Pretending to know what i'm talking about...

I’m pretty sure I told you this before but Michael plays volleyball for his college, but he also coaches volleyball camps in the Summer (when he isn’t working at the Medical College of Wisconsin…playing with mice, ew!) He mentioned that he was coaching one of the camps by himself and that I was welcome to come watch or help out. Um, wait did I not tell you I have only played once before? But always willing to try new things I agreed to join him. I could only go the second, third and fourth day, so I missed two days, but when I got there one of the other told me he had just announced to a room full of 7^th and 8^th graders that I am African star volleyball player…HAHA! And that they should listen to the advice I give them…anyone seeing a problem here?! One girl announced that she wanted to hear my accent, and that it was so cool. I spent the rest of the camp making sure I listened to Michael explain the game of volleyball and what ball control exercises they had to do, then I walked around and corrected a few kids by repeating parrot fashion what he had explained. Although I am pretty sure they didn’t understand anything I was saying. It was a really fun camp and it was interesting to learn a little more about volleyball.

This is kinda my motto about trying new things...

Have fun in the Basement…or not…

This bring me to a problem we seem to have in Wisconsin, which I have never had to deal with before…flooding basements. Ours has flooded twice! 

Our flooded basement

The first time was just a little water, the second time was a little more serious and since the water is part rain and part storm drain water (ewww) pretty much anything the water touches has to been thrown out. It is really sad to drive around the neighbourhood and see kid’s toys, furniture, pictures and all the rest just waiting to be picked up by the dump trucks! This also means we have had a basement cleaning crew in and out of our house as well a lock smith, painters and house cleaners. Ugh!

Our backyard...flooded!

Salsa Dancing…

The next morning I woke up early and Michael fetched me and we drove to his family’s cottage in Illinois (which the state below Wisconsin, it’s the state that Chicago is in) The day at the cottage (well there are actually two cottages right next to each other) was such a nice relaxing day, I mean everyone was working in some way, either mowing the lawn or pruning plants (that was my job…which I think I did a good job of) but then we all had lunch together and later dinner, and we also went out on the lake in a little boat. The weather was gorgeous and it was really nice for me to get away for everything for a day! And of course to kick back and relax before our night of awesome Salsa dancing…

A beautiful day in Illinois

It started with a Salsa lesson, which I have to say, Michael and I were definitely getting an A+ in. Then they opened the floor and all these couples started dancing, and that’s when Michael and I realized we were going to have to step up our game! So we were watching other couples and trying to learn their moves from them. We had so much fun, and that’s most important thing.

Salsa Dip

Tag you’re it…

I have always wanted to play laser tag (for anyone that doesn’t know basically you run around with a laser gun and a vest and shoot the other team while trying not to get shot yourself, it’s kind of like paintball although there is no pain involved!) so Michael decided it would be fun if we went to Funworld and then we could also hang out with his younger brother (Peter) and a friend. We started the night with mini golf, I’m not going to brag about who won, but let’s just say there was no Y chromosomes involved. We then played a few arcade games as well as air hockey (which I don’t completely suck at but will admit that I let the guys reassert male dominance) then we moved onto ‘dance dance revolution’  which should have been lock down for me…being a dancer and all, BUT apparently I’m co-ordinately challenged! Lastly we played laser tag, which was amazingly fun! Michael and I were on the same team with a whole bunch of other random people, against the younger boys and some more random people. Um, I think I deserve bragging rights for dominating in this game! I did better than the guys, which Michael claims is because I was hiding behind a trash can the whole time so no one could ‘kill’ me, but the print out of the game clearly showed 28 ‘kills’ that I made, so I wasn’t hiding I was just being skillful! (Rayson, you would have been proud!)

Dominating!

Party nights and sports days…

One night while out a won a happy hour party at Buckheads (yes, most of my going out stories begin or end at Buckheads) so we planned our party for the Friday the 9^th. There were about 10 of us au pairs (including Diogo a male au pair from Brazil) and Michael. We had an awesome night as usual and took way to many pictures of pretty much the same things.

