California Dreamin'...

My flight was super early in the morning, which I was only partly happy about! We all know I am NOT a morning person! I had a really good flight, flying over the Colorado snow capped mountains as well as the rocky Grand Canyon! I kept asking people where we were (as in what State we were flying over) most people looked at me like what are you talking about and does it even matter?

Flight over the States, so beautiful!

After arriving in LAX (felt so Hollywood!) Donna came to fetch me. (Some background: Donna is Richard (my step-dad’s) sister Caroline’s best friend) She had graciously offered to house me for the entire week, which was such a relief to me! The first few hours were spent driving around the O.C and just exploring, we later drove down to Laguna Beach and then Newport. As the sun was setting over the sea, I couldn’t help but think of my 2 months in India and all the wonderful sunsets we saw there! It was really amazing!

The view of Newport Beach

That night we went to Taco Surf which is just a chilled bar/restaurant. It was really fun to hang out wearing only one layer of clothing as opposed to the 2 layers that have become standard Wisconsin weather protection!

Donna and I at Taco Surf...with GIANT margaritas

It’s like taking candy from a baby…

Annabel had her 3^rd birthday on the 30^th of October, so we were baking cupcakes and muffins for 3 days before. The school is every strict about what you are allowed to send to school for parties, so the cupcakes were for home J We let Annabel decorate half of them…BIG mistake! Have you ever seen a 3 year old in charge of icing, sprinkles and cupcakes? In the end it was voted (mainly by me) that Annabel decorated cupcakes were to be consumed by family only as I cannot guarantee how much little girl spit and fingers ended up on them!

Braden, AJ and Finn looking as cute as ever!

The next day was Halloween which as you know is a big deal here, so Annabel dressed up as a pink princess, Braden as an elephant and Finn as a lion (my little bush babies ha ha) and true to their characters Annabel pranced around in her silver little girl heels, Braden sat with his big cheeks, blowing bubbles and chilling and Finn cried like a fierce lion! Dave had a halo alice band on while blonde haired Amanda wore a pitch black wig! I dressed as Robin (in the) hood, and had on tights and a bow and arrow set. 

Princess Annabel 

Lion *Finn* and Elephant *Braden*

We went trick or treating which was really fun (although do I need to mention again…cold) After walking one block we decided that it was too cold for the boys to be out, after a few more blocks Dave decided to re-join us with some wine, not quiet OBS but hey, when it’s that cold - does it matter? Once we had finished our drinks and our hands were moments from falling off we headed home, but this girl was not satisfied with the candy collecting ability of a 3 year old decided to head out alone, but knowing that it may look a little weird I figured I had to join up with some youngens so I would look like the caring big sister… So I walked outside and saw a group of 3 like 12 year olds (a tooth fairy, hippie boy and sumo wrestler) and ran after them, and laid out the plan they had to come with me…at first they thought I was crazy but in the end it was pretty fun, every time they walked past a house I was like “hey wait we didn’t go there yet!” After walking a block or two I bid farewell to my surrogate brothers and I headed home. It was more for the experience than the candy, and it was pretty fun!

My cute little candy collecting container

The girls (my au pair friends) and I headed out that night to a place called Buckheads, it kind of reminds me of Tavern J We had a really good night meet some crazy characters! Then to top it all off, we were going into to daylight savings time, so I was getting so confused about what the real time was!

The witch *Rieke*, German girl *Nadine*, Robin hood *me*, Horror Cleopatra *Tamara*, Pippi longstockings *Anna*  

The Sunday November 1^st , meant waking up early (after a late Halloween night) because my host mom was called back to Philadelphia to testify in a court case. They paid for her and I and the boys to fly to Philly and for our hotel for 3 days. Amanda’s parents live in New Jersey which is pretty close so they drove up every day to see the boys which gave me some time off to explore the city. 

