Untitled.

Since the hurricane there has been nothing major really happen in my time here. I introduced myself to a new au pair who arrived a few weeks ago and took her out on her first tour of white plains, I have started embroidery and have been just doing what I can to enjoy my time here.

I met a lovely girl from South africa who invited me to her home last thursday, in harlem. It was so nice to get away from white plains and to go somewhere so different which was so rich in culture. We didn't do too much except walk around a lot and talked a lot about this and that, but it is so nice to have another friend here. I also was able to meet the kids she looked after who were simply adorable!

Today I went with my other South African friend to a really lovely state park in Tarrytown/ Pleasentville. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and get some oxygen in our muscles. At the end of the day just as we were leaving we saw many people dressed in white and many japanese people wandering about, after talking to a guy, who looked like a preist what was going on, he informed us that they were holding a memorial to mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks and 6 months since the Japan Earthquakes. He told us to write names on lanterns of people who we knew who had died during our lifetime so we could have our own memorial for them as they put them out onto the lake. It was such a sweet idea and we each made one. We stayed around for the ceremony, and for them to put the first lot of lanterns out but after a while the drumming and the bad smell of the lake mixed with incense made us feel so ill we went home. It was so nice to be able to do something to mark the 10 years since the tragic day, its surprising how even after so long, I can tell you exactly what I was doing and where I was standing when I found out.

Hurricane Irene

As a Malmesbury born girl, when I moved to America I was glad that my job took me to Westchester County in New York as it is far away from anywhere where natural disasters is expected. Then on August 23rd my housekeeper informed me that New York city, which is only a 40 minute drive away, had just been hit by a small earthquake, I joked with friends that it was almost disappointing that we didn’t feel anything. The next day my Boss told me her friends would most likely have to come home early from their holiday as a hurricane had hit the Bahama’s where this family were staying. This was horrible news, but the Bahama’s seemed a million miles away and I did not expect that this weather would somehow effect us in any other way. By Thursday morning you could feel a definite change, we had strong winds, grey skies, thunder, and heavy rain, so heavy in fact, my windscreen wipers, even on top speed, failed to keep up with the amount of water falling from the sky, and I struggled to see through it well enough to drive. The rain continued on and off through the night, Friday morning it seemed everything had cleared up apart from this sickly humidity outside which is always warning something is coming.

Friday brought with it a hectic morning of running to the shop to stock up on supplies as Westchester County was on hurricane watch. We had been told we may run out of water, and loose our electricity by Sunday. My normal Friday morning grocery shop had turned into something of a nightmare, the fruit and veg isles were all but empty, people were running around with trollys filled to the top and running outside to get another. I managed to pick up the last gallon bottle of water and picked up a few large containers of 24 water bottles. Within 20 mins the entire 5m by 1m shelf, which was full when I collected my bottles, was emptied, it was hard even getting to the shelves as so many people wanted to get to the water. By Friday night, White Plains had been declared in a state of emergency.

Luckily despite the state of emergency Friday night was like another other, warm and dry. My friend and I ventured into New York city where we spent the evening on a roof top, which had a clear view of the empire state building. Between the hours of 1am and 5am on Saturday morning we watched the whole top portion get engulfed by a large cloud.

All public transport on Saturday was cancelled past 12pm to ensure maximum public safety, forcing all local visitors to leave the city. I was on the first train of the day into White Plains at 5.40am which was filled with people trying to get a room in the already sold out hotels.

By 6 o’clock all the shops in White Plains were closing down, shouting “Irene is coming, everyone out”, police officers were walking the streets asking people to move their cars off the roads and instead move them to covered parking towers which were offering free parking in preparation.

Even if you had no connection to the outside world, and hadn’t heard about the hurricane it was obvious something was coming humidity was at 98% making it hard to breathe and the pressure change could be felt. The main road into White Plains was extremely busy with everyone from Mamaroneck, which is situated on the Long Island sound, the road out of of White Plains was all but empty, a very unusual sight for Saturday evening.

Later on Mamaroneck, New Rochelle and other coastal towns were evacuated, as well as many people in New York city. Many buildings have been opened up as rescue centers, including schools and fire stations. Families have been able to bring pets with them, provided they have proof of up to date rabies vaccinations.