All the Au Pairs

Sunday the 11^th was the final of the soccer world cup and Tamara and I headed down to Brady Street for a block party, which is where they block off the whole street and put up big screens where you can watch the game. I dressed in my South African tee which says “Kiss me I’m South African” on the front and has a SA flag on the back. We had a really fun time and it was great to see all the team spirit. They opened the event with African dancing and singing which gave Tamara the idea that I have to perform a solo African dance while in Vegas…thanks T! We actually have a list of 50 “dares” that we have to accomplish in our weekend there, it may get a little crazy, but I think it will be fun! Can’t wait!

SWC in Milwaukee

Michael decided that he wanted to make me dinner one night, his parent’s house has this cute little balcony, and he thought it would be perfect for a home ‘date’. I offered to make desert (milktart…of course) Michael fetched me, and when I arrived at his house his parents were so cute, they were all excited about the meal (which was a recommendation from his sister) I had told him he better make enough for his parents, even if we weren’t eating with them! We ate dinner on the balcony, and it was just perfect, candle lit dinner and wine, and a gentleman…

Candlelit dinner

Michael plays volleyball for his college (Loyola) but also plays a in a social beach league. Thursday afternoons are volleyball day, so I went to beach and met up with Tamara and her and I watched the guys play for a while, when she left I had this sudden urge to try play. I found a group playing who were unevenly matched plus they didn’t look too serious or professional, so I asked if I could join, they were more than happy to provide the middle spot on their team. Once I had a spot I announced that I had NEVER played before, everyone in my team just looked at me and after some rearranging I was placed in the position “least-likely-to-get -the-ball” which was fine with me! After playing for a while, I had to serve…it must be noted that the guy that I like and am trying to impress is two nets down playing like a pro, so I was a little intimated! That’s probably why the ball hit the net the first time, but after that I got a little better and even managed to score some points for my team (I am not sure if that is the correct terminology?) I had a lot of fun though, and I would definitely try again! One of girls on my team was playing with her boyfriend and almost every time she served she would hit her boyfriend in the back of his head (he was on the same team as her) it was pretty funny!

Tamara and I at Bradford beach

The Soccer World Cup…in South Africa!

This didn’t technically happen in America, but believe me the vibe was felt all the way over here…the Opening of the Soccer world cup! This may have been the first time in a LONG while that I cried since coming over here, but it wasn’t homesickness tears, it was tears from the joy and pride I felt for my country and Bafana Bafana! I proudly painted SA flags on my toes and painted my face (with the help of photoshop…see education is never wasted) with my flag. I was really happy to say that, that was my country! The great thing is, that never changed. I was so proud of the boys, even though they “never made it” to me they are still heroes and I was proud of my fellow South Africans because all I heard was positives reports about South Africans attitudes and helpful natures! One great country came together…and even got me to watch a little soccer! Although still not quite sure of all the rules and definitely not down with the fact that the players fall on the ground sooooo dramatically (I heard them once referred to as ‘field fairies” hee hee) but I do have a big amount of respect for their ball skills, which is pretty mad playing!  

A first date…

This brings us to my first date with Michael (a.k.a ice cream boy) he had gone to Texas with his family as his younger brother (Peter) was playing in the U16’s National Championship for volleyball (which they happened to win, which it’s a pretty big deal) he got back on the 7^th (of July) and so we planned to go out that night. We went to a charming little Indian restaurant (it was sooo good to have Indian food after a year of American, Mexican or Chinese) as I was about to get out of the car I heard the doors lock, then I realized my date (on our first date) had just locked me in the car! (Um, what?! He set me free, after I promised to try and behave like something that could be mistaken for an adult, and we went inside. It was a really good meal and I felt very comfortable chatting to him about almost anything. Since I had behaved myself and not embarrassed my date too much he agreed to take me out for ice cream…awww, cute – I know. The night ended off with a scary movie, and me discovering that Michael jumps more than I do during scary movies, unless he was just trying to freak me out.

