Ithaca

One week USA!

Here I am, sitting on my hostfamily's couch.

During the past few days, so many things happened! I don't know where I am supposed to begin.

So I arrived here last Thursday at 11pm. My hostdad picked me up from the bus station and brought me home. My hostmom was still awake to welcome me and they were soo nice but I was just tired and only wanted to go to bed. 

The next day, they let me sleep in. 

I was so excited to see the children for the first time! At the beginning, both were a bit shy, but it gets better from day to day. Sometimes it feels like I'm already here for ages, but it's only 4 days!

Saturday we got some stuff for my room which was mostly empty because my family moved in this house like 3 weeks ago. My room also gets better from day to day. I put some photos on the wall, I have a bed (the first night I slept on an air mattress) and I finally had time to unpack my stuff.

Here in Ithaca, there are what feels like a thousand waterfalls. So we were also at one of these, because it's so HOT right now. My room is under the roof, so sometimes it feels like hell in here. I'm so glad that I have air conditioning here.

Saturday we ran around in town all day. We were also in Collegetown, which is like a part of the city and where the college is! You didn't see that coming, huh? It's so beautiful up there! You can see the Cayuga Lake which is one of the Finger Lakes and it's really cool. We also visited a museum, but we went there mostly for the view. Oh and we ate ice cream at a pharmacy. We had small scoops, but they were huge! I wasn't able to eat up mine.

Yesterday I went shopping! All alone :p

I was at Urban Outfitters which is basically the only cool store here - wait, there are a few more - but this is the only "brand" store I found here so far. And as I stood in the store, I noticed that I forgot to look up the American sizes. So I just took my normal German size which was good, but the sizes for the pants are different and I'm still not sure which one I have.

In the afternoon, we went to the Cayuga lake. We met our neighbors there who are really nice people and there was even a girl my age. It was good to talk with her.

Before going home, we went grocery shopping at Wegman's. OhMyGod. That thing is huge. Even bigger than the small ice cream scoop! I got some sweets. And Nutella. I'm curious if it tastes like in Germany.

got a mug!

Today was my first real day of work.

It was good, I guess. I went with the kids to the playground and I even found it all alone!

pizza for lunch

Then the little boy had to take his nap so I brought the girl home and went for a walk with the boy. The walk took two hours. I was so exhausted! It was still so hot today. Ugh.

In the afternoon, we played with their toys that arrived today.

This evening, the grandparents came here and they'll stay for a few days. They're also so nice! The grandpa asked me if I'm really German because he didn't hear my accent. I was so happy when he said that! Although I have to admit that we only spoke a few words at that time.

Homesickness is an issue that I have to deal with.

Every morning it's the worst actually. Over the day it gets better. I hate the time difference!

Keeping you updated,

Christin xo

much  nature

much wow

Two Days Left

2 days left!

"Goodbyes are not forever,
goodbyes are not the end,
they simply mean I miss you,
until we meet again ... "

CAKE

So yesterday was my goodbye party with my friends. It was so much fun! To be honest I wasn't even sad - the sadness started today. Gosh, one year is quite a long time!
I got amazing presents, like (selfmade) diaries for the trip and even an America cake! Yummyyy
I am not even in the US, but I already miss my friends. The missing part sucks. I really really want to go to the US, but I'm so bad at saying goodbye.


Meanwhile, I figured out my three biggest fears at the moment.
1: I am worried that my friends will get other friends while I'm not here and when I'm back, they won't be my friends anymore ... Which is probably stupid cause there's still WhatsApp and Facebook and Skype, and I will also find new friends ... But I like my friends right now, please remember me! *monkey emoji that covers his eyes*
2: What if I don't like my city? (Ithaca, for those of you who forgot about that) Or my family? Well, actually there's also an easy answer here: I could change the family or come back home. But that's just a thing that's on my mind. I guess most Au pairs think about that. Let's hope everything will turn out fine *fingers crossed*
3 (and don't laugh at me): I am scared of gaining weight. I know, I know ... That's actually not such a big deal! I guess you can't even do something against that when you're new in America. So many delicious things to eat ! But I did my best to lose weight during the last few months so it would bother me a lot if that was in vain.

Sooo yeah. Maybe you think these fears are stupid or I don't know, but I just thought about what's making me nervous and I think these are the three main things. Except from those, I am looking forward to the US ! So much!

chaos

I am almost done with packing. There are only a few things left that need to be put in one of my pieces of baggage! I will take a big suitcase with me which is allowed to weigh 23kg (doing my best to stay under that limit) and my hand luggage will be a rucksack and a small suitcase. Let's hope I can pack away everything!




That's it for now. Phew. This night is the last night in which I can sleep as long as I want ... in my own bed. Gosh I'm gonna miss my bed! And my room! And my friends and my family! But right now, I am also missing something and I am not so sure what that is. I hope I can find that in the US.

Love,
Christin xo

Tick tock

One week left.

Seven days.

And I still can't believe it!

I one week, I am in New York City. Holy Guacamole.

This week, I am spending some days with my parents in our favorite hotel. We were on our way to dinner when I saw this fella:

European + American bear!

Coincidence? :p

Well, I have everything now. All of the documents, other stuff ... I already tried packing some things in  my suitcase and I think it will be wayyyyy heavier than 23kg (which is the weight that the airline allows). By the way, I'm flying with United Airlines!

I never thought that it's possible to be that happy and that scared at the same time. 

Christin xo

Surprise!

It's 11.19pm and I am in shock.

I skyped with the interested family from 8pm till 8.45pm.
At first, all of them were there (parents and two children) and I was SO excited, I was shaking. I thought I'll get a heart attack when they call. Well, I almost did. But they were so nice! The baby had to go to bed soon and the girl got bored at some point, so most of the time I spoke with the parents.
They asked me some questions, for example what I would do in a certain situation, why I want to become an Au pair, but also what food I can't eat. We talked about a loooot of things. I was afraid that they don't understand me, but they said that my English is very good. Yay!
I had a very positive feeling during the whole call.
At the end, they said that I am the last Au pair that they wanted to speak to and that they will probably decide quickly who they want to hire and that they will write me.

I thought they mean tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow.

They wrote half an hour later.

Now it's 11.33pm and I still can't believe it. Holy Guacamole.

The family is perfect! I am so so so excited!

Suddenly everything becomes real. Before, becoming an Au pair was a dream and an option and now I am an Au pair with a wonderful family!

And I will go to the US in eight weeks. We didn't fix a certain date yet, but they said they need me from the beginning of August on. Oh my God. Eight weeks is not much. And there's so much to do!

I can't believe it. But I can't sleep either! So so so excited.

To be honest I didn't even answer them yet because I was so surprised and excited! Oh wow. Does this really happen right now?

(a completely agitated)
Christin xo

And so it begins

Das Jahr 2015 hat gerade begonnen und ich fange auch mit meiner Bewerbung als Au pair bei AIFS an. Yaaayy! Nach einigen Startschwierigkeiten kann ich endlich alle Dokumente, Referenzen und was ich sonst noch brauche zusammentragen. (Hoffentlich schaffe ich das alles ... *fingers crossed*

Es würde mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr mich während meiner Vorbereitung und dann auch während meines Aufenthaltes in Amerika begleitet. Das hier ist mein erster Blog, also seid bitte nicht allzu streng, ich kenne mich noch nicht so gut aus :p

Bis dahin,

eure Christin xo

Für Interessierte, hier die AIFS Website