Last week was Pauline's first week of Kindergarten, and boy was it rough . . . on me. The leader of Pauline's group, Frau Pfeiffer, wouldn't allow any of the new Kindergartners to stay more than an hour, which means from 9 am to 10 am. And I thought it sucked having to pick her up 3 hours early from Maria's! Seriously, what is the point in even taking her to the Kindergarten if she's only there long enough to eat breakfast and then go home? That's not convenient for anybody. Monday wasn't actually all that bad because I had to go to Köln to register for my test prep course and the test itself (which I'll get into in a moment) so Pauline spent the day with Güner, Zaynep and Elif. I just had to pick her up in the afternoon and bring her home before I went to class in the evening. But then on Tuesday, which was actually the first day she went to Kindergarten, I had her from the time Esther brought her home at 10:30 until that evening. I had promised Güner that I would help her out with her girls so that she could get some housework done, so Pauline and I spent most of the day there, again. Pauline and Zaynep kept each other entertained and I looked out for Elif while Güner caught up on the laundry they had acquired over their month long vacation and cleaned up their apartment. Wednesday was pretty much the same, except that we were only at Güner's for a little while before I brought the 2 older girls back here and let her have some time alone (more or less, since Elif is relatively easy when Zaynep isn't there) to run errands and do her own thing. Thursday we intended to leave Pauline at Kindergarten until 12, but then we got a call from Frau Pfeiffer saying that there was a misunderstanding; Pauline wasn't allowed to stay an extra 2 hours, she was only allowed to stay 2 hours total. So I had to drop what I was doing and take the bicycle to the Kindergarten to pick her up, then lock the bike up there and walk home with her. Do you have any idea how long it takes to walk from the Kindergarten to the house? Neither do I, but when you do it with Pauline it takes almost an hour! That was a big waste of my day. Once again I was unable to finish the ironing and laundry that I had started at the beginning of the week because of needing to take care of Pauline all day. Not to mention that, after having an hour delay on my train home from class because of something that was on the tracks between the Hauptbahnhof and Hansaring, I had to walk to the Kindergarten at 11 at night to pick up the bike and take it home. Then, on Friday, when Esther talked it over with Frau Pfeiffer and they agreed that Pauline would stay until 12:15, I got another phone call at around 11 saying that Pauline was crying and exhausted and needed to be picked up. Not wanting to have to go through the same BS with the bike again, Esther told me to take the razor scooters so that, in the very least, Pauline would move faster on the way home and it wouldn't take so ridiculously long. That was actually a great idea, until Pauline decided to turn her head to look at something, which she definitely isn't coordinated enough for, and fell on her face. Thank god she had a helmet on, because that could really have sucked. She was ok, mostly just dirty and startled and she had an abrasion on her upper lip, but she was skittish after that and was hesitant to get back on the scooter. So instead of taking about an hour to get home, it took about 45 minutes. Once again, I was not able to finish the laundry until after the kids went to bed that night. Oh, and did I mention that it was raining all week? Usually not a problem for me, but it kinda blows when you have no car and you have to schlep the little monster around all over the place in the wet weather. Yeah, it was a long, exhausting, crappy week.

The ordeal with Pauline wasn't the only thing that sucked, though, unfortunately. I spent a good part of my day on Monday to go to the VHS office in Köln to register for my class and the TestDaF that I need to take in October. This is the test that determines whether or not I have an acceptable level of German comprehension to study at the university. Anyway, that didn't happen. There are no spots left. Yeah, it is as stupid as it sounds. They didn't reserve the test spots for people taking the test prep course, and there were only 10 spots available total, and they were all full. What the F?! That was annoying. So now I have to wait until November before I can even take the exam, which is cool considering that my visa expires in October. I still haven't decided if I'm going to follow through with the prep course now that I'm not taking the test. I might just wait until the next one so that it's all still fresh in my brain when it comes time for the exam.

