Last night was a sad night. I went with Alex, Tommy and Steffi to Liblarersee to have our own little "Public Viewing" on the lifeguard dock. It was actually pretty cool and a lot of fun. We pulled out the grill and Tommy and Steffi brought a TV from home which we set up in the hut to watch the game. But then Germany lost. It was a major bummer, but it was no surprise from the way they were playing. Spain was simply the better team, and they deserved the win last night. Needless to say, we weren't exactly in a celebratory mood after the game, so we went swimming in the lake for a little bit and then went home.

Since I'm already on the subject of soccer, I guess I should just wrap up the last 2 weeks worth of World Cup adventures. Although I had plans to go to Public Viewings for all of the Germany games, I actually ended up watching the games against England and Argentina at home. For the England game the kids and I went next door to Jan and Nina's because Esther and Olaf had to drive to Bielefeld (more on that in a moment). We went over at around 3 for barbecue and then watched the first half of the game there. At half time we switched over to our house so that the kids would have something to do besides pester Jan and Nina during the game, and Esther and Olaf got home at the same time, so they watched the end of the game with us. Man, was that a good game! For the game against Argentina, I just simply didn't have the energy to go to a viewing. The night before I had met up with a friend from my language course, Gleyson, to watch the Brazil:Netherlands game. He's from Brazil, so he invited me to go with him to a Brazilian bar in Köln to watch the game. That was another sad day, and since we didn't feel like celebrating then, either, we went to this little lake in the city to have a beer and hang out. We called Elena and she brought another friend to come join us. We just sat around for a while, talking and having a good time, before we left and went to Gleyson's. That's where I passed out because I was so freaking tired, and I didn't wake up until about 10 or so the next morning. So I got home at around 12:30, and then I would have needed to change from my Brazilian gear into my German gear and head straight back into town to meet up with friends for the Germany game. I simply didn't have the energy, so I took a nap and stayed home to watch the game with the family. Less than 5 minutes before the kick off, the satellite signal went out because of the thunderstorm we were having. We practically shit bricks. Luckily Esther knew where we could watch live feed of the game on the internet, so we opened up Olaf's computer and I brought mine down to the family room so that we could all gather around the little screens to watch the game. We literally got the live feed running just as Müller scored the first goal. Talk about perfect timing! It was kind of funny to see us all huddled around the computer, but you do what you have to in an emergency. About 30 minutes into the game the signal came back, so at least we didn't have to watch the whole thing on the computer, either.

Ok, so back to Esther and Olaf's trip to Bielefeld. Esther got a phone call from her sister on Saturday (the 26th) saying that their mother had just been checked into the hospital. Then there was another call on Sunday morning saying that she had passed away. Esther and Olaf had to drive to Bielefeld to be with the sisters and so that Esther could see her mother one last time. It was going to be stressful enough as it was, so they didn't want to take the kids with them and asked if I would be able to stay and watch over them. We went to Pulheim with Britta and Markus and their 2 kids to go swimming, and then watched the game with Jan and Nina, as I mentioned earlier. Esther was definitely glad to have me around, because their last au pair wouldn't have even been around on a Sunday morning to help out if they needed her. Esther spent a good part of last week in Bielefeld, as well. She was there Tuesday and Wednesday to help her sisters make all of the funeral arrangements, and then the whole family went back on Friday for the funeral. It was a pretty rough week for Esther, but she's doing ok.

My language course ended last week, too. We all had agreed that it would be more fun to have a barbecue than to go to class (duh) so we made plans to meet at a park in Köln instead of going to the school, and everybody brought stuff for everyone else to eat and drink. The teacher was in on the plans, too, so we didn't just abandon her on the last day of class or anything. We also bought her a card and gift card as a thank you, because she was really awesome and made the class a lot of fun. We all had such a great time. Someone had brought a soccer ball, which I definitely enjoyed. Believe it or not, though, I was the only one there who had ever really played soccer. It felt good to be able to run around and play soccer, even if I was in a dress. Anyway, we all had such a good time that we're going to make plans to do it again just for the hell of it.

Last Sunday I went to the lake again with Alex, Tommy and Steffi. There were fewer people there on the dock this time than the first time, but it was still a lot of fun. And the water was really warm, which was pleasant. I really like going to the lake.

Before I forget, I need to mention something really adorable about Pauline. A few days ago I was getting ready to deliver the kids in the morning and I opened the cabinet by the front door to get my key. My key wasn't there, so I put my shoes on and, without saying a word about it, went to go look for my keys. Just as I was about to walk away Pauline, who was standing right next to the front door, looks up at me and says, "Amanda, hier ist deine Keys." Too freaking cute! I hadn't even mentioned the word keys, which means that, not only did she remember what they were called completely on her own, but she also was intuitive enough to recognize that I needed my keys. She is so damn smart, it's ridiculous. I love it when she throws English words into her daily language. "Hot" is another one that she uses all the time.

I think that's really all that I have for now. It's been a long time since I've updated this thing, and on the one hand I feel like a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks, but at the same time I feel like I have nothing to talk about. It's almost like too much has happened and I can't organize it all in my brain to talk about it. Plus, since the sun never seems to go down around here, the days all just kind of run together. I hate that about summer.