Most of the coastal towns have experienced bad flooding, and further inland have had heavy winds and rain which has broken branches and made windows rattle, however hurricane Irene lost a lot of it’s power and force before it got to New York. We have been hit by a bad storm, but it that was the worst of it.

appologies.

Its been a long time since i have written this blog, there are many reasons for this and i have lots and lots to say i promise i will do an update very very soon and people havent completely lost interest keep reading and watch this space.

Boredom.

I have been here for nearly 4 months now and feel like the novelty has completely worn off. I still love my job and the girls I look after are amazing. I get on well with the host parents so I do have it pretty lucky, except I totally under estimated the limits set on a 20 year old.

I have been in the UK being allowed to buy and sell alcohol for two years, being able to going into a pub for longer. Now I can't even walk into a bar without being ID the highlight of my weekend is going to the cinema or Starbucks at 11.00 at night. Of course I could go to the city and see a live band, but the cost of actually getting there, entry and the usual minimum drink orders just make it unjustifiable when you are trying to save your hard earned cash.
I am sure this country has many wonderful things to offer and most 20 year olds are not as bored here as I am. It is just hard that we have to use up our precious weekends, which we only get 12 of in the entire year, to do college courses, courses I could really care less about doing as all the affordable ones are aimed towards non english speakers, and all the fun ones are not acceptable.

So now I am sitting here trying to think of something to do on Friday night but all my plans involve being carded, and then showing them an ID that clearly states I am not old enough to be in this place. My only other option is to get a fake ID which is something I would really rather not do.

This is the first week where I have just felt BORED. I need to get out of this funk.

Weekend away.

This week I was so determined to get this blog in on time, but just as I started writing it, my computer broke down. After eating up a large chunk of my savings I have it working and am ready to write again!

Last week was a really good week I think, the girls are happy and loving camp and are sad that it will be over on Friday, but it made for an easy week where work was concerned. On Saturday morning -not so bright and- early I caught a taxi which took me to the city where I could then catch a coach up to Boston.
This journey taught me many things.
1. I don't like pretzel m&ms but yet I buy them and eat them every time I go to NYC, what's up with that?!
2. If you are going to get somewhere early, that doesn't mean you have loads of time to waste mucking about, just get to where you need to go first, then see if you can waste the time when you are already in the location.
3. 4 hours on a bus is a VERY long time.
4. American's don't seem to like talking to strangers.
5. Boston is lovely.
6. There is a very fine line between friends and family.

4.30am Saturday 13th
 Alarm goes off, after walking around like the living dead for a while I somehow managed to get dressed, packed, book a cab and be out of the house ready and waiting for Taxi by 5.25am, just to have the guy arrive 15 mins late.
6am
Still not quite awake I find myself in front of the vending machine dispensing my pretzel m&ms and sour skittles. I walk along the platform eating these almost frozen candies grimacing at the salty taste mixed with chocolate (the skittles are for the way home) wondering, why do I buy these? But I do, every time. Shortly after, I board the train and off I go.
6.45am
I start walking from grand central to 8th Av, along the way I see a shop I want to take a photo of, after 10 mins of assembling my camera, I find I have left my SD card at home.
7.30am
Why am I standing outside Pen station?
7.40am
"Cab please"...."Port authority bus terminal"
"$5"
*paid driver*
*3 mins later, including being stopped at 2 red lights*
"Here we are, I hope you catch your bus!"
>.<

8.10am
I sit down on these ridiculously short seats next to a guy, who seems pretty interesting, maybe he will talk to me? That is usually what happens when I end up sitting next to someone on the bus to London.

8.11am
Here begins the 4 hours of silence, and this is repeated on the journey home. 4 hours doing absolutely NOTHING.

12.15am
I find my friend, and suddenly the last 10 years wash away and it feels like it was no time at all since I last saw him.

The rest of the weekend was lovely, it is so nice spending time with people you are so familiar with, being able to talk about friends and family and for the most part, know who the other was talking about.
He took me to see many places in Boston which were beautiful, and the air was so clean! We went for a meal with his lovely partner and all went back to his place to relax. The next day we visited Salem and I was able to see all the things I saw 10 years prior to my visit and actually understand what went on, rather than just believe it was some fairy tale.