The Sylvester Stallone Statue by the Art Museum, PA

The World (meaning America and Canada ha ha) Baseball Series was going on and the Phillies were in the final against the New York Yankees. (They play up to seven games, but it is the first team to win 4 games that takes the series…I think that’s how it works?) Well the atmosphere was really fun because of the hype around the games, unfortunately the Yankees won the series, but we were already back in Milwaukee by then.

The boys and I at L.O.V.E Park, PA

*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page

Windy city ... take two ...

My next few weeks were kind of just relaxed, which was a nice change! So after my first “fun-filled” Chicago experience, I heard that a few other girls were thinking of traveling there…I jumped at the opportunity to go back! Early on Saturday morning 5 of us girls were Chicago bound…we arrived there at 8am after taking a 2hour bus trip, our day started with the Shedd Aquarium which was truly amazing! (we saw a 4D show called our planet) Next we visited Field’s museum where we saw “Sue” the T-rex, lots of artifacts and even a taxi-cut out for the Africa display.

African taxi...slightly different from a NYC taxi

Next on our self-guided tour of the Windy city was the Adler Planetarium where we saw 2 movies about space one of which was a children’s movie (the better of the two) and one that was shown on a dome shaped roof! (wow!) Our next stop was the Willis Tower (aka the Skydeck or Sears Tower) which has the most amazing view of Chicago from 103 stories up. After taking way to many photos of the same thing, meeting new people and watching a proposal we decided that it was officially home (well hotel) time. Back safely in our room we showered, changed, ate and…zzzzzz

Rieke, Nadine, Tamara, Fernanda and I in the Willis Tower viewing window

Rise and shine on day two (and final day in Chicago) we caught the metro into Chicago as the hotel we stayed at was in a suburban of Chicago and not downtown (that’s traveling on a budget I guess) At this point I would like to point out that I armed with a map and computer researched metro colours and bus numbers managed to get us to all these wonderful places…without getting lost! (Ha, so much for being directionally challenged!)

Posing with the statues...

The day began with Dunkin Donut breakfast at Millennium park (which is where the ‘Bean’ aka Cloud gate is) then we headed to Navy pier, where we meet some crazy people! (Lots of pirates walking around and people on mechanical chairs that were kind of freaky) We decided that we had to check out Chinatown, so that was our next stop…after eating at a super cute Vietnamese restaurant we started to head back to Union station where our bus would fetch us and end our magical Chicago weekend! But what a weekend we had!

All the girls at Navy Pier

Loving Chicago (taken at Navy Pier)

Pickin' dem apples ...

As you can all see or read I am having a great American adventure, living the America dream if you like. I hope you are enjoying reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

Milwaukee nature shot

My next great American adventures began in…well our backyard! It’s fall at the moment which a month ago meant all the leaves are turning gorgeous hues of red, yellow and gold. Unfortunately now it means the trees are bare and no longer cloaked in glorious shades, and there are a lot of messy backyards that need to be raked. I think it’s so cool, well I thought! My host mom and dad decided to enjoy the full American experience I needed to rake leaves and make scarecrows. We had to rake up all the leaves and then we stuffed them in Dave’s old (doctor scrubs) clothing, then we added masks so we had a werewolf/doctor and an old man in funny pj’s on our front porch. I think I’m a pretty good leaf rake-er unfortunately it’s a thankless job, because there’s always more leaves!

AJ and I in the leaf pile

Coupled with scarecrow building, apple picking is another fall activity that we shared. What fun! We drove to this farm (Elegant farm) where there was a big red barn with a smiley face on it. Knowing that we were “roughing” it on a farm I wore pigtail plaits and a checked shirt with bomber jacket, feeling like quite the farmer’s daughter! Lucky for me I brought a few extra layers because damn! It was cold. The type of cold where it catches your breathe every time you breathe in, you cheeks turn various shades of pink and your eyes want to water. But in all fairness the sun was out, he just wasn’t doing his job very well. Needless to say this the first time I recessed my wardrobes readiness for winter! At the apple farm we went on a trailer attached to a tractor, up to the apple orchids where every tree has a colored ribbon tied to it signifying the type of apple it produces, not really caring about the type and rather just the experience, it didn’t take this safa (South African) long to be up the tree and picking ‘dem apples! Annabel was cute helping out by standing at the base of the tree and collecting the apples I collected, reminding me every time that it was going into her basket! The day was ended off by indulging in hot apple cider donuts! Yummy!

