Who knew that my first order of business while looking after children was to get lost on a hike with one of them.
It was a beautiful morning in Maria Saal (or rather, midday, since that is when I woke up, jet-lagged). I sat out on the patio with my laptop and wrote a journal entry about my first day with the new family. I was sunny and mild, the perfect weather for a walk. I saw Maxi sitting in the living room, and remembered a conversation we had the day before about how we never exercised, and planned on encouraging each other to do so. Thus, I asked her if she wanted to come on a walk with me, and she said yes.
We took their dog with us. Fee is either 7 or 8 (I got different answers from different family members), and looks very similar to a dog I had growing up. She does not like hugs, but is otherwise very friendly and enjoys people's company.
Maxi and I started by walking through Maria Saal, and then she wanted to show me the forest. We took a trail through the woods, ate some fresh blackberries along the way, and talked about her schooling and how it works in Austria. It is very different from the system in the US, and as such, her explanation of choosing classes and exams in high school and college was interesting and informative. Maxi is 18, and will be moving to Vienna for college around October. Sadly, this means she will not be around for much longer. She will come back home for some breaks and weekends, but for the most part I will be the AuPair only for the two younger children, Emily and Niki.
Maxi and I continued to talk the whole way about random things, from school to favorite books and tv shows.
When we neared the end of the trail in the woods, she said we should turn around because she was not sure where the path ahead went. I said okay, but asked if we could stop in the field ahead first where I took some photos. After that, we ended up continuing to walk forward because, in Maxi's words, "It probably ends up back toward where we came at some point."
It definitely did not, and we futilely took another path in the woods that seemed to be going in the right direction, only to end up in another random town much later. To my surprise, Maxi had no idea where we were. I wrongly assumed she would be familiar with all the little towns surrounding Maria Saal. We continued to walk down the now-paved road, but when Maxi looked at her GPS, we discovered that we were walking in the opposite direction of the house. We were exactly 1 hour and 36 minutes from home by foot. How we managed to get that far away was a question neither of us could answer.
Since going back through the woods seemed like a poor option, we continued ahead in the opposite direction down the road. Then, Maxi thought we should try this little road through a cornfield that did a hairpin turn in the correct direction. This gravel road disappeared in the middle of another field, but because we were so far along it, we just continued through the field toward the nearest road on her GPS instead of backtracking.
Unfortunately, that field blocked us from the road by a another large cornfield and a fence on a hill, so we walked along the third edge of the field toward *something.* Luckily, this route took us toward some houses and a road, but we had to cross a slew of mud and water in order to get there. We both took off our shoes and squished across. After a little more walking, we saw a road and both audibly sighed with relief. Maxi commented on how she did not wear the right shoes for this - neither had I. I wore flip-flops (but to be fair, I only have one other pair of shoes with me at the moment, and those are white canvas shoes that would get dirty immediately on any sort of walk). All three of us, Fee included, were exhausted and definitely needed some water and breakfast.
Maxi sent her mom, my host mom, our location so she could pick us up. Naturally, Sabine had called Maxi while we were in the field wondering where we went, since we had been gone for so long. Maxi and I had walked for about 2 hours or more and covered 8.4km through the streets and woods. Although neither of us had expected the walk to be so long, it was a fun little local adventure. Now Maxi can say that she got lost in her hometown for the first time ever. I would say that is a great accomplishment on my part as their new AuPair.
Moral of the story: sometimes backtracking is the easier way of getting back to where you started, but it may not be as fun or adventurous (or perhaps as muddy).
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