So all in all a pretty amazing week!

A guy accused of being a witch.

Cool tree in Salem

Stickers from the museum

Witch

World trade centre.

Home and away.

I am so bad at keeping up to date with this blog, I apologize. This has been one crazy week, as I was saying in my last blog America is becoming my home and the place I feel a sense of belonging just like England was my home and the country I loved, the USA is taking its place.
Sunday this week was my day off, as usual I rang home to check in to find they were not answering the phone, or getting my texts, I got a message later on in the day on twitter from my brother informing me they were in London. Which was fine, just meant I'd have to wait a few days to chat, no problem. I went out with some friends to the local lake which was beautiful by the time we got to it. I had read on google maps it was really close, but after 20 mins of driving I was sure we went the wrong way. We tried turning around, but still something seemed wrong, so my friends and I decided to go down a small side road to turn around, after making the turn, we realised this was no side road but rather the entry to the highway. The only time I had been on the highway previous to this had been highly traumatic with lorries cutting me up and cars not letting me get on. Luckily it was absolutely fine and I had friends who were able to guide me to the right exits, another highway later and going down the same original road again we had finally arrived, just to find out the google map directions were to the wrong side of the lake. However we were so hungry we decided we would just sit up on a very uneven patch of grass and have our picnic there.

Home.

Every week that I am here it feels more and more like home, its funny a few posts ago I remember saying I am completely settled, I didn't think you could feel more relaxed in another country but it is possible and this country is starting to feel like my country. I was watching a film last week which was set in London, I was surprised that I felt such a distance to it, it really felt like a foreign place, they were driving on the M4, a road I drove on weekly, the road seemed strange and unfamiliar. Watching England in this film no longer seemed like a film set at "home".

This week has been a pretty good week all in all, nothing overly eventful happened. Tabatha was home from camp with a stomach virus on Wednesday, and although I was sorry she was sick, I was also really grateful for the extra time we got to spend together. Elizabeth and I spend a lot of time together just the two of us, because she is so much younger and needs constant supervision, which I also love, she is a very sweet kid. However it was nice spending alone time with Tabatha as it was a rare treat, and it really felt more like hanging out with a friend rather than work.

This week was also amazing as I finally managed to save up enough money for everything I wanted to do so I booked tickets to go and see friends in CO and MA, I then had enough money left over to buy myself a very lovely Camera.

Yesterday my host mom came home in a very american looking car, she told me it was my new ride, I had seen photos of it online but didn't expect it to be so tall. It is very very nice however.

Only really bad thing that happened is I am now sick :/.

Friends

I left England feeling like I had a nice group of friends, many of which although I wanted to stay in contact with, I felt that the friendship may fizzle out of existence as both our lives moved into different directions. I thought that this would be a big leap for me, a leap I would have to make all on my own, and I was terrified of leaving everyone behind for fear of loosing them forever.

I was more than a little surprised by the amount of cards and gifts I recieved from people before leaving, and how on my last few days people were handing me addresses and telephone numbers of all the people they knew in the states. This was a great help, and made things much easier, knowing that if anything happened I would have more than just one person to go to.

The thing that I was most surprised by was how now that I have gone, the amount of support people back home are giving me. Strangely even though a lot of the love and support I am receiving is all from 3,000 miles away, it has been an amazing help for me getting past home sickness, sticking to my decision and pushing me to enjoy my time here.

I have been more than a little bit lucky that I have been able to spend the last few weeks getting to see my now very good friend who I knew before arriving, it is sad she is now leaving this week, but being able to spend my first block of time with someone familiar has been a feeling that could not have been replicated by anything.

At the end of next month, a girl whom I was able to go through the au-pair application and matching process with, will be arriving and although we haven't physically met I hope I can give her the same comfort as my friend gave me.

This blog post is basically just to say thank you to everyone who has been talking to me and supporting me, both in the States and in the UK. You have all been amazing and I don't know how I would have coped without you.

2 Months

This weeks blog comes late as, in all honesty I wasn't sure I was going to write in it. As today marks 2 months of my first full day living in White Plains I thought I better.

