Last Saturday I had the day off so naturally miss Hilary Hall made her way down to Wien from Hollabrun so we could finally have our reunion followed by some exploring in district one! We took the bus and then the U3 down to the main touristy area and walked around, looked in H&M and then got some lunch. It was so wonderful to see a familiar face where literally everything else to me was foreign. Luckily for me, Hilary speaks wonderful German and was able to show me how the transportation works, taught me some cultural facts and explained to me how my "ich" was a dead give away that I do not belong here. She also taught me how to count from 1-10 and the days of the week. Little did i know that would not be enough come Monday or should I day, Montag...
Sunday I had a full day with the family. It was Tom's day off so we all played outside for while on the trampoline, on the swings and in the sand box. Then we had some lunch and Mary, the boys and I went to Prater- an amusement park downtown. It was pretty old school carnival type stuff, i'm pretty sure most of the kinder rides were from the 1940s. The boys had so much fun but they insisted on licking my ice cream when i wasn't looking which resulted in me feeling super sick later that day and the following morning- it has been booger fest '11 so far. I have been licked, bitten, drooled on and of course, had boogers wiped on me. What else would you expect from young boys? Oh ya, and tonight when I was getting Raphael changed for bed, he pointed his "nu-nu" at me and threatened to pee on me like a "fireman hose". Awesome.Monday was my first day of classes and if I had known what I was walking into, I think I would have put on more of a game face. First of all, I had to find my way there myself, traveling from the 16th district to the 20th which requires a bus ride, about 8 stops on the U3 and a change to the U6 where I get off at Handelski and walk 3 blocks to an old school building. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty proud of my ability to navigate considering it was my first time alone.
At the school, I walked into a room with 10 pairs of eyes staring blankly back at me. 3 girls from Pakistan, 2 boys and 1 girl from Siberia, 1 girl from Russia, 1 boy from Romania, 1 girl from Thailand and a girl from the Philippines. These were to be my new best friends for the next 4 weeks. As soon as the teacher walked in I realized, there will be no English in this class. As the teacher spoke a mile a minute I looked around at the faces of the other students in the class. No, none of us can speak a common language, I guess unless you consider German, but I could tell exactly what they were all thinking..." what the heck did that woman just say?"
I exchanged smiles with them and felt a little comforted that we were in the same boat...until...I gathered we were to write a paragraph about ourselves and everyone started writing furiously as I stared helplessly for someone to show me what to do. Mind you, I had not learned anything except what Hilary had taught me on Saturday and that was not going help me get by in this class. Finally, the teacher handed me some worksheets so I could have some vocabulary to draw from- but the only problem was there was no English translation so it just looked like a bunch of gibberish. I happened to notice, however, that the week of the lessons was week 7....and so I began to panic.
I was called up to the front of the class 3 times to say sentences where many of the other students offered their support through smiles, but they could tell I was absolutely clueless. After 3 hours and 45 minutes of this uncomfortable form of torture, I was freed and hurried back to a home of screaming boys running around. Raphael was naked and Sebastian was covered head to toe in chocolate. Typical. We cleaned up the boys, made dinner and then finally I retreated to my room upstairs, only to prepare myself to do it all again the next day. Luckily, class was from 2-5pm instead of 9-12:45 in the morning like the day before. I helped get Raphael off to school, played with Sebastian and then when it was his nap time, guess who else got a nap?
After class I was going about my normal route when the final bus home all of a sudden stopped. I was sitting next to an older woman facing an older couple and the four of us looked at each other confused as to what was going on. The bus driver got out and went around to the back. A few minutes later he came back, said a bunch of stuff I didn't understand until the world "kaput". The bus had died. Unfortunately, in this point of the ride home I had no idea which way to go.
I called Mary and she said she was not home yet but would head up that road to see if she could find me once she was done picking up Raphael from swimming. And so I pointed myself in what I thought to be the right direction and began hiking up this huge hill. Soon the sidewalk disappeared and a path led into a forest. I thought to myself...is this safe? Walking into the woods near dusk? But I knew the quicker I walked, the sooner I would reach the house... and so I began. It was actually a beautiful park/nature area- I'll have to find my way there again somehow. Soon I got a call from Mary- "where are you?" By this time I was on the side of the road again in plain sight, but Mary's car was no where to be seen. I tried to explain some sort of landmark around me but all there was were trees... Finally I described a huge hill by a park and before I knew it I spotted Mary's car- and just in time, the sun was almost completely gone.Raphael was so concerned about the bus being "kaput" and that I was okay.
