

"Young children look at the world differently than adults do", wrote Crétien van Campen (2009). They "perceive their environment as a magical world where puppets and castles come alive." This fact was amusingly proven by our three year-old, who told his Kindergarten teacher full of proud: "my daddy is a wizard!" Although his father honestly admitted that the magically dissapearing and reappearing of the pencil by every family member, and even the great dissapearing-illusion of their au-pair mädchen, was just a trick we succesfully played on him, he preferred the "most understandable" explanaition: "Look, pappa can do magic!" :)
Reason for this fun was the CD I found this week in their collection: Herman van Veens' childrens songs! Auf Deutsch!! I didn't even know our beloved singer was know here.. from o.a. Alfred J. Kwak ("Warum bin ich so fröhlich, so fröhlich, so fröhlich.."), Dikkertje Dap ("Pummelchen Pum", noujaa..) en "Als hij kon toveren" (If he was a wizard).. Such a nostalgic joy to hear again! Yet another surprise was the discovery of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Saint-Saëns' "Karnaval der Tiere" on one of their CDs. Another indespensible sound in a childs lifetime! And Gunnar liked it already. Therefore, we build the Peter story:

Another 'Peter-story' did I hear on a CD, with a sort of children's Schlagers: "Osterhäschen Peter, du bist noch zu klein. Nein, nein, NEIN, LASS DAS SEIN!!" How sweet, the German baby songs.. :P
Some of those Gunnar does like however, are the ones I learned at every gathering of freshly produced humanness. "Hoch am himmel, tief am Erde, überal ist Sonnenschein..", "Wir fahren fahren fahren fahren faaaahren, wir fahren in die grosse weite Welt.. " or "Alle leute, alle leute, gehen jetzt nach Hause." And, of course my favorite: "Grün, grün, grün sind alle meine Kleider, grün, grün, grün ist alles was ich hab'.. Warum lieb ich alles was so grün ist? Weil mein Schatz ein Jäger ist!" Obviously, I'd rather put instead of this "Jäger" a "Grüne" (green one) LOL, and preferes Malte to avoid the R like a Chinese and sing "Klün, klün, klün.." :D
However, the song Gunnar adores the most is still a classic Dutch one (of course, hehe). Or maybe he just likes to make fun of people.. But totally unexpectedly he's able to burst out with "Hihihi, hahaha..!" on the melody of "Zag twee beren broodjes smeren". Second place winner is "In de manenschijn" which I absolutely have to sing before he'll fall asleep. "Maantje tuurt, maantje gluurt" and "Hoedje van papier" are also part of his Dutch Top40. And there is a French song I particulary like to sing for him (but happily most times don't need to).. Bénabars Berceuse! ^^ See here a piece of this brilliant Wiegenlied translated:

"Das, was du dich lachend anschaust, dass du für Fallschirme nimmst,
das sind meine Augenlider, mein Kind,
Es ist hart, ein Erwachsener zu sein.
Komm, wir spielen offenes Spiel, wir liegen die Karte auf den Tisch,
wenn du dich einschläft kaufe ich dich ein Handy, eine Ponyherde, ein Dynamit...
ich füge dazu ein Känguru, wenn du dich jetzt gerade einschläfst.
Warum willst du nicht schlafen warum schläfst du nicht?!
Ich möchte dir gern ein Schlafmittel geben,
aber wir haben kein mehr,
frag mal dein Mutter.. "

Bloopers & bizarre

Two international evenings in the week are not the only moments I learn more about the blue-white German language.. at home, I have to speak it all the time and happily they correct me when I say something not entirely correct or simply impossible. And so I learned, for example, that:
* something is not "peinlich" (painfull) when it hurts
* something is not "dreckig" (dirty) when it tastes bad
* someone is not "gehe etwas machen" when one is going to do something (he simply will: one "macht etwas"!)
* someone is not going to "lecker schlafen" / be "lecker warm" / have a "lecker Wochenende" (like the Dutch say - the Germans only use "lecker" for food !)
Anyways, the starter errors, that lead to a lot of giggles from the Merkels ("let's make a book, The Mistakes of Silvia")..

Then you also have words, that for a Dutchie are easy to confuse. Some more prove that German and Dutch is more different than you think:
* "knapp" is not "knap" (clever/handsome), it means near/narrow,
* "schlimm" is not "slim" (smart), it means worrying/grave,
* "mogen" is not "mogen" (be allowed to) but means to like,
* "durfen" is not "durfen" (have the courage to) but means be allowed to in German..

Something that made me laugh however, was that Malte bothered in Kindergarten every parent with "how to count in Dutch", that in Germany warning signs don't softly say "verboten" but "VERBOTEN!", that the newspaper Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung reports about all the historic documents being lost after the collapse of Köln's city artchive, while Bild only worries about the possible death of 9 persons due to the "earth trembling" crash which it compares with 11 September, and that Gunnar has the same toy box (but -as a German- more "grundlichkeit"!) than this clever guy:

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