Bamberg and Aupairing

Bamberg was really lovely. I guess there's a reason its a UNESCO World Heritage Site, no?
My family, the Sherbaums live RIGHT downtown--barely a five minute walk from the University, the Alte Rathaus, and the other beautiful, famous parts of the city. Their apartment is large and full of musical instruments and books.

Anna is a museum curator working at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuernberg. She is currently organizing a program called Kunst in der Kalter Krieg(Art during the Cold War). Her husband is an archaeologist and plays guitar and bass. One entire room in the apartment is devoted to his guitars, basses, and the piano that their daughter plays...pretty sweet. Cosima who is 9 plays piano, does Akido, has read all of the Harry Potter books and sort of reminds me of myself at that age. She is sweet and friendly and offered to lend me her Harry Potters when I told her that I had started reading the series in German. Her little brother, David, is a pretty typical 5 year old boy. He is loud and climbs on things, slightly spoiled and very affectionate. This fall he will be starting first grade and it is a very big deal. We played with his Sea Creature trading cards after dinner...

I got to Bamberg in the afternoon, and after coffee we walked around the city and they showed me some of the more famous stuff. Then we ate dinner, along with the older son from Mr. Sherbaums previous marriage who is 25 and lives in London, but is here for the summer, as well as their current summer-aupair who speaks no german whatsoever(good thing all the adults are fluent english speakers here!). After dinner I played with the kids for a little while, and then took the train back to Ingolstadt.

I'm not exactly sure how life will be for the next year with them. I think it will be great, but then again I was just visiting, not working. They do have land up in the mountains nearby with an apple orchard and Anna said that many weekends they take the Range Rover(in the city they drive a little compact bc the roads are so small) up there for a day or two so the kids can play outside. I think that Cosima and I will be very good friends and that David will be a handful, which is good because at least I won't be bored, and I certainly won't have time to get homesick!

There is also the possibility of me taking language classes while I'm there. The Fachhochschule(Community school) offers very cheap(€30) language classes once a week, but at Uni Bamberg there is also a very intensive course--five days a week, 3 hours a day--that is required for any foreign student wanting to study at a german university, that is signifcantly more expensive(€700), but also significantly better. Both places are a five minute walk or bike ride from my house.