AJ and I apple picking

MASS - A - CHU - SETTS ...

My next adventure…Boston, MA (Massachusetts…aka there’s-no-way-I -could-spell-that-without-spellcheck!) Ravash came to Wisconsin, so I promised her I would go to Boston, I had a long weekend off in Sept (Fri, Sat and Sun) so I woke up really early (for the record anything before 8 is early for me) and boarded the airport connection at 4:30am (argh!) climbed on a plane and landed in Boston at 1pm…of course everyone was looking bright eyed and bushy tailed (I think I just looked bushy tailed!) Ravash’s host child (? - I’m still not sure what to called the kids we look after, we have host parents, so they should either be our host kids or our host siblings…but that is just too weird for words) finished school just after I got there so we took her to the playground, it was fun! Meaning we probably had more fun there than she did…

See what I mean? Ravashnie on the slide

Later we took Elizabeth back to the house and made paper flowers for her mother. When Ravash’s host mom came home we made a beeline for the door and went out for dinner at the Chessecake Factory, which does in fact have a wide range of dishes and not just desserts. (I had never gone there before because I don’t really like cheesecake and I thought it was a dessert place, only) while there we met up with another South African girl, Thubile.

Thubile, Ravashnie and I at Cheesecake factory. MA

The next day the girls - Geetha, a Malaysian girl and Hilda (Jones) a South African girl from Kokstad that I went to school with like 10 years ago! - took me out and about in Boston, we went to Bunker Hill, Quincy market and a whole bunch of other interesting places. 

Geetha, Hilda, Ravashnie and I

Hilde and I at Bunker Hill Monument

We also saw a bar that is modeled on the set of ‘Cheers’. That night Ravash and I planned to go out, but as you know what they say about the best laid plans… the car had a flat tire so we got less than a block away, and decided to catch a bus and just check out Boston by night. We met some VERY interesting (aka weird) people, one guy told me “I am love…with your eyes right now…” okay dude, I would like to warn you at this stage that I do carry pepper spray and I do know self-defense!

Some random part of Boston by night...

 On Sunday we had planned a picnic, but with the rain we jumped at the lunch invitation extended by her host family. While dinning they promptly offered me her job when she leaves next year - slightly awkward moment! In private Ravash remarked I should visit more often as her host family isn’t usually so sweet to her, what can I say host families love my…charm? That brought my Boston trip to an end, and Ravash, Geetha and Kim (another SA au pair) drove me to the airport where we bid fond farewells.

Ravash, Geetha, Kim and I and of course my pink bag :)

100 Days and still going strong...

Saturday the 12^th of September marked my 100^th day in Wisconsin, and as I looked back at my last few months I cannot believe how acclimatized I have become. You know you are comfortable in a new country when you crave food from shops here and your sentences stop beginning with “in my country.”

Fernanda, Monique, Stephanie and I at a mini golf au pair meeting

The day was celebrated by drinking American beer! Ha ha! We had an au pair meeting at the Millers Brewery in downtown Milwaukee, there were 7 girls altogether. We went with our counselor plus the two counselors from the other agency. The tour was a walking tour of like 4 blocks, so by the time you get to the end of the tour, you don’t care what the beer tastes like, you’re just parched.  I had this one beer it was called Berry Weiss, and oh my… it changed my point of view of beer. It’s like alcoholic gummy berry juice. (Unfortunately most pubs don’t stock it though) And just to clarify the under aged girls were given any soda of their choice definitely not beer (the legal US drinking age is 21 and driving age 16 hmmm…a little strange but oh well)

Nadine, Yardely, Fernanda, Vanessa, Tamara, Rieki and I at the Miller Tour

After that a Brazilian au pair (Fernanda) and a Columbian au pair (Yardley) and I decided to check out the ‘Indian Summer Fest” which not Indian like I would expect in South Africa, it is American-Indian. It was really nice to see the dancing (which looks a little strange if you don’t understand the concept behind it, one man told me convincingly enough that there was no way they were stoned…I beg to differ.) One act that truly stood out in my mind was a dance that 5 guys performed on a wooden pole that was like 100 meters (ok exaggeration) above the ground and they kind of bungeed off the pole and swung around in a circle, it was hectic!

