Porch lights on…candies in the bag…

Dum dum dum…Halloween, the day where I get to dress up and act like a 5 year and no one looks at me strangely, yah! So Halloween is just a day, however this year I turned it into a whole weekend! It started on Friday night by going to a “haunted” cornfield, you walked through a cornfield and through various houses and character try scare you, haha, okay so I said try…they DID scare me and I am not ashamed to say I screamed like a little girl!

Visiting the haunted cornfield

After that I meet up with some friends where we had a games night…in our Halloween costumes, which was pretty fun.

Heather dressed as popcorn

The Saturday was spent shopping at the outlet malls, an au pair Halloween party, then out in downtown Milwaukee…all in costume of course! I went dressed as Rainbow bright so I was wearing wings, a tiara, a tutu, and turquoise leggings, cute and bright jewelry.  An American friend of mine asked if I was “dressing sexy” for Halloween and I said no “I’m dressing like girl that never had Halloween as a kid and now I get to wear whatever I want” she just laughed.

Rainbow bright

 Sunday which was officially Halloween was trick or treating day, Julia and I took another au pair (Kor from Thailand) and well as AJ and the neighbours kid and we went on our merry way, I gave my host parents most of my candy as there was way too much…I’m not bragging or anything, but I am a pretty good trick or treat(-er?)

Braden, AJ and I on Halloween

Reunited friends…

Michelle who is a fellow South African au pair that I flew over with (and visited in Virginia) last year, had been promising to come visit me for awhile now and with just 2 months left on her contract, we finally set a date. Julia and I met her in Chicago, and true to Chicago style it was windy, rainy and cold! 

Windy cold Chicago, IL

Which isn’t great for sightseeing and picture taking, but not too deterred we marched around the city or I should say sloshed around the city, taking in its beautiful sights. Included in our self guided tour was Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Hancock Tower and of course deep dish pizza. 

Deep dish pizza

Which is probably not very good for you…but who cares cos it tastes so good. I would say it is best described as a pie of pizza, with plenty of cheese! We were scheduled to return to Milwaukee on the last train out of Chicago, but that never happened as something was wrong with the train, so they ordered buses for us instead, which they cancelled when they though the train was fixed…and then had to re-order when the determined the train was not fixed. Um, if you are having that many problems with the train I don’t want to ride it, thanks! So instead of arriving in Milwaukee at 9:30, we arrive at 12:30…ready to crash!

The girls at Navy Pier, IL

The next day I drove Michelle around the pretty city and took her to all my favourite places, she really loved the city and that just reminded me how lucky I am to have chosen such a lovely State to au pair in!

Michelle and I at Bradford Beach

Dirt Cups the American way…

“I have never had a dirt cup” after hearing this, my friend Heather insisted on arranging a get together where I would get to experience the great American dessert featuring ‘dirt’ and ‘worms’. We met up at her Brother Andy’s house after a day of shopping at the local mall. Two of my friends came with us and we all helped to make the dirt cups…pudding, oreos and gummy worms are surprisingly yummy when out together!

Dirt Cups

A new chapter…

For those that don’t know, Michael and I decided to break up…it’s kind of a long story, but I think in the long run it’s for the best…and we still chat every so often, but I think that I need to travel a little more and explore this great world of mine J

Pumpkin (and other stuff) picking...

Last year I went apple picking with my host family, which was super fun. This year however we went Pumpkin picking, this was largely due to the fact that there were no apples left on the trees, and we needed Pumpkins anyway! Julia (my German friend) Amanda, all the kids and I went to a Pumpkin patch not far away from the house. AJ loved it, she was pretty good at picking…the worst looking pumpkins, but at least she was having fun! Braden kept tripping over the pumpkin vines and Finn, well he was content on collecting rocks…ah, special kids indeed.

The boys picking various non-pumpkin related items...

A second wedding…and a beautiful beach…

This post comes from New Jersey where I went for my host mom (Amanda’s) brother (Zach’s) wedding. He got married in a lovely town called Cape May, which is where my host parents got married 6 years ago. I keep telling my host family that I am going to tell my family and friends we went to “Jersey Shore” which is the place where a trashy reality TV show, which I would liken to a train wreck, it is pretty bad…but you just can’t help but watch, is filmed! They keep telling me that I can’t say that, cos they took me to the ‘nice part of Jersey”. If you read any of my posts from last year, Cape May is pretty close to Avalon where I went just after I arrived in the States, all those months ago… The wedding was beautiful! Annabel and the boys had feature roles as flower girl and ring bearers, they were amazing cute! The boys even wore mini tuxes. We were in the Cape for 5 days and it was so nice to walk along the beach with the sun shining, and knowing that Wisconsin is on the verge of winter freeze made it so much more enjoyable!

Zach and Erica with the 3 boys

A few random pieces…

Since September I have been to a few volleyball games (mainly Pete, Michael’s younger brother and the Loyola women’s team) which means I now know a little more about the sport. I have also made new friends (Julia from Germany and Amy from Cape Town, SA) and have also attended an Oktoberfest, wearing dirndl of course!

Wearing dirndl at Oktoberfest

I am really enjoying my au paring adventure and I am so glad I made the choice to come! I am not sure what next year holds for me, but I am exploring many options at the moment…any suggestions would be great. I promise to keep posting about my American adventures (btw Gran Pickers…you were the one that inspired me to write detailed accounts of my adventures, and of course Grandad Pickers your were the one that inspired me to actually HAVE adventures…Katrine was just a start!)

One of my new friends (Julia from Germany)

Mom, people here think it’s really funny that you used to tell me about ‘starving Russians’ as every other country in the world talks about ‘starving Africans’ but I have assured them…not all of them are starving! haha

Another picture from Oktoberfest (doing a Feilgling shot)