This past week was really great for me! It was my post-vacation, dive head first into the new year readjustment week. It felt really great for me to be back in Bamberg and my first day home I had free, so I got coffee with my au-pair friend, Jolene. It’s really great that I have someone I can talk to about being an au-pair who completely understands everything. After coffee, I just walked around Bamberg to take some photos as well as try to uncover more of its beauty. I “hiked” up one of Bamberg’s seven hills and had a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Bamberg had a very rare, completely sunny day and I embraced it in its entirety. That evening, I went out for hot chocolate with my friend Liza from Ukraine who is also in my English speaking theater group. She is so sweet, so I really enjoyed talking to her.
The next day, I did some grocery shopping as well as relaxing and I finally went back to work. It was really exciting to see the kids again as well as my host parents. It made me so overjoyed that they were happy to have me home again. We had a lot of stress-free fun playing together.
On Wednesday, I returned to my classes and it was really fun getting back into the German speaking spirit as well as seeing all of my international friends and hearing about how they celebrated the holiday break. I didn’t have to babysit this day, so during my break between classes and choir, I went over to my friend Megan’s apartment and took a much-needed fat nap. Megan brought me a box of cosmic brownies from when she was in America and I felt so blessed. Those things bring me to diabetic heaven. At 6 PM, I had my choir rehearsal and it went really well. I only have two friends in the choir, but I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. After the rehearsal, I hung out with friends at one of the biggest houses I have ever been in. It was equipped with a full fledged security system, a huge Apple TV, and a giant indoor swimming pool with a sauna and hot tub. I felt like royalty being in this home and I had a lot of fun.
On Thursday, I rode my bike to my grammar class which was still just as boring in 2020 as it was in 2019, but I survived it. Afterwards, I went to my American studies class and we had fun. It was really great to see my friends from that class again. I had to babysit the rest of the day and all went well. At 3:30, my host mom had her music class and I watched over the baby and once the class was over, I played with all 8 kids in the attic and it went much smoother than it had in previous weeks. They are all really sweet kids at the core, even if they can be a little mean when they want to be. I went to bed at 7 PM this day because I had a headache and didn’t wake up until 8 AM the next day.
I spent all Friday morning babysitting the baby girl. We went on a walk together, played together, sang some songs, and neither of us cried the entire time! She did poop once which was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen, but I guess babies do that sometimes. That evening, I was home alone so I baked muffins, did my laundry, and had a relaxing Avery oriented evening.
On Saturday I had a choir rehearsal all day and I am very excited because we are starting to sound really great together and we’re beginning to actually make music instead of just singing. In the evening, I held down the fort at home while my host parents had a date night.
Today, I had another choir rehearsal in the morning, had lunch, and then walked around Bamberg for a few hours. I’m having a great start to the new year and I’m so excited for the weeks to come.
Avery's European Adventure 