Yesterday I went on a little adventure with a friend of mine. She's another au pair with the same agency, but I actually know her through the language course. Anyway, she's been having the same problem that I have with not being able to find anyone who wants to travel with her, and since she and I have started talking to each other more recently we've decided to start taking little trips together. So yesterday we went to Holland. It was an interesting trip, but also a lot of fun.

The place we went to is in a town called Lisse, but we didn't actually see any of the town. The primary (and only) destination was a place called Keukenhof, which means "Kitchen Garden," and it's the world's largest flower garden. This place was absolutely amazing. I have never seen so many tulips and daffodils in my life!! Nor did I realize that there were so many colors and varieties of bulbs. I don't think that I can really explain this place in a way that makes it sound as fascinating as it was. As I mentioned, we spent the whole day (about 5 hours) just at this one place, so there was a lot to see and admire. Plus, they had a little parade that was like a very miniature version of the Rose Parade in Pasadena. They had a dozen or so floats that they decorated with all the different kinds of flowers that they grow in the park and they closed down the little street that runs through that part of "town" for this parade in the middle of the afternoon. A part of me actually wishes that we hadn't watched the parade because it involved more waiting than seeing. The streets here are narrow anyway, and people were being stupid and crowding into the road so that the trucks and floats had to constantly keep stopping and waiting for all the jackasses to move, and then they had to creep exceptionally slowly down the street so they didn't hit anyone. The floats were beautiful, but I would have liked to been able to walk through the park more during that time to see more of the flowers. If I ever go back there, I'll know.

I realize that this doesn't sound like a very interesting trip (even though it was amazingly beautiful) but that's because I haven't gotten to the interesting part yet. I did not plan this trip; my friend Elena planned and booked it through a travel agency. Basically the only thing I knew was that we were going to Holland, and that we were going by bus. That sounds horrible, but it's not so bad. It's only about a 3 hour drive, so you could drive to Keukenhof and back in the time that it takes to get from San Diego to San Francisco. Anyway, what I didn't realize was that Elena, who is Ukrainian, booked the trip through a Russian travel agency. So, in 3 charter buses worth of people, I was the only one there that did not speak Russian. Since we're in Germany and the trip was designed for Russian speaking people who live in this country, it didn't occur to Elena that everything would be in Russian. So the whole time there was a woman speaking over the loudspeaker on the bus, explaining what we were going to be doing for the day, and talking about Dutch history and things like that, and I had no idea what was going on. At least Elena speaks enough German (she's been here for 9 months and knows a little more than I do) for the 2 of us to communicate with each other. She doesn't know English, though, so if we can't explain it in German we better hope it's not important. Plus, even though she speaks Russian, she isn't Russian; she's Ukrainian. Therefore, due to various reasons, she's not particularly fond of Russians, and didn't have much of a desire to speak with anyone other than me. In a way that's good because at least I had someone to talk to, but it's also kind of funny. So, as I said, it was an interesting trip.

Today we were supposed to go to the tennis club here in Königsdorf to join the Wievers for the season opening party there. That didn't happen because everyone was so exhausted from yesterday (apparently they had a long day here, too). Late this afternoon, however, the family went shopping at a garden center somewhere, and I went for a walk on my own. It was about 25 degrees today with a slight breeze, and it was absolutely gorgeous. There was no way that I could justify sitting at home by myself. Anyway, during my walk I passed by the tennis club and I saw Jörg and Barbra there with the boys. I stopped by to say hi and hung out with them for a little while. David was so excited to see me. He immediately got the biggest smile on his face and did his little flirty thing he does with his eye lashes. He's so cute! David and Fabio spent most of the day riding the little carousel they had there, and at 5 Barbra and I sat with the boys to watch the puppet show. Fabio was scared because the show involved a devil, a wizard, and a crocodile, so I held David in my lap while Barbra kept Fabio calm (and seated in one place). Afterward I played with David at the playground for a few minutes while Barbra took Fabio to the carousel before heading home. I knew that Olaf was going to be grilling, and I didn't want them to have to wait for me, or to walk through the door in the middle of dinner, so I didn't hang around too long. I got home just as Olaf called out that dinner was ready (perfect timing!) and we all ate out in the garden. It was a perfect evening for a barbeque.