True Story

How awesome are those shoes? Too bad I can't wear both of them at the same time. I borrowed the one from Christin for our big night on the town and I was feeling pretty awesome. I might have to get my own pair.

So the big night was ok...I felt bad because I was grouchy and no fun, but walking is seriously such a bitch. It puts me in the worst mood! And, I feel like everyone is looking at me. Who knew I was so self-conscious? Damn.

But last night I learned boys are stupid in every country, big surprise. We were sitting in a bar, at these couch things and I had my leg up on the coffee table and this guy (a very not cute guy) comes running in (literally, running) and tries to pinch my toes. WTF?? Then I'm like, go away loser (I was already very grumpy at this point) and he continues to try and touch them. Now, I don't have a problem with people touching my foot, but seriously, what are you doing? Just because they are out on display does not mean you can touch them. Also, they haven't been washed in a week and a half, so it's not in anyone's best interest to touch them. Then, he acts like he is going to pour his beer in my cast. Um, really? You really think I am going to let you pour BEER into my CAST? No thank you sir. Then he starts talking because I pulled my leg away and I like, scream at him: I DON'T SPEAK DUTCH. Then he says something else and I scream it again and he says he was speaking English. Which I think is a lie because it didn't sound like any English I had ever heard, so I just said it again. And he finally left. True story.

Here's to hoping once the cast comes off, I will attract the attention of more normal boys. Or at least cute ones that don't think pouring beer on someone is cute...or even acceptable.

The Little Things

Not much has been happening lately. This stupid cast is seriously holding me back. I was all, oh, it won't be a big deal, I can walk around, loo-de-doo. Nah. That is not what is happening. After my excursions in Berlin, my foot was killing me! And the other day we walked to the grocery store, which would normally take about two minutes and it took at least twenty. The crutches are a huge pain and it was a little warm, so I was sweating in my cast and that was gross. I was mad too because I felt so lame and frustrated for taking so long and not being able to help carry groceries. So for now, I'm keeping outings to a minimum and have been watching a lot of "How I Met Your Mother," which is freaking hysterical! So all is not lost. I never watched it at home, but it's really really funny.

Oh, but yesterday, we did venture out and went to IKEA. And OH MAN, that place is AWESOME! It was my first time and I LOVED it. I am kind of glad there isn't one anywhere near Charleston because I think I would have spent all of my money there. They have fake apartments and rooms set up with how you can decorate and there is just so much cool stuff. And they have a restaurant! What??? They don't serve very much and the soda tastes like cough syrup, but they give you a little swedish flag when you order meatballs (I don't like meatballs, my friends got them. Just FYI) and they have lots of good desserts. And, as you can see above, they have chairs for losers like me and my awesome friends pushed me around. It was both hilarious and pathetic. Most of the time I was laughing but I did feel rather sad when they would walk off and I had to just sit there and not move because the chair would lock. I also had lots of little kids staring at me and I waved my crutch at one, and that made me feel like a crazy person. I also felt somewhat special ed because they would push me around and say things like, "look at all the colors, jacky!" But mainly it was funny and things only got better when I found masks in the clearance bin.

So there you go. Christin and Manja are awesome for putting up with my lame self and these are some of my favorite H.I.M.Y.M moments:



Damn. I can't find my absolute favorite parts. Go to Blockbuster (and appreciate it because they don't have it here!) and see them all for yourself.

Shits and Giggles

Not much has changed, but I wanted to share something I read in my journal and it made me laugh. A couple weeks ago, while still at the House of Bitch, I made a little list and it's titled "You Know Things are Bad When:"
-You are wishing bodily harm upon six year olds
-You're jealous of the dogs
-You're looking back fondly on the pee farm days
-The towels are getting ironed, but you're laundry is not even getting done
-You're sizing up high schoolers
-You are wishing for an illness or injury

Eesh, so that last one was a little too forewarning for my taste. I wanted like a minor cold or something WHILE I was there, so I would have an excuse not to be around the family. Broken foot the day I was leaving was not what I intended. Oh well.

And then after that I have an entire page under the title "Ridiculous nonsense." Haha! I was SUPER bored at the House of Bitch. Again, SO happy to be in Germany!

Also, I added a bunch of books to my list that I have read since I got to Europe. All of them are good, so check them out if you need something to read. Also, suggestions are welcome because I have lots of time on my hands now!

Headed back to the Netherlands tonight! Hopefully Amsterdam sometime soon and then who knows. Auf Wiedersehen!

Better

The title: How my life is. Also, a song by Regina Spektor. It's good.

