In the Aftermath of Parents' Visit

I'm sitting in my new apartment on the "other side of town," as old landlord Klaus menacingly put it to me. It's a beautiful old manor (I'm guessing from the mid-1800s) with three floors and various tenants all under the surveillance of Frau Rehmer, an older German woman who is so OCD about conservation that she saves her dishwater to feed to plants. A bit much, I think. I am actually subleasing my two rooms from a very nice, green-friendly couple - Eugenia & Frank. Eugenia is from Mexico and although she already speaks quite decent English, she needs to pass an exam in order to be certified in teaching English in Germany, and since I'm a native English speaker, she and Frank are offering me an apartment until mid-July (when school is done) for free in exchange for speaking and practicing English with her. I have two rooms, a bathroom, unlimited phone usage (within Germany) and internet, and we all share the kitchen - I pay only utilities, which amount to fifty euros a month. It's a fantastic deal, and the house is much closer to school (about a five minute walk). Eugenia & Frank are gifted and enthusiastic cooks; we've already exchanged many recipes. Although my living quarters aren't as warm and fuzzy as what I had before, I am quite happy with the situation. Everyone is returning to Detmold next week after Easter. I've got some time to practice and catch up on life after a crazy six week 'break' if you can call it that. My parents were here for one week and we did the works: spent 3.5 days cleaning the old apartment, packing, and scrubbing the new one, I played a recital in Paderborn which they listened to, they met Kiwis, Germans, Asians, landlords (new and old) and even my Nepali vegetable-selling market friend Bhuwan...we then spent a quick 2 days sightseeing in Berlin, then 3 days in Wuerzburg with my cousin's family, and then I zoomed back to Frankfurt to drop them off at the airport & continued on to Detmold where I hastily returned the car before 2 PM yesterday. We had a beautiful VW Passat, and I enjoyed the thrill of being behind the wheel on the Autobahn (Germany's highway system) at 140 mph, ohhh yeah :-) Basically, I'm gearing up for the second half of my first year in Germany. Can't complain about anything as long as all the spiders down here in the basement leave me alone at night. Ewww.