Yesterday was a good day, at least. The family picked me up in the city at 1 after my class and we drove to visit friends of theirs who live in Wesel, which is at the north end of Nordrhein-Westfallen. They had actually been here to visit us in March or April, and invited us all to go to their house this weekend. We had off and on thunderstorms (which got kind of crazy at times) with sunshine in between, so it was definitely interesting weather. Luckily the sun stayed out just long enough for Thanos to finish grilling before the rain cut loose again. It was a really pleasant visit, though. Thanos and Trixie are totally sweet, and their little boys love me, of course. Yannis is 10, and we played ping pong, Mariokart on Nintendo DS, and he showed me his really cool LegoTechnik trucks. I'm not entirely sure how old Leon is, but I think he's somewhere between Gustav and Pauline. Anyway, those boys could not be any more different from eachother. Yannis is quiet, well behaved, and very intelligent, whereas Leon is a total spaz and more of a troublemaker. But I had a great time playing with all of the kids, and we had tons of delicious food and coffee and cake, so it was definitely a good day.

Tomorrow Pauline goes back to Kindergarten, and I just have to wait and see how it all turns out. If we even have her stay an extra half hour each day then she'll be spending the whole day there by the end of next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

This last week has been relatively uneventful, at least for me. The Kindergarten is still on vacation, which means that both of the kids have been home all week. That sounds like it could be horrible and stressful, but Olaf was on vacation all week, too. Although I had intended to take responsibility for the little guys most of the time so that Olaf could relax and enjoy his time off, it didn't quite work out that way. He took the kids on little outings every day, either to the city when he went to the doctor, or into the woods with Amelie, or grocery shopping, or to the animal park, whatever. For the most part I just helped with meals, getting the kids ready for bed, and taking care of Amelie all week. Friday I took over the kids, though. Esther and Olaf had an appointment with a dealership to check out a new car, and I took the kids to the zoo in Köln for the day. We got to the zoo at around 11 and didn't leave until 3, which was a really long day for them. Esther told me later that she's never stayed longer than 2, max 3, hours with the kids at the zoo. They're so funny, though, because they get all excited about going to see a certain animal, and it's absolutely imperative that we get there as soon as possible, and literally as soon as they get a glimpse of it they've had enough and want to go do something else. That's definitely typical at their age, though. Little kids aren't exactly known for their exceptional attention span. There are 2 animals, however, that can always captivate the children: penguins and elephants. Gustav and I actually had a little bonding moment at the elephant house. The kids were both standing all the way up against the window to look down and watch the elephants, and I was standing next to Pauline. After a short time I didn't see Gustav anymore, and I figured he had gone up the stairs to the higher level to watch from up there. The last time I was at the zoo with the family he took off on his own to see the elephants from up there, and then even disappeared outside to watch them from yet another view. Anyway, point being, I wasn't particularly worried because I know that Gustav tends to be mesmerized by the elephants and that he was still nearby. So I stepped back from the glass to get a better view of the rest of the room while still keeping an eye on Pauline so that I could spot Gustav, wherever he had gone. Then suddenly I felt something slam up against my right thigh. I looked down, and it was Gustav, with his arms wrapped tightly around my leg and tears in his eyes. There was a woman behind him who explained to me that she saw him standing at the exit, crying, looking for me. The poor little thing had lost sight of me and Pauline and thought that he was lost, that I had left him there. It was so sad and pathetic, and I felt so horrible. I immediately picked him up and squeezed him in my arms and he wrapped himself around my neck. Then I sat down with him on the bench for a second with him in my lap and still holding onto me, and I explained that I would never leave him behind. I could feel him calming down and start to relax as he sat there in my arms: he had been so scared and tense. Poor little man. After we were reunited, he was able to enjoy the rest of the day and he was holding my hand for a good part of the time.

Yesterday was the first day of my new language course. I'm actually still in the same course I was in before, but now I've added another weekend course to it. This one is specifically a test prep course for the proficiency test I have to take at the end of September, and we only meet one day a week from 9:15 to 1 for 5 weeks. At first I was really nervous about taking this course. The teacher for my other course is pretty adamant about the fact that we need to complete the B2 series (which I am currently only 1/4 the way through) before even attempting to take this test, and that without completing it there's absolutely no way we will succeed on the exam. Not the most inspiring words of encouragement, especially when I have a tendency to not trust my own abilities in the first place. Plus, according to the official prerequisite regulations, I'm not actually eligible to take this prep course. After meeting the instructor and hearing the introductions from the others, however, I am no longer afraid. Some of the others haven't taken a language course in over a year, if they've taken one at all, and 3 or 4 of them have made unsuccessful attempts at this test before. I still don't feel like I'm necessarily ready to take this test, but I don't feel hopeless, either. The thing that sucked about yesterday, though, was that when I left in the morning I apparently took the wrong key. Actually, I didn't take a key at all, but rather the garage door opener. When I got home there was nobody here to let me in, and they weren't answering their cell phones so I had no way of knowing where they were, when they were coming back, or if one of the neighbors had a spare key that I could use. So instead of sitting on my butt waiting for them, I went back to the train station and headed into Weiden to go to the mall. I got something to eat and wandered around for a bit, but I didn't really want to spend any money (although I found several pair of boots that I have to have, and I bought a really cute jacket that only cost 19 Euro) so I was really just wasting time. When I got home at 8:30 in the evening they still weren't here and still weren't answering the phones. Luckily I saw Markus (Jette's dad) and was able to ask him if they had a spare key, which they did. They had just gotten back from their vacation in Holland yesterday afternoon, which was really lucky for me because the family didn't come home until about an hour later, and that would have really sucked to have to wait that long before I was able to get into the house.

