Hello! (In internet speak that means...hello). I JUST got off the phone with you literally seconds ago. As I write this, I am wearing the beanie u bought me for christmas HORRAY and whats even more exciting is I didn't just go and put it on because i knew id be talking to u, I have been wearing it since this morning haha. The kids love it they keep pulling the plats!
So anyway, to find me on myspace (u myspace virgin u) just do 'find friend' and change it to email and look for my email amanda_oz_86@yahoo.com if that makes sense to u - JUST LOOK FOR MY EMAIL! (In internet speak, email is a form of letters to one another).
HURRY up and look at my alice in wonderland pictures...i couldnt stop looking thinking of u the whole time i was there thinking, 'damn i wish that bitch was here!' lol.
I fell down the stairs tonight, from the top one all the way to the bottom and gee it hurt like a mofo. I cried like a little baby, im ashamed to admit.
HI RENEE'S DAD!
Anyway, just thought I'd give u a quick, personalized, welcome back shout out! WOOH! (in internet speak, wooh still means wooh....thank u for playing, whats that word)
I'm gonna mail ur letter and dvd seperately, tomorrow hopefully. I am kinda worried that they wont get there, and some creepy guy at the post office is reading the postcard, and then those, and breathing heavily and finding out all this stuff about me and u....ah how scary!
anyway, fingers crossed it gets to u. enjoy your afternoon or whenever ur reading this.
love amanda xxx
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Second Drive and Second Musuem...
I think I've mentioned it before but the customer service people I've encountered so far, have not been so friendly or helpful, and some of them quite scary. Last night, I went to the gas station to get phone cards. The guy at the counter was VERY old and VERY slow and pretty much CRAZY. I asked him for the phone cards, which were up "high" (most people could have stretched and reached them) and he started muttering and cursing under his breath about this and that, generally scaring the beejesus out of me. I had told him two (before he got up) and as he was up there (on a ladder, shaking profusely, making me worry I'd cause his untimely death for the sake of a call to Australia) I noticed he only grabbed one. I yelled out 3 times that I needed two but he failed to hear me over his own mutterings. When he got back down, I asked about the second one and he started yelling and screaming at me that it "wasn't a joke" and "was I trying to kill him" etc and so on. He got my cards, put them through the register and wished me a "lovely evening". Bizzare.
I'm sort of chronologically out of order here, but try to keep up...last night (before crazy gas man) was my first LCC meeting. An LCC meeting is basically a monthly aupair meeting, where we meet with our adult peer counsellor and the other aupairs in the area. We went iceskating, except I didn't skate because it scares me! Our next meeting is bowling though, so looking forward to that
Jumping in time again, this afternoon I actually had some very pleasant customer service experiences! A lady at Mc Donalds was very understanding and patient while I tried to decide what to eat (there menus are so different to ours and they call some burgers burgers but other burgers they call sandwiches....stoopid americans). Then at payless shoes, a lady asked about my accent which lead to a 15 minute conversation about everything from accents to travelling to families to christmas to religion to children....all with a perfect stranger. She was so lovely that we exchanged emails and hopefully I've got a new Jenkintown friend! At another store, while looking for some black jeans (which I bought and are very hot!) another girl was really helpful and lovely and then we chatted for ages about the aupairs that she knew, and what I was doing here, etc. I'm so glad not everyone in America is scary and angry!!!
A few nights ago (sorry, again about the order but I'm just writing this as it comes to me) I drove to the mall, and on the way home I almost hit a deer! We saw each other at the same time, and the poor thing was just as startled as me! It was the last thing I was expecting to see (have seen them before but not on this trip) and he was so big and beautiful!
