Not all that much interesting during last week (well, that I can mention here haha) but the weekend was great as always!
Friday night I saw Annie for the first time - because Clara was in it! She starred as Daddy Warbucks and she did a fantastic job! She wore a bald cap and fake bushy eyebrows and she looked awesome. As a play, I thought Annie was really boring. So predictable and way to cheery. I love Pollyanna though, and talk about cheery, that girl has sun shining out her you know what, but I just didn't click with Annie, ha ha! Nevertheless, Clara was great and it was a fun night.
Saturday I finally finally FINALLY got to go to the MET! For those of you that don't know, the Met is short for The Metropolitan Museum of Art and its on the east side of Central Park. Just like the Museum of Natural History (on the west side of CP), which is so ridiculously huge you need to map out your day there; I knew I would never get through everything at the MET in one afternoon! I did get to see the, 'Greek and Roman statues', 'Oceanic Art', 'Modern Art' and 'Medieval Art'. That was about a quarter of the museum! I have been saying for weeks that I would go and something always came up, so even seeing that much was a thrill. You would never think it but going through a museum that size is very exhausting, even if you only see a little like I did!
After the museum I took a subway into Times Square to meet up with AJ (yay!) and her boyfriend, Jason, who flew in from Australia a few weeks ago. I was so excited to see AJ because I hadn't seen her since she came to visit me way back when I was in Philadelphia. I knocked another extremely touristy thing off my list by joining them for dinner at, 'Planet Hollywood'. It was definitly one of those things you just have to do but I wouldn't go back. It was expensive and not as thrilling as expected, but the company was good! I was very excited though, to see that my hands fit into one of the celebrities molds...guess whose? Chers! Yay!
Saturday night I went to see 'Duplicity' with the girls. It stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owens and was filmed partially in NYC and Alissa and Alice had seen them shooting at Grand Central! It was a good movie, not great, but good.
Then Sunday night we all went to Hibachi, a Japanese restaurant where they cook everything in front of you (like the Benihana at the Mariott in Surfers Paradise, or the cheaper version Shogun in Bundall). It was delicious, I got Chicken Katsudon which I havent had since I was in Aus and some excellent crab sushi. I LOVE LOVE LOVE sushi and use to get it almost everyday when I worked at Target. I have missed it ever so much since Ive been here because the sushi here is so freakin expensive! Almost double aussie prices (which I always thought were boarding on too much). I would kill for a plate of sushi from the southport park sushi place haha. But anyway, Hibachi was lots of fun and really tasty, so hopefully I will go back soon!
That was all this weekend, but I should be having lots of adventures over the next few weeks. The host fam leave wednesday afternoon for texas for 12 days. Then this weekend I have friends coming in to visit the city with me, Jonathan is suppose to be flying over soon (yay) and then I have a weekend in Boston plus Silverbay coming up then later down the track a visit to Washington D.C
Miss everyone loads xxx
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
An Aussie Filled Weekend...
I had a fantastic weekend, spending most of my time with the aussie girls from my area, Alissa, Alice, Lou and Emma as well as Frannie, who is in our area to and originally from Germany. Friday night we saw the new movie, 'I love you, man' with that guy from 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' and Paul Rudd. It was hilarious, and even though going to the cinemas is about the same price as in Australia (which i always thought was WAY too expensive) it was a nice night after a crazy week!
Saturday we went to the mall, but just window shopped! We had the most AMAZING frozen yoghurt that you can have lots of things mixed into. I had strawberries, oreos and pecans - it was delicious! Just relaxed home alone that night, and spent time catching up on writing letters, packing parcels for back home, etc etc, and tried to get to bed early for the big day in the city on Sunday.
It turned out to be quiet cold Sunday morning (even though its now spring, argh!) as I caught the 930 train with the girls into Grand Central. After some breakfast we walked up fifth avenue. We mainly window shopped, although I did get a brand new webcam so I can talk to everyone one skype, yay. We went into H&M, Saks, Abercrombie & Finch (where u can get photos with half naked men, and all the assistants are disgustingly tall, skinny, perky and dancy). We went to a few other places, that i can't remember! Before subwaying over to an Australian bar. The meat pies were rather disgusting, the sausage rolls were kinda "gourmet" so not that great aussie taste, the chips were good but no chicken salt :( and the fish was okayish. Lots of aussie beers though and broncos v storms was on the big screen!
