I Was Lazy, But I Celebrated My 19th Birthday

The short version of what you’re about to read: I was very lazy this week, this blog post is just sprinkled with some funny stories so you can skim to read those. Also October 10th was my 19th birthday, so if your interested in reading about that, please feel free to skip ahead.

7 October: This was a rest day/readjustment day for me. I woke up to the sound of “Avery…Avery…Avery” coming from outside my door. It was the 2 year old. Usually they’re not allowed to come downstairs (there’s even a gate to prevent it from happening), but the older boy had dropped a ball down to the basement so they both came down. The 2 year old refused to go to kindergarten unless I came too, so I obliged. Not because I’m a pushover, but because I was kind of happy to be back home. So I walked them to kindergarten and when I came home I just relaxed and laid in bed, and I was honestly just very very lazy. I had to pick the boys up from kindergarten at 12 and it took us 30 minutes to actually leave the kindergarten. They had to put their shoes on and we had to watch the construction workers and then we had to go back because the 2 year old forgot something and it was honestly just such a long process. When we finally got home, we played for a while and then we ate noodle soup for lunch. Then I hung out with the boys for a while and then we ate dinner of bread and cheese. Afterwards I went out for ice cream with my friend Bernhard and I went home and went to sleep.

8 October: This was another rainy day in Bamberg. I woke up and ate breakfast kind of late and then I took the bus for the first time! I went to the mall and got lunch at a pizza place and I also took some cheese cake to go. Also on this adventure I found a little “USA shop” that had snacks from American like kraft Mac and cheese, pop tarts, Hershey chocolate, Reese’s, all kinds of good stuff and it made me so happy! Of course it was all more expensive than in the US, but it made me happy to have a bit of home in Bamberg. The bus ride home was so weird for me because there were so many young kids riding the bus with their backpacks because the schools in Germany don’t provide transportation, the children just take the public transport when school is over. When I got home, I took a nap because I felt very tired and then I picked up the older boy from kindergarten. Then we went home and played for a while and then it was time to go to kinderturnen with the younger boy. Kinderturnen is basically like children’s gymnastics, but there really isn’t any true structure, it’s just a large group of kids who haven’t quite learned to use their legs yet wobbling around and their parents assisting. We went there and played for one hour and then we came home and played for a while and ate dinner and then it was 7:30 PM and I was ready for bed. I don’t know why I was so exhausted this day, maybe still recovering from Vienna, who knows, but it was a good day regardless.

9 October: This day was so uneventful, I realized I didn’t even bother to write about it. I’m sure I ate chocolate or took a nap or something like that.

10 October: It was my 19th birthday!! When I went upstairs in the morning my host dad and opa Kalli and oma Edith sang happy birthday to me, it was really cute. Opa and Oma gave me their birthday present from them. Then we sat around and talked for a while. Then the three of us went for a walk and then it was time to pick up the boys from kindergarten. We spent time playing outside together and we ate lunch (the tradition German onion cake again) and then I went down into my room and watched “how I met your mother” for about 2.5 hours. It was honestly very relaxing. After that, it was time for us to go to my birthday dinner and we went to a really delicious Italian restaurant with an all you can eat buffet. After I had all I could eat, my stomach hurt really bad and I thought I might throw up. I was so conflicted had committed myself to go to a Bamberg buddies event which is a group for American and German students to meet up and just have a good time, but after eating so much food I thought maybe I would just go home and watch more Netflix. Thankfully, I decided to put my sick feelings aside and power through. I recently watched the movie “yes man”, so I felt inspired to say yes to good opportunities like the Bamberg Buddies. So, after dinner with the family, I went to the bar where the buddies were meeting and we had such a good time! I met a lot of nice people and there was karaoke and after I sang my song (Material Girl by Madonna, of course) everyone was like “oh my gosh! You’re actually so good at singing” and I felt amazing! After I sang, two of the girls at the meet up asked me if I wanted to go party and I wasn’t really sure about it, but it was my 19th birthday, so I decided to be a yes woman and I agreed to party, for the first time. We went to the club and my ID was actually checked by a bouncer which was very weird for me! He told me “Happy Birthday” which was so kind. I’m not much of a “party girl” so I knew full well I couldn’t drink much of anything at all because of the 20 minute bike ride I would have at the end of the night. It was a lot of fun and I had such a good time with my new girlfriends. Also, everyone was so excited about my birthday which made me even more excited about my birthday. Honestly, this was such a good night and such an amazing entryway into the next year of my life. It was a wonderful first birthday abroad. There are pictures from these evening somewhere, but they haven’t been posted yet, so I have to wait until then. Also, here is a funny story from this day: in the morning I had received my birthday present from oma and opa and part of that was a bag full of individually wrapped lindt chocolates. When we were at dinner Opa Kalli said something along the lines of “you can’t eat all your birthday chocolate the day you get it, that’s bad luck!” Little did he know that earlier that day, when I was watching how I met your mother, I ate all my birthday chocolate! Needless to say, I had no bad luck.

11 October: On my birthday I didn’t go to sleep until 4 AM so I spent most of this day exhausted! I woke up and ate breakfast, I showered, I moped around and I watched how I met your mother and I did my laundry and I even took a short nap. The morning sort of flew by to my surprise, so that was really nice. At 3:45 I went for a walk with the baby and it was beautiful weather and she slept so nicely for an entire hour. I also learned that I am able to continuously hum the tune to “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” for one hour straight in order to keep a baby asleep! After the walk, I played with the boys and it was really nice because they didn’t fight for a long time. When a fight did finally break out, there was horrific screaming coming from both parties. Legos were thrown, heads were punched, it was brutal. Luckily their mom came down to deal with the fight and I just got to play with the sweet baby. After we ate dinner, I got to read stories to the boys before they went to bed and the three of us were all nice and cuddled up on the couch and it made me really happy.

12 October: This was a good day! I woke up and I met one of my new friends from the Bamberg buddies for coffee! We get along really well and she is so nice. It was so nice having another friend to talk to in Bamberg! After this I went back home and I packed my things to get ready because we were going to a birthday party in Wipfeld for my host mom’s cousin. At 11 we left and then we arrived at Oma Inga and Opa Gunther’s house. Unfortunately they’re on holidays so they weren’t at home, but we spent the afternoon there, playing with toys and having fun. At 5, we went to the party and sometimes I struggle at parties with adults because of the language barrier and everything, but this one wasn’t so bad because I was just able to go upstairs and play with the kids. This birthday party also had amazing desserts, so that made me very happy. Cheesecake, apple strudel, pudding, lemon muffins, it was like heaven for my sweet tooth. We went home at about 8 PM and the kids went to bed and I stayed at the house, so my host parents could go back to the party. They were gone for 2.5 hours and none of the kids woke up, not even the baby! That’s what I call good luck for me!

13 October: It’s Sunday and we’ve done quite a bit so far. We woke up and had a delicious breakfast from the bakery, we played at Oma and Opas and then we went to a playground and played on there for an hour or so. Now we are at Opa Kalli and Oma Edith’s house, but they aren’t here. I’m relaxing in my room here because it is my break time.

I’m so excited for this week because I start school! Monday I have theater, Tuesday I have my choir audition, Wednesday I have 2 language classes and choir, Thursday I have another language class, and a class on British and American cultural studies, and then Friday I just get to relax. Even though I was lazy this week, I felt so thankful that I get to be lazy in Germany! Not many Americans can say that they almost a whole week of lazy days while living in Germany. I had a wonderful 19th birthday and I’m so thankful for the friends I made and the good times I had. Here’s to the next year of my life and for the adventures that are headed my way.