Today is simply going to be a relaxation day. Right now I'm sitting in my room enjoying the deliciously scented candles that my mom sent me. A couple weeks ago I got a phone call from my mom, who was in Pier 1 and called to tell me about all of their fun fall decorations and how much it made her miss me. Going to Pier 1 was like our favorite pastime, especially when they had all of their fall stuff. And because we simply can't help ourselves when we go in their, or when we see anything related to fall, she bought me some decorations for my room, along with, of course, pumpkin spice scented candles and oil. So now my room smells like autumn (which is good since Amelie farts in here all the time) and I feel very relaxed and at home in my room. Thanks, Mom! I also finally hung up my last painting, which I did a long time ago and have already posted a picture of, but now it's finally on the wall above my bed. If I make any more paintings, I don't know where I'm going to put them because I'm running out of wall space. Oh well.

I can't believe that I haven't written anything in here since Paris. That was over 2 weeks ago. Everything has been so crazy around here lately, with my language course, and the Kindergarten going on vacation, and trying to prepare for a super hard language test in September. It's kind of stressful, and I've been really worn out because of all of it.

On the bright side, though, Lee came to Germany again. He and his friend John flew into Hamburg on August 1st at around 8:30 am. Since they had waited too long to purchase their RailPass, and therefore had to have it mailed to me, I went up early in the morning to meet them at the airport and give them their train ticket. And I mean early, too. My train left the Hauptbahnhof in Köln at around 2 in the morning. I myself had a RailPass because it was cheaper to buy that than to buy round-trip tickets to Hamburg and back, so I didn't have a seat reservation for this trip. I figured it wouldn't really matter, anyway, since there shouldn't really be too many people on the train at 2 am on a Sunday. Wrong. The train was packed. I ended up having to sit on the floor for the entire time, which was about 5 hours. I was not a happy camper. When I got to the airport, I saw John and his friends (who he met a long time ago on the internet and who live near Hamburg) but not Lee. That's because Lee had to report lost luggage. Yeah, awesome. He came all the way to Germany for 2 weeks and all he had with him was one change of clothes because his luggage managed to get lost somewhere along the way. It was not a good start to the trip.

After we got some food at the Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg we put all of their luggage in a locker and went on a walkabout. Sebastian, Yvette and Nicole (the 3 who are from the Hamburg area) led the way and showed us some of the basic sights of Hamburg, like city hall and some churches, the port, that sort of thing. Then we went and sat down in a park for a little while. I fell asleep until it started raining, and then it was time to move on. It wasn't actually raining that hard, so we just went and checked out the indoor tropical garden they had and then went back out and hung out in the park again for a little while. The train that Lee and John were going to take to Berlin was leaving Hamburg around 6, so after we relaxed a little bit in the park we all headed back to the Hauptbahnhof. The German part of the group went their own way (after clarifying plans of when and where they were all supposed to meet up again in Wacken for the concert) and I put the boys on their train and sent them on their way. I was thoroughly exhausted, so I went and got on the next available train heading toward Köln. It was going to require a train change about an hour into the trip, but I didn't care because I just wanted to be on my way home. Unfortunately there was a problem with the train, and it didn't leave nearly on time. In fact, the next train heading to Köln (which was also a direct route, without requiring me to change trains) pulled up in the track across the platform as we were sitting there waiting to leave. I didn't feel like waiting any more, especially for a trip that wasn't direct, so I switched trains and was on my way home. Unfortunately, the train was once again pretty packed, and I had to sit on the floor almost the entire time. I managed to find a seat a few different times, but each time I was kicked out because someone had a reservation for that seat, and then it was back to the floor. Honestly, sometimes when you start on the floor it's better to just stay there. Otherwise you look for a seat and if you don't find one, your spot on the floor may be taken when you get back, and that just sucks. So with the lost luggage, and sitting on the floor of a train for almost 10 hours, and having fat blisters on the back of my heels from the shoes I wore the day before, and feet so sore and swollen that I wasn't able to put my shoes back on after I had taken them off on the train, it was a pretty hectic and stressful day. It made me immensely happy to see Lee, but I was definitely relieved when I got home and was able to lie down in my bed.

