Tiffany and I were hanging out one day and we were talking about all the things we missed about the states. I had heard from another Au Pair about a store here in Munich that sales food from the states. I looked it up on my phone and found a place called "USA WORLD". We didn't have anything else to do that day so we decided we would go and check it out. Before we left we meet with Lydia so we could all go together. When we meet up with Lydia we had to wait (of course it's Lydia but we love her anyway) so she could eat her salad. Not only was it torture to have to wait for her but it was also torture because the salad she was eating was the most disgusting salad in the world. She put lettuce, apricots, walnuts, goat cheese (gross), and the kicker M&M's. Who the hell eats chocolate in salad....I'll tell you who....LYDIA!!! When we finally ended the long journey to "USA WORLD" it was closed for a special event hahaha. It was located in a very strange place in the middle of two big apartment buildings. The store itself was tiny but by looking in the windows it did contain some interesting products. Lots of different kinds of soda and other weird items. We were a bit disappointed that it was closed so we decided to go to the American Heritage store. When we reached the American Heritage store it was of course also....................CLOSED! It was really annoying and we were a bit frustrated. We then went to a grocery store and bought food to make tacos. We went to Aladin's house ate tacos and watched a movie. Although the stores were closed we had a blast just hanging out and laughing.
Things with my work are going really great. I am really happy with my new family. I really feel like I am apart of the family and it makes me so happy. I love the children they are the cutest things ever. The other day I took them to the park and Jurian and I made a cool little house out of sand and sticks. It was very impressive. In between building the house Amélie let me bury her in the sand. She is so photogenic and I love it. I tried really hard to take pictures of Jurian but he wouldn't let me. I did take a picture of the awesome house we build though. :)
There are many days I miss my family and I want to go home but I am so happy I came here. I have had so much fun already. I have made some fantastic friends here and I am looking forward to what the next 7 months have to offer me. :)
I have been slacking on doing my blogs lately. I really need to do more of them because it's August and I am just now writing about the 4th of July hahaha. Time goes by so fast when your having fun and this last month has been a blast. :) So for the 4th of July Lydia, Tiffany (Squirtle), Lia and I went to Hard Rock Cafe here in Munich because it's the only place here to get real American food. They have ice, free refills, and RANCH DRESSING there. Can't find that anywhere else in Munich. It was delicious and worth the wait to get a table.
This is Lydia being a dork like always lol
My girls
Lia and me
My delicious burger, it even came with a little American flag!
Squirtle (Tiffany)
After dinner Tiffany and Lia had to go home so Lydia and I meet up with Alexa, James, and Aladin. We went to this big 4th of July party at some dorm apartment complex. We were all a bit excited to meet more Americans but the funny part was none of these people were American. They were all dressed up with American pride and they were from random European countries. It cracked me up. It was pretty cool because they had this little bar set up and all Americans got to have a free shot.
Alexa, James, Lydia, and Me
After our free shots we went to the top of the dorm and sat on the outside terrace. It was a really nice night and you could see the whole city from the top. We could also see the Allianz Arena from the top as well. It was really cool because they light it up red, white, and blue. I tried to take pictures from the top but they didn't do it any justice. It was a really great night and I had a blast.
This week has been a pretty hard week for me. Living and working at the same place is not easy especially with Germans. I do love my new family and they are so great. However, It gets kinda hard when you never hear anything good. It's typically German to not say any positive things but only negative. I would just like a thank you once in a while is all. I babysat the children much more than I normally do this week and had no time but to watch them, clean and go to German class. I have been really missing home lately and missing my Mom and Sara. I don't miss Redding just my friends and family. I am excited however that my mom might be able to come visit me. She will be coming in February if it all works out. I will show her around Munich for a couple days then we will go to Rome for 5 days. WHOO HOO!!!
It was nice to have Friday finally come around to get some time away. On friday I went to Ikea with Trixi and it was really fun. I love Ikea! I helped her pick out some things for her room and then after her and I went and bought stuff for dinner. I always have so much fun with her. :) Then we watched The Notebook and ate cookies....or shall I say Trixi ate cookies...lol she had like 8 soft baked cookies.
Then on Saturday I went with some good friends to the lake here in Munich. It was so beautiful and reminded me a lot of Whiskey Town. It's so green and the water is a bit cold but once you're in it's really nice. Alexa and Lydia made it our mission to make a pyramid in the water. In the end it didn't work out and I'm sure the people on the shore where thinking we were a bunch of crazy Americans. :) I got really sunburnt but it was well worth it. Here are some pictures....
Sunday I got to catch up on some sleep and I had a BBQ dinner with my host family. It was a great weekend and I know this week is going to be much better. :)
Time has been flying this last month. I don't know where the time is going. I have been working for my new family for about a month and a half now and they are still so wonderful. I am very very blessed to have found them.