Last Monday was American Independence day, and even though I had to work my boss tried very hard to get me to New York for Macy's fireworks and I was then able to get off work 3 hours early, meet two friends from college back home and head towards Hudson River. Unfortunately the park we wanted to go to had closed at 4, but we were very fortunate that many had been too lazy to walk that far up the river and we found a section of the road where only 20 or so other people had stopped to watch, this soon grew to maybe a couple of hundred as the starting time grew closer and the roads one by one were closed. I was very impressed by the organizing of the whole thing, especially as it was a free event, they even cleaned the road for us.
I was rather disappointed by the whole thing though I have to admit, the fireworks were okay, there were a few that made you go "wow" but on a whole it wasn't overly spectacular and there was no amazing finale, and no "USA" fireworks like my friend had seen on memorial day. Also there was a distinct lack of patriotism, a few including myself and my friend subtly supported red white and blue, but I saw no face paint and flag wearing.




The rest of the week has rather uneventful, everyday the girls and I have become closer and I have learnt new things about them, T has slowly been making up her own language, and this morning I was surprised to realize I was able to understand most of what she was saying to me even though the words were not even resembling English in the slightest.

Last weekend I got up nice and early to stand inline to watch Mr Daniel Radcliffe perform on broadway, after my bus arriving late and missing the train and then running to and from subway stations, standing in line in the blistering heat, I suddenly remembered all the Harry Potter premiers around the world including one two days previously in London, sure enough a woman came out to explain there would be no two o'clock performance, which was just fantastic as the other one was too late, and I really needed my lay in.
It was too hot to really do anything else, so I just wondered around and found more new and interesting places to go which I was too tired to really appreciate. I did, however, I think, quite possibly, made eye contact with David Letter man. Two girls were screaming around this old short guy who was trying to cross the street asking for his autograph, and asking him why he was outside, he then said rather sheepishly "well this is the David Letterman show" my eyes were darting between his face and the large photoshopped picture of David Letterman on the side of the building on the other side of the road, I caught eye contact with this man who smiled at me and rolled his eyes as the girls were jumping around, we held our gaze and smiles for a surprising amount of time, which left me wondering "what the hell just happened?". I love New York.

I was starting to feel very agitated here, and the feeling of this house and even down to my room did not belong to me was driving me crazy, I needed a sense of belonging and attachment. Strangely, rearranging the furniture in my room was able to help me achieve this, I went out today and bought myself a chair which fits perfectly in my new found space where the desk used to be and I now have an area in my room I can relax that isn't my bed. The feeling of being at ease was so strange, even just the motion buying a chair, which assumes some degree of permanence in my life has made me feel far more relaxed and settled than I was even this morning.

This weekend I am heading out to explore the rest of Westchester as I think I have seen enough of the expensive city for a couple of weeks, I really need to start saving up for things, and spending a minimum of $150 every time I venture in, really isn't helping me.

There are more than likely to be periods from now on where I have nothing particularly interesting to say, so I may start to only blog once a fortnight. If you have any questions, relating to being an aupair, moving into a different country, or anything else about America and my findings, please leave a comment and I will try my best to make it the theme of one of my posts.


p.s. i really want that good looking guy kieron to come see me asap!

Week of firsts

Just as I got used to the girls being home, they were back at school, well camp held on the school grounds. They absolutely love it and I love having set free time again, however the house seems too quiet during the day and it is sad only seeing them in the two hardest parts of the day; waking up and breakfast then dinner, bath then bedtime.
Their camp is amazing and keeps them entertained throughout the whole day with games, swim, arts, play and many more fun activities, so I know it is nothing I could come close to providing them with at home.

I have developed a hobby of sorts, one that I was quite ashamed of, but after talking to my friend and looking online then in barnes and nobel, I found I wasn't the only one who found great joy in this. After clearing out my wallet last week I realised I had several quarters with states on the back, so I decided I would make it a mission to have collected all of the states by the end of the year, then I discovered there are other things on the backs of them so I can have a few different collections. I was looking for a folder to put all of the coins in, and found this very lovely state map which I am rather proud of.



Other firsts include; Seeing my first night of fireflies, Meeting a surprising amount of new people for the first time, Going on the US highway for the first time (and possibly the last time), My first independence day celebration, went into dunkin doughnuts for the first time, went to an american comic book store for the first time, and my first walk across the brooklyn bridge.