Today was one of the best days I've had in America, so far! I went with the family to the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum - which is a hands on children's museum. I was so excited and it turned out to be even better then I thought, and I dare say I enjoyed it just as much (if not more) then the kids! There was a Please Touch City which had a garage, sky scrapers, buses, trains, parks on the top level and hospitals, stores, restaurants, homes on the bottom level. There was a Please Touch Outerspace room with rockets, ufos and planes. There was a beautiful, very old, restored carousel that was just amazing! A Please Touch Forest with water activities, a huge tree and animal statues. But by far the best two things were the art piece 'Statue of Liberty' and Alice in Wonderland's World. The statue of liberty was just her arm holding the torch, but it was a huge piece and made entirely out of scrap pieces, mainly old toys or children's items. It was breathtaking. Alice in Wonderland was so exciting. It was based on the original drawings for the book, and there was a fun house and a maze and statues and activities and it is just impossible to describe because it was so much fun, so exciting, so original....just amazing! You really have to see it to appreciate it.
But I can definitly say, I'll go back for sure! And anyone coming to Philly or anywhere close HAS to go....even if your not a big kid like me, I'm sure you'd love it!
I'm missing everybody, and just trying to still get into a rhythm of keeping in touch, and when to talking to everyone and so on. Its such a difficult time zone to work with, but I'm getting there. I've got photos up on myspace and facebook and I think they are all up to date as of tonight (yay!).
xxx
I'm sort of chronologically out of order here, but try to keep up...last night (before crazy gas man) was my first LCC meeting. An LCC meeting is basically a monthly aupair meeting, where we meet with our adult peer counsellor and the other aupairs in the area. We went iceskating, except I didn't skate because it scares me! Our next meeting is bowling though, so looking forward to that
Jumping in time again, this afternoon I actually had some very pleasant customer service experiences! A lady at Mc Donalds was very understanding and patient while I tried to decide what to eat (there menus are so different to ours and they call some burgers burgers but other burgers they call sandwiches....stoopid americans). Then at payless shoes, a lady asked about my accent which lead to a 15 minute conversation about everything from accents to travelling to families to christmas to religion to children....all with a perfect stranger. She was so lovely that we exchanged emails and hopefully I've got a new Jenkintown friend! At another store, while looking for some black jeans (which I bought and are very hot!) another girl was really helpful and lovely and then we chatted for ages about the aupairs that she knew, and what I was doing here, etc. I'm so glad not everyone in America is scary and angry!!!
A few nights ago (sorry, again about the order but I'm just writing this as it comes to me) I drove to the mall, and on the way home I almost hit a deer! We saw each other at the same time, and the poor thing was just as startled as me! It was the last thing I was expecting to see (have seen them before but not on this trip) and he was so big and beautiful!
Today was one of the best days I've had in America, so far! I went with the family to the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum - which is a hands on children's museum. I was so excited and it turned out to be even better then I thought, and I dare say I enjoyed it just as much (if not more) then the kids! There was a Please Touch City which had a garage, sky scrapers, buses, trains, parks on the top level and hospitals, stores, restaurants, homes on the bottom level. There was a Please Touch Outerspace room with rockets, ufos and planes. There was a beautiful, very old, restored carousel that was just amazing! A Please Touch Forest with water activities, a huge tree and animal statues. But by far the best two things were the art piece 'Statue of Liberty' and Alice in Wonderland's World. The statue of liberty was just her arm holding the torch, but it was a huge piece and made entirely out of scrap pieces, mainly old toys or children's items. It was breathtaking. Alice in Wonderland was so exciting. It was based on the original drawings for the book, and there was a fun house and a maze and statues and activities and it is just impossible to describe because it was so much fun, so exciting, so original....just amazing! You really have to see it to appreciate it.
But I can definitly say, I'll go back for sure! And anyone coming to Philly or anywhere close HAS to go....even if your not a big kid like me, I'm sure you'd love it!
I'm missing everybody, and just trying to still get into a rhythm of keeping in touch, and when to talking to everyone and so on. Its such a difficult time zone to work with, but I'm getting there. I've got photos up on myspace and facebook and I think they are all up to date as of tonight (yay!).
xxx
Monday, January 19, 2009
First Drive and First Museum
Well I drove for the first time this past weekend! I actually went really well! It wasn't nearly as hard driving on the other side of the road...and car lol I have to get a bit more practice in the snow and on the main roads (says my host dad!) then i can drive myself around YAY I am free lol
I went into Philadelphia on Sunday for the first time. Let me tell you, American "customer service" employees are NOT very helpful :S I went with Evelyn on the train and a bus to the Philadelphia Museum of Art....and it proved very difficult to take public transport. The website wasn't exactly helpful or clear and neither where the employees at ticketbooths/on train etc. They don't really accomodate for tourists.
