Sunday, December 26, 2010

Concerts and ball games...

That night I went to a TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) with Tyler. TSO is described as ‘a progressive rock band’. To explain a little a little better I got this excerpt from Wikipedia “the band’s musical style incorporates classical, orchestral, symphonic and progressive elements into hard rock and heavy metal. The orchestra is most famous for their Christmas themed series of rock operas” I had a great time at the concert! Lots of special effects and pyro show bits.

TSO concert

I attended a Bucks game, in Milwaukee. (The Milwaukee Bucks are our local NBA team) unfortunately they lost the game, but when friends are together that doesn’t really matter anyway cos we still had a good time!

Bucks vs Hawks

Saturday, December 25, 2010

We wish you a Merry Christmas…

Christmas this year, was celebrated with some of Amanda’s family (her dad, mom, brother and sister-in-law) which was really fun. On Christmas eve I went over to Amy’s (a fellow South African au pairs) house during the day and we just hang out and later went our into the cold to play around with my new camera (a NIKON…dad don’t be a hater ;) the pictures are on facebook for those of you that haven’t seen them.

Fun in the snow

That night she came over and we had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with my host family and their family. It was great to all be together. Later on my friend Julia joined us, which was awesome…us three had a great time talking about  our Christmas traditions from home and since we usually have Christmas in Summer, while we were now getting ready to celebrate Christmas in Winter.

Me and "my" boys on Christmas Eve

Christmas day was so much fun, we woke up early (Dave and Amanda convinced Annabel that 8am was early enough) opened all our presents sitting around the Christmas tree together. The rest of the day was a pretty chilled; later on I went and visited a few friends of mine. A lot of American kids get together after Christmas festivities with their families and just hang out, which was really awesome, because it gave my host family time to be a family and I got to spend time with friends.

Aj, Zach, Bucktail, Erica, Nonna, FInn, Braden, Me, Dave and Amanda
My wonderful extended host family

One of my Christmas presents was a ticket to go the Nutcracker (on Boxing Day) with Amanda, her mom, sister-in-law and Annabel. I watched the Nutcracker last year, but it was nice to see it again, and of course it made me think of my little sister. Riley, you would have loved it!

Christmas morning surprises

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Music scene in Milwaukee…

December has been a fun month for me, it started with the Kissmas Bash concert where we got to see Shontelle, New Boys and Taio Cruz (who by the way is amazing!) Bruno Mars was meant to be there but rescheduled for a later date. Julia, Tyler and I had a great time rocking out to *Dynamite* and an array of popular songs.

Julia and I at Kissmas Bash

Monday, November 29, 2010

Mall of America...bridges and pretty lights

Despite that I decided to continue with my road trip to Minnesota plans, meaning a friend and I were going to (okay he was going to) drive 6 hours to the state West of us, that just so happens to colder than Wisconsin. Yes, apparently that is possible! And of course I have terrible timing and planned the trip in winter…

Filling up with gas in the freezing cold!

We arrived in MN in time for a drink at the bar and an early night, I had big plans for Saturday, that entailed…shopping! Not because I wanted to buy anything in particular but rather because we were going to The Mall of America, which is the third largest mall in North America. We had an amazing time at the mall, all 6 hours of being there, and I’m still not sure we saw it all.

Mall of America, MN

In the middle of the Mall is an amusement park. We went on this one “structure” that is basically 4 floors of various climbing it’s called the Flying Dutchman and is described as ‘the tallest sky trail rope course in the world (56 feet).’
The decision to try it out went something like this.
‘Tyler, do you want to try this?’
‘Um, not really unless you want to’
‘I really want to do it!’
‘Okay let’s go’

Flying Dutchman in Mall of America

After being harnessed, given instructions and once we were on approx the 3rd level…I turned scared. Tyler told me I had better keep going as the whole thing was my idea in the first place. I soldiered on tightly hugging each pole as I reached and saying a silent prayer, but eventually I really started to enjoy the ascend to the final level and of course the descend on to solid ground!

Map of the amusement park in Mall of America, MN

The rest of the time in MN was spent taking pictures of bridges, sculptures and churches. Unfortunately like I said before, Minneapolis/St. Paul are both freezing, which made taking endless amount of pictures a little hard as I wasn’t quite prepared for the snow that was already covering the ground.

