Well, after having a really rough start to my week, I was at least able to end it on a high note. Saturday was another meeting with the au pairs in Köln. We met at the Hauptbahnhof at 9 in the morning to head to the town of St. Goar in the Middle Rhein Valley. We were visiting the ruins of the medieval Schloss Rheinfels. I don't think it's possible for me to visit the site of ancient ruins and not have a good time. It always makes me feel happy and at home to be among archaeological remains. Of course, I'm a jackass and didn't charge my camera battery before the trip, so I don't have very many pictures right now. It's not entirely my fault, though, because I couldn't find my battery charger; it was very well hidden on top of my desk next to my computer. I used Elena's camera to take a lot of pictures, though, so I will be getting those from her next week in class. I want to go back and visit the castle again some time, too, but this time I'm bringing a flashlight. There were so many little tunnels (hallways, actually) and stairwells that were accessible except for the fact that you literally could see nothing because it was so dark. I'm too much like my mother, and I have to know what's there, so I definitely need to go back and check things out a little more.

Aside from the castle itself, the whole trip was great because it was so amazingly beautiful. This section of the Rhein is basically lined with ancient castles, which are dotted all along the banks of the river. We took a brief little cruise up the river to the wine village of Bacharach (named after Bacchus, not Burt) and we passed at least 3 castles on the way. The towns in the area are absolutely adorable, too. There were a ton of fachwerk houses and little cobblestone streets. It was basically your quintessential small European village. And there's an ice cream shop that makes Riesling ice cream. That was a delicious and interesting experience. The only thing that sucked was that, because of people not paying attention to the time, we missed our train out of Bacharach and had to wait around for a full hour until the next one came. It was kind of an obnoxious waste of time, and I was really tired and slightly sore (it was a a rather strenuous excursion considering that I had just had an operation), but otherwise it was a great trip.

Sunday was just simply awesome. My friend Alex (the DJ I met in Djerba) picked me up at around 1:30 in the afternoon to go to Euskirchen. We were going to a Public Viewing (which is the "German" word for a public showing of a soccer game) of the Germany-Australia game at 8:30. The reason he picked me up so early is that these 2 guys named Rudi and Tünn, who sing a song about the World Cup called "Afrika, wir sind da," were going to be performing at the event, and Alex is kind of like their promoter/agent. First we went to Alex's flat in Euskirchen, which is really cool. It's an attic loft, so it has the low slanted ceilings upstairs (which I just love), and it has a nice, peaceful view from the balcony. I could definitely live there. We left Alex's at around 5 to go to where the viewing was. It used to be a tennis complex but at some point they built a shelter over it, filled it with sand, and turned it into a party hall. It holds 6,000 people, so it's pretty big. Since we were with the band, we had backstage passes and were able to go in super early to hang out. Before the game started, Rudi und Tünn performed their song and I got to be on stage with them, taking pictures. I had a charged battery this time :)

The mood inside this place was so intense. It reminded me of the Simon and Garfunkle concert that I went to in Rome (though I have yet to witness anything even nearly that awesome). The sense of excitement was practically palpable. Not only did Germany totally kick Australia's ass, but they also played the best game of soccer that I've seen in a very long time. It reminded me of watching my brother's club team play back in high school, where they worked so well together as a team that they were basically able to make blind passes and know that someone was going to be there to get it. It was absolutely amazing, and an incredible experience to be there with all those fans. Like going to a huge party to watch the NBA finals or the Super Bowl, but way better because it wasn't basketball or football.

Needless to say, the atmosphere after the game was far more intense. It took almost 2 hours to get through the center of Euskirchen, which isn't exactly a big town (when I told Olaf where I watched the game his response was, "Haben sie schon Strom in Euskirchen?"), because the entire town was one big party. The streets were packed with cars that were essentially just parked. Everyone was hanging out of their windows and sunroofs, honking their horns, shouting, and singing. People were walking through the streets with flags and horns and whistles, and everyone was just celebrating. I can't wait to see what happens when they win the Cup ;-)

Once we finally got out of the center of town, we went back to Alex's flat to sleep. He had hardly slept the night before and it's about a half hour drive between Euskirchen and Köln each way, so he was just way too tired to make the drive. We set an alarm for 5:30 in the morning so that he could drive me back home in time for me to take a shower and help with the kids at 8. When I got here Amelie was at the door waiting for me, and I went up to my room to cuddle with her on the floor a little bit before I had to start moving. I got a phone call from Esther at about 7:30 asking me where I was because she thought I still hadn't made it home.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to follow through with my plan, which was to drop off Esther and the kids, walk with Amelie, and then sleep until 1. Instead, I had to take a rather distraught Pauline to Maria's (last week she started throwing fits in the morning about the fact that she had to go to Maria's, and she still cries and screams about it every morning), walk with Amelie, then come back and take care of Gustav while Esther slept for the rest of the morning to make up for the fact that she didn't sleep at all the night before. Gustav had a relatively high fever the night before, so he wasn't able to go to school yesterday. It wasn't like all the other times he's stayed home sick, though, where he's actually fine and full of energy and running around all over the place. This time he was really, genuinely ill. He had a tummy ache all day and ended up sleeping on the sofa for most of the morning and afternoon. Esther went shopping and picked up Pauline in the afternoon, then brought the little one home before going to her office for an appointment. The kids and I watched the soccer games, painted, and played a little bit until Esther got home, then it was off to school. Yeah, yesterday was a long day.

Gustav stayed home again today, but he's definitely feeling better. I don't think he had a fever at all today. We played for a long time in his room, first with puzzles and then we pretended to be pirates. His bed was the ship, and he was using a little soccer ball as a cannon to shoot the dinosaurs and tigers that were swimming after us and trying to attack us. At one point I laid down in the bed while he was fetching the ball, and then he called the bed our "Schlafschiff" or sleep ship. Then, later on while we were sitting on the lower mattress, he told me that we should go back up into the Schlafschiff to take a nap. He was really tired, but I didn't let him take a nap because I knew what it would mean for this evening. Instead we stayed there and cuddled while I read him stories.

When Olaf came in and told Gustav that it was time to get dressed because they were going to pick up Mama and go out to lunch, Gustav said that he didn't want to go because he wanted to stay with me. It didn't matter to him that they were going to a restaurant (which they don't do that often, so its kind of a big excursion for the kids) or that Esther was going to be there; he wanted to cuddle with me. So I made some noodles and cut up some bell pepper for Gustav and I to eat while Olaf went to lunch with Esther and then picked up Pauline. When they got home I already had the game on, so Olaf took little pauses from his work to look at the game and I took pauses from watching the game to play soccer with the kids in the garden. They keep themselves pretty well entertained, so it wasn't really a big deal that I was watching the game.

When we put the kids to bed Pauline went immediately to sleep, but Gustav didn't. He was sitting in his bed calling for Esther (Olaf had already made attempts to calm him down) simply because he wanted her to be there in his room. She told him that she'd be there as soon as the news was over, but that wasn't good enough and he kept making noise. I went in to quiet him down so that he didn't disturb Pauline, and since Esther wasn't coming he said he wanted me to cuddle with him again. So I climbed up into his bed and laid down next to him. As soon as I was there with him he closed his eyes, and I stayed there until he fell asleep. He was so exhausted. Tomorrow he will definitely be going back to Kindergarten, though.