Two years, one family…lots of memories…

As it goes Au Pairs are always leaving, arriving and re-matching. So when you as an Au Pair complete 2 successful years with the same family, it is a time to celebrate! Unfortunately many of the girls that were on this journey with me from the beginning are no longer in Wisconsin, but lucky for me I have met a bunch of other amazing girls with which I have shared some wonderful adventures.

You guys are wonderful! Thank you for everything

I decided to plan a “Picnic in the Park” with my Au Pair friends and their host families. The weather was beautiful and the food plentiful (as usual with a group of Au Pairs.) We got to hang out, play ball games and Frisbee and even play a little in the Lake.

Picnic time!

I got to reflect upon my American experience (I mean 114 posts later) and realize how lucky I have been with everywhere I have travelled to, everyone I have met and of course with the family I live with and the kids I look after! Ra-ra loves you guys! 

Family photo...with everyone looking!

Shake your body like a Belly Dancer...

With my Belly dancing debut (in America) coming up I decided to get some inspiration by attending a Belly Dance show. I thought it would be a good idea to invite my friends before I realized now they would be comparing me to a professional the entire duration of my dance show. Anyway we soldiered on getting a group of 6 of us to attend the show, it was really fun to watch some dancing and it got me excited for my show!

Performing my solo

Afterwards we went out, where my friends decided they would show me a little something something on the dance floor, hmm I see I have some competition.

Out with the girls

Finally the day I have been awaiting for arrived, it marked not only my 2 years since leaving South African soil but also the Belly Dance show. Ah, the 31st of May! A worked most of the day which meant I was too busy cleaning up apple sauce and mac and cheese to be worried about nerves. But once Amanda got home and I headed to the hall the butterflies began to set in. I was doing 2 solos, 3 group dances and had a group of about 15 people coming to watch me (Amanda and kids included.)

Lotus pose

The show went well even though I made a few mistakes,  I really enjoyed my time on stage and to see the support from all my friends was wonderful! The best moments had to be when I glanced at my 'fan row' and notice Braden dancing to the music and trying to imitate everything we were doing on stage, as well as AJ trying to get her shimmey on after the show once we opened the stage to all the kids (and adults) that wanted to shimmy, shake and isolate.

Nina and Braden watching the show

Belly.Up.Night...

When a story begins with "When we went to the Belly Up bar" you know it's going to be an interesting story. So with that...

When we went to Belly Bar to celebrate Kevin and Tyler's last night in their apartment, Karabo and I were ready for a fun time as we have heard many a Belly Up story and were eager to create a few of our own. Thank fully the bar is within walking distance from their apartment so no one had to worry about driving home. Tyler failed to mention the walk was through a muddy nature trail...luckily I was prepared with beads that are super bright that you can never miss them, and I brought a flashlight and mace just in case!

The girls at Belly Up

Many happy and funny memories came from this experience, some that I will never forget!

Like the shower dance...

A few more things to see...

Next we drove out to Crazy horse monument, which is visible from the road. It is still incomplete, but kind of interesting to look at anyway.

Crazy Horse Monument

We decided to eat dinner at a little place opposite Wall Drug, before driving back to Mitchell, SD, where the Corn Palace was.

The Street opposite Wall Drug Store

Lastly on Sunday morning we made a brief stop in Sioux Falls. Which is a town­-city based around a beautiful (but smelly) waterfall-rock structure. It made for a good stop before our 7 hour drive  back to Milwaukee.

Sioux Falls, SD

Meeting cute animals...

Our last morning in Keystone involved a trip to Custer State park where we got to see Buffalo, like real ones! That were tamed enough that we were able to take up close and personal pictures of them.

Buffalo!

We also got to meet a few donkeys that strolled across the road in the hopes of finding food and friends. The State park was beautiful and we saw a bunch of interesting animals.

Donkey friends...

We also got to drive on Needles Highway which is really amazing as it is sprinkled with tiny one way tunnels where you passes through what looks like the eye of a needle.

A one way tunnel on Needles Highway

We also found what was probably the last remaining (reachable) bit of snow in SD.

And it snowed a little while we were there

The 4 faces...

Once we arrived in Keystone we headed straight  for Mt Rushmore, as we wanted to make sure we go a day and night view. I must say it's really strange to see something for real that you have seen so many times before on postcards, tv shows and in books. The faces arre huge! But they don't seem as big as they should from where you view them. I expected them to be from the ground to the clouds, but they are perched in the side of a gigantic mountan, not reaching even close to the ground. None the less it was still reallly impressive!

Mt Rushmore, SD

The night show was interesting to watch us we were sitted on pavillion steps looking up towards the Mt, then it grew dark and they were almost out of view. There was a video shown on a big screen all about how the faces were made and why those 4 people were choosen to be sculpted on the face of the mountain. Then we watched the lowering of the flag, the folding of the flag and a few other American tradtions.

The 4 faces

Then they turned on the lights, which take a while to show their full power so we slowly got to see the faces being lit up. I have to admit it was really beautiful to see, one in a life time experience...although glitter (maybe shooting out of their noses?) would have really completed this magical moment.

Mt Rushmore by night

Crazy American sights to see...

The Friday morning we woke up early and headed to Keystone, SD. It was an 8 hour drive, but a pretty entertaining one as there are the weirdest sculptures, signs and shops lining the roads so this kept me and my camera extremely busy.

This was my favourite!

On your drive we saw an information center which was located close to corn Palace which we had seen advertised for many miles. We decided to do a gas stop there, as well as a tourist stop. After finding out as much out the area as we could and collecting copouis amounts of tourist information we headed to the Corn Palace. Which is a huge brick building decorated with huge corn made murals. Apparently they change the theme every so often, but of course we were there to see the American Pride installations. It was pretty amazing to see how creative people can be with food.

Outside the Corn Palace, SD

We made a detour to go through the Badlands of South Dakota, which are so amazingly beautiful! It is certainly picture paradise, as there are so many viewing points along the 20 miles or so of the National park. We got to see prairie dogs which remind me of dassies.

The Badlands, SD

Then we continued our journey to see the 4 faces...after a stop at Wall Drug, which is a drug store that has expanded to included a few other shops, a cafe and a chapel with an old almost Western feel. They have signs advertising free ice water (which is how the got famous) as well as an array of other goodies, this itself is not strange, but the fact that the signs start like 150 miles away from the actual shop, no matter which way you are coming from.

Wall Drug Store Sign...

Another Wall Drug Store Sign...

*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page