*Done With Deutch*

Yay!! After 25 weeks, German lessons are finally over! I wish I could say that I left class last night and am now fully fluent, but that is certainly farrrrr from the case. Even if I had actually paid attention and put an effort into it, I'd still barely be able to make it past formalities. Whatever, this phrase here is all I really need:

"Guten Tag, ich bin Alyssa. Ich komme aus den U-S-A und spreche Englisch. Sprechen Sie Englisch?"
"Good day, I am Alyssa. I come from the USA and speak English. Do you speak English?"

If they respond "nein" I say "danke" and walk away. If they speak English, then we carry on.

Before class, I had to pick up a letter showing that I attended class and how many hours I was there so Stephanie can mail it to the au pair agency. There were 44 class hours in total and I was expecting to have like, 30 hours because of the weeks I was in America and the 3 classes I missed because of illness. I only had 24. Apparently, those days when the teacher gave us homework and told us to work on it for the last 30-45 minutes of class and I just left early, she marked me absent. Bullshit. Ah well, whatever. I would much rather work on the dreaded Deutch from the comfort of my bed in my PJs, rather than in a hot classroom with the Albainian staring at me like I was a piece of meat and the mother/daugther duo from Kosovo obviously talking about me.

Speaking of the creep-ass Albanian, the last lesson ended without incident from him. Ever since the night I flipped out on him and told him he had ZERO chance with me, he's pretty much avoided me, but last night he decided to give it one more go. He asked me to go get a glass of wine with him-I said no, I had to relieve the babysitter (Stephanie is skiing this week) and that was that. No grabbing my arm. No callin me "pretentious" or "the American bitch". He just walked away.

I'm still trying to recover from this weekend's lack of sleep. I know that I'm getting older because it is becoming harder to do. I was up til like 5AM Saturday (well, Sunday) and I forced myself out of bed at 10AM so I would sleep that night. I did, and I ended up sleeping almost all day Monday. Then, I couldn't sleep Monday night and despite sleeping last night, I am still dog tired. Plus, I stopped drinking pop, so I don't even have anything for a pick-me-up.

The kids have started stagnating with their English progression and I'm not sure what to do know. They have a pretty large vocabulary and now I'm trying to work on grammer/sentence structure and pronunciation with them, but it is very slow going. German sentences are opposite English ones, so they get mixed up often. Instead of  "Can I have a glass of water, please?" it's "Water please, can I have glass?" And they pronounce everything with some weird French-esque accent. Dog and dark sound exactly alike and "water" is pronounced "waller".

In addition to my usual day-to-day duties, I am becoming quite the little cook. I'm taking the usual ingredients (chicken breasts or patties, ground hamburger, sausage, pasta, rice, spaztl and various fresh and canned vegetables) and experimenting-creating new things. Or, at least trying new recipes. A new favorirte is Sheperd's Pie. Very delicious and great on a cold day, but a pain in the ass to make. Especially because some of the the ingredients the online recipes call for cannot be found in Switzerland (example: Worstishire sauce) so I have to substitute and hope everything turns out well. And....this dish takes nearly TWO HOURS to make, from the time I start peeling potatoes til I serve it up. It gives me something to do though, instead of just sitting on the couch in the morning, reading a book or surfing the web. (When Alessio is at kindergarten, Liano is sad and doesn't like to do much more than lay on the couch)

I had the CRAZIEST dream last night.....my friend Amanda and I were visiting Brandi at college. We were smoking and drinking at her table so she got angry. (We were smoking purple braids of grass and taking shots of pink, bubbly liquid.) Brandi got angry and left the room and then her neighbor showed up. (In reality, this guy plays hockey at SV. I Facebook stalked him the other night and told Brandi she should date him when she gets to SV. She said no.) Amanda and I were clearly infatuated and Brandi came back and got angry. Amanda and I sprouted pink & purple wings and then Brandi started throwing butter knives at us. We grabbed the guy and went outside. Brandi followed us and when she came out, all three of us were on the roof. Super weird, right? I wish I knew someone who interpreted dreams. I put out a request as my FB status, let's hope someone answers!!

And, I've saved the best news for last! Lady Gaga's Monsters Ball tour will be playing in Detroit Labor Day Weekend!!!!!!!!!! We don't have tickets yet, but I am definitely going! Not sure yet if it will be a reunion for Amanda, Hillary and I (Island friends)  or if Emily Wisniewski and I (Brandi's friend who is one of my "little sisters") will go. Either way, it's sure to be amazing as Gaga is seriously the coolest! =)