The cow outside Culvers

Coming full circle…

4^th of July…this year it was definitely warmer than last year, I was wearing shorts a tee for my 2^nd Independence Day and was shocked when I realized last year this time, I was wearing jeans! My day started with taking the boys and Annabel (with the help of Tamara…thank goodness) to the parade, which is basically where you watch random people walk down a street, while you sit in the boiling hot sun, watching a 3 year old and twin boys and try to not get hit by flying candy, I know what you are thinking…hmmm, so much fun! Afterwards we made our way to Tamara’s house where we could get out of the sun and just rest a little, Amanda met us there and collected all the kids.

Tamara and I and all the kids :)

Tamara and I headed down to the beach before realizing it was waaaay to windy to sit anywhere that sand involved and went home instead, after a shower and a change we headed to Atwater park. That is the park I take the boys to all the time, it is also REALLY close to the same place I watched the fireworks from last year. In fact one of the guys that I meet last year (on the 4^th) was performing just before the fireworks (look up Kevin Paris, or listen to his music attached to my blogs, it is really chilled soulful music, its wonderful!) so we went to watch him. Later on Tamara dropped me off at home, and I was contemplating going to sleep when Emma asked me to come around and hang out.

Kevin playing some chilled tunes at Atwater Park
http://www.kevinparismusic.com/

I met Emma, Kevin and a few other people last year for the 4^th and afterwards we all went back to Emma’s to hang out and chat so the thought of repeating my first experience sounded like fun! It was like déjà vu, except one where everything is even better the second time around. The first time around I had been in WI for exactly a month, so I hadn’t driven yet, hadn’t travelled anywhere yet, I barely knew anyone, so basically I still had so many firsts ahead of me. Meeting up again this year and reflecting on my year meant telling stories about my travels, about getting my license, had met so many amazing …it just made me truly appreciate how lucky I am to be going through this and happy that I made the decision to extend for a second year! It feels good to know you made the right decision!

How cute and American is this?

3 girls, a minivan and a flat…

In my first month in Wisconsin I heard about a Jelly Bean Factory Tour, which I thought would be kind of fun to go to. Tamara’s host kid Fiona, had been asking Tamara if she could take her on the tour. We found a Friday that I was off and decided that would be perfect for a little road trip to Pleasant Prairie. Everything was going well until something flew off the truck that was in front of us and hit our front passenger tire.  Both of us just looked at each other a little freaked out, and then we realized … we had a flat! Stuck on the highway, 3 girls, a minivan and a flat! We pulled over and phoned Andy (Tamara’s host dad) who told us he would come and help us, but could only get to us within the hour, or we could try changing it ourselves. Thinking we have seen this on movies and tv a ton of times, it shouldn’t be that hard right? We decided to attempt it ourselves…Big Mistake! Not only were we completely unable to remove the tools from the tool box, we were reading the instructing out of a manual while attempting to locate the spare tire which we NEVER found!

Flat tire...and still smiling...

Suddenly this huge truck pulls up behind us, and I am not kidding but the stereotypical looking axe-murder type guy steps out of the truck towards us. Tamara and I freeze looking at each other thinking *where is the pepper spray?*He tells us he is part of the Wisconsin road something something that goes around helping people that have car issues, we reluctantly agreed to let him help as we couldn’t do much ourselves anyway. 

Tamara and the truck that saved us...

As he started Tamara and I had the same thought…watch this guy just to make sure he does it ‘right’, I think possibly we have watched a few too many horror movies! Then to top it all off 2 cop cars arrived and “surrounded” us and asked if we had phoned the guy that was helping us, by now we were pretty freaked out…then we realized that another car had also hit the truck piece we hit and had called the cops to report it, they were broken down ahead of us. Finally we had a new tire and were on our merry way to Jelly Belly land, glad to survive another day on the road! 