Last Sunday I made the trip to Hamburg again, but this time I made sure to reserve a seat. I had Lee's luggage (which showed up here at the house late Wednesday night) and I met the guys at the Hauptbahnhof so that we could all go to the hotel together. It was actually a pretty uneventful day, since we were all so tired and wanted to be able to unwind a little bit. At first we all just hung out in the one room talking because they still hadn't finished cleaning John's room from the previous guests. Once he was able to move into his room, the boys took showers and we all ended up napping before heading out to find some dinner. Like I said, an uneventful but necessary day.

Monday morning we all got up and had breakfast in the hotel. I love eating hotel breakfasts in Europe. Anyway, after we finished eating John went down the street to a laundromat because he didn't have any more clean clothes, and Lee and I went wandering around the area while we waited for him. Once he was done we headed toward the center of Hamburg to find the Miniatur Wunderland Museum, which Lee had seen on TV shortly before he flew over here. The line was so long that we actually bought tickets for a later entry and then checked out a few other things in the meantime. We found a church that had been completely destroyed during the war (aside from the bell tower), and they left it in ruins as a memorial. We took the elevator to the top of the tower to see the view from up there, and then went down into the crypt to see the historical display they had down there. They had a map that showed the destruction levels of Hamburg in 1945, and it was crazy. The city was absolutely destroyed during the war. It's amazing that anything survived.

The Miniatur Wunderland Museum itself was absolutely intense! I have never been so fascinated by a model train in my entire life. In addition to the trains traveling around the tracks, there are cars that drive on the roads without being on a track. They change lanes, they stop at stoplights, they simulate traffic jams, and they pull over when the fire trucks come through. Yeah, firetrucks. There is simulated fire in various parts of the display, and fire trucks come from little fire stations, with lights and sirens and everything, and congregate at the location of the fire. It was crazy. Most of the moving road traffic was in the United States part of the display and not so much in Europe, but that's probably because it's a newer part. In one section they actually have water that experiences high and low tide (a difference of 4 cm) and a cruise ship that steers itself around the "sea" without any track or anything to guide it. Oh, and did I mention that they also simulated night? The lights change, so it feels like there's actual sunset/sunrise and night time. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain how cool and elaborate this place is. We actually spent almost 5 hours there because there are a million little details everywhere you look. It may have taken up most of our day, but I'm so glad we went.

After we left the museum we headed toward Reeperbahn, which is the red light district of Hamburg. It's the #1 tourist attraction in the city apparently. We didn't stay for very long because it was late, we were tired, John was starting to feel sick, and we were slightly out of place there anyway. We got ourselves some Döner for dinner and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before leaving for Köln in the morning.

When we got to Köln the first thing we had to do was go to the Apotheke to get John some medicine. He got hit pretty hard with a cold and was desperately in need of some decongestants. Since he was feeling so miserable, we went straight to the hotel in Deutz (which is just on the other side of the river from the Dom) to check in and left John there while Lee and I went to Königsdorf to see the family. Esther and Olaf were planning on barbecuing for us that night because it was the only chance that Lee was going to have to see the kids before they went on vacation. Wednesday morning Olaf drove the little guys to Münster to stay with his aunt for a few days, and Gustav was all excited that he was going without his parents. Anyway, Lee was so excited to be able to see the family, especially Pauline, and the kids were both so excited to see him. The past couple of weeks Pauline had been asking me when Lee was coming, and she actually had me call him on his cell phone once so that she could say hi to him. She absolutely loves him, and it's adorable. Even Gustav, who was a little shy the last time and never really seemed to care as much as Pauline, was wanting to play with Lee and talk to him the whole time. He was upset when it was time to go to bed because he wanted to stay up until Lee left. They were too cute.