After crossing the bridge my friend took me into a lovely comic book store with amazing staff calledmidtown comics where I went in aiming to spend a maximum of $3 and ended up spending $35! After this we wondered into central park and read our shiny new graphic novels under the stars.

This nanny nation.

Every time I go to collect a child from school, go to a play group or walk through a shop the first thing I notice is 60% of the children I see are white children clinging onto a black or hispanic woman, the next thing I notice as I walk past is 20% of the children are talking to a woman with a strong foreign accent then it is only the remaining 20% - if that - that appear to be with their biological parents. So who are all these other women with these children, surely adoption is not that popular over here, people do still give birth to their children and keep them for themselves? The answer is that all of these women with the children are all the Nannies; the nannies, the au-pairs, the babysitters, either way for some reason this is a really popular option for childcare over here. Now I am not saying this is a bad thing, far from it, I'd be out of a job if this were the case. 

71 % of mothers with children under the age of 18 work in the USA according to a study brought out in 2007, comparing this to the 68% of mothers in the UK in 2008, it is not like you can say it is because there is a huge difference in the amount of working mothers between the two countries. 

Some could argue that this is because compulsory education starts for children aged 4 in england compared to 6 in the USA so no nanny is needed, except for the fact that most of the nannies I have met have all been collecting their 2 year old from "School".

So why is this method trusted above childminders or other day care offerings that are used in the UK? It has been something I have been wondering about a-lot since arriving here. I think the main answer is the flexibility of an au-pair and the ability to really find out what this person is doing all day with your children, when they are in your own home.

Let me explain, if you have an au-pair that lives with you, doesn't go out much, and you really need to attend a function in the evening but don't want to hire a babysitter which can charge up to and above $20 per hour and don't have any family around, you can say to the au-pair, we are going out tonight and she (or he) will be there to babysit, and as they are not leaving their home to do this for you its not like you are asking them to go really out of their way, the only possible issue is clashing plans. The second point I made is referring to the invention of the "Nanny cam" I don't have one, but I know people who do. This is where the family set up cameras around the house and film the nanny so they can really find out what he/she is doing with your children in the time you are away from the home. The great part about this is it is 100% legal and you do not even need to tell your nanny or au-pair that you are filming them. 

Another great thing about having an au-pair or nanny is that they can focus on your children, they do not  have their attention shared with 8 other children, so they can get to know your children inside and out and they get to the level where they can be totally in sync with your child much faster than if they were with a childminder for example. The au-pair or nanny can be like a third parent in a way, they are there for when your child wakes up in the morning and can stay until they fall asleep at night. 

So why hasn't this culture merged its way into the UK? I still don't know, I expect this is much more expensive than a day care centre or a childminder, but when you think of the level of care they provide and the amount of hours they work, taking into consideration the agency fee of $7,000 you are paying the au-pair $3.10 an hour. Obviously the cost of housing someone is more than that, but purely based on the hourly wage, I can't see how any other option can be much cheaper. 

School's out!

This has been one crazy week, Tabatha graduated from kindergarten and the next day Elizabeth graduated from her pre-school and will now join her sister in the local Jewish private school. It is great having the kids at home and we are having a really good time, but I still have another week before camp starts and am running out of ideas of what I can do with them. So far we have filmed 35 minutes of footage and managed to compress it down to a 7 minute long movie called "Fancy LaLa- Princess Makeover" I then made it into a DVD for their parents and grandparents complete with credits, a dvd menu, outtakes and photographs of the girls which included a photo-shoot I did with Tabatha after she was all dressed up with makeup and her hair done. I edited the photos so they looked professional, and that made the parents very happy.
We made yummy kosher cupcakes, and after making the mix realised there was enough for 38 people, so everyone who came to the house this week was offered about 3 cupcakes. The next day we made purple playdoh and I was pleasantly surprised to find it turned out just like shop bought playdoh. Just to make sure the creative juices kept flowing we then made a money box out of an old breadcrumb tin.