Anyway, the Museum was AMAZING! It was THE biggest museum I've ever been to and it was one of four buildings for displaying art in Philadelphia. The set up was a bit annoying because you would always miss a room or back track alot but I saw European art, Asian art, Armour & Weaponry and my favourite Modern & Contemporary art. They also had several rooms in the European and Asian section, that represented homes or schools or temples of that era. It was beautiful and amazing and my only complaint was that we could only use photography with no flash and those rooms were too dark to see the photos!!! But I will always remember how amazing it was standing in those rooms, imagining I was in Japan or medieval Europe!
Today was the first day I worked with the boys, after Fi left, so it was a little hard but not too bad! It was Martin Luther King Jr day so the boys were home alllllllllllll day lol.
I wanted to go into New York this weekend, but my host family is taking the boys to the 'Please Touch Children's Museum' and since I really want to see that, I might hold off New York for a few more weekends......I'm sure it will still be there! Evelyn also wants to see the zoo, so I guess we're off to that! I'm so glad my weekends are filling up - I'd hate to have nothing to do! Although all I want to do is sleep all weekends, I'm trying to just get out there - after all thats why I'm here!!!
XXX
I went into Philadelphia on Sunday for the first time. Let me tell you, American "customer service" employees are NOT very helpful :S I went with Evelyn on the train and a bus to the Philadelphia Museum of Art....and it proved very difficult to take public transport. The website wasn't exactly helpful or clear and neither where the employees at ticketbooths/on train etc. They don't really accomodate for tourists.
Anyway, the Museum was AMAZING! It was THE biggest museum I've ever been to and it was one of four buildings for displaying art in Philadelphia. The set up was a bit annoying because you would always miss a room or back track alot but I saw European art, Asian art, Armour & Weaponry and my favourite Modern & Contemporary art. They also had several rooms in the European and Asian section, that represented homes or schools or temples of that era. It was beautiful and amazing and my only complaint was that we could only use photography with no flash and those rooms were too dark to see the photos!!! But I will always remember how amazing it was standing in those rooms, imagining I was in Japan or medieval Europe!
Today was the first day I worked with the boys, after Fi left, so it was a little hard but not too bad! It was Martin Luther King Jr day so the boys were home alllllllllllll day lol.
I wanted to go into New York this weekend, but my host family is taking the boys to the 'Please Touch Children's Museum' and since I really want to see that, I might hold off New York for a few more weekends......I'm sure it will still be there! Evelyn also wants to see the zoo, so I guess we're off to that! I'm so glad my weekends are filling up - I'd hate to have nothing to do! Although all I want to do is sleep all weekends, I'm trying to just get out there - after all thats why I'm here!!!
XXX
Friday, January 16, 2009
A Slice of American Heaven
Just a warning for all you cadbury loving Australians - the chocolate in America is AWFUL. In face, most of the food is a pitiful comparision to ours. Aussie fruit/veg is juicier, fresher, tastier. Our food tastes more real and less processed - and I'm not just saying that for patriotic reasons...its true.
So when I found dessert in America that I liked, the first so far, I got SO excited!Last night me and my host family went out to dinner at 'The cheesecake Factory'! Its a restaurant and bar and omigoodness, its the best food I've had since being here - apart from the food I got in business class - which is certainly crazy! KFC was bad, Dunkin donuts was bad, chocolate has been awful....just in general there food is taking some time to get use to. ANYWAY back to 'The Cheesecake Factoy'! The meals were HUUUUUUUUGE, even down to the appetizers and desserts. And the cheesecake MMMMMMMMMM my new favourite american dessert. I tried white chocolate carmel macademia nut cheesecake it was delicious.
