the first adventure

Today was my third day in Stockholm. Very hard to believe, cause I honestly feel like I've been here about 2 weeks already! I think it has to do with the time difference/jetlag, and the fact that I've been going all over the place for the past few days. But, today was a more eventful day than the others cause it was my first day of Swedish school!
So, until last night, the plan was for Stacey (the family's current au pair) to ride with me into the city and then I would go to class from 9-11:30, and then we would have lunch with another au pair. To make matters short, she had to stay with the kids, so I ended up going into the city by myself this morning on a bus system I have never ridden on, all written in a language I can't make sense of, and on a continent that my presence has graced for a mere 8 hours on a layover this summer. So, needless to stay, I was a little confused. I actually did okay until I missed my stop and ended up going to the end of the line and then had to go BACK the way I came, and ended up being about 20 minutes late for school. And of course the teacher had to speak to me in Swedish when I walked in, so not only did I have a frenzied, frustrating morning, it was slightly embarrassing to have someone speak to you in Swedish when they KNOW you don't know it in front of a room full of people.
Anyway, that was my class. It went well, except for the fact that I don't understand anything at all :)
I met a couple of other au pairs today. One of the au pair's is Annelie's best friend's host mom. So, her and I will be doing some traveling together, both with the family and on our own. She's from Texas. The other girl is in our class, and I don't know her so well, but she's really cool. From New York. And, coincidentally, her father was the CFO for the company I worked for. How completely random.
Went to lunch today with Stacey, Nikki (the au pair from TX) and one of Stacey's friends. We ate at this little cafe...very nice. It's weird to be sitting at this cute little cafe on a Thursday afternoon with not much of an agenda, and to go do some shopping in the middle of the day...I think, "shouldn't I be at work??" cause it's such an odd feeling. But nice :)
I'm growing closer to the kids, which is great. They're starting to talk to me more(their little accent when they say "seanna" is too cute, it's like SHO-nah), and I watched cartoons tonight after dinner with Sixten and Klara, and they were both cuddling with me. Makes me feel good, cause I know they're growing comfortable with me, which is very important. Stacey and I put them to bed tonight cause Annelie and Joakim (the parents) were on a date, so I just got into my cottage a little bit ago...definitely a long day.
Tomorrow I'll hang with Stacey in the morning, and then I'm going to swimming class with Annelie and the kids, should be fun. And after that we're all going out to dinner (I think)....Saturday I'll do some driving of my own to make sure I know how to get places, and then Saturday night I'm going to go out with Stacey and her friends, plus the two other au pairs, so it will be good to see a little bit of the city.
Thanks for all the comments! It's good to be encouraged. I'm thinking of you all here, and trying not to miss everyone too much :)