So my latest adventure was a very interesting one. I wish I could say I had a blast and it went wonderful but well I can't. So Trixi and I decided we would like to see Boyce Avenue in concert and we really wanted to go see them in Dublin, Ireland. However, she is a full time student here in Munich so she couldn't take off that much time to go all the way to Ireland. So I was looking at what other cities they were going to and found a GREAT deal on a flight to Brussels. It was only 36 Euros round trip. Sounds to good to be true doesn't it?? So we decided that was a good idea. Plus my host dad is actually from Brussels and he can't stop talking about how wonderful the city is and how he would rather live there than Munich (I question his taste now haha).
We bought the airline tickets and the concert tickets and all together it was under 80 euros. After we purchased the tickets we found out that the airline (Ryanair) we had chosen was not the best airline to take. They say they fly to big cities but really the airports are pretty far from the actual city (JUST WHAT I THOUGHT... TO GOOD TO BE TRUE)! So in order for us to get the Munich WEST airport we had to take two trains (1hour travel in each) and a bus. The first train we took we didn't even have sitting seats so we had to stand for an hour on a the train. When we arrived at the airport I was already saying my goodbye prayers. This airport was the smallest airport I have ever seen and there wasn't even a airplane in sight. To make matters worse they totally lost all credibility with me when I saw a Giant yogurt cup statue outside the building.....
We ended up making it to the "AIRPORT" in Bussels and it took us another hour to get the city via bus. All together I think our trip took us about 8-9 hours when it would have taken us 2-3 tops if we would have taken a real airline. At the point we finally reached Brussels Midi station we thought it couldn't get any worse.....HAHAHAHA!!! So along with Ryanair we also thought we would save money and try out couch surfing. I have other friends who have done it and they had nothing but great experiences. For those of you who do not know what couch surfing is it's basically a community of people who are willing to have guest stay in their place to meet new people. They get to share their culture and be a tour guide for people all over the world. So we found what we thought was a good candidate for our first couch surfing experience. He had many good reviews on his profile and we had messaged back and forth for a couple weeks and he seemed very nice. We had to walk from the train station to his house which wasn't to far but it seemed like an eternity for us. The neighborhood was so scarey and dirty. It's what I picture the worst part of New York to look like. I seriously thought we were going to get mugged so we just walked as fast as we could to his apartment. Trixi and I finally made it to his apartment and it was the dirtiest apartment I have ever seen. Just walking up the stairs to his apartment I could smell the mold coming out of the walls. The stairwell handles were just broken off and laying on the ground. The door to his apartment looked like it had been broken into like a million times and it didn't even shut anymore. If it wasn't locked you could just push it open. We make it to his living room and kitchen and he was showing us around the place. His bathroom was located in the kitchen and was only separated by a shower curtain. The toilet was located in the hall of the apartment building and it was so dirty it looked like someone had already used the bathroom and didn't flush....but no that was just the color stained on the toilet. The kicker to the story is when we were ready to go to sleep all he had were two tiny mattresses without sheets and two blankets that looked like they hadn't been washed in a while. He also only had one very flat pillow so I didn't even have a pillow to sleep on. Needless to say our trip didn't start out so well. I was already counting down the days til I got to go home. Oh and I also didn't mention that before we even left Munich I had to go to the doctor because I had a eye infection. So I had to wear my glasses the entire time and I couldn't wear any makeup and had to put drops in my eyes four times a day.....ugh WHY?
We made it through the night....barely. We left that house as soon as we
could and met Trixi's boyfriend at the train station because he was
spending the day with us. I already had a negative outlook on Brussels
but the people there were not so nice. For example, I ordered a yogurt
for breakfast at a restaurant in the city center and it was frozen
solid. I told the waiter and he said he would bring me another one. The
next yogurt was also frozen so I told him and he just rolled his eyes at
me and walked away. But we were trying to make the best of it. We went
and looked at the little pissing boy statue that Brussels is know for.
It is the smallest statue I have ever seen and I don't understand why
it's so popular.
So we
did a bit of site seeing around the city center then we went to the
Atomium. It was pretty cool not breathtaking or anything but okay.
Trixi
Björn (Trixi's Boyfriend)
That night Björn went back to Germany. Trixi and I went back into the center of town and bought ourselves a street waffle and some french fries. Belgium is know for these things. The waffle was amazing but the fries I didn't care for to much. We were about to head back to the dirt ridden apartment when we heard faint music coming from a distance. We followed the sound and came upon some street performers that were absolutely amazing. We stayed for about an hour just listening to the music in the streets of Belgium. I LOVE EUROPE! I took a video with my iPhone and I will post it at the end of the blog. :) After the free street concert we went back to the apartment so we didn't have to walk in that scary neighborhood in the dark.
