Days since last round up: 7
Estimated fluency: 68% (must stress that this is very arbitrary and incredibly hard to judge incremental increase, but we’ve not gone backwards so I’m being generous)
Major achievements: record low of Geh Wegs, record high of successful school runs (5/5 to be precise)
Best bit of vocab: kleckern (can be literally just ‘to spill’ but is also used to mean ‘to make a mess while eating’ - essential vocabularly if working with young children)
Reading: Haymatland: Wie wollen wir zusammen leben? by Dunja Hayali
Weather: shockingly reminiscent of home (by which I mean it’s rained all day)
It’s officially summer holidays now, and the week got off to a suitably relaxed start with both girls in their respective daycare for 9am. If Monday went well, then the rest of the week got better and better as far as mornings went: the mum had to go into the office a few days this week so I had my first school runs with just me getting the kids ready, and the prospect didn’t live up to its disatrous potential. After a month here as of today, the girls are clearly just getting used to me, so there is very little to report about the morning routine; apart from a few passing bad moods (mostly the kids, occasionally me) things have been running very smoothly. And it’s similar in the evenings: everything is generally more relaxed because it’s the holidays, but I really feel like I’m starting to get into the rhythm of living with the family and fitting into their lives. The best part is that the girls are starting not just to tolerate me but actually to be enthusiastic about me being here. The younger one, who I thought was going to take some time yet to win over, has already told me twice that “ich liebe dich”. Both times a “du sollst weggehen” has come not too far afterwards, but we’re definitely making progress, and she’s stopped screaming and crying at me. A particular highlight was a midweek evening when we went to the nearby playground/skatepark, just me with both girls, and they were running around and sliding down, me helping them up and sometimes sliding with them, and them not wanting to go home until it was dark. It’s a great example of one of my favourite things about au pairing: it’s kind of a job, but once you get that connection with the kids, it doesn’t really feel like you’re working.
Otherwise, this week was a mixture of exploring Munich and getting some reading done. I’m carrying on with the same theme as last week, this time with Daheim Unterwegs by Ika Hügel-Marshall, and Hört Auf Zu Fragen, Ich Bin Von Hier! by Ferda Ataman. I had time to check out a few cafés (the best of which you can see here), and it definitely wasn’t the week for hardcore sightseeing, with temperatures about 30 degrees most days. Now that I’m getting into the routine, I’m starting to appreciate just how much free time I have. Even when I’m with the kids, it very rarely feels like intense ‘work’, sometimes they’ll play with friends and I’ll see to a bit of housework or maybe even get some reading done. Otherwise, 30 hours a week gives me plenty of time during the day and at the weekend to take a step off the Oxford treadmill and enjoy life at a pace that isn’t crammed in to eight weeks at a time.
Munich is a great city to walk around - even outside of the Altstadt everywhere is generally very ‘nice’, you rarely find ugly buildings which stand out, and the different neighbourhoods all have a slightly different vibe, which I’m beginning to get a taste of. I discovered two new neighbourhoods as well as some fantastic fresh food markets this week (Josephsplatz and Elisabethplatz) and am very much enjoying the range of cafés and restaurants. Also very impressed so far with the vegan and veggie options - if you know what you’re lookinng for, then there are some fantastic places where you wouldn’t even think twice about meat not being on the menu. There are also loads of places just to sit and chill, from the English Gardens to the Olympiapark, without spending a penny. I’ve also noticed that Munich is a very green city - you’re never far away from a park or leafy space, and some of them offer an absolute escape, letting you forget that you’re even in an urban centre.
At the weekend the family went to the local outdoor Schwimmbad in the morning, leaving me time to have a relaxed brunch in town at the amazing Tushita Teehaus, before helping around the house in the afternoon, and then meeting another Oxford friend who’s just moved to Munich for dinner and drinks. The hot weather broke as we were sitting on Gärtnerplatz (lucky under umbrellas), which actually made the walk home much more pleasant, aside from the vague dread of the heavens opening again; strolling along Leopoldstraße on balmy Munich evening as the Aperol Spritz wears off really is a lovely feeling.
Sunday was definitely the day for a museum visit, not only because of the €1 reduced entry fees , but also because of the British style weather, with rain throughout most of the day. Original plans to go alone were improved when Anna (the Oxford friend) said she would come along, and brought her German-Italian flatmate. The Alte Pinothek proved well worth the price; I’m no art expert and probably missed a lot of the finer details, but I was happy to see one of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, alongside some Klimt. These works are usually in the Neue Pinothek, which covers the 19th century, but a selection has been moved into an exhibition space in the Alte while the Neue is undergoing renovation. A shame that I probably won’t get to see the Neue Pinothek in its entirety while I’m here, but it did make today’s trip very efficient. The Alte isn’t a small gallery anyway, with an impressive selection of art spanning the middle ages to romanticism, and from across the world. By the time were were done we were ready for a drink at the nearby Cafe An Der Uni. I haven’t sampled Bavarian beer since I’ve been here, and think I’ll be sticking to Saftschorle and Aperols for a while yet, but I’ve been told a few times that Munich would be the place to start drinking beer if I was ever going to. I don’t think my integration is that complete yet, but I’m definitely starting to feel at home, both with the family and in the city at large.