Then over to Macys for some drooling over clothes I can't afford, but heading home on the train.
That night I got to "see" my family for the first time in almost 3 months thanks to a little invention, skype! It was so exciting and we talked for 1 and 1/2 and i am so excited to be able to see them whenever i want! Now if only brock, renee and krystle would get it! I might have to send some emails!!!
xxx
Saturday we went to the mall, but just window shopped! We had the most AMAZING frozen yoghurt that you can have lots of things mixed into. I had strawberries, oreos and pecans - it was delicious! Just relaxed home alone that night, and spent time catching up on writing letters, packing parcels for back home, etc etc, and tried to get to bed early for the big day in the city on Sunday.
It turned out to be quiet cold Sunday morning (even though its now spring, argh!) as I caught the 930 train with the girls into Grand Central. After some breakfast we walked up fifth avenue. We mainly window shopped, although I did get a brand new webcam so I can talk to everyone one skype, yay. We went into H&M, Saks, Abercrombie & Finch (where u can get photos with half naked men, and all the assistants are disgustingly tall, skinny, perky and dancy). We went to a few other places, that i can't remember! Before subwaying over to an Australian bar. The meat pies were rather disgusting, the sausage rolls were kinda "gourmet" so not that great aussie taste, the chips were good but no chicken salt :( and the fish was okayish. Lots of aussie beers though and broncos v storms was on the big screen!
Then over to Macys for some drooling over clothes I can't afford, but heading home on the train.
That night I got to "see" my family for the first time in almost 3 months thanks to a little invention, skype! It was so exciting and we talked for 1 and 1/2 and i am so excited to be able to see them whenever i want! Now if only brock, renee and krystle would get it! I might have to send some emails!!!
xxx
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Adventures in New York...
Wednesday night was my first LCC meeting, and I met my group in the city to go to the apparantly world famous, Apollo Theatre of Harlem. Its where alot of performers (Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and more) got there start in show business. Wednesday night is amateur night and there was a line up of singers, dancers, poets, comedians and rappers. Kathy Griffiths did a spot of MCing, and I normally don't like her but she was kinda funny! A fun night was had by all!
Last night (Friday) I met up with some of the other Aussies in the area (Alissa, Alice, Lou) and a german aupair (Franni) to go see 'Escape from Witch Mountain' at the movies. It was surprisingly good and pretty funny!! Then we had a good old fashioned sleep over at Alice's. The next morning we waited 30 minutes at the very busy IHOP for some very very yummy and guilt-worthy pancakes!! Then we managed to drag our tired, full bodies to the car and went in search of Beyonce's house - thats right Beyonce! Apparently she lives in Scarsdale, a suburb near me, and we drove up and down her street to find her house!! A little taste of New York celebrity!!
Now tonight I am off to see the local high school version of , 'Rent' with my host mom!
Missing everyone ridiculously, hope everything is well back home xxx
Last night (Friday) I met up with some of the other Aussies in the area (Alissa, Alice, Lou) and a german aupair (Franni) to go see 'Escape from Witch Mountain' at the movies. It was surprisingly good and pretty funny!! Then we had a good old fashioned sleep over at Alice's. The next morning we waited 30 minutes at the very busy IHOP for some very very yummy and guilt-worthy pancakes!! Then we managed to drag our tired, full bodies to the car and went in search of Beyonce's house - thats right Beyonce! Apparently she lives in Scarsdale, a suburb near me, and we drove up and down her street to find her house!! A little taste of New York celebrity!!
Now tonight I am off to see the local high school version of , 'Rent' with my host mom!