And update on more then just the food! Fi is leaving the house tomorrow night! She will be in the area for another few weeks before headin back down under, but as of next week, Evelyn and I are on our own! A little scary but I'm sure we can cope :)I am venturing to Philadelphia this weekend, and have to map out some things to do - I'm so excited! Much love, Amanda xxx
So when I found dessert in America that I liked, the first so far, I got SO excited!Last night me and my host family went out to dinner at 'The cheesecake Factory'! Its a restaurant and bar and omigoodness, its the best food I've had since being here - apart from the food I got in business class - which is certainly crazy! KFC was bad, Dunkin donuts was bad, chocolate has been awful....just in general there food is taking some time to get use to. ANYWAY back to 'The Cheesecake Factoy'! The meals were HUUUUUUUUGE, even down to the appetizers and desserts. And the cheesecake MMMMMMMMMM my new favourite american dessert. I tried white chocolate carmel macademia nut cheesecake it was delicious.
And update on more then just the food! Fi is leaving the house tomorrow night! She will be in the area for another few weeks before headin back down under, but as of next week, Evelyn and I are on our own! A little scary but I'm sure we can cope :)I am venturing to Philadelphia this weekend, and have to map out some things to do - I'm so excited! Much love, Amanda xxx
Monday, January 12, 2009
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, USA
Jenkintown, PA
I took a 5 hour bus ride from our school to my new home. It was so long because we made a couple of stops, but at the last stop as we waited for our host families to pick us up, everyone was smiling and nervous and excited and scared and overwhelmed. My host dad, picked me up, and when we arrived home I met my host boys, the aupair I'm taking over from, Fiona, and the aupair I'm working with, Evelyn. Later that night I met my host mom, and all the family gave me such a warm, loving welcome! I basically only had dinner and slept that night (12 hours!) but the next day I had a chance to explore the town!. Jenkintown is so beautiful with very old style homes that look like elaborate cottages and the sort of streets you'd see in an American Christmas Special. I woke up to snow which was magical (little tricky to walk in though!). The town has everything - a huge mall, lots of other shops and restaurants and libraries and hospitals and churches and just everything you could ever think of or need. I think I'm going to love it here, and I can't wait to explore near by Philadelphia and then New York City again and then other nearby cities - Washington D.C, Pittsburg, Boston! I'm having so much fun and although I miss everybody dearly, I'm starting to make some amazing friends here which is wonderful!
I took a 5 hour bus ride from our school to my new home. It was so long because we made a couple of stops, but at the last stop as we waited for our host families to pick us up, everyone was smiling and nervous and excited and scared and overwhelmed. My host dad, picked me up, and when we arrived home I met my host boys, the aupair I'm taking over from, Fiona, and the aupair I'm working with, Evelyn. Later that night I met my host mom, and all the family gave me such a warm, loving welcome! I basically only had dinner and slept that night (12 hours!) but the next day I had a chance to explore the town!. Jenkintown is so beautiful with very old style homes that look like elaborate cottages and the sort of streets you'd see in an American Christmas Special. I woke up to snow which was magical (little tricky to walk in though!). The town has everything - a huge mall, lots of other shops and restaurants and libraries and hospitals and churches and just everything you could ever think of or need. I think I'm going to love it here, and I can't wait to explore near by Philadelphia and then New York City again and then other nearby cities - Washington D.C, Pittsburg, Boston! I'm having so much fun and although I miss everybody dearly, I'm starting to make some amazing friends here which is wonderful!