We survived another day in Wisconsin :)

Rocking out in Milwaukee…

There is a lot of music festivals and music acts that make their way to Milwaukee, which is pretty cool and means that I have got to see a few of my favs. Recently (in June o9) I attended a Bamboozle Roadshow which is a day/night festival. The bands I caught were All Time Low, Good Charlotte and Third Eye Blind…which was pretty amazing! It was at a place called the Rave, which is also where I watched an Angels and Airwaves concert (one of their members is also a member of Blink 182, so they have the same kind of feel to their music, which is great)

Meeting some of the bands after the show

The next music event I attended was Summerfest, which is the “World’s largest music festival”, which including 11 days of music on 11 different stages. The opening day of Summerfest was the 24^th and we watched Colbie Caillat, there was a group of us girls (all au pairs) it was an amazing concert, as she has an amazing voice and wonderful stage presence. The next concert we saw was Less Than Jake (their genre is Ska punk) which I was going to see by myself, until Tamara found out and told me she was coming too.

The beautifully talented Colbie Cailat

This wouldn’t have been such a big deal BUT this was the day after the wedding where we were nearly run off the road by a truck, my dance partner almost dropped me, the groom’s mother bumped into me causing me to drop my glass (in the middle of the dance floor) and Tamara drove the hour home in pouring rain at 5am in the morning… So it goes without saying that we were extremely tired and having the kids playing early in the morning meant we never got to sleep in very long! But yes, that’s why her commitment meant so much to me! The concert was really fun, and true to punk myself I sang while jumping and trying to balance on a pretty small bench! (And of course almost fell off a few times)

Less Than Jake rocking out!

The next night (yip Summerfest time is NOT known for being a restful 11 days) we attended a Pitbull concert (they are a group that sing predominately in Spanish, and since a large majority of the girls are Latino, there was a large group of us) Tamara and I arrived together and decided to stop for ice cream…and that’s kind of where my next adventure began…so we walk up to this ice cream place, I decided that I wasn’t happy with the choice of ice creams as everything was super milky (and I prefer sorbets) which is actually ironic cos that’s what I ended up with, but anyway we decided to go to another ice cream cart…where we were served by a nice guy. He immediately asked us where we were from, some of his family lives very close to where Tamara is from in Germany, plus he does German dancing (he was actually volunteering to raise money for his dance group) so they had a lot to talk about…and I kind of just waited around…eventually I chipped in that SA was also an awesome country, and that started a long conversation about the world cup soccer and a little more about Germany. Finally our conversation ended up at music (being that we were at a music festival that makes sense) and for some reason he told us that he had gone to a Justin Bieber (eeny meeny mo lover) concert with his brother and sister…kind of dorky I admit but really funny because Tamara and I had considered going to concert with her host kid, but she had told me she refused to dance to J.Bieber in public and would prefer to remain a closest Bieber fan (or we could dance in the bathroom.)

Liz, Sandri, Tamara, Arati and I

Tamara and I also attended an Usher concert which was O.M.G… we had so much fun! We were jammin’ to all the songs we knew, and making our own remixes for the ones we didn’t. That’s typical Robyn and Tamara style.

Usher :)

The last concert we attended was an Offspring concert which was totally great! We went with a group of guys (ice-cream boy included) and girls and although not everyone knew each other, everyone still had a really good time! After we went to bar on North Ave, where we found out it was Karaoke night…of course Tamara, Nadine and I HAD to go up and show the Americans our German/South African version of “Dooooooooooooooon’t stop! Belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeving….Hold on to that feeeeeeling” I decided to save everyone’s ears and rather sing back up…with dance moves of course J Thankfully that was a tame night that ended before 1am…well not before Nadine almost drove down a one way…in a busy intersection! Heart attack!

This is how we look when we are jamming to "don't stop believing"