Countdown to the weekend 07.02.2020

The first work week as an au pair is coming to an end. It's already Friday. When did that happen?

The morning routine is getting better day by day, which is somewhat reassuring. We even manage to get down to breakfast on time now. ;D

After dropping off the two of them at school this morning, I made my way to Bromley. There, I took an introductory test at the Language Centre and was then assigned to a course. It's an interesting atmosphere in a very old building. The whole school seems somewhat makeshift rather than professional in some places, but it seems to work, cardboard walls or not. The teacher of my course is really nice, but also really scatterbrained... he manages to change the topic 12 times within 10 minutes, without any connection. Today, we spent some time on grammar and suddenly he starts philosophizing about the origin of the word 'jeans'. Without any announcement. From there, we went on to the origins of the English and German languages, and before I knew it, we were talking about the Roman numeral system, only to end up back with grammar... It's really a bit strange, but it probably won't be boring or uninteresting there for the next 6 months...

After class, I took the bus back to Orpington to quickly prepare dinner, etc.

Around 3 PM, I set out to pick up the girls from school and take them to swimming lessons. And then it started...

You can imagine the swimming pool about like this:

It's a relatively small and old swimming hall. Showers, changing rooms, and the pool are all in the same room. The pool takes up most of the space. The changing cabins are located on the long sides of the pool, one on each side. They are directly against the wall and about one square meter in size. In front of them is a sidewalk about 50 cm wide, which leads to the other cabins and the showers behind them. Next to that is the pool. So I had a constant pulse beyond the measurable range. At least I was there with 2 kids, only one of whom can swim somewhat. We were in the hall for a total of maybe an hour, but I was firmly convinced that someone would fall into the water, something (electronic, for example) would accidentally find its way into the water, or someone would drown. Those were the most stressful 60 minutes of my life. After what felt like 5 hours, everyone had showered, put on new, warm clothes, and collected all their things, so we could make our way home.

There we had pasta for dinner, and I couldn't have been happier when the older one told me that she really likes it. She couldn't have given me a nicer compliment. Shortly after that, the parents came home as well, and we all made ourselves comfortable on the couch and watched the movie 'Land of the Lost' to end the day.