Au Pair Baby - I have no idea what it means

Rheda-Wiedenbruck was two small towns that had to combine recently because of government reasons, and I can sense there is some hostility between the people of Rheda and the people of Wiedenbruck. While waiting for my pictures to be developed after taking them for my visa (which is also annoying in Germany), Christof and I went on a long walk around the city center of Wiedenbruck, which is the closer city, and it was wonderfully German. The streets are winding, narrow, and confusing, and there are so many white buildings with dark brown supports that remind me of Gnome homes or something. I got to walk around in the stunningly huge Catholic church that they got married in which is almost 800 years old. There is even a castle with a real Prince and his English Princess, but I don’t get to go there until this weekend. 

A few days ago we went to the “supermarkt” for the first time. They have a separate store for drinks, which is insane, but the main food store kind of reminded me of a smaller Walmart, or the Bi-Lo in Clemson that sells Clemson gear and food, because they had EVERYTHING, even most American foods. (I noticed a Mexican section, yay!) Oh and also, they asked if I could cook some American food once a week and I have no idea what to make. Any ideas? Twice we had spaghetti bolognese for dinner, which I’m pretty sure is just regular spaghetti, but it had celery root and carrots in it which was extra good. Christof says Sandra makes spaghetti better than the Italians, but I’ll just have to go there and judge that myself. 

I think I got really lucky with my family. Christof and Sandra are both really funny, down to earth people and are always making jokes about the baby. They are both really interested in learning English, which helps me feel not as annoying when I can’t say something, or anything, in German. I love Cara, the dog, who thinks that I am her Au Pair and is always laying her head on me or throwing hissy fits when I can’t throw her ball to her every second of the day.

Wednesday was Sandra’s first day back to teaching since she left to have the baby, which meant she couldn’t stay home all day, obviously. Marta, the grandmother, was supposed to come over and help me all day, but Sandra’s brother and sister-in-law, who  also live down the street with Sandra’s parents(see, it could be worse, E!), came back from their Italian vacation early because of bad weather. This meant that instead of a calm day at home with a two month old infant and the non-English speaking grandma, Mathis and I, and the Doberman, were going to be heading to Sandra’s family home. Awaiting us there were Ben and Tom. Tom is 9 months, and Ben is 3. I found out later that he was briefed that I couldn’t understand him and not to get frustrated, but he still believed I was there to entertain him. I could understand him sometimes, barely. His mom told me in broken English that she can’t ever understand him either, so not to worry. If I wasn’t picking up what he was putting down, he just got louder and louder which is probably how he ended up screaming “Au Pair baby! Au Pair baby!” at Mathis for close to five minutes. 

That day was pretty hard because no one really spoke English, but I mostly hung out with the two people who didn’t know what was going on either, Mathis and Tom. Tom won’t scream at me in German like Ben does, so we get along great. That is what I’ll be doing Thursday, and actually a lot of the time I think, so I better get used to it! Marko and Julia were both very nice and could speak a little English, and I found out that Julia is a nurse, which makes me feel better about having a job where I’m alone with a baby I know nothing about most of the time. I mostly sat around with the Grandpa and we watched Ben act like a maniac and laughed about it. Marta made really good soup for lunch that had some kind of meatballs, gnocchi, peas, and potatoes. It’s been rainy and cold, so the soup tasted good. Sandra has class in the evenings on Wednesdays and Thursday, so I’m pretty sure Christof and I will eat frozen pizza on those days. 

I am leaving out the parts about how every single day I can only understand about every 50th word, and the parts about all of the awkward hand gestures I’ve been doing. Also, there is so much corn here, this must be what Nebraska is like? Oh! The blinds on the windows are so cool! The metal blinds are on the outside and you have to use this rope pulley device to lower them. It is a lot of work but it is well worth it because it literally cuts out 100% of the light. 

I also forgot to mention how sweet Mathis is. We are good friends now, but I spoil him I think. Sometimes he will only sleep when I’m holding him and instead of making him lay down, I just let him snooze and drool all over me. He is so tiny! Sometimes I just look at him and can’t believe he is a little baby person. 

I lied about the pictures, because I haven’t had time to take any. This weekend, I’m getting an internet stick so the updating process (and talking on skype) will be much smoother. This weekend we are going to a lot of festivals, so those are the good pictures you’ll want to see anyways!