Pretty bridge...with pretty lights
We also visited a sculpture garden which was covered in snow but really pretty. That's where the cherry on a spoon sculpture is...if you're ever seen or heard of it.

Cherry on a spoon, MN
The drive back was…well…6 hours…I slept for a lot of those hours, leaving my road trip buddy alone to drive. I guess I’m not a very good road trip buddy! 

Hmmm, see what happens when I fall asleep?!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving *puke*

I attended a ‘Folk fair’ celebration which was advertised as “bringing the culture of peace together” which I thought sounded great, my host parents on the other hand were a little concerned and told me NOT to breathe the air there! So I had to explain that it was not a hippie fest, but rather a festival of bringing various cultures together. I had a really good time watching dancers from Poland, Germany, Hawaii and a few other places and it was really great to see all the different food from the different countries.

Dancer at the Folk Fair, WI

This year I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and a few of their friends. The boys were super cute and spend most of the time smiling and making everyone laugh. Annabel entertained us all with her talents singing “this land is your land”, “how much is that doggy?” and “welcome to music” I was really impressed that she was so confident and outgoing. Dinner was great…unfortunately throwing up for the remainder of the night was not! The day before I was playing with Braden, we were having a great time and 10 minutes before Dave got home, Braden ran up to me and I reached my arms out to him only to have our hug session end with him puking all over me! *sad face* Hence the fact that the next day it was me that was puking.

The boys sitting by the Thanksgiving table

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Double Royalty…

I attended 2 crownings this month, which are basically the beginning of Mardi Gras season where every German cultural group chooses a Prince and Princess to represent the group for the year. The first crowning was fun although I only knew about 5 people that were there. The second crowning was a friend of mine’s aunt and uncle that were being crowned, so that was really great to be a part of!

Heather and I at the 1st crowning

Heather and her brother Andy were in the band that was playing for the second crowning, which meant I had to hang around and wait for them to get in a quick rehearsal before the event began. Luckily Andy’s best friend Tyler was also left in limbo so we decided to team up and go for dinner before.  We get along pretty well so that’s a good thing.

Heather and I at the 2nd crowning

Friday, November 5, 2010

Games night…

November has been a great month, we arranged a games night at a friend’s house. We played this one game called Partini, which is super fun! It was girls versus guys (till a few more arrived then we added a guy to our side) the game is a mix up of a bunch of different games, so it’s luck of the draw what games you play every round. There is a horrible one called “Hum Punch” where you have to hum songs to your group and they have to guess them. Then there is a confusing one called “What Not” where you have to describe 5 things on your card without saying the word. (So you use things that are opposite and seem really logical to you, then you realize not everybody looks after kids and ‘gets’ you.) There is a coordinately challenging game called “Bouncers” where you have to catch a ball in a cup or throw it to your partner’s cup and so forth (surprisingly I did not totally suck at this game). The easiest games were “Mime Twist” (where you act out your card) and “Clay Smoothie” where you mold the objects on your card. So after much giggles and funny moments (Dan trying to mold toilet paper and like me having to act out “stripper”) it was decided the girls (and Dan) were victorious! I mean with all those X chromosomes…what did you expect? 

The winning team!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

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

Sunday, October 24, 2010

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

Friday, October 22, 2010

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

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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


Sunday, October 17, 2010

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...

Sunday, October 10, 2010

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

Saturday, October 2, 2010

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)

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Becoming South African…again…

I planned to go to Texas as they have a “Texas Potjie Festival” there every year. I had booked my flights and was planning to rent a car to drive the 3 hours from the airport to the festival by myself. I told Michael about my trip and he thought it was cool, ‘til I told him I was doing it alone. Which prompted him to ask, “so you are flying alone, driving 3 hours (for those of you that know me well…I’m directionally challenged) to a campsite where you are setting up tent and camping for 2 days by yourself?!” I just said I won’t be by myself there will be South Africans there! But thank goodness he decided to join me on my adventure!

