he easiest part first and sort of work your way into the more stressful stuff. Although, I must say, the reading comprehension was much more difficult than any of the practice exams that we did in the course, but I'm sure I still did ok. This is the only part of the test that has as much to do with logic as it does with language, if not more, and as an American I have the advantage of being trained for 12 years on how to take such pointless, standardized tests, and I was always good at them. After a 10 minute break we moved on to the listening portion of the test, which again I think I did fairly well on, but not as well as I have on various practice versions. It kind of sucked because twice during this part of the test there was a loud, obnoxious sound coming from god knows where and we couldn't understand what was being said on the CD. Luckily, they're not jerks and rewound the CD so we could hear it over again. Once the listening was done we had half an hour to relax before we had to begin the writing section. I went to Subway, because it was now about 1 and I hadn't eaten anything. The writing section I'm not terribly happy with, primarily because I didn't finish my essay and the last section of what I did write was a little rushed. I'm sorry, but 1 hour is simply not enough time to write a decent essay in a foreign language. I know people who can't even accomplish that in their native language, let alone someone else's. Not to mention that I was prepared to have to write something about the economy or education system, and instead we got a question about the environment. Great. But, my essay was far more complete than any of the ones I attempted in class, so it could be worse, right? The speaking part we had to do in 2 groups, since there were 12 of us and they only have 6 computers that they can use at one time to record our responses. Luckily I was part of the first group, because having to wait 40 minutes would have been just brutal for me. I was already way too nervous about this part of the test. I think I did fairly well, though. Of course the goal is to strive for TDN 5 result on the exam, which is the highest score you can receive and basically equates to being proficient in the C1 level of the language, but I don't suppose I managed that. Maybe on the first 2 sections, but definitely not on the last 2. I will be surprised and highly disappointed in myself, however, if I don't end up with a TDN 4.Once I was done with the test, I had to go straight home and pick up Amelie from Esther's office. Since I had to leave so early in the morning and Olaf was in Basel, Esther had to walk Amelie and then took her with her to her office so that she didn't have to drive back home and then back to her office again. Amelie was definitely happy to see me when I got there. So Amelie and I walked home, I relaxed for a little bit (I think I managed to get in a 15 minute nap) and then Esther came home with the kids so we could all get ready to go to the St. Martin parade at the
Kindergarten. This year Pauline had her own lantern that she made in the Kindergarten, as opposed to having to use an old one of Gustav's. She was very proud of her lantern. Since it was raining we got the kids all decked out in their rain suits, put plastic bags around their lanterns so they didn't get wet, and headed out. To be completely honest I don't think the St. Martin celebration was nearly as nice this year as it was last year, and I can guarantee that I'm not the only one. For starters, St. Martin didn't have a horse this year because the horse was at another lantern parade. Second, the bon fire was rather small, as opposed to last year when it was ridiculously huge, a fact which highly disappointed Gustav. And, to top it off, because of one woman throwing a fit about the fact that there had been champagne present at a small birthday celebration for the woman who runs the Kindergarten, any and all alcohol has now been completely forbidden from Kindergarten events. That means there was no Glühwein, only tea and hot chocolate. It was quite clear that this was unacceptable, because basically once the parade through Königsdorf was done and the kids had all received their bread men from St. Martin, the place cleared out. Last year everyone hung around for a long time, enjoying the fire and sipping on Glühwein. This year, there was no celebration, nobody wanted to stick around, and it genuinely felt like it was incomplete. So, Esther and I came home and made our own Glühwein and homemade Eggnog. It was our little toast to me completing the exam and a proper end to St. Martin. Yesterday I spent most of the day babysitting. Esther and Olaf went to the soccer game in Köln so I stayed home with the kids. When Esther and Olaf got back, I went to go take care of Zeynep and Elif because Güner and Seydi had a function to go to. It was a really easy night, just long. They didn't get home until 2 in the morning. But Zeynep mostly listened to me and I didn't have to
struggle with her at all, and Elif was quite simple in comparison to last time. She didn't cry very much at all, mostly just when I laid her down to change her diaper. I think she thought I was putting her to bed, and that's what she was fussing about. After I get Zeynep ready and in bed I took Elif into the bedroom, turned out all the lights and closed the door and just held her in my arms with a little stuffed sheep that played a lullaby as I wandered around the room. Within 15 minutes (with very little crying) she was mostly asleep, so I laid down on the bed for a few minutes with her on my chest until she was sound asleep before I put her in her bed. That was at 9, and she was completely silent until about 11. As soon as I heard her fussing I went into the bedroom, picked her up and held her against my chest again, and she went right back to sleep. That was much better and easier than last time, when I had to wander around the apartment for an hour while she cried the whole time. She is so precious, though. Once they got back Seydi drove me home and I went straight to bed.