Well here is how cool I am: 3 countries in 3 days. All in a cast. I got to Germany safe and sound Tuesday morning and teared on during the landing because I was just soo freakin happy to be out of Greece and away from the House of Bitch. There, Christin and her friend Manja picked me up from the airport and had crutches waiting for me. Pretty exciting, right? They are interesting looking crutches though, I call them polio crutches...I have yet to take a picture, but I'm working on it. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie and I was sooooo happy! It was, of course, wonderful, even if it wasn't exactly on par with the book. Now I'm just waiting for the next one, which unfortunately won't be for a while. Anyways, then I got to hang out with Sven and his super cute girlfriend Inka and we had a really great time reminiscing and wandering around Berlin. Well, actually, the wandering part wasn't exactly great. I'm not going to lie, this cast business is a big fat pain in my ass. I know I'm extremely lucky for a lot of reasons, but walking with a cast is seriously un-fun. I have a whole new set of problems because of them. My broken foot doesn't actually hurt anymore...my other foot is the one that hurts now from having all the pressure on it. And my upper body hurts from the stupid crutches. Also, it's costing me a lot of money and that is annoying.

Done complaining. After Berlin we drove back to the Netherlands, where Christin goes to school and hung out in her cool old Dutch house. It's crazy because I felt like I could be in anywhere, USA when we were driving. Other than the signs being in German and then Dutch, it looked like the US. McDonalds and gas stations on the side of the interstate, all that jazz. Anyways, now we are back in Germany at her parents house and everything is good. We have just been hanging out, eating ice cream. It's so lovely to have internet, not be hot as shit, eat whatever I want, and be able to speak English with people.

Right now we are watching a movie and I'm super distracted, so I'm going to get back to that. Just wanted to let everyone know all is well. More updates later. Feel free to check out the pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026795&id=49500152&l=c6d3678fe5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026714&id=49500152&l=6168ea0d8d

And Scene

Ok, so I took a nap, a shower and had some food and am feeling better. My hostel is a little on the chilly side, but I am still 1000 times happier here than Strava. I'm sure you are all probably wondering what on earth made the experience so horrible, so I'll try to explain.

First off, let me say that I had REALLY high hopes for this place. As you all know, I was really pumped about the whole thing and thought it was going to be so great. And, the thing that is most frustrating, is that it really had potential to be super fun. The house was beautiful, the kid was manageable, and Greece, in general, is fabulous. But the family just made me feel soooo uncomfortable! It is hard to explain, really. I'll try. It's long.

First off, they never had a conversation with me about what exactly I was supposed to do and what they expected of me. I got a schedule, but that was it. And then we left for the beach and I was on my own, so I never got to have the conversation. Which I think is kind of strange because usually at jobs, you get some sort of training or at least an outline of what is expected of you. Also, they knew I had never been an Au Pair before, so you think they would help me out some and tell me what worked with previous Au Pairs, what didn't, etc. Nope, nothing.

At first, it was just me, the kid (kid) and the housekeeper and the dad (asshole) would come at night. Things were good during the day, but when asshole would come, it was awkward because I didn't know who was in charge. Also, asshole was kind of a jerk. He was always telling kid to speak in English, yet he would continue to have conversations with him in Greek. He also took every opportunity possible to make me feel stupid. He was always asking me these ridiculous questions that I didn't know the answer to, or just didn't understand because he had different words for stuff or was pronouncing it wrong. He was wrong a lot, but would insist that he wasn't, so we had a lot of pointless arguments. I just quit talking to him because it wasn't worth it. He also made me feel fat when he told me I looked "a lot slimmer in the pictures I sent." So that was nice of him. Later down the line, he apparently thought I wasn't talking enough and told me that I needed to be speaking English with kid "every minute of the day," which I thought was a little on the extreme side. And, like I said, he was constantly speaking to him in Greek, so of course I didn't know what they were talking about and couldn't really add anything to the conversation! This was a problem a lot, actually. The family would NEVER speak in English at meals or anything, even though they could all speak it. No one would ever translate for me or tell me at least what was so funny. So I just sat there and occasionally made comments about the scenery and got blank stares back. It was quite frustrating. And just super rude, I thought. But the whole family was like that. The grandmother didn't even acknowledge my existence and the older brother and his friends that came never even introduced themselves. They also ate meals with their shirts off and asshole dad smoked at the table, which is gross, especially because he had man boobs.

