Happy New Year!!!

So I will be going to Arkansas tomorrow morning with my Host Family, and so I probably won't be able to take my laptop in which case this is the last time I will be posting until the New Year!!! Wow. 2011. Everyone ready?

Happy New Year!!!

Hope it's a good one for everyone out there. 

It's cool though, because forever onwards I will always remember that 2011 is the year that I lived away from home in America! :D

Talk next year buddy!!

[Buddy is my term of endearment for the kids]

Things that are Backwards, and words we don't use so much.

And I shall be adding to this list whenever there is something that needs to be added.

THINGS THAT ARE BACKWARDS:

• The side of the road that you drive on.
• The side of the car that you sit on.
• The side of the steering wheel the flicker [blinker, indicator etc] is on.
• The Light Switches!
• Apparently the way the water in the toilet turns. Disproved by my brother :P
  
• The taps. [Like you turn it the other way to turn the water on... which can get confusing, like when you want to turn the water off quickly, and you turn it so it gets even stronger!!]
• 
  

WORDS THAT US AUSSIES DON'T USE SO MUCH:

• Neat [as in 'cool']
• Dinner [never tea]
• Candy
•  What we call chips - they call fries. So if I go to Maccas, if I ask for chips, they'll give me a bag of crispy chips... not the hot chips [fries].
• Same with combo and meal. 
• They don't [for cars] have Gas, and call Petrol 'Gas'.

To be continued.... 

Temp-home Sweet Temp-home

So yeah. Finally arrived in Virginia last night at 11pm. But I need to fill you in a bit for before then.

As most of you will know when I went on the trip to New York City, somehow I lost my wallet. I don't know whether it was stolen, or if I was just a clutz and dropped it. Very possibly the second. But other then that, and losing my glove, and losing my certificate and workbook from the school... It was a pretty good week!

When I got to the airport though... Me and my friend also going to Virginia [who I shall now call 'E']... missed our flight :( :( :(. We totally underestimated the size of JFK and got to the terminal 3 minutes late! We had to wait almost 6 hours for the next flight and had to pay $50.
When we arrived though, E's host dad was there to pick us up at 10pm and was able to drop me off home as planned. [he knows my host-family through Cultural Care].

More things to come. :)

New York!!

So I finally arrived in NY after about 24 hours of flying. It was a long flight with only about 6 or 7 hours of sleep. I arrived in NY at their time 11:00pm, so I was able to have a bit of food before getting a good night's sleep.
I was woken up in the morning by my new room mate who will be going to the same part of Virginia with me on Friday.

I am going to play a board game with a few of the girls now. So I will fill you in more later!! haha

New Departure Date!!

So it turns out that all this time I am actually leaving on the 5th of December, not the 6th!! 
Just a thanks to my dad for discovering that! That could have been a very awkward phone call!
But it now means that I have 7 days - 1 week before I leave for New York! 

Yesterday I had my going away party [joint with my brother's 21st] which was kinda sad. I saw a lot of people for the last time before I leave!! It's only now really becoming 'real' to me.

I've got my 2 empty suitcases, and... a jacket, and... some money ready to go... And that's about it! :D
I have a very busy week ahead of me!! I think I'll start packing tomorrow. [and that's what I said yesterday :P] 


Getting exciting!!

11 Days to go!!

So I just got back from schoolies, which was nice and relaxing! 

I now have 11 days to go, and in between packing and all the rest I have 2 orthodontist appointments, a dentist appointment, a party to organize and go to :), my graduation and several catchups with friends. I know, I know - sucks to be me, right? :P

I am actually really looking forward to packing - it's weirdly one of the exciting bits of traveling for me. In fact when I am done here I am going to go downstairs to find the biggest bag to start packing. :)

Last week I went to my Visa Interview which was fun!!! I had an appointment for 8:15am, but they told us to get there half an hour early to get ready for it. Me and dad sure enjoyed that bit :D

Turns out that there were about 30 other people with that appointment time, who were also told to get there half an hour early - Even though they weren't even open at that time!! They opened at 8!!! 

So what was mean to take "about half an hour", ended up taking over 3 hours!!! 