New York, New York....At Last
I can not describe my feelings as we approached the city, they were just so intense! The anticipation was ridiculous and I felt like a dream was coming true, seeing this amazing city and the sights I'd read about for months. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself, I was jumping all over the place with video camera in one hand, and digital camera in the other! The first things I saw were new york style apartments, central park, the plaza, fifth ave and famous shops (bergdorf and goodman, apple, barneys, louis vitton). Then we drove into Times Square. The lights, the atmosphere, the advertisments, the shops - so overwhelming! But so awesome. As we walked to the centre to take photos, we had homeless men begging for money, crazy people trying to sell everything under the sun, and people with cameras and accents everywhere! It was surreal and just amazing! We continued a tour around the city, and eventually came to the Staten Island Ferry which we took past the Statue of Liberty. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was so crazy, cold, fast, strong it was unbelievable! We braved it for a few minutes to take some photos before racing back inside. As the ferry headed back to Manhatten, it got dark and the skyline was gorgeous. We were dropped off at the Empire State Building, which by the way, is very scary to look up at! Most of the girls got super sized mc donalds, while me & some others got traditional, yummy, new york cheese pizza! Then we all went a little souvenir crazy! I bought myself an I ♥ new york bag, tshirt, keyring, pencil and badge plus a few presents for my loved ones (if ur lucky that could be YOU :P) and lots of postcards (20 for $1!!!). The experience was unforgettable and I just can't wait to return!
Training School
For the sake of all other aupairs: NOTHING can prepare you for the awfulness of training school! The rooms are okay, except those (including me) of us on bunkbeds....which were unaccessible and dangerous to climb upon, in fact many girls dragged their mattresses to the floor! The toilets/bathrooms however, were just disgusting. We had the second largest number of aupairs that week, 262 (with 17 boys!) and in my building there were 100 girls....with 18 showers. So you can imagine the pain of that. Especially when you add the fact that 9 of those showers took at least ten minutes to heat up, and half of those 9 didn't work at all. The shower curtains were slimy and the floors probably tiniea ridden. Now, they tell us aussies that the toilets swirl backwards, but they never tell you that they half fill the bowls with water (alot more then ours) which is very weird...and very unpleasant in instances of intense vomiting! At the school there were bags of used sanitary products sitting open next to the toilets, which was just awful!
The architecture of the buildings was absolutely divine - I loved the feel of being on an American campus! The classes were okay, but pretty boring because I'd done alot of the work. But it was a good chance to meet new people and I made some lovely friends from Mexico, Brazil, Peru and South Africa.
The food: sugary, fat, plastic, imitation, rubbery, basically downright awful
But I DID survive, and so will other aupairs. They could use some sprucing up - some more internet/phones too, but all in all, the experience of spending the week with the most amazing Australian girls, was well worth it! Thanks to AJ, Laura, Megan, Georgie, Casey, Allysha, Nicolette, Sarah, Yasmin, Jess, Emma and Kate (yay kiwis) for being so supportive, fun and understanding and making the training school, despite everything, a total blast.
The architecture of the buildings was absolutely divine - I loved the feel of being on an American campus! The classes were okay, but pretty boring because I'd done alot of the work. But it was a good chance to meet new people and I made some lovely friends from Mexico, Brazil, Peru and South Africa.
The food: sugary, fat, plastic, imitation, rubbery, basically downright awful
But I DID survive, and so will other aupairs. They could use some sprucing up - some more internet/phones too, but all in all, the experience of spending the week with the most amazing Australian girls, was well worth it! Thanks to AJ, Laura, Megan, Georgie, Casey, Allysha, Nicolette, Sarah, Yasmin, Jess, Emma and Kate (yay kiwis) for being so supportive, fun and understanding and making the training school, despite everything, a total blast.
Welcome to LA Bitches...
Well, yes, I am in America now! It all started with a very awful flight from Melb - LA, and I have to say, us Aussie girls didn't have the best streak of luck to begin with! We were suppose to be all seated together, but we weren't :( And I have to say, my seat neighbours were NOT the nicest people in the world! Mrs Snobby Bitch to the right, kept staring at me, my food, my activities, my every move while Ms Silent wouldn't move properly to let me past!
Anyway, when we arrive to the aiport they didn't exactly roll out the red carpet! Every member of staff felt like they had permanent PMS with very intimidating/interrogating natures. So after we dragged through customs/baggage we realised we were running late and only had a short time to make our domestic flight to New York. After a, "final boarding call" we raced to the terminal only to find they had just closed the doors behind us. What was it that Cultural Care had said? "In the RARE event that you miss your flight"....great, lucky us!
