Sunday #10

I was just glancing at the calendar (to see which day of the week Halloween will be), and realized I have seen 10 Sundays now here in Germany. I can´t decide if that sounds longer or shorter than I expected. Summer holiday (which sort of marks the end of my term here) will begin July 20, 2009. If I did my math correctly, that is in about 38 weeks, or something like that. I´m already over 1/4 there! That sounds not bad at all. I can do what I just did three more times... but then I think about 38 WEEKS - and it seems like a very long time. Especially when I think of spending every holiday away from home. Those are going to be difficult times. Not to mention the slow and painful months of January and February.

I also feel like I´m looking at all this with the wrong perspective. A part of me is also starting to panic that I have already spent 1/4 of my year, and there is still so much that I want to do, see, and learn while I´m here! I had a great day yesterday in Kiel with a couple new friends, and we talked about all the places we´d like to visit before leaving Germany. Copenhagen, Hamburg, Ireland... are will really going to be able to squeeze these things in before we go? I have hopes, but have even more doubts. It is difficult to work out time off with host families. The only vacation weeks I have left are two during Christmas, and one for Easter. I´ll be spending Christmas with the family here, and I still am not sure what I´ll be doing for Easter. That doesn´t give me much to work with. It is frustrating, because it is so cheap to fly to Ireland, Sweden, etc. with things like RyanAir, and I feel like I should take advantage of that while I am here. But those are the kind of trips that I can´t just pack into a weekend. I guess I´m starting to realize that being an au pair is not just a free way to travel around Europe. I knew this already, but I think a part of me still felt like it would be easier to get around while I was here. Maybe if I save enough money and if I don´t have any immediate commitments, I can do some traveling after my term ends in July. This is difficult for me to imagine now, because I think I´ll be so anxious to get back to Kansas at that point!! But maybe by then I´ll feel more at ease, and being a vagabond for a couple weeks will sound just fine.

In any case, time is steadily ticking here, and I think it is time for me to start making some efforts to plan my next year. Especially since I am abroad now, and can´t really do proper applications and interviews. I´ll have to rely almost 100% on the internet for this. That makes me so nervous. Call me old fashioned, but I really like to be able to meet employers in person before signing on to something. Eek! And the job search begins... Wish me luck!