  Friday came and I could finally meet my fellow European friend who by sheer coincidence is also staying in New York, I cannot tell you how good it was to see a familiar face! It was a real shame however, as we had planned to go to a gig together in the evening but due to bad weather and bad directions from people on the street my friend did not arrive until after the last band had finished. It did mean that I as I was waiting for her I got chatting to a very lovely man from Manchester who gave me his number and said he can let me know about good nights that are age appropriate in the city.
On Saturday after dropping my friend off at Pen station I head over to brooklyn to find this house I mentioned in my last blog.  It was a really odd feeling as I was walking down the street, I knew exactly where I was going as I had already been down these roads before when I had google earth on full screen. The area was a little more run down than I had imagined and it was a pretty dead area but still I kinda liked it, it would be somewhere I wouldn't mind living as it was a really nice distance away from the city. The house itself was much smaller than I had thought it would be and was kinda crooked but it was so cool actually seeing it, a really bazaar thing that I thought would never happen.

Today was Elizabeth's birthday party, we had 36 people in our back yard half of those all being under the age of 3. It was a really nice day however, all the children were really well behaved and got along well with eachother, it was also nice meeting some of the Moms. One Mom I spoke to had an au-pair arrive at her house on Thursday afternoon and had left again by Friday despite my best efforts and many other people who were trying to help her which was a real shame and hard especially as camp doesn't start for another week, so this poor woman is now left with a full time job and 3 kids with no childcare. With any luck they will rematch soon, her son stood next to me today and let out a loud "Hrmp" sound, I looked at him and he exclaimed "You know it was like she just took a sleepover on the other side of the world."  it must be hard for them. Life goes on I guess and its better she left now then when the kids are already really attached to her.

I have no real plans for the coming week, just searching the net for crafts activities and lots and lots of playdates.

I live in the USA.

Not much to report this week, I have just been out driving as much as I can and finally getting used to the strange roads around here, though I still prefer to walk many places. It has really sunk in now that this is now my home, England is a long, long way away and I shall not see the beautiful english countryside for at least a year, which saddens me but gives me a huge sense of empowerment.
 I bought a ukulele last week and have been trying to play that and I think I am starting to get alright at it, but I definitely need some help as the internet is not providing me with everything I need.
What I am really excited about is next weekend, when I was 14/15 I decided I would like to live in New York at some point in my life, I then went onto many real estate websites searching through homes that I would like to live in, I finally found one in park slope, the neighbourhood looked lovely, the inside of the house had artwork painted onto the walls and the best part about the house I thought, was that it looked like nothing special from the outside, you had to own it to understand the magic inside. Now unfortunately I cannot go into it, and I never would have dreamed that I would ever be able to see it, but now I am a New Yorker, I can't just not go and have a look at my fantasy house!
I also am very lucky as since arriving I have wanted to go to Coney Island, last night I received a message from a friend, a fellow european whom I have known for years and is also currently staying in NY so we will be going to Coney Island together :) The only thing I hope for is, I have heard it is a must that when you go, you should eat a hotdog from their famous diner, so with any luck they will serve veggie dogs.
At the moment I am trying to compile a list of places to go and how much it will cost me, which is a very hard task as I keep looking at my small pile of savings and wanting to just go to the mall and go on the most expensive shopping trip ever. So if anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

