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.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)