Vertragulous

I feel like I should update after my last super emo post. That same night I figured I should just suck it up and lay my demands out on the table, so I stayed up late writing a 2-page word document in German of what I thought all my responsibilities were and also quoted my contract and and wrote out some suggestions for how I thought the different clauses should play out in real life. The next morning I brought my computer upstairs and presented it to my host Mom for discussion. We ended up having a pretty good conversation, where I brought up several important things:

I'm supposed to get four evenings off a week. My entire first week I worked every night (including the weekend) until at least 8:30pm. Host Mom said she didn't know that was in there. She printed it off the internet, but apparently didn't read it. Anyway, now I'm definitely going to make sure and peace out after Abendbrot four times a week and forego getting beaten up and verbally abused by the 5-year old (who continues to call me "Opa", which means "Grandpa").

I also accrue 2 days paid vacation time a month, so 24 days for the year. This means I am so going to Brighton and London to visit my friends and wherever else calls to me!

If I work an extra night I get another night off, or an extra night off the next week.

Basically the main consensus was that if I feel like I'm working too much or over my 30 hours, I should just say so and they'll sort it out. That's good, I guess, but I really wish they would keep track of it as it puts me in a sort of awkward position to be like, "hey, I'm tired of this and you keep giving me too much stuff to do, bye!" I am happy to hear that they respect my need for me-time, however.

Anyway, I went out into Berlin Friday and Sunday and that was good. I've sort of realized that I generally feel the craziest when I'm here in Kleinmachnow with not much to do. It's definitely beautiful here, but I feel really isolated from the world, especially during my awkward hours off in the middle of the day when no one else is free. I want to be in the hustle and bustle of the city with other people my age being social! I will definitely be happy when my German course starts October 10th, as maybe then I'll feel like I actually have some purpose to my life besides watching every single episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" on the internet. Also, I seriously need to make friends. Preferably friends who aren't going to leave in 5 minutes and actually live here. Or rather, a nice balance of au-pair + other friends, as it is nice to be able to vent with other au-pairs in the same situation as me. I'm just so tired of having to re-make friends every year after 6 years of switching countries and I really do want to stay here and make this my home somehow.

Speaking of, I really need to find more than one Master's program to apply to in the Berlin-area! Ahhh!