Homesick

This week I began to feel homesick, it is the strangest feeling though. I don't actually want to go home, more I would like to drive on English roads again, or I would like to randomly phone a friend on their mobile for a chat, or text someone I have known for more than a month and meet up with them.
It used to really bother me when I was in the UK that the majority of people that knew me had seen me grow up, I hated it, in fact that was one of the influencing factors that made me decide to move this far away, however now I kind of miss that. You have to reinvent yourself, you become so conscious of how you appear to the outside world, I am walking around and talking to people in a manor that I do not recognise as myself.
Its odd suddenly being single for the first time in 3 years, being in a new environment, being in a new family, living in a new home. It definitely takes some getting used to, for example the whole concept of living with your employers is something that takes a little while to get your head around.
Also what also strikes me is this feeling of loneliness I have despite the fact I have a nice group of friends around me, one of which I just spent the whole weekend with as she slept at mine for two nights. It is also hard to imagine this feeling going away, even though I know it has to and is perfectly normal I am really not sure how to deal with it. The worst part is I almost feel guilty for feeling like this, I mean I love the children I look after I get on well with the parents, I like my new home, I am obsessed with the city so what do I have to be sad about? And it just hits me at the strangest moments, for example yesterday I was at a party and having an amazing time, then suddenly towards the end of the night, even though I was still enjoying myself I just couldn't feel like I could talk to anyone, I felt embarrassed of my accent I didn't know how I was supposed to behave in a large group of people when the person I knew best there I had only met 3 hours before hand. I loved the atmosphere and it was a really amazing night but i just had this really strong feeling to go home and just go to sleep.
I am determined however not to let this feeling over shadow the lovely weekend I just had, my friend and I went to the bitter end on friday night where we saw some truly magnificent bands and were then later joined by two other au-pairs. I was even able to meet a member of one of the bands and bag a free CD :) The next day, going on a suggestion from the stated musician, my friend and I headed off to brooklyn to what we were told was going to be a music festival, which I guess it kind of was, but nothing that happened after we decided to go went to plan. We took the subway on a route which was supposed to get us there in 30 minuets instead of the usual 45 minuets if you only took two trains. So we got off the second subway and made our way to the platform where we were supposed to catch the third, only to find that the line was closed for the weekend, we then had to go to a station in brooklyn walk 1/4 mile to a bus stop where we would catch a shuttle bus then catch another subway before we could walk the last part of the journey, the whole thing ended up taking us over 2 hours. It did mean we were able to see a bit of brooklyn which both of us loved, it had an amazing vibe to it and felt really raw, unlike the very polished and tourist friendly times square, this was finally america for the americans and not for tourists.
We finally made our way to the "festival" to find it being a stage set up in the middle of the road with about 40 people gathered around it, after the first band finished playing we followed the crowd round to the back yard of the house it was in front of to find another stage with just a handful of people sitting around on the grass listening. After a few hours the place was packed, we met some lovely and interesting people and laughed about how all the guys looked the same, all had dark floppy hair, beards and flannel shirts. The night then took many strange twists and turns which ended with my friend running towards me shouting "its so good to see you!" and us holding hands all the way to grand central as we both felt so ill we had to support each other walking. No idea what made us sick as both of us have had this horrible stomach thing for two weeks appearing in the exact same way, now most would assume maybe we had a stomach virus that we kept passing from one to the other which would make sense, except for the fact that I haven't seen her for 3 nearly 4 weeks and when we met then we spent barely any time together. Hmmm it seems the USA makes us poor Europeans ill hahha.

NYC

This weekend I decided it was finally time to head into NYC, so I caught the bus at the end of my road, which lead me to the train station I was surprised that including all the time waiting for the bus & train it took me little over an hour to get from my bedroom to grand central train station.

It was insane, I am so glad I went by myself, as I would just stand there and absorb it. I have to admit it is much smaller than I imagined it to be but it is 1000x more beautiful, the star consolations were okay but not amazing, the main thing that struck me was how it looked like it was this amazing 5* hotel, there were beautiful chandeliers, and the architecture was, for lack of a better word, incredible. I cannot describe the feeling of pure exhilaration and triumph as I walked along 42nd street and 7th avenue then as I came to the street corner which allowed me to see the first lights of time square, the realisation kicked in, yes Hannah you are in NYC, you made it!

It took me ages to absorb it, I couldn't quite believe I was actually here I reminded myself of Rachel Berry as I walked along broadway.


Going into the city was such an amazing feeling, I work long hours and as I said before I am tired much of the time, but somehow, being in the city gave me a rush of energy. I felt like I was completely refreshed and ready to face anything.

settling in.

Okay so my last blog vanished, and is nowhere to be found which is a shame as I would have loved to read back on my emotions in that moment that I wrote it.

I have now been in the USA for 2 full weeks and with my host family just over 1, however it feels like I have been here a lifetime. I work long hours and do not have much time off, which can be very tiring but, I do love the kids I look after, my room, my friends, my host parents so I think it is something I will get used to very quickly. This really is starting to feel like home, I have walked into town a few times started driving around and been to big american places such as Target, Cheesecake factory, Macy's and most of the other typical places you see people going to on TV shows. Once place I haven't checked out yet is McDonalds, and I am trying hard to avoid it.
This coming weekend I am going to take a trip into NYC, because if I am honest being right here, it doesn't feel all too different to being back in the UK.
I wish there was more to report, but to be honest I get up at 5:30am every morning and am normally in bed and asleep by 9!