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"

Jumping from a perfectly good airplane…

Most amazing experience this year so far...SKY - FREAKEN - DIVING!!!

Yip as Lelia (my SA counsellor) told us when we decided to join the au pair program, I took the plunge!

My partner in crime...Tamarski

The story begins and ends with 4 crazy girls deciding to jump out of an airplane at 13500ft...random instructor and parachute attached! I can't even begin to explain the feeling...but I'll try.

After our jump...we ALL survived!

So there you are at the door of the plane and you think wait and am actually going to do this? Yes, I think I am. Then you just jump and you feel the weirdest sensation as you know you are falling but as you are 'passing' nothing on your way down, and it's not a normal falling feeling as the pressure pushing up on you is pretty intense! When the parachute is pulled you lift up before you start coming down again, and when you do you feel like you are in the most surreal dream, I kinda felt like Alice in Wonderland. I could see my feet beneath me, and I could see the cars and roads and with the size comparison it was like everything was from mini town. It's a pretty trippy feeling! While we were in the canopy stage the instructor allowed me to "control" the direction of the parachute, so we did left and right circles which was really fun!

Yip, that's me :)

Also they let me fly the plane! Hey wait, was that the reason everyone decided to jump...?I got to sit in the passenger seat  and once we had taken off and were at a reasonable height the pilot let go of the control, and asked if I was going to fly the plane or not? I have to admit I felt a little bad for the people in the plane as I was wearing the headphones with the microphone attached, and I’m pretty sure my hysterical squeaks were anything but fun to listen to! Flying the plane was really fun, but also a little scary as I kept worrying I would hit into something, crazy I know since there isn’t much stuff just floating around in the sky…

Are we seriously doing this?

After surviving and being on an adrenaline high we brought dinner and headed over to my house to watch our videos and relive our special moment! Ah, what fun!

We made it :)

At the moment I am at the gym waiting for my Yoga class to start, Zumba has just finished and I am feeling energized and ready to conquer the world! Hope you all have a super fantastic week! To my family (both or should I say ALL sides) I love and miss you all, I think about you all often and pray that things improve. To my country, YOU ROCK! I am so so so proud to be a Safa! Xxx

Representing my country

PS: I recently attended an American wedding, which was super fun…plus only knowing like 4 people in a wedding of 300 means you can dance the funky chicken and honestly not be embarrassed….cos no one knows you! What fun! 

Tamara and I at the wedding

Wow, one amazing year…with one amazing family…

My second year (yip can you believe it?) in Wisconsin just started and to celebrate my host parents decided to plan a little BBQ (aka a braai) for me...I invited all my friends (which ended up being a group almost bigger than the dining room table) and of course the rain decided to join us so we all stayed inside. 

My host family and I

Well all except for Dave who insisted on grilling and pulled the grill right outside the backdoor and hopped in and out of the house turning burgers and hotdogs. I think he was in his element! It was a successful party and so we ended the evening by going out and dancing (after we helped clean up...don't worry mom...the slave job has continued!) I continue to become a domestic goddess! 

Little AJ hugs :)

Well maybe not really, but I do make my own bed, do my washing and clean my room...wait I'm kinda of like a teenager all over again. Which is pretty funny as one of the cleaning ladies remarked that I am pretty clean for a teenager (which I am not sure is meant to be a compliment or not?) which shocked Amanda how was worried that they would think she was the mother to a teenager or worse the grandmother to the boys...

All the girls out and about...

Past, Present and Future…and goodbyes…

Hello, Hello at the moment I’m am sitting in my room, just thinking of my journey thus far, of all the friends I have made, places I seen and things I have learnt. It makes your head spin when you realize how much there is out there…

Fernanda and I celebrating a friend's Birthday at an Irish pub

These last few months have been the months of ‘Farewells’, when you are an au pair you get used to meeting new people as well as saying goodbye to nearly everybody you met sometime in your year. And since I have chosen to extend that means everybody that was here when I arrived, I will have to eventually have to attend a farewell for. Anna (my Swedish friend) had her farewell  dinner at Casablanca, which is a Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant, we even had a belly dancer come and dance at the tables…which really made me miss dancing! We decided on a few entrees, that we could all share. The meals came…with no cutlery. Being South African and having been to India I was like just eat with your hands, that’s the way it’s supposed to be eaten…Anna was shocked! Haha, apparently so was the waitress when she past our table she said, Oh my, did no one bring you silverware? When she brought it most of us were happy to use our hands and carried on…well all except for Anna. Anna also had a girl’s night out, which is always really funny as people get pretty confused with all the accents!

Za, Kor, Anna, Fernanda and I at Casablanca

My Brazilian friend Fernanda left in April, so we had a “Fernandii weekend” which involved, dinner at a local brewery/pub, a girls night out and dinner with her host parents…fun times!

I miss you Fernandii

Celine (France), Za,(Thailand), Aneth (Panama), Fernanda (Brazil), Vera (Moldova), Yady (Colombia), Tamara and Reiki (both Germany) and me (South Africa)

Then Vera (from Moldova) left, we had a big outdoor lunch, and later had a bonfire. That really made me think of home! Then a few of us went out to a dance club called Suite that night. It was my first time there, but we had a good time!

Vera and I representing Wisconsin

Hilde (my favourite and only Norwegian friend) left in May, so we had a simple dinner with her host family, with all her favourite meals (none of which were American)

Hilde and I having our last tea at Alterra (by the lake)

Audrey a fellow South African just had her farewell, and then left on South African Youth day (June 16^th) Hopefully I will get to meet up with these girls again, either In South Africa…or in their countries.

Saying goodbye...to Audrey (in the front, in the middle)

So with all those farewells my American friends keep telling me that I am going to run out of friends to say goodbye too, but then I tell them that’s what they are for!

See why I need friends...so they can do stuff like this with me (",)

*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page