A Weekend In Paris!

This past weekend I got to join the family in Paris. They were invited to a friends 40th birthday party on the Saturday so they decided to make a whole weekend out of it. We left Friday at 3:30 and arrive in Paris at 8:30 pm. We didn't have to be at the party until later in the afternoon on Saturday so we got into the city centre for breakfast at 9:20 am and then we had the rest of the day to walk around and enjoy the beautiful city . I found Paris to be amazing. I had never been to a city that was so elegant. There wasn't one particular thing I loved most about Paris because I loved everything.  If you have never been to Paris, I suggest you save up and make a trip.

I can now scratch off #15 on my bucket list - See the Eiffel Tower!

xo

xo

Schnitzel Gone Wrong

I had to spend the entire night with the boys because Ivetta and Joachim were out and weren't returning until the next morning. My first task of the night was to make Schnitzel which looked easy except when it comes to me and cooking I make the simple things the most difficult. When I looked in the fridge I grabbed the only package in the fridge that looked like meat and started preparing it well first off it smelt like fish and was a lot bigger than what i've seen. It was a lot more difficult to prepare than Ivetta said. Typical me I just keep making it. When the boys come and sit down for dinner they tell me it looks good until they eat it and say " this is fish". They ended up not eating it and just had french fries for dinner . My first Schnitzel experience didn't go well but hey I just have to look on the bright side .... it's a mistake I will not make again!

The boys tend to get up pretty early but they didn't get up tell about 9 this morning and I was woken up by them both cleaning and vacuuming their rooms .... just like I asked them to do the night before. It is amazing how kids do things just so they can watch the television. I think it's safe to say my first entire night with the boys was a success minus the dinner part. 

xo 

Water Fight ....

This week I am having to spend more time alone with the boys which I am really looking forward to because it means I will get more bonding time . Today after my German class I had to watch Yannic, Dominic and one of Yannick's friends Leo. When Leo is over they always want me to play hide n seek
 so that is what we did and since it was nice out the boys wanted to play outside which was fun for five min but got boring really fast because they always pick a hiding spot and keep hiding in that spot for the next five games and when I keep finding them they start getting board and want to do something else. Since I am trying to get in the good books with the boys I am up for anything and today that meant getting absolutely soaked in a spontaneous water fight that I may or may not have started. After the three boys teamed up on me and got me soaked I thought that meant game over but no that was just the beginning we had a water fight for about forty-five minutes and even though it was me against three boys I think I did pretty good. The one rule was that the water had to be warm water not cold and getting warm water poured on you when you're cold is like a nice hot shower.....by the end of it Dominic was asking me to pour water on him because it felt nice. At one point I was even pouring water over my head because it made me feel like I was in hot tub. I think it's safe to say the water fight ended in a tie and for the first time since I've been here I think the boys thought I was the coolest au pair ever !!!


xo 

Because I said so

Last night I was home alone with the boys and had to put them to bed. Before Dominic went upstairs to get ready for bed he asked me if he could have something to drink and I told him he could have a glass of water. He didn't understand that I said water because he went and got apple juice. I told him to put it away and get water . Ivetta told me that she doesn't want the boys to have apple juice before they go to bed because well she said so . Dominic didn't like that I told him to get water so he began having this huge freak out. He burst into tears and started doing these tai chi moves on me, apart of me wanted to give in but I couldn't do that because it would mean a seven year old won in an argument and I couldn't have that. 
I am into my second week of German and it is still very hard. I can understand some reading but when it comes to talking I haven't gotta clue. I have found coming home and having four German speaking people in the house helps a lot and everyday I get a little bit better. 


Guten Tag! 


xo 


German word of the day : Liebe ( love) 

Working Together

For this whole week I have been practising really hard on my German. Each day I try and learn more words and phrases. Since I have homework that I need help on it takes away my hide n seek time with the boys however we came to an agreement that if they help me with my homework I will play with them so technically it works out to a win,win. Yannic and his friend helped me yesterday and we're a lot of help ... a bit bossy but in the end I understood a lot of what my homework was. At night when I put Dominic to bed he wanted me to read him a German children's book. That didn't go so well because I would ask Dominic for help and he would just yell at me to keep reading. I think I read one page and then he said he was better at reading German books so he took over and started reading another book he had. I think the boys are enjoying me learning German because they like to think they're better then me which is impossible! 


German Word of the Day : Knutschen ( Canoodle) 


Happy Friday! 


xo 

Day Three of German!

I have reached day three of my German class and it is very difficult. I wasn't expecting it to be easy but I also wasn't expecting it to be all taught in German I mean I don't know anything so how do you expect me to follow four hours of a teacher speaking German. I am in class for four hours and then I come home and practice for a couple more hours. By the end of the day my mind is tired but I hope by the end of the year I am fluent, that is my goal. I am the only English speaking student in my class. There is about six Spanish students and a couple people from other places around Europe. I am finding that English isn't so popular in Cologne. You either speak German,Spanish or French. 


The boys still help me all the time with my German but now Dominic is making fun of how I say things so we aren't on speaking terms at the moment .... life is good. 


Guten Nacht!
(Good Night)
  
xo 

Dominic

Being on vacation has made Dominic a lot less shy towards me which is a really good thing however i've never met someone who can talk so much. You think Sarah talks a lot ... she is quiet compared to Dominic. He is trying to speak more English to me and when he does he always likes to ask me questions about my family. Today he asked me if I liked my family. I told him of course I like my family don't you like yours and he said " Ya, except for this one day I hated them all". He also told me that being last in something means your actually first. That is why he is always last to get to bed. It also came to me that all those years I thought I came last in sports I actually was first... I like the way he thinks. Now that Dominic and I are becoming friends he is using me to help clean his room which was a complete disaster the other day. He is a secret hoarder .

xo