Weekend at B̶e̶r̶n̶i̶e̶’̶s̶ Oma and Opa’s.

The short version of what you’re about to read: The beginning of the week was somewhat slow, but then we spent the weekend at Oma and Opa’s in Wipfeld and I am EXHAUSTED!

9 September: On this day I woke up, ate breakfast, did some laundry, and I rode my bike to the city center in the rain. I don’t know what I did exactly, but I made a woman in her car angry and she yelled something at me out her window. The joke is on her though because I can’t understand German unless you speak slowly and make eye contact with me, so I have no clue what she said! When I arrived at the city center I got a cappuccino and I accidentally poured so much salt in it instead of sugar, but I was so embarrassed, I just left. After that, I bought a new jacket at the department store. Then I got a large piece of cheesecake from a tiny, cute bakery. My piece didn’t come with a fork so I just stood by a fountain, in the rain, and ate it like a slice of pizza. After this, I came back home, took a nap, and the rest of the day was pretty standard, so I will spare the details.

10 September: I woke up, ate breakfast, and then rode my bike to the grocery store and I bought some coffee and yogurt to keep in my fridge. When the kids got home from kindergarten, the older one wanted to read and read and read! We read so many books this day and I didn’t really mind because I would rather read than play a game on my phone or something like that. After a while, the father’s parents came over. They were on their way home from their holiday and so we visited and ate cheesecake and drank coffee. They were so nice and I’m excited to meet them again! The older boy had soccer practice so the younger boy and I played in his room and everything went well. It was all fun and no crying!

11 September: This was a boring Wednesday! However, boring days are important because they make the slightly less boring days seem way more fun. On this day I woke up, ate breakfast, and had some coffee and wrote a letter to my friend Lauren. I rode my bike to the post office and it is conveniently only a five minute bike ride from home. Even better, it only cost me four euros to send four letters! I was really happy when the kids got home this day because I was bored and wanted somebody to hang out with. We ate lunch and played and it was fun. Then I babysat the younger one and we played outside on the trampoline and we looked for roly-polys. For dinner we ate pumpkin pizza which was oddly delicious! This was also the day I learned that there are not pumpkin spice lattes in Germany 😦

12 September: This was the guinea pig day. We left Bamberg at about noon and headed towards the town where Oma and Opa live, Wipfeld. However, before we could go to Wipfeld, we needed to pick up a guinea pig for my host mom’s aunt. Then, when we arrived at Oma and Opa’s house, we walked to the aunt’s house to give her the guinea pig. She lives in a house nearby with a huge beautiful garden. On our walk back, the younger boy asked me to carry him and it was really cute, so I did. Later, he hit me with a garden hoe on purpose. In the evening we played in the garden at Oma and Opa’s house and then we ate dinner. Then afterwards the older one wanted me to read him a German book, but after I tried reading for a few pages, he said I was terrible at it, so we switched to an English book. Also, on this day we got to ride on the Autobahn and we went 90 mph with people still passing us!

13 September: This day was exhausting, but fun. The kids woke me up early by jumping on me and we walked to the bakery. Oma bought me my own delicious Brezel! Then we ate a filling and delicious breakfast. Afterwards, we painted this branch that we decided would be a snake. Oma told me she thought that would entertain the boys for a few hours, but unfortunately, the fun only lasted about 15 minutes. Afterwards, we drove up the hill to the vineyards and watched the huge machine shuck the grapes from the vines. The view from there was so beautiful. After this we went home and played with instruments in the yard. Oma made us lunch and she also gave us homemade ice cream and a cheesecake that she made. I had five pieces of this cheesecake, but I will remind you that vacation calories don’t count and I am on vacation for the next two years. After lunch, I read to the older boy and then we went to the park and played there for a while. On our way back to the house, we stopped at one of the neighbors houses and they showed us their chickens and gave us half a dozen of the eggs that the chickens had laid. When we got back to the house, Oma’s sister, Monika, and her husband came over and we all ate dinner together. Nobody really spoke English so I had to speak German and they all said my German was so good! I felt really happy about that.

14 September: Yet another exhausting, but rewarding day. We woke up early again and went to the bakery. Oma bought me my own delicious croissant. We ate breakfast together and I also ate bread with the homemade marmalade that Oma has. It was DELICIOUS! Afterwards, we played with blocks for a while and then we played in the garden and then it was time for lunch. We ate cooked vegetables and rice. You read that correctly, AVERY ate cooked vegetables and rice! After lunch I was so exhausted so the younger boy and I took a nap. Then at 3 Oma had a previous arrangement that she needed to get to, so the boys were left alone with me and Opa Gunther. Moments after Oma left, the younger boy started screaming and crying. Opa, the no-funny-business German man that he is, screamed at the younger boy to stop crying. His scream terrified me so much, even I felt like crying! The younger boy ran upstairs and cried for five more minutes alone and then he was no longer upset and it was okay for all of us to leave. So we walked to the place where we could be picked up by the ferry and we took a ride across the river. It was maybe a 45 second ride, but it was great fun for the boys! After the ride, we played at the park for a while and then we got ice cream! When we got home, we played in the garden for a while and then we ate pizza for dinner. Vegetable pizza. And yet again, AVERY ate vegetables! One of my favorite parts of this day was at dinner, the younger boy chugged three big gulps of lemon juice, sat for a moment and then said, “…Sour”. Then, the older boy wanted to do the same, so he chugged three big gulps of lemon juice and said, “…Sour”. Then I had to chug three big gulps of lemon juice, and I can confirm, it was very, very sour! We were all laughing so hard, so this was a great moment for me. I liked this day a lot, because even though there was a lot of crying and fighting, we laughed a lot and I got lots of hugs and Oma and the boys said that they just love me! It made me very happy.

15 Sunday: Today, we were all so tired. We woke up and ate breakfast and then we played for a few hours in the garden. We spent about an hour just hammering nails into wood. I don’t know why that entertained us so much, but it did and I like that it did. Then we went to the same animal park that we went to last weekend. We played on the playgrounds and then we ate lunch at one of the picnic tables. We also got to feed the sheep which was hilarious. Then we drove back to Bamberg and we ate cookies and drank coffee.

This entire week was so much fun! I can’t believe that I’ve been in Europe for three weeks already, but time flies when you’re having fun. I am starting to feel more and more comfortable here everyday and I’m so thankful that every day has brought me a new adventure. As I look at my calendar for the coming weeks, I see that I have something going on every single week, so I am going to be a busy girl and that makes me ecstatic! What a blessing it is to live in Germany.