Rusk, Texas
The morning started pretty early as we (Michael and I) had a 9am flight. Michael and his dad came to fetch me and we were on route to our big adventure! Michael had to listen to me saying “We’re going to Texas” which is probably as annoying as a 3year old asking “are we there yet?” as you are backing out of the driveway. But he handled it with grace and just smiled most of the time. We flew direct from Milwaukee to Dallas and on our flight met a missionary who was on route to his home town, a place called Garland, when his ride called to tell him he would be really late as he was in a meeting (and after finding out Garland is 30 minutes away from Dallas) we offered to give him a ride. After our ‘road trip’ and good deed we were on our way to Rusk which is to quote a certain person “the middle of Bumble F*** Texas”

Our road trip friend
We arrived at the festival happy to see that there were showers, a swimming pool and a hall used to watch rugby games. Not quite roughing it, but hey when God smiles down on you…smile back. We set up tent in between two large groups (after being advised to change the direct of our tent opening in case Deon decided he needed a midnight leak. A wonderful “welcome to the neighbourhood”.)  People at the festival were prepared; I’m talking gazebos that doubled as kitchens, couches for lazing on outside and food that could only be described as more-ish. We were…not so prepared. We thought our air mattress and pop up tent was a sellout, plus bringing a Weber on a flight…not an option! We headed to the little town of Rusk in search of food and fine things only to find a dodgy looking gas station with not many choices, after asking directions to a dare I say real shop. We stocked up on non-perishables and fruit and headed our way back to camp only to be invited for dinner with one of our neighbouring tents. It was so great to see that you can take a person out of Africa, but not Africa (and its kind and warmth) out of a person. The hi-light of the dinner was *in this order* meat, meat, good conversation, aromat, meat, droe wors and koeksisters!

Droe Wors :)

Day two was a beautiful day, which I woke up thinking we were going to start by drinking O.J and eating fruit as we weren’t the” cool kids” and didn’t have a grill to make a traditional camp breakfast on. However our other neighbours had others ideas and invited us to join in their scrambled egg and bacon feast…aw, gotta love a group that lives on meat! In return I offered to wash their dishes, upon my return from the communal sink I find out I have lost Michael…where was he? Getting ready for the rugby game of course! Which led me to the realization of two things 1.I really missed watching rugby games and 2.I know less about rugby than I originally thought…hmmm, got Wikipedia that! Michael was asking me all these rugby related questions and at the beginning I was doing pretty well, until the questions got technical…then I passed him onto the guys behind me so I did not give him chick answers about a man’s game!  Sadly Ama Bokke Bokke lost, followed by a loss from my Shark boys, but with so many activities to get through my sadness was forgotten by hanging by the pool and going on a nature walk.

Coffee, rusks and a rugby game
Saturday night was spent dancing the night away, after eating boerewors rolls and hanging with some of the youngens of the group. I wore a dress that my mom had made for me using the SA flag, and Michael got himself a SA t-shirt just to represent. That night I learnt that Sokkie is apparently not a real dance and that dancing however you want to songs with titles such as “rooi rok bokkie” and “loslappie” constitutes Sokkie dancing. Either that or these guys have been away from SA for too long and no longer have the moves. We did meet a nice couple that moved around the floor with ease so we cornered them and learnt a few new moves.  To make the night even more special there was a projector screen set up that was screening famous Afrikaans cartoons and clips from shows, even I could not contain myself and sang a little (okay the whole song) when I saw the “Trompie en die Boksombende” clips. After a group singing of ‘del-a-rey’ (swaying included) I was feeling a little uncomfortable, and was hoping that would be the last apartheid reference, and surprisingly enough for a group of Afrikaans South Africans that left SA, it was not reoccurring theme that was brought up repeatedly. Mandela, your dream is alive!

A full view of the dress


Sunday was supposed to be the best day…unfortunately we were only able to stay for a small part of it as we had to return the Mustang, yip we rented a ‘stang! If Michael had had the choice between taking the ‘stang or me back to Milwaukee…I’m pretty sure this post would be coming from Texas! Our flight back was pretty eventful as apparently Michael’s cast had picked up a chemical used in bombs (or something like that) so they had swab EVERYTHING that Michael had packed…including our tent and ground cover and in the process unpacking his “Mohammad” and “Intro to Islam” textbooks which he had brought to work though some of his Theology homework. Imagine the looks he was getting from TSA! Then when I hugged him (a foreigner, “kiss me I’m South African” t-shirt included), it was declared that I had to be searched…just the way I wanted to spend my last hours of vacation.