Missing everyone ridiculously, hope everything is well back home xxx
Just another night in...Times Square
On Friday (7th Feb) I went into the city to meet my friend Casey, who was spending the weekend in New York, having come up from Washington D.C. I haven't seen Casey since we went to the Aupair Training School together, so it was really exciting to see her again! We met right in the dead centre of Times Square on the red stairs and got right down to the photo taking!! She made me (I swear it was NOT my idea!!) take a photo with this giant guy dressed as the Statue of Liberty haha! Its true that everything in New York is expensive - we had to pay 3 dollars to get a photo with him - even though we used our camera!!
We took a few more photos of the bright lights, big city then went for a stroll to find somewhere nice to eat. Believe it or not I have never actually been to the Hard Rock Cafe, even though the only one in Australia is at none other than Surfers Paradise!! So we decided we would go to the New York Hard Rock Cafe. We waited about 30 minutes, but they had some good rock memorabillia to look at while we waited, and even though it was pretty expensive, the food was quiet good!! I don't think I would go back but its one of those things that you "just have to do" and I'm glad we did!
After dinner, at about 10pm we sauntered into 'Toys R Us' to spend an hour being big kids!! There is a HUGE ferris wheel inside the middle of the store, and each carriage is based on a different children's toy or movie. We were in the Cabbage Patch Kids carriage, but my favourites were My Little Pony, Mr Potato Head, Monopoly and Toy Story. Other fun that Toys R Us had to offer included a giant T-Rex and Jurrasic Park sign, and the dinosaur roared and moved his head. Giant Lego constructions of the Empire State, Chrysler and Statue of Liberty which were amazing! A giant Barbie's dream house and some large figurines of Spiderman, Superman and the likes.
Next on the list was 'M&M World' - three floors of everything and anything M&M!! There was so much M&M merchandise, giant M&M statues (the green M&M as Statue of Liberty) and a wall full of different coloured M&Ms. I didn't have much money with me, but I can't wait to go back to get all my M&M souviners!!!
I headed home, a bit too late considering I had a weekend planned in Philadelphia, but all in all a fantastic night!!
We took a few more photos of the bright lights, big city then went for a stroll to find somewhere nice to eat. Believe it or not I have never actually been to the Hard Rock Cafe, even though the only one in Australia is at none other than Surfers Paradise!! So we decided we would go to the New York Hard Rock Cafe. We waited about 30 minutes, but they had some good rock memorabillia to look at while we waited, and even though it was pretty expensive, the food was quiet good!! I don't think I would go back but its one of those things that you "just have to do" and I'm glad we did!
After dinner, at about 10pm we sauntered into 'Toys R Us' to spend an hour being big kids!! There is a HUGE ferris wheel inside the middle of the store, and each carriage is based on a different children's toy or movie. We were in the Cabbage Patch Kids carriage, but my favourites were My Little Pony, Mr Potato Head, Monopoly and Toy Story. Other fun that Toys R Us had to offer included a giant T-Rex and Jurrasic Park sign, and the dinosaur roared and moved his head. Giant Lego constructions of the Empire State, Chrysler and Statue of Liberty which were amazing! A giant Barbie's dream house and some large figurines of Spiderman, Superman and the likes.
Next on the list was 'M&M World' - three floors of everything and anything M&M!! There was so much M&M merchandise, giant M&M statues (the green M&M as Statue of Liberty) and a wall full of different coloured M&Ms. I didn't have much money with me, but I can't wait to go back to get all my M&M souviners!!!
I headed home, a bit too late considering I had a weekend planned in Philadelphia, but all in all a fantastic night!!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA
One week ago today was my first night at my new family's home! Unfortunately my old host family had some financial troubles and had to let me go, but I luckily found a new family in Hastings, which is a 30 minute train ride from the Big Apple!! I'm working with parents and thei twin boy and girl, 9 and their youngest boy, 5.
The first week went by fairly well, it was kind of odd for me having this feeling of being new but not really and starting again but not so much - very unusual. But I'm settling in nicely.
