When I first arrived in Germany, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. I had spoken with Yvonne on the phone and sent several e-mails back and forth, but that wasn't a guarantee that she was legitimately a genuine person. I look back on it and realize how absolutely crazy I was to just get on a plane in Dublin to Munich to meet a family that will hopefully be waiting for me. But, as we all know, I am safe and nothing terrible happened :).
The week spent at the ski resort was wonderful, but I greatly desired to be back at the house in Eschenbach, trying to get some order back into my life. After traveling so much, I so terribly wanted to be done. It's a curious thing to realize that you have had too much vacationing and it's time for real life again. I attempted to learn how to ski while I was there. I never want to do it again. I have never fallen so many times in my entire life. That evening while laying in bed, I still had the feeling of flying down the mountain... and it terrified me! I am hoping that perhaps snowboarding may work better for me. However I have never been athletically incline, so it may be the case that I can't master either one and I'll just snow shoe.
As for the job, I am enjoying it very much. I mainly watch over the two youngest children, Israel and Isaiah. They bring such joy to me! While they are obviously young children (and boys to top it off) and can get whiny and exhausting, I still enjoy looking after them. Because Israel is nearing pre-school time, I do a little bit to help him with colors, letters, and writing. I don't think I could ever want to be a pre-school teacher, but with one child it's not that bad. I can see how I relate to children differently now than I did when I was 14 or 15 and looking after all my siblings or babysitting. It's nice to be able to recognize personal growth, even in something as simple as how one relates with children.
Many have asked how the language works in the home. Because Ray is in Iraq right now, Yvonne speaks to the children in more English than she would if he was here. But, there are many times when she will speak German with them. They are all fluent in both languages, and Yvonne speaks superb English. Her accent isn't nearly as heavy as I've heard and she has a great vocabulary built up. As for the children, you would never guess they were half German as their English is very American. But they also speak excellent German and I've had to have the older children to help me speak with people on a few occasions. I dislike answering the home phone here because I'm never sure if I'm going to be stuck on the line with someone who doesn't speak English. I'm slowly but surely learning some German... but very very slowly. I'm getting into a class as soon as there are enough students to get one started. Unfortunately, one had just started a few weeks ago and it was just a little too late to put me in. Oh well, I will just have to wait.
It's difficult to find ways to meet people at the moment. We had to get all this paperwork done so that I could be on base, get my visa, etc. and I still don't have an installation pass to get on Post by myself! It would be helpful even to go to the gym and be around people other than young children, and better yet they speak English so I could actually talk with them. Eschenbach is a very small town so it offers few opportunities to get to know people. But it's only been a few weeks so I still have plenty of time. And I have taken this time of not having much to do to read and write as much as possible. It also offers extra time to get to talk with family and friends. Some have even said (and I would sadly have to agree) that I didn't communicate with them this much when I was living in the U.S. Apparently it's a time to build relationships back up, as well as go through more personal growth.
Who knows what else may happen?
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