Once we got home, Mary and I made dinner and got the boys off to sleep. I had to do the same since bright and early the next day was class again. This time was not not enthused to go at all. In fact, I was dreading it. Sure enough the teacher kept calling on me to answer questions that I had never learned the answer to and when I would start to recognize what I thought she was trying to say, I would get in trouble from not speaking Deutsch.
A sweet girl from Pakistan named Nadaya noticed my frustration and teary eyes and began to pull out a worksheet and try to explain in her native tongue, which only confused me more. But I truly appreciated the gesture. In fact the whole class was chiming in to come to my aid, but that didn't stop me from feeling completely and utterly...idiotic. I've always been good in school, quick to understand and maybe a smidge of a teacher's pet, but I had had enough. At our break I pulled the teacher aside and told her that I was not going to be able to learn anything or answer her questions unless she gave me some material in English so I could make the connection. I explained how right now, they were just saying words to me, there was no meaning. She told me I will get it soon (which is what she says every class). I told her I couldn't handle any more that day and she let me go home.
I was so thankful for the shorter class and hurried home, showered and took a much needed nap. Sometimes I completely understand how Sebastian and Raphael feel when they are too tired and just start crying out- unfortunately grown ups can't act out exactly how they are feeling on the inside like children can. Well...maybe when they are alone. That afternoon I went down for my half of the day with the boys when Mary said, are you still not feeling well? Since I have been fighting off a cold. I said I had felt a little better and she insisted that Kaitlyn, the other au-pair, watched the boys while I go with her to run some errands. I figured, why not. We ended up going to the Frau Fair (woman's fair) in district 18. Inside this building there were booths set up with all kinds of products and services geared towards women, including a stand from Tom's practice. I walked around, watched a fashion show with all the crazy, over the top European outfits, and sampled all kinds of interesting foods. Mary and I actually had a great time together, I really enjoyed getting to know her outside of being the hired help. She truly has lived an interesting life.
Mary and I then stopped by the grocery store to pick up some food for me, Kaitlyn and the boys because Mary and Tom were going to go out for a friend's birthday that night. I picked out some fresh bread, tomato soup and some oven cheese (p.s best thing ever). At home, I made dinner for the boys while Mary got ready to go out and then we put the boys to sleep. Then I just sat in their loft until they came home later that evening.
Today was the first day I had a morning to sleep in a bit. It felt wonderful but the bags under my eyes are still not erased from the days of practically no sleep or just bad sleep on this strange new bed. I took my time getting around, read the bible a bit and then headed down for lunch. Tom was actually here today so we all played outside, took a break to all drink cappuccinos and then Mary had me make dinner again. Tonight I made fried rice which was more of a hit with the boys than the last meal I made. I'm starting to be able to tell which foods they will and won't like. I can't wait to use the chick-fil-a nugget recipe I found! After dinner I went upstairs for a bit while Mary put the boys down before her and Tom were going to go shopping a bit at the Frau fair. About 20 minutes of me being back down with the boys there was a major melt down. First Raphael started shouting " I want my ma ma" then Sebastian, startled by the noise his brother was making, woke up and starting wailing as well. Lovely.
Luckily, Kaitlyn was downstairs getting some food so she took on Sebastian while I tried to wrangle the beast that is Raphael. He was not having it. I was not mommy and that was NOT okay. "you need to call my mommy...NOW" he would demand. Finally, after calming him by holding him in my lap and swaying him while rubbing his back, he quieted enough for me to tell him about Noah and his Ark. Soon it seemed like we were heading the right direction when he started yelling again. This went on for probably 30 minutes. Finally I got him pacified enough that I could rub his back and he would start to drift off. Then came the problem of escaping. He was all over me and I was afraid that if he woke again I would not hear the end of it. After some sneaky maneuvering I broke free and tip-toed back upstairs until Mary and Tom arrived.
Wow, sorry that was so long- that's what I get for not doing more consistent updates. I promise I will be more on top of it from here on out. Overall, it has been hectic and very humbling, but I am looking for ways that God will teach me lessons here and hope that in the best case scenario, He could use me here.