So that was asshole. Kid, was generally not a problem. When it was just me and him, we got along fine. We would have conversations, read, play, whatever. However, when his friends were around, he was sooo rude to me! I would ask him questions and he would either straight up ignore me or make some rude comment and make fun of me in Greek with his friends. His friends were these three other Greek kids that had a German Au Pair (Christin). They were ok, except for the youngest, who was seriously the devil. At first I felt bad for him because he has diabetes and the other kids are mean to him sometimes but then I figured out that he deserved it and I didn't feel bad anymore. In fact, I was constantly wishing bodily harm upon him. One night he fell while running and I laughed for ten minutes. He was sooo bad. And he's bad because his parent didn't discipline him AT ALL. He took my water bottle while we were on the beach and dumped out all of it, right in front of them and they did not say a word. He didn't have to apologize, get me new water, nothing. I hated this child. ANYWAYS, kid was rude to me with his friends and when his parents were around. And again, with the no discipline thing, he was just allowed to be rude and nothing would be said. And he was rude to me and treated me like dirt because that is pretty much how the parents treated me. Like I was the "help" and therefore didn't really matter. I was told to "fetch" water, had to set and clear the table, etc.

And then there was the mom (bitchface).Bitchface was seriously one of the absolute bitchiest people I have ever encountered in my life. I don't know what her deal was, but she took every opportunity to say something rude and/or she would just ignore me completely. Which I was confused about because she was nice at first. That all changed about two weeks in. She would never tell me what was going on or if I had to be around or what the deal was. And there were times kid was playing with his friends (and the devil) and she would get mad because I wasn't playing with them. Which was stupid because 1. the friends couldn't speak English 2. They didn't want me to play with them. I asked. and 3. if they are playing and happy, why do I need to get involved?? Ugh, there were just soo many things. One day she got mad because I called a wasp a bee by accident and she's like, "Don't you know the difference? Don't they have wasps where you come from?" I mean damn. Oh, and she asked me to not sit on her bed. Like I'm going to get it dirty or something. I was sitting, watching TV and talking with the kid and she comes in and tells me to get off her bed. Ouch. Sucks for her though, because before bitchface got there, kid and I would lay in the bed and read together. HAHA! Oh, and she got super drunk one day at this beach bar we went to and had to be carried home because she was incoherent. Meanwhile, I have to take care of kid and his two friends while she throws up all over the bathroom. And this was after I got yelled at for not putting the bathmat down in the shower. "I don't want to have to spend my entire vacation cleaning up after you," is what I was told. Hm.

Ugh, there was seriously so much more. I was rarely given time off. I got four days total, I think and three of them were because they just left me there while they went back to Athens for one thing or another (including the wedding I was uninvited to). I had to watch the kid every waking hour and I had "curfew." The house had two gates, one you needed a controller to get in and the other just had a lock. I asked if I could go out one night, after kid went to bed and they wouldn't let me! They said they gate was locked when they went to bed and that was that. Which was such bullshit because I could have easily locked it behind me OR they could have given me one of the three controllers to the front. But no, I wasn't allowed.

And then there was the whole food nonsense. I was never asked if I liked the food, if I had enough, anything. And it wasn't that I didn't like any of the food, I just wanted smaller portions. Those people at SO much food, it was crazy! One day bitchface was like, "I'm beginning to think all you like is hamburgers." At first I thought she was joking but then I realized she was mad because I asked for one stuffed tomato instead of two like she was giving everyone else. I mean, I'm 24, which is plenty old to decide how much food I want to eat. I think she was trying to insuate that I was fat as well, I guess to establish comradarie with asshole. But it pissed me off because I NEVER complained about the food, nor did I ever mention anything about hamburgers. They thought I was weird because I don't like watermelon and wouldn't buy me apples or bananas because they weren't in season. Oh, and that whole relationship (between bitchface and asshole) was awkward too because they were constantly yelling at each other and/or kid and I was just sitting there, uncomfortable. I even told her I was uncomfortable and wanted to leave two weeks ago and she told me I had to stay until the 17th. No conversation about why I was uncomfortable or if it could be fixed, nothing.

