The Nanny Diaries

This post begins what I jokingly call "The Nanny Diaries" though I'm not really a nanny, but a big sister to Larissa & Leena. I have been in Deutscheland more than 24 hours & have already done loads of stuff. But before I could get here, you must read about my adventures in the USA.

On Tuesday, Mom & I drove to Evansville to catch my flight. That flight took off 20 minutes late, thus landing at 1pm instead of 12:30. My flight to Munich would take off at 2:10, meaning I had an hour to get from one terminal to the next & to the ticketing counter to receive my German tickets. I flew into terminal 2, asked one of the airline workers where I had to go to catch my Lufthansa flight to Germany. The guy sent me to the international terminal 5. Well, I had to go to terminal 1! So I get to terminal 5, don't see Lufthansa ticketing anywhere & ask the welcome centre guy where it was. He informed me I was sent to the wrong place & needed to go back where I had come from! By now it is about 1:15 & I'm starting to freak out because I was supposed to meet up with Dagmar & the girls. I get back on the train to go to terminal 1. I find Lufthansa, & have to wait in line. I convince the next couple in line to let me go ahead since my flight was leaving before theirs. The Lufthansa lady was telling me I might not get on the plane because ticketing had already closed. Well, they managed to get me on. Then I had to go through security! I tried to see if they would let me cut in front of people, but the security people were not very nice at all! I managed to get my passport & boarding pass checked & beg a guy in front of me to let me go on through security since my plane was technically boarding. He does, thankfully, & off I go through. My cell phone was in my pocket & set off the alarm. So I throw it through the xray machine & get through. I then sprint down to the gate which was NOT boarding! I found Dagmar & the girls, called mom to let her know I had made it, & waited for them to call for boarding. We waited about 5 minutes & we got to pre-board (which is SO nice) since we were a party of 5 & had 2 kids under 10. Plus the plane wasn't full so I got to sit with everyone.

We managed to get to Munich a little early & had plenty of time to catch our flight to Bremen. We cleared customs perfectly though the guy interrogated Dagmar & the girls! We didn't even have to recheck our luggage; it went straight through to Bremen. In Bremen, Jurgen picked us up & we drove back to the house. At the house, we didn't even bother unpacking but took a nap. I slept from 10am to 2:30pm since I hadn't slept at all on the plane. We ate lunch - rice & a broth with sausage (I ate the broth, no sausage) - & then Dagmar & I took the girls to vaulting lessons. Afterwards we came back for dinner & then went to bed.

At 930am, I rolled out of bed & took a shower. We rode bikes down to the little grocery store to get food for lunch. After we got back, it began pouring down rain. Complete with thunder! The girls were supposed to have a riding lesson at 3, but the instructor canceled. We ended up taking the horses to the arena anyway just to ride. Dagmar had me hop on Holly (pony) first to make sure she wouldn;t try to run off with the girls since she hadn't been ridden in a month. Then we got Tabas (friesian) & I rode him while Dagmar walked with the girls. Once the girls were tired, Dagmar & I rode. She rode Tabas while I played around with Holly.

It's now a little after 5 & still pouring down rain though it comes & goes on intensity. We'll eat dinner at some point & then head to bed as I am leaving at 7am Friday to go to Berlin. I'm meeting up with Dr. Egner (Transy prof) & her husband & staying with them until Tuesday. I may meet up with Lauren Covert (TU student) over the weekend as well & go to some museums with her.

Oh & I guess you want to know the living situation. The house is a 2 storey farmhouse. It is where Jurgen grew up. His mom lives next door. The girls & I are upstairs. I have a good size room with a queen bed, dresser, tv/dvd, & desk. Dagmar's organ is up here as well as her exercise machine (it's not a bike or treadmill; not really sure what it is). I've got plenty of space though. I also have my own bathroom which is painted blue. I am at the end of the hall whereas the girls are across the hall from the bathroom in their own rooms. Larissa's is a fuschia red color & Leena's is blue with Disney Princess everywhere. Downstairs is the master bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, living room, sun room, mud room. The house connects to one of the barns so we can cut through to the stalls where the horses will spend most of the winter.

The girls are great. Hyperactive, but to be expected at that age. They're both excited about school starting soon. Leena's english is a little better than Larissa's. They get along really well too. We've already played basketball when it wasn't raining & they were great about unpacking their suitcase today. They sorted their clothes; I folded; & they put them in their dresser drawers. We also bowled last night in the hallway, which got really interesting when the ball came close to rolling down the stairs!

That's all for now. I won't have internet access while I'm in Berlin so I'll write & post pics once I return.