The town is quiet small and is on the Hudson River (hence the name). It has beautiful views - you can see the Manhattan skyline from here, and across the Hudson is New Jersey. NJ has beautiful cliffs called the palisades. There's some nice family owned stores and restaurants, the only bad thing is I'll have to join a new bank because mine isn't in town :( Its a ten minute walk to the train station, and 5 - 10 to the centre of town/shops etc.
Behind the house is something called the 'Aquaduct'. It runs along the Hudson into New York and use to bring the city its water. Its no longer used for that but instead a track. You could literally walk into New York City. We use it to walk Master 5 to school, which takes about 10 minutes. Its a nice walk, with big trees (bare at the moment) on either side and even though I only walk in the day it is still slightly spooky. After you walk out of our house you can go left or right, and it kind of seems like the decision that Belle's father makes in 'Beauty and the Beast' when he is going to the fair. And his horse wants to go the nice way but Maurice chooses the scary dark way!! Well even though I go the "nice" way, I still worry that any minute I'll be attacked by a wolf, bear, cougar...or the very least a rabid squirrel! But its definitly nice to be walking everyday - forced exercise is always the way to go haha.
I met my new LCC co-ordinator, she is lovely, but I haven't had an LCC meeting yet. It was suppose to be tonight, but wasn't very well organised and so has been post poned until next weekend. Unfortunately, I have already booked bus tickets to go back to Philly to see my old host family for next weekend, so I guess I miss out! Oh well. I have met Alice and Alyssa from Australia (so many A's aaah!) who live in the next town (so about 10 minutes away) and are in my LCC group. I also have Emma, ten minutes away, who is from Tassy and flew over to the US with me in Jan. Another aussie Nicolette who flew over with us, is 30 minutes from me, and Kate from NZ who went to the training school with us is on Long Island. Yay instant friends haha!!
Alice and Alyssa picked me up Friday night for a girls night in of chocolate and boardgames, then tonight I went out to dinner with them and Emma.
Saturday, however, was the big, second trip to NY wooh!! Well technically third I guess, hehe, if you count the trip with the training school. Emma and I walked up part of 5th avenue and I saw 'Prada', 'Louis Vuiton' and a barage of other designer stores. Then, my dream store - World of Disney!!!! YAY! We didn't spend long in there and I didn't get to see everything, but don't you worry I'll be back soon! I want to do the whole 5th ave walk, and actually go into the shops lol Even though I know I can't afford anything (and I'm sure the shop assistants will know that too!) and I will then go back to Disney shop and see everything and spend some money of course!! tsk tsk.
After 5th ave, a quick cut through the bottom of Central Park to Columbus Circle (the south west very bottom corner of the park) to meet up with Kate and some other aupairs. We had some lovely lunch then split ways with the other aupairs and Kate and I decided to do some wandering. We walked through Midtown and bumped into the Flatiron Building, which (once i get some pictures up for you to see) is an amazing sight! We did a bit of shopping, had some dinner, then decided to mozy on over to the Empire State Building!!
It was a bit of a rip to get in, but boy, what a view! Being night, all the lights sort of blurred together and although it was amazingly awesome, I can't wait to get back in the day to be able to look down and tell what building is what and each neighbourhood etc. The Chrysler Building, my favourite architecturally, looked stunning with its lights. I must admit I was scared shitless when we did make it to the top! I am fine with heights on rides (although I do freak a bit with the Giant Drop) and I thought I would be fine, but it was just so so ridiculously high! It took a bit of convincing from Kate, and a lot of bravery from me to actually stand at the edge (it was so well fenced, but still scary) and look down. I had to sit on the ground to be able to look up the top of the building and even thinking about it all now is making me queasy haha. I took some video footage though, so I can splice together a lovely little NY video with that!!
Well off to bed for me - tomorrow is a snow day YAY. so the kids are home from school and it will be my first chance to have my first snow man, snow angels, snow fights etc, because I haven't had those on this trip!!
So I will write more about my adventures another day - and if your reading this try to comment on a blog or two!
xxx
The first week went by fairly well, it was kind of odd for me having this feeling of being new but not really and starting again but not so much - very unusual. But I'm settling in nicely.
