This is a warning! But don't let the title scare you, it's a good warning. The reality is, when you come to the States, everything you love to shop for in New Zealand (or wherever you come from) will suddenly be sold in HUGE stores at VERY CHEAP prices!
My shopping obsessions? Books!
In the USA I can buy books that you simply cannot get in New Zealand, books that they don't even SHIP to New Zealand! And now here I am, in America, and everything seems to have free shipping and costs so little, I am warning you ahead of time to think early of how much stuff you will have to bring home! I have been obsessively visiting bookshops and online bookstores since I arrived, and I am not even a big shopper by nature!!!My host family were saying that their last au pairs took whole suitcases of shoes back to their home countries. I'm not so much a shoe person so that doesn't scare me, but books? oh dear!
Luckily, I anticipated this happening, in fact, before I left New Zealand I wrote a list of all the books I wanted to buy. And the great thing about books is that if I finish them and don't want to read them again I can sell them to a second hand bookstore or give them to a charity shop. I am one of the lucky ones who is a very light packer, I only brought one bag with me, so when I eventually go home I will simply buy another suitcase to take with me if I need to and I'll be sorted! (I wish good luck to those girls who brought 2 suitcases with them just to come here!).
I am three weeks into my American year and I have already bought seven books.... I guess that second suitcase is already looking pretty full and heavy!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Getting Things Done
This is my second week of being with the family, and now that the snow has cleared I am able to go out and explore! I went and sat my theory driver's licence the other day, I was very lucky, the road rules are similar to New Zealand and I passed on my first attempt. Now I need to schedule an appointment for the practical test, then I will be all licenced and rearing to go! I also need to hand in my Social Security form, I will do that in the next couple of days.
My social life has been expanding too, I have contacted a few locals through the Couchsurfing community (www.couchsurfing.org) and met up with a girl for coffee - a fellow teacher, and Seattle local. We had a great time and she was able to give me some good ideas of places to visit.
I have also been visiting different churches, and exploring different voluntary organisations to see where I can take part. It is exciting and I am really looking forward to finding out what I can get involved in.
My life is full and busy! I love it!
My social life has been expanding too, I have contacted a few locals through the Couchsurfing community (www.couchsurfing.org) and met up with a girl for coffee - a fellow teacher, and Seattle local. We had a great time and she was able to give me some good ideas of places to visit.
I have also been visiting different churches, and exploring different voluntary organisations to see where I can take part. It is exciting and I am really looking forward to finding out what I can get involved in.
My life is full and busy! I love it!
Family Life: Week One
Lately it has been snowing A LOT! It is so so rare for Seattle to have snow, so I was just really enjoying it and feeling very privileged! All the kids have been off school so it has given me a great chance to get to know them. We went sledding down the street and having snowball fights and all sorts of things! I have only been here a few days but already I love it, I love being with the kids and being entrenched with the family - not having to cook dinner is also a high point!
I have also been getting used to driving their cars (on the other side of the road!). It feels pretty natural to me and I have had a fairly easy transition, however I still always look behind me the wrong way when backing out, and often turn the windscreen wipers on instead of the indicator haha old habits die hard! I have the use of a smaller can they have which is a manual transmission, so I just need to regain confidence in driving them and then I will be all good (it has been years since I've driven a manual!).
I am looking after 5 kids -
2 year old twins
A 5 year old girl who has Down's Syndrome
An 8 year old boy
and a 10 year old boy.
The parents and I get along well, the kids are real treasures and are all really lovely. I enjoy my work schedule,I like my room and feel very at home. The snow has meant I couldn't go out much, but I managed to go downtown briefly and it was really awesome, the Pike Place Market - world famous in Seattle- is every bit as wonderful as I was told. I will have to go back there sometime soon!
I have also been getting used to driving their cars (on the other side of the road!). It feels pretty natural to me and I have had a fairly easy transition, however I still always look behind me the wrong way when backing out, and often turn the windscreen wipers on instead of the indicator haha old habits die hard! I have the use of a smaller can they have which is a manual transmission, so I just need to regain confidence in driving them and then I will be all good (it has been years since I've driven a manual!).
Making patterns in the snow!
Snowball fights!