With all new special friends :)

Once on the plane we realized that the amazing seats we had (in the exit row, which means more leg room) were not so amazing if you have cast on your arm, so Michael got bumped up to business class I was not so lucky, at first. After the plane took off the flight attendant said I could move up once we were in the air, and took my backpack and handed it to a confused Michael. She kept saying here is your bag, and it is to be noted that my backpack has the cheeky line of “Boys are stupid” written on the back, then she explained I was moving up too. We slept for whole flight, waking up only to eat. Finally at home after what was an amazing weekend, made me happy to have grown up in the South African culture.

Downtown Dallas, TX
*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page

Monday, August 30, 2010

Almost Over Aug …

The last weekend of August was also unfortunately Michael’s last weekend in Milwaukee before he had to go to Chicago where he is studying. Michael broken/fractured his thumb joint while ATV (Quad biking) up in Canada and has a cast on his hand, so I offered to help him move into his apartment that he is sharing with two roommates and his sister. I had lots fun meeting all Michael’s friends and his volleyball team, as well as seeing where Michael attends college.

Part of Loyola

I also attended a Lady Gaga concert which was pretty interesting. I never realized that you are meant to dress just like Miss Gaga herself to enjoy her music and show your support so I instead went for comfort and practicality. Silly me, haha!

Miss Gaga

Monday, August 16, 2010

Doesn’t always stay in Vegas…

We flew back from Vegas at 11pm, which meant arriving in Milwaukee at 5am. Michael was sweet enough to offer to fetch us from the airport, which was awesome cos we didn’t have many other volunteers! After having a morning nap I started work at 10, with happy thoughts of a wonderful vacation.

The famous Vegas sign
Tamara my partner in crime hosted a Vegas party for her farewell, it was wonderful to go out and celebrate with the girls (and a few guys friends too) even though we were celebrating Tamara’s year coming to an end. Sunday night we had a dinner with Tamara’s family which was fun, they are a really nice family that really made Tamara (and me) feel like family! 

My partner in crime...Tamara

Sunday, August 15, 2010

What happens in Vegas…

On the Friday my trip to Vegas began, and true to superstitious Friday the 13th style it was a LONG trip…I missed my bus,  this was mostly due to not being able to find the bus stop which was in a town called Falmouth, which was past a town called Mashpee and past a road called Stub Toe Road…haha!

Family Picture taken in Providence Town, MA

Sue decided to drive me half way to a town called Braintree where they have a shuttle service that goes directly to the Logon International Airport. I never missed my plane (*yah*) but the plane was delayed!  After arriving in New York, I spent a little time wandering around the airport (which is the same airport I flew into almost a year ago on route to Cali) then made sure I got to my gate in time, I definitely didn’t want to miss my flight to Las Vegas! And of course, my flight was delayed…again! But we still managed to land in Las Vegas on time. I had to catch two buses in order to get to my hotel where my friend Tamara was waiting for me. It was soooo damn hot in Vegas! (Like 108F which is 42C) Our first afternoon was spent lying by the pool and relaxing, later we walk to the closest fast food place for dinner, and then got ready to go out…in cute heels of course! By the way, if you ever go to Vegas…pack flats and heels, every time you enter a casino put your heels on (and your slops in your bag) and when just walking around TRUST me you are going to want to wear flats. We eventually walked home barefoot at like 2 in the morning!

Vegas airport :)

As you know they say “what happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas” so I won’t get into too much detail about my trip, but I will hi-light a few things to give you a run down. Tamara and I did almost all the 50 things on our list. We adjusted a few when we realized they were never going to happen (like finding a guy with a mullet, I guess men have finally realized that the mullet is definitely out…so we found a guy with an outrageously long Mohawk instead)

Mohawk dude

We almost got arrested, unfortunately it was not for “being awesome” but rather for Jay Walking. When you get warned not to Jay walk in the USA, take it seriously, some places (i.e Vegas) take this law very seriously! We were stopped by a cop that kindly explained exactly what a cross walk is and that we should learn to use them. We did however get to sit in a police car and take pictures; I think the cop felt sorry for us crazy foreigners.

In the police car...

We did catch a ride in a limo…what makes it even sweeter was that it was A. for free B. a hummer stretch limo and C. It was hot pink! We walked through a drive through, got boys to paint their nails purple and blue. Gave out a few red lipstick cheek kisses and collected coins, awesome times with Robyn and Tamara!

Limo riding in Vegas
*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page