Wednesday morning we slept in a little bit, since we had been here at the house until late at night and we knew that John needed the sleep. Lee and John's friend Ryan was going to be joining us in Köln for the day, since he's been in Amsterdam for a couple weeks and wasn't that far away. We didn't know exactly what time he was coming in, just that it was supposed to be around 11, so Lee and I went to the Hauptbahnhof to pick him up. We went to the Starbucks there first so that Lee could check his email and get Ryan's train information. His train had arrived 20 minutes before we did. Ooops. We went quickly to the track he was going to be on, and found him just as he was about to head downstairs to find a phone to figure out where the hell we were. Once we had collected Ryan we went back to the hotel to pick up John and then went to Altstadt to eat at the Haxenhaus. Lee loves that place, I think particularly due to the fact that it's been around since 1231. We also went inside the Dom, which was the first time I'd actually been inside at a time when they weren't conducting mass. It was really cool because every other time I've been in I was only able to go as far as the back row of pews, but this time it was completely open and we were able to really look at all the windows and the altar and everything. I personally don't think that the inside is quite as impressive as the outside, but it's still gorgeous. The guys were definitely impressed.

Since John was still feeling really crappy, we took him back to the hotel to sleep and Lee, Ryan and I hung out in our room talking for a little bit before we decided to go out for a walk. We just kind of took off without really knowing where we were going or what we were going to find, but that was the point. We ended up walking all the way back to the Dom from the hotel, which was pretty far. We got there perfectly in time for Ryan to hop on the last train to Amsterdam. It was too bad that he had to go back so soon, but he didn't want to sleep in John's room and end up getting sick himself, so he didn't really have too much of a choice. It was cool that he was able to come down and meet up with us, though.

Thursday was definitely a lazy day. We stayed in bed until almost noon, and then we called John at around 1 to make sure he was still alive. He was, so we headed into the main part of the city again so that the guys could buy some souvenirs. More importantly, though, we tried to find out at the Lufthansa check-in center in the Hauptbahnhof if it would be possible for them to skip the first leg of their flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt and instead simply check in and board in Frankfurt. It's only about an hour and a half to get from Köln to Frankfurt but over 4 hours to get to Hamburg, so it really didn't make sense to get up at 1 in the morning and take a train all that way for no reason. After making several trips to the Starbucks to get essential pieces of information from the internet and calling both Lufthansa and United Air, we learned that it was possible, but only if the they paid a minimum fee of 250 Euro each. What a load of crap! They were going to be boarding the same plane, with the same tickets and the same seats either way, why should they have to pay extra money to not fly? I hate pointless bullshit policies like that.

Anyway, once again we spent a short amount of time in the city before we took John back to the hotel (the train tickets that Lee and John had require them to travel together, so we couldn't just send John on his own). Then Lee and I grabbed my little grill and my blanket and headed to Aachener Weiher to hang out. We went to a kiosk to get something to drink and then set up camp before I went to find a grocery store to buy some stuff to throw on the grill. After several unsuccessful attempts to light the charcoal, I went back to the kiosk to buy new charcoal and some paraffin cubes to get it started. That worked out much better!! I had tried inviting some of my friends to come and join us, but none of them were able to make it so it was just Lee and me the whole time. That didn't matter, though, because at least we got to spend the time together, and it was a lot of fun. I don't know what time it was when we left, but I think it was probably around 11:30 at night. We carried all of the stuff back to the hotel, got Lee packed and ready to leave, and then hung out for an hour before we called John and left the hotel at 1 am. Their train was leaving the Hauptbahnhof at 2:10, so we wanted to be sure that there was plenty of time to get there and get them on the train. Luckily the train was fairly empty, so they were able to find seats. I waited there talking to Lee in the doorway of the train until it was time for departure, and then they left and I went straight back to the hotel and slept until it was time for me to check out.

I've spent the last few days hanging out with friends in Köln and helping Esther and Olaf paint the kids' playground white. They picked up the kids today and brought them back this evening, and now tomorrow everything is back to normal. I wish my vacation could last longer, and that Lee didn't have to go home so soon. I'm not quite ready to go back to the usual yet.