Mexican Dancing

Also the food was pretty cool, after weeks of trying to explain to my host family what ‘vetkoek’ was (for those that are not familiar with weird (but tasty) South African cuisine, it is a dough deep fat fried and stuffed with mince/ground beef) when I explained this to Amanda (my host mom) and Jena (the babysitter) they asked me why would I think that stuffing dough with “mints” would taste good, that’s when I found out the American phrase is “ground beef”. So anyway, I found a meal called an Indian taco, which is ‘vetkoek’ with salad! Mission accomplished J

Yardy, Vanessa and I at Mexican Fest

The night ended with a farewell (for a girl I had never met) and a welcome (for a girl that I had also never met) but when you trying to make friends those are minor details! We ended up at a place called Hooligans (which was a lot tamer than the name suggests!) with 2 Colombian au pairs (and a Colombian guy who knew one of the girls), an au pair from Panama, one from Romania, and another  from Brazil…and a few more from countries that I not only cannot spell, but can’t pronounce either! It was really interesting with everyone so glad to meet other girls either from their country or that speak the same language as them…I of course just had me, myself and I. Well that was until every realized the only things we had in common was our jobs, America and yup…English! (However bad and fragmented) So this wonderful day-turned-night ended with all of us dancing to the some old school songs in a place called RC’s. Fun times in Milwaukee!

Some more dancing...

A day in the life of an au pair...

My mom asked me to explain my daily routine, so I thought I’d just add this for you all.

My typical week consists of working 8 – 10 hours per day Monday through Thursday. I wake up and get ready for the day, which basically means shower, change and coffee! My host mom or dad will either leave right away or they will be getting Annabel ready for school. If they are still getting her ready then I usually help by getting her breakfast or by doing her hair, she has the most gorgeous shiny, long, thick hair! Then it’s just me and the boys once everyone leaves. We just hang out and chill. They are supposed to sleep in the morning, midday and in the afternoon, but as we all know even the best laid plans don’t always go according to plan! I also feed them, they mainly have milk but are starting on rice cereal, (which brings back memories of trying to feed my younger siblings which if memory serves me correct - was always a messy affair!) In between all of that I try to get out the house at least once a day, picture me, walking down the streets of suburbia pushing a double stroller/pram, sounds cute ha? Well they are, but you can bet that they are not always angels! Finn is the louder of the two, so he gets a little more attention, which makes Braden jealous and so has started this new cry which is more like a girly screech, that kind of says “what about me?!” Braden is also the better sleeper of the two, he lets you know when he wants to sleep, eat or has a poop by making a slightly weird groaning noises, but at least it’s not a screech.  Finn sleeps well…if you are holding him, I’m sure you can see how that would be a problem. But on a whole I am really happy with my family, and with Wisconsin. The boys are 6 months now for anyone that is keeping track. Once I have finished work I either just sit in my room and read, surf the net or watch tv. If I finish early enough I try to make it to the gym, but realistically this usually only happens on weekends (Fri, Sat or Sun) Sometimes I meet up for coffee with the other girls but most of them live 30 – 40 minutes away (except my friend Hilde who lives 15 minutes away) so during the week this can be challenging. On weekend we always try to make the most of our time, we have group emails on facebook that we send out to ALL the au pair girls so anyone that can make it is invited, which is nice ‘cos then it’s not always the same girls. We always invite other au pairs from other agencies, just to expand our friendship base, plus everyone has a different departure date, so it’s very rare that your friend will be there the whole time you are there, so you need to make lots of friends!

My room on a rare day that it was clean