I felt more sorry for my lovely dad who had to wait outside for me. I wasn't allowed to take my phone in so 

1. I couldn't tell him that I was going to be late, and 

2. I couldn't play Cooking Academy on my iPhone :(

Today I went to the shops and bought my twin boys a 'welcome' present!! I got them both remote control cars - but wait theres more. They are cars that can DRIVE ON WALLS OR ON THE ROOF!!! [and the floor - just not carpet] BUT THE WALLS AND THE ROOF!!!!!

I was very excited - I hope they are too. Now for something for the girl. I got her a really cute apron, but when you're 8, that doesn't match well with remote control cars.... any ideas?? Please??

Also for the parents.

It still hasn't sunk in that I am leaving in 11 days.

11 days. 

Not even 2 weeks. 

Wow... talk soon!!

Letters to myself.

Last night... as a last attempt to procrastinate studying, I wrote myself some letters for the US. [They're all also written on A5 paper and folded like they do in the pride and prejudice days :) hahah sooo good!!!]

The first one is for when I get really homesick for me to open. It's pretty much filled with all the good things about me being there... the people I meet, the adventures I'll have... and the other bit of the letter is telling me how much of a sissy girl I'm being and to man up.

2 of them are about if I get there and the family is actually not as good as I thought. I'm hoping that I don't have to use those letters. The first one is giving me questions to answer about why I am not enjoying my time there. And makes me write 3-5 ways that I can fix it. Not reasons to leave. I force myself to try and fix it first for at least 3 days.
The second letter is after 3 days if it is still not better after me trying to fix it or something. In which it gives me ideas of who to talk to and how to handle it. I also have to write a list of what to look out for when looking for a new family.
Like I said... I really hope I don't need to use those letters.

So yeah, then there are just a few other letters for other random events. And I'm hoping to write more.

If you have any good ideas about themes for me to write letters to me... [weird sentence to say]... comment and give some ideas.

Also if there are any of you that for fun [and procrastination as well :P] want to write me letters to take that I have to open at certain times or something. Feel free to send them to me also. :)

So yep.... back to study....

Progress

So it's now exactly 5 weeks before I leave for the USA!! It's getting exciting.

In fact I just then booked my Visa Interview at the US Consulate for the 16th of Nov... the first day of real freedom after exams. No breathing time before coming a proper adult! haha

I found the Blog of the Au Pair before me which was/is cool to read, but it's in Swedish, so I have to translate it through Google, which means that some sentences make no sense at all. But it's been good to see what sort of things she's done. It's made me even more excited about going - which is good :)

So that's me at the moment.
Still trying to study with thoughts of all these MUCH more exciting things :)

Finalized!!

So. About 2 days ago I was finalized with my future host family!!!

For privacy's sake I will call them the Smith family living in Virginia.

There was a bit of confusion over the past 2 weeks about host families so I'll try to quickly fill you in:

Like you have already read, I was matched with a family that was wrong so they re-matched me with this family - The Smith's.
Everything was going great and well on the way to being finalized with them, when one morning I logged onto my account and I had been matched with another family! I didn't really know what was happening - but then I got a phone call from the Cultural Care Au Pair office.

They let me know that the current Au Pair had to leave unexpectedly [for privacy reasons I will say she got homesick] and so they couldn't have me as an Au Pair because they needed one immediately.

As sad as I was I eventually got over it and got used to the idea of being matched again. THOUGH about 3-4 days later I logged into my account again and saw that I had been matched with the Smith family again!
I was confused but then got a phone call explaining that the Smith family really liked me and wanted me to be their Au Pair anyway - and "How soon before you can come?"

At first they said, "rather then your January departure, what about Nov 26th? You have your graduation? Ok then... Dec 6th - and that's the latest you can come for 2010. So either you come then, or you get matched with another family."

So... I am going on Dec 6th now. A whole 7 weeks earlier than I was planning!

So that's me at the moment. Trying to study for exams with the idea that in 6 weeks I will be leaving my family and friends in Australia for 12 months.

I'm going to be able to concentrate for sure.
:D

The Matching Process!