So the aupair company and the airport were less then helpful, as we were put on standby for the next avaliable flight to JFK. Our missed flight was at 11am, and the next flight was at 2pm...which we didn't make it on to. Finally at 4pm announcments were made for all but four of the Australia girls, to make it onto the 4pm flight (the four included me!). As we crossed our fingers, they finally announced our names and our reward..BUSINESS CLASS! It was absolutely positutely AWESOME! With lovely leg room and reclining, free dvds, free gourment meals and drinks. Lovely. Just lovely.
Did I mention that some of the girls had their luggage lost? Luckily it wasn't me, but about 5 girls unfortunately did, a drama that wouldn't be fixed for several days later.
As we flew over New York City that night, I was feeling so excited and elated, despite very little sleep and awful delays. We met our driver at the aiport and he drove us to our new home for the week -St John's University's Aupair Training School
Anyway, when we arrive to the aiport they didn't exactly roll out the red carpet! Every member of staff felt like they had permanent PMS with very intimidating/interrogating natures. So after we dragged through customs/baggage we realised we were running late and only had a short time to make our domestic flight to New York. After a, "final boarding call" we raced to the terminal only to find they had just closed the doors behind us. What was it that Cultural Care had said? "In the RARE event that you miss your flight"....great, lucky us!
So the aupair company and the airport were less then helpful, as we were put on standby for the next avaliable flight to JFK. Our missed flight was at 11am, and the next flight was at 2pm...which we didn't make it on to. Finally at 4pm announcments were made for all but four of the Australia girls, to make it onto the 4pm flight (the four included me!). As we crossed our fingers, they finally announced our names and our reward..BUSINESS CLASS! It was absolutely positutely AWESOME! With lovely leg room and reclining, free dvds, free gourment meals and drinks. Lovely. Just lovely.
Did I mention that some of the girls had their luggage lost? Luckily it wasn't me, but about 5 girls unfortunately did, a drama that wouldn't be fixed for several days later.
As we flew over New York City that night, I was feeling so excited and elated, despite very little sleep and awful delays. We met our driver at the aiport and he drove us to our new home for the week -St John's University's Aupair Training School
Friday, January 2, 2009
Shiny Pretty New Toy...
Well with only 3 more sleeps to go....2 for me actually, considering I'm not sleeping on Sunday night because I have to leave for the airport at 3am!...I have finished packing with only a handful more of things to go...those things being the Shiny Pretty New Toy I bought last week!
I bought a video camera to take with me to America. I'm so excited because now I can jump online anytime to keep in contact with everyone I'm going to miss and also record my time spent in America. BUT the best is yet to come....I have software on my laptop that allows me to make and burn videos, so I can send video diaries back to my friends & family! I made a practice video of my New Years and it turned out pretty good!
Speaking of New Years I had a good night actually - considering I didn't really have any plans until that day! I went to see Jade, Rhys & the baby at the start of the night and finished up with a few drinks & playing guitar heroes (with drums yay) at Renee's. And I kept in my new years tradition by seeing Brock, even if it was only for a few minutes!
Brock and I were suppose to take our 'goodbye gold coast' road trip tonight, but its been rescheduled to tomorrow night, and I can't wait! I'm also having my going away dinner tomorrow night so I'm sure it will be a night full of tears!
I bought a video camera to take with me to America. I'm so excited because now I can jump online anytime to keep in contact with everyone I'm going to miss and also record my time spent in America. BUT the best is yet to come....I have software on my laptop that allows me to make and burn videos, so I can send video diaries back to my friends & family! I made a practice video of my New Years and it turned out pretty good!
Speaking of New Years I had a good night actually - considering I didn't really have any plans until that day! I went to see Jade, Rhys & the baby at the start of the night and finished up with a few drinks & playing guitar heroes (with drums yay) at Renee's. And I kept in my new years tradition by seeing Brock, even if it was only for a few minutes!
Brock and I were suppose to take our 'goodbye gold coast' road trip tonight, but its been rescheduled to tomorrow night, and I can't wait! I'm also having my going away dinner tomorrow night so I'm sure it will be a night full of tears!
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