Amsterdam and other Happenings

Well everyone, I finally have another post after a few weeks. It's funny how busy I can get here, which is nice. It's the days when I have nothing to do that I get the most homesick. Everything is going pretty okay on the home front. The family is really nice most of the time. The mother is extremely helpful and super nice. She cooked me dinner the other night and it was great (steak and potatoes!). The girls on the other hand tend to be a different story. The oldest daughter Lisa is still pretty ornery most of the time. Her boyfriend just left for London, so she compensates by yelling at her mother a lot. The younger girl Lena is really helpful but kinda condescending at the same time. She tells me what I'm doing wrong on a very consistent basis, which is actually really helpful, but gets a little aggravating when a 12 year old treats you like a child. O well, I've talked to some of the other Americans and they have some worse living situations, so I should be pretty grateful that I've only had a few blips:

Times one of the girls left the bathroom with no toilet paper prior to me using it: 5
(P.S. the toilet paper is kept in a closet down the hall rather than in the one bathroom in the house)

Times I have bought my own groceries only to come back home and find out one of the girls ate all of it: 2
(I guess this was really more my fault, I should label my food. The girls don't really know who bought it)

Oh and one of the girls threw my Lou-fa away. I don't know why, it was just gone when I got in the shower the other day.

I have only three more weeks of language classes and then I'm thrown into the wolves. We have a big test at the end of the week that will determine what level my proficiency certificate will be for when I go apply for jobs. Its actually really important to have a proof that you can speak another language. While I'm on the subject for applying for jobs, everything is really different. On your resume you have to have a picture, which I think is outrageous. But, Germans think its necessary. Also, unlike an American resume where you are encouraged to list your accomplishments and how much money you saved a company or your productivity numbers, those are heavily discouraged. They think you're bragging when you put it in your resume. Pretty much all they want is where you worked, how long, and your job description.


Last weekend we took a trip up to Amsterdam. It's a really pretty city with a lot going on. Its kinda frustrating when you've been practicing a language for a month and then you go to another country and don't know anything. Luckily, most everybody in Amsterdam spoke English since its not too far from England. I was able to see the Anne Frank House which was really interesting and the Van Gogh Museum which was overpriced. Everything was really expensive, but that's to be expected. It was overall an enjoyable trip, saw some things that I won't forget!

Well everybody I don't know when the next time I will update will be, but I hope to hear from y'all soon.