Looking forward to getting more involved in social things in the next few days!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Orientation
So, after a 31 hour flight with 3 stopovers I finally arrived in New York! Wow what a buzz! I headed to the hotel and got all the information about what was happening from InterExchange. I had the rest of the day to explore on my own, so I put my things down, had a shower and then went for a walkabout!
New York is a truly fascinating city. I loved it. It was bursting with diversity and life, vivacity and pizza shops. Every street had a different vibe, the people spoke in all different languages and came from all over the world. It was awesome. In our free time, the other au pairs and I went on a walking tour around the city, went to the Empire State Building (right to the 86th floor!), saw the Statue of Liberty, went to Central Park, had dinner in Little Italy, wandered through Chinatown and went to Times Square for some shopping and photo opportunities. So much to see and do, we stretched every minute to see what we did!
The orientation itself was really well organised and structured, it gave us heaps of information about everything we could possibly need over here. Information about driving, health insurance, different rules and laws, travelling, first aid etc. The days were long but they worked really hard to make it interesting for us. I really enjoyed it, and it gave us a chance to get to know some of the other au pairs. In the group there were a total of 35 au pairs, they came from South America, Europe, South Africa and China. Lots of nationalities and lots of languages were represented. Everyone was very friendly and we had fun going out and exploring together!
On the last day of instruction we received our travel information to get to our host family's place, and the very next day we all left at different times to different locations. I had to take a 6 hour plane from New York to Seattle, it was lovely and relaxing. As we flew into Seattle there was the most amazing pink sunset, it filled up the entire sky, it was as if Seattle was saying "Welcome!". My family picked me up from the airport and my journey really began!
New York is a truly fascinating city. I loved it. It was bursting with diversity and life, vivacity and pizza shops. Every street had a different vibe, the people spoke in all different languages and came from all over the world. It was awesome. In our free time, the other au pairs and I went on a walking tour around the city, went to the Empire State Building (right to the 86th floor!), saw the Statue of Liberty, went to Central Park, had dinner in Little Italy, wandered through Chinatown and went to Times Square for some shopping and photo opportunities. So much to see and do, we stretched every minute to see what we did!
The orientation itself was really well organised and structured, it gave us heaps of information about everything we could possibly need over here. Information about driving, health insurance, different rules and laws, travelling, first aid etc. The days were long but they worked really hard to make it interesting for us. I really enjoyed it, and it gave us a chance to get to know some of the other au pairs. In the group there were a total of 35 au pairs, they came from South America, Europe, South Africa and China. Lots of nationalities and lots of languages were represented. Everyone was very friendly and we had fun going out and exploring together!
On the last day of instruction we received our travel information to get to our host family's place, and the very next day we all left at different times to different locations. I had to take a 6 hour plane from New York to Seattle, it was lovely and relaxing. As we flew into Seattle there was the most amazing pink sunset, it filled up the entire sky, it was as if Seattle was saying "Welcome!". My family picked me up from the airport and my journey really began!
Leaving New Zealand
It's been a little while since my last post and there are many things to report so I will do them one topic at a time, I begin with "leaving New Zealand".
So, it takes time and effort to tie up all the loose ends in order to leave the country for a whole year, I had to shut down things, open new things, pack, sort, throw away, cancel subscriptions, visit family and friends etc, etc. I found the packing to be the worst and I procrastinated like anything! It was challenging at first to think about packing for a whole year, and I really like to pack lightly so it was a struggle for me to even consider packing the "non essential/sentimental" things that I wanted to bring. I packed solely for the season I was going into, and since it is the middle of winter it meant lots of warm things, coats, thermals etc. They took up a lot of room and were heavy too! I was pretty ruthless about what I chose since you can easily buy new things in the States. Even so, when I got to the airport I still felt like a bag lady with my big pack, my laptop bag, my ukulele and my carry on bag!
I had time to catch up with all my friends individually before I left and had everything crossed off my huge to-do list by the time I was at the airport. Having a list made everything easier and meant that nothing was forgotten, even though it was so long and intimidating at the beginning!
I left New Zealand feeling really good about going to my new home, and feeling free from any burdens of things in New Zealand. It was a terrific feeling!
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