A First Date

It's really weird to date someone new. And no, I'm not talking about a man. I mean, Russ and I are in the process of 'dating' new friends. That's what happens when you move halfway across the world to a school where very few people have small children. When you leave a community of friends and family so large that dating someone new is impossible. When your husband is the Director (! as of Monday!) of the school and you don't always want to hang out with your employees (mostly because they feel weird, but at times, we do too).

So we're dating again. We've actually been on the market and looking for a couple with a good sense of humor, basic English skills, and a small child for a long time. But we've been so busy with school and the new job and kindergarten and all our other antics, we haven't had time to date. Now we're ready. And we found a few candidates!

I met a woman in the street (!) who asked me, in English, if my daughter was Fiona. As Russ says, "turns out" her daughter is Fiona also- and is 2.5 years old. This woman, Diana, has an American husband- James-from-Florida. They recently moved to Weimar. And she gave me her number, I called (feeling all weird and like I was breaking The Rules or something) and asked them out. Then our house phone wasn't working so I was worried she had tried to call and didn't get me, and while I was agonizing about calling her a second time and wondering if it appeared stalkerish (isn't this so like college!) she rang our SCHOOL since she knew we worked there and hooray, I'm not a stalker and we have plans for Saturday afternoon to get the Fionas together to play.

We're really playing the field- we also have another potential date! Russ went to this Consulate Party thing (no idea what it was, just that it was yet another weeknight commitment but he seemed to enjoy it although the only person speaking English was the Consul herself who is a middle aged woman living in Leipzig (of good shopping fame)). He met a young businessman there who speaks broken English and has a wife and a three year old and wants to get together. There's an email sitting in Russ's inbox from them. This is delightful because we can hopefully practise our German and not feel bad that it's broken- I think the wife doesn't speak any English at all. I can get by very well in Dinglish.

See, it's really weird to date new friends. We've had our old friends for so long and we love them so, and we're so comfortable with our Game Night friends and all, that it's very hard to meet new people. Especially when we don't speak the language! But we're making the effort because, let's face it, spring is coming and the playground is horrific without another adult to speak to while pushing the swings. Am I the only one who HATES the playground alone? I end up following Fiona and forcing her into conversations when she really just wants to play. It's very needy of me. I must watch out for that.

This weekend is Couple #1. I feel like we're on a game show. I'm going to bring flowers and wine (how German and how datey of me!) to their house when we go over on Saturday to play. Any other suggestions? They said bring nothing but that is just not done and certainly not on a first date. I keep finding myself playing a mind game circa 1994- she called ME, so they must really like us, and want to hang out, it's not just being nice, and she invited us over, so they don't need an escape route, right? So they really do want to hang out? But are they too needy or are they just normal? Ah, that remains to be seen. I shall update you, dear readers, and if you have any tips on dating a married-couple-with-kids, please do let us know. I don't think there's a Rules book for this. Unfortunately.