BRUGGE
The next morning we headed back to the train station to head to Brugge. It is known as the most european city. The train ride only took us an hour which was really nice and we booked a room at a hostel so we didn't have to sleep in the apartment in Brussels. Brugge is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is exactly what you think about when you think about Europe. It has beautiful old buildings and amazing canals all over the city. It is 100% better in every way then Brussels. Trixi and I checked into our hostel and then started our site seeing adventure. We walked around the city and then took a canal tour which was AWESOME! We ended up meeting this really awesome boy from Australia who was also staying in our room in the hostel. He was traveling around Europe for the next 8 months. How cool is that? :) We all ended up going to dinner and to a bar afterwards together. He was the funniest person ever. It was a great night.
Belgium has 600 types of beer and every beer has is very own special glass.
banana flavored beer (different....not bad)
passion fruit flavored beer (pretty good) the best was the cherry flavored beer they had on tap.
Funny story about the guy in the back with the long red beard. His wife was waiting for him inside and he was lost outside wondering around. Max saw him outside and said "that's the greatest beard I've ever seen" then his wife was like "yeah thats my husband" it was super funny. I guess it's one of those things you had to be there. ;)
The next morning we did a bit more sight seeing but the weather was really bad so we found ourselves a nice coffee shop. We sat and talked and watched the people outside. It was actually really nice. We then had to head back to the train station to catch our train back to Brussels (YAY.....NOT). When we got back we got ready for the Boyce Avenue concert and then went and had dinner. After dinner we just had to get another street waffles because they're amazing. The street waffle cafe actually remembered us and made it extra yummy for us. WHOOHOO!! We then headed to the venue of the concert and it was okay. There really isn't much to say about it. It was just okay. I expected more and the set list was terrible. The opening acts were horrible but the songs they did play were well done just not the songs I wanted to hear.
The next morning I was so happy to be heading back to wonderful Munich and getting out of that horrible apartment. When I arrived home I don't think I have ever been happier to have a clean shower and a nice bed but most of all a PILLOW! I can't say it was a horrible trip because there were definitely some great moments but it wasn't the best. On the way out of Brussels I stepped in dog poop on the sidewalk and I thought that was an appropriate way to end things! hahaha
I'm adding a video I took of the street performers....seriously watch this video they're AMAZING!! I liked them so much I bought a CD from them.....They were much better than Boyce Avenue and they were free to watch.....
The first week in my new family was really great. I am so happy with my decision to change. The children are adorable. Jurian the 5yr old boy loves to play Uno it's hilarious and he is really good at it. I haven't won a single game yet. Amelie is really cute. She is in a phase right now where all she wants is her mom so it makes watching her a bit challenging but I adore here anyways. :) The parents are really friendly and outgoing. Such a nice change from the last host parents. On the weekend after I arrived I went with the family to the children's kindergarten to watch their maypole ceremony. It's a very Bavarian tradition. It was so cute to see all the little children in their dirndls and lederhosen. Almost everyone was dressed in them including the parents.
This week I also bought my dirndl and I love it. Molly, Trixi, some other friends and I went to the Fruhlingsfest on Friday and I got to wear my dirndl there YAY! It was a blast. It's basically a mini Oktoberfest but there is nothing mini about it. There are lots of rides and beer tents. You are only allowed to drink your beer in the tents and the Liter beers cost 9 EUROS!! However, Trixi told me that the beer at Oktoberfest is a special kind of beer and it's much stronger than the already strong German beer. Therefore, one liter of beer is equivalent to 8 shots so 9 euros isn't that bad. Trixi and I went on a couple rides before the park closed down. We went on the Farris Wheel and the swings that turn around in the air. It was so much fun. I am so looking forward to Oktoberfest.
This week I also started my German classes. German is so hard already for me but I am excited to learn and be able to talk to the children and go to German speaking meet up and actually participate. I met a couple of new people in my class and they are all very nice. I hope to get to know them a bit better as the class goes on. There is also a boy from Poland in my class who looks so much like my brother Jesse that it creeps me out. I really want to take a picture of him but he doesn't speak any English so i can't ask him. I would try to sneak a picture but I don't want to look like a creeper. I'll see what I can do but if I end up getting one I will post it on here.
It's been a pretty good week all in all but I did get a bit homesick yesterday. My family is in Portland to see my brother and sister-in-law graduate from college and I was really sad that I didn't get to be apart of it. However, I am very proud of them. Also I miss my friends back home and going to the Bell Lounge and singing with everyone. I love and miss you all. MAUH!
Me in my new dirndl:) Funny because I didn't notice until after I purchased it was American colors.
Today is my independence day! I am finally free from my evil host mom. It has a been a really hard two weeks but I am finally free. I'm really going to miss the children and It broke my heart when I left because they were very upset. I wish I could pack them in my suitcase and take them with me. They have a very hard life ahead of them with a mom like that. My new host family is seriously so great. I could not be any happier at the moment. They are so welcoming and warm. I love my new room as well. It is very cute and cozy and it has a balcony which is awesome. The children are very cautious of me at the moment it's kinda cute. They just stare at me with wondrous eyes. I think things are looking up. I start my German classes next week and I am very excited about that. :) Maybe someday I can do a post in German!
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