The town is quiet small and is on the Hudson River (hence the name). It has beautiful views - you can see the Manhattan skyline from here, and across the Hudson is New Jersey. NJ has beautiful cliffs called the palisades. There's some nice family owned stores and restaurants, the only bad thing is I'll have to join a new bank because mine isn't in town :( Its a ten minute walk to the train station, and 5 - 10 to the centre of town/shops etc.
Behind the house is something called the 'Aquaduct'. It runs along the Hudson into New York and use to bring the city its water. Its no longer used for that but instead a track. You could literally walk into New York City. We use it to walk Master 5 to school, which takes about 10 minutes. Its a nice walk, with big trees (bare at the moment) on either side and even though I only walk in the day it is still slightly spooky. After you walk out of our house you can go left or right, and it kind of seems like the decision that Belle's father makes in 'Beauty and the Beast' when he is going to the fair. And his horse wants to go the nice way but Maurice chooses the scary dark way!! Well even though I go the "nice" way, I still worry that any minute I'll be attacked by a wolf, bear, cougar...or the very least a rabid squirrel! But its definitly nice to be walking everyday - forced exercise is always the way to go haha.
I met my new LCC co-ordinator, she is lovely, but I haven't had an LCC meeting yet. It was suppose to be tonight, but wasn't very well organised and so has been post poned until next weekend. Unfortunately, I have already booked bus tickets to go back to Philly to see my old host family for next weekend, so I guess I miss out! Oh well. I have met Alice and Alyssa from Australia (so many A's aaah!) who live in the next town (so about 10 minutes away) and are in my LCC group. I also have Emma, ten minutes away, who is from Tassy and flew over to the US with me in Jan. Another aussie Nicolette who flew over with us, is 30 minutes from me, and Kate from NZ who went to the training school with us is on Long Island. Yay instant friends haha!!
Alice and Alyssa picked me up Friday night for a girls night in of chocolate and boardgames, then tonight I went out to dinner with them and Emma.
Saturday, however, was the big, second trip to NY wooh!! Well technically third I guess, hehe, if you count the trip with the training school. Emma and I walked up part of 5th avenue and I saw 'Prada', 'Louis Vuiton' and a barage of other designer stores. Then, my dream store - World of Disney!!!! YAY! We didn't spend long in there and I didn't get to see everything, but don't you worry I'll be back soon! I want to do the whole 5th ave walk, and actually go into the shops lol Even though I know I can't afford anything (and I'm sure the shop assistants will know that too!) and I will then go back to Disney shop and see everything and spend some money of course!! tsk tsk.
After 5th ave, a quick cut through the bottom of Central Park to Columbus Circle (the south west very bottom corner of the park) to meet up with Kate and some other aupairs. We had some lovely lunch then split ways with the other aupairs and Kate and I decided to do some wandering. We walked through Midtown and bumped into the Flatiron Building, which (once i get some pictures up for you to see) is an amazing sight! We did a bit of shopping, had some dinner, then decided to mozy on over to the Empire State Building!!
It was a bit of a rip to get in, but boy, what a view! Being night, all the lights sort of blurred together and although it was amazingly awesome, I can't wait to get back in the day to be able to look down and tell what building is what and each neighbourhood etc. The Chrysler Building, my favourite architecturally, looked stunning with its lights. I must admit I was scared shitless when we did make it to the top! I am fine with heights on rides (although I do freak a bit with the Giant Drop) and I thought I would be fine, but it was just so so ridiculously high! It took a bit of convincing from Kate, and a lot of bravery from me to actually stand at the edge (it was so well fenced, but still scary) and look down. I had to sit on the ground to be able to look up the top of the building and even thinking about it all now is making me queasy haha. I took some video footage though, so I can splice together a lovely little NY video with that!!
Well off to bed for me - tomorrow is a snow day YAY. so the kids are home from school and it will be my first chance to have my first snow man, snow angels, snow fights etc, because I haven't had those on this trip!!
So I will write more about my adventures another day - and if your reading this try to comment on a blog or two!
xxx
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