To sum up, here's how my last day went. I stepped wrong on the stairs and have a feeling something is not right with my foot. Bitchface tells me to just sit awhile. Asshole finally comes and gives me some ice and wraps up my foot. Kid sees me with the ice and goes on about his business.. Bitchface gives me my money, all awkward and it's much less than what I deserve. The family leaves to go to dinner and leave me there on my own. I hobble around, make myself dinner and crawl up the stairs to go to bed, without saying goodbye to kid because we were leaving at 6 the next morning. Six comes around. Asshole sees me carry 3/4 of my luggage down the stairs before he offers to help. We ride to Athens in silence. We go to the hospital, where I get an X-Ray and a cast and asshole is annoyed everything is taking so long (we were there maybe 45 minutes). He insists I don't need crutches, even though the doctor said I did and my cast is not a walking cast. We get medicine at the pharmacy, but they don't have enough of it, so I'm told to just get more in Germany because asshole has things to do. We go to the house to get the rest of my stuff, I sit for an hour, he takes me downtown to my hostel. And this is what really set me off (and it's my mom's favorite part), I get out of the car and he just sits there on his phone. He doesn't offer to help even get my stuff out of the car. I struggle to get it out, cast on and everything and start to go inside. Then he yells out the window at me that I owe him 20 euro for the medicine. I mean really. Couldn't even help me with my luggage. Greek men are not known for the chivalry, but seriously people. I had a cast.

Whatever. I am SOOO happy to be gone from there, I don't even care. I honestly think the whole cast situation is kind of funny. I mean, really. Of course this would happen the day I get to leave. Stupid foot. But after that last car incident, I lost it. So I'm sitting in the hostel looking like an idiot because I'm crying and I have this gross cast and all this stupid luggage and life sucks. But the reception lady was really nice to me, someone carried my bags and things are better now and I am really excited about Germany.

The weird thing, to me, is that everyone else I've met so far has been SO incredibly nice. Like, beyond nice. I even questioned it sometimes. Why are they being so nice to me? I didn't do anything? But I guess that is the good in all of this. I have so many nice people to think about and remind myself that it's not me...it's that family. I didn't do anything wrong...people generally like me and I have new friends to prove it. My Italian families were so far beyond fabulous and accommodating. Christin, the other Au Pair, has been so helpful and wonderful in helping me get my flight and is picking me up in Berlin and offered to get me crutches and everything. And I met this Dutch family at the beach and they invited me to spend the entire day with them when I got left there by myself, even though it was their last day of vacation, and took me to the grocery store so I could buy some fruit. They also invited me to come visit and were just all around so fun and nice. Christin and I are going to try and visit them in Amsterdam. So, I have things and people to look forward too. Fuck those Greek people. There's more, but I'm moving on bitches.

Also, here are some photos. Facebook won't let me upload them all right now, but here are some to tide you over. It was at least pretty there. And I got a glorious tan, even though I'm worried the cast is going to ruin it. Sorry for the rant. Had to get it off my chest.

Where I sunbathed, by the church

The beach

The nice Dutch boys

Christin and I by the sea

The view from my room

View from the hill

Sunrise

The driveway

The house

Another sunrise. Taken after I took Midol (with caffeine in it) and couldn't sleep the entire night.

Damn

Jeez, there is SO much to write about but I'm tired as shit right now. So a quick update and more later.

1. I FINALLY got to leave my stupid Greek house. Those people were beyond horrible and I am SOOOOOOO SO so so SO happy to be gone finally! I got dropped off at my hostel this morning.

2. I am leaving for Berlin, Germany tomorrow morning at a ridiculously early hour. Don't care, just can't wait to leave.

3. I broke my foot yesterday walking down the stairs. That's right, just walking. The stupid family has a stupid slick marble staircase and I just stepped wrong and crack, foot is broken. It hurt so bad and it sucks even more today to be wandering around, with all my luggage and a cast. I got a cast at the super speedy and sketchy Greek hospital and even got to take home my X-Ray. I don't have crutches (the dad insisted I didn't need them) and my cast is already filthy and disgusting. I'm hoping to change this when I get to Germany because it's gross and embarrassing. I'm super pissed, but that is kind of being overridden by my joy of leaving Strava.

So there you go. More later when I can keep my eyes open. Pictures too. Because it was very beautiful there. even though the family sucked.

Changes

OOOOHHH PEOPLE.

People.

So MUCH has happened in the past couple of weeks. I don't have time to write about it now, but Greece is not working out quite as expected. It is super beautiful here, but the family is not exactly what I thought they were going to be. And I think the feeling is mutual, because I'm quite certain they hate me. But whatever. Just to update everyone, I am leaving Greece on the 18th and am flying to Germany. There was another au pair here for another family that is friends with my family and she offered to let me stay there until I figure out what I'm going to do. So I"m going to fly to Berlin, see Sven (YAY YAY!) and then go to her house and figure out my life. I'll keep you posted and will also fill you in on the details of the last weeks. Some highlights: I was uninvited to the Greek wedding (sooo sad!) and my birthday was not even mentioned. GOOD TIMES!

Ok, but whatever...good things are in my near future and I am excited!

Ciao friends!