So on Tuesday I got my first match with a family and they seemed great. 2 kids - both in school [which is what I wanted] and in a nice area in Florida! But it turned out that they are really energetic people constantly on the go and doing things like sports and going out and all that sort of thing. Which is fine - just not for me.
Last night I had a nice long phone call from them and we talked about everything. Since then I had realized that they probably weren't the right family for me, but I had already organised to meet up with them this morning to talk on skype.
So I logged on and waited for them to come online, all the while trying to work out how to tell them that I didn't think it was a good match - or whether I should just call the Cultural Care office and tell them.
After a while - with the 'punctual' host family still not online, I went onto my Cultural Care account and noticed that the family had withdrawn, and I had another family there just waiting for me!!!

I went onto my e-mail and there was an e-mail nicely explaining why they withdrew - which was the same reason why I was going to withdraw anyway!

It's very exciting [since I don't like waiting]. The first thing that I noticed though - is that they have 3 kids - 2 of which are twins! Haha

So I'm hoping to talk to them soon!! They live in Virginia so I'm going to go and Google it now :D

Talk later. :D

What is an Au Pair?

[This post is more for people who are interested in being an Au Pair, but feel free to read it anyway :D]

Good Question!

An Au Pair is like a Nanny, but with less qualifications. I see it as Nannies are hired help and Au Pairs are Big Sisters. Next year I will be going to America as an Au pair with 'Cultural Care Au Pair'.

I will be staying with a family [don't know who they are yet] and I will look after their kids and pretty much becoming a member of their family. On top of that is free board and food - $195US a week, 1&1/2 days off a week, one whole weekend off a month, 2 weeks paid vacation, $500US towards 6 credits at a local college or university and one month of the end of my time there to travel around America. 

BEST GAP YEAR EVER!!!

I submitted my application yesterday! 

It was actually the second time I had submitted it because about a month ago I submitted it but didn't realise that my references were meant to prove my childcare hours, so I had to try again. 

I'm not sure if the Cultural Care people work on the weekend or not, so they may have started to call all my references already [last time they started the following day to submission], but they may not have.

I have joined a facebook group on facebook called 'Cultural Care Au Pair Australia' which is all the girls [and maybe some boys] who live in Australia who are planning on going or have gone to America as an Au Pair with this organisation. On it is where we all ask questions on how to fill in our applications, questions about how much money to take over etc. From reading some of the posts, it looks like after you submit your application within 1-2 weeks your application will have been passed onto a prospective host family and they will be reviewing you and you them.

With the Host Family/Au Pair selection process what happens is this [from my point of view]:

1. I fill in my application forms answering many many different questions like:
1. What are your interests?
2. How well can you swim?
3. Why do you want to be an Au Pair?
4. Would you feel comfortable living with someone with a different religion/race to you?
5. Would you feel comfortable living with a single mother/dad?
6. Can you live with pets?
7. and many many more questions
2. Get at least three references with at least one of both Childcare references [to prove your childcare hours and having to add up to 200 hours or more] and personal references. 
3. Submit your application.
4. The Cultural Care people will then call your references to check they are real and all that.
5. [from here on I am just guessing or know it will happen but I am not there yet]
6. If I am approved or to be finally approved, then I will have to then get a full medical and police background check.
7. Then with my extremely thorough application they will carefully match me with a host family and their needs. Everything is based off the host family though. So my application along with 2 others will be given to the family in which no other host family can look at our application so there's no competition. 
8. They will then e-mail us and we can read their application. 
9. At any point the host family can get rid of our application in which we will be put back into the 'Au Pair Pool' for other families to look at.
10. If they don't say no right away we can start to e-mail each other and if we both feel it is a good match, then they will call us to have a proper conversation. 
11. If after that we are both still happy then we talk to the Cultural Care people and tell them to finalize the match. 
12. Then all the things like Plane tickets, J-1 visas, insurance and final dates will be organized while me and the host family continue to talk and get to know each other. 

 When it's finally time for me to get on a plane to go to America, I have to make a stop of at New York for an Au Pair Training week. Here they teach us about child heath/ safety and psychology, fun activities and what to do in emergencies etc
During this week we get to have a tour of NYC!!

After that week is over, we then get to go to our Host families and the year begins!


I am very excited and hope to keep this blog updated with some videos and lots of photos to help the experience. 


Talk soon!
Caity