Madame Tussauds

Today I went to New York again. With a few others au pairs we visited the Madame Tussaud museum. There were all kinds of different wax persons like famous celebrities such as Johnny Depp or famous politicians such as Obama. We had a great time there and really enjoyed the museum. They even had a 4D-movie about the "Wizard of Oz" which was really funny. It was another great day in New York.

Au Pair meeting

Today we had our monthly au pair meeting. This time we went mini-golfing which was really fun. The place we went to play mini golf is called Monster Mini Golf and therefore the whole place was decorated with all kinds of monsters. It was like on Halloween :D

After the meeting we also went to Starbucks.

Adjusting to the U.S.

I have been here for over a month now and I am used to my new life now. I am having a great time here and I enjoy my year here. School has finally started here so I have a lot of freetime during the week. When the kids are at school I am doing their laundry, go grocery shopping or go to the gym to play tennis or to go swimming. I also try to cook sometimes :D. On the weekend I usually meet some other au pairs to do something with them together. I also find a good church finally. The service was really great and it was not boring at all. Another au pair showed me this church so he invited me to come with him. Afterwards we went to the movie theater to watch "The American" which was a good movie but a little bit difficult to understand. But I had a great weekend.

Let's go Jets!

The football season finally started :D After the Jets lost their first football game against the Ravens last week they won their game today. They played against New England Patriots which the Jets won by 28 to 14!! I am looking forward for a great football season with lots of great plays. Here in this area there are two football teams. The New York Jets and the New York Giants and both are playing in the same stadium.

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish Holiday which refers to the Jewish New Year. It is the start of the Jewish calendar. Many Jewish people live in New Jersey and therefore many school were closed today. My hostfamily went to a two hour church service and during that time I went with one of the boy apple picking. We had a great time eating and picking apples and now we have lots of apples :)

U.S. Open 2010

Today Max and I went to the U.S. Open to watch some 4th round matches. We took the train to get to the stadium and first we watched Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)[11] at the Arthur Ash Stadium, the biggest stadium on the U.S. Open. Cibulkova won 7-5, 7-6. After that we watched Novak Dujokovic (SRB), number three in the world, vs. Mardy Fish from the U.S. It was not a reall good match because Dujokovic was just to good for Fish who was not aggressive enough in order to put some pressure on Djukovic. He won in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. We did not watch the whole match, after the first set we went to the Smash Zone, an indor tennis center which lots of fun games. Max and me played some tennis and table tennis. And I also found out, that my serve is about 75mph (121kmh). After we had lunch we went into the Artur Ash Stadium again to watch Caroline Wozniacki (Den), ranked as number one, verses Maria Sharapova (Rus). It was such a great match with lots of good rallies and shots. I think it was the best match so far, I have seen on the U.S. Open this year. Wozniacki won after almost 2hours 6-3, 6-4. So after a great day with lots of good tennis we went back home again.

Ocean

This Sunday we went to the beach. After a 1 1/2 hour ride where we watched Star Wars in the car, we arrived at Point Pleasant. Point Pleasant is a little amusement park right at the Atlantic Ocean with arcade games and a few rides.

First, we went into the ocean. I think this was the first time I have been in the Atlantic Ocean. There were really strong and heavy waves because of the Hurricane, so we could not go into the water that far. Max (younger boy) and me had a lot of fun with the waves and we enjoyed it. After we had lunch Max and I played mini golf at the amusement park and then we played some arcad

e games. We had a lot of fun playing all kind of different gambling games ;) After that we all went on a few rides such as a roller coaster and we did bumper cars too.

All in all we had a great and fun time at the beach today.

First month is over...

I cannot believe that I left Germany one month ago. Times go by so fast and I am getting used to my new surrounding and to my new task now.

First, when I came to the U.S. I had au pair school for five days where they teached us something about the upcoming

au pair year and about our new responsible being an au pair. After the au pair school where we also had a great trip to New York City, I met my hostfamily for the first time - first only my hostfather. He picked me up on Friday and I did not meet my hostmother until Monday, because my hostparents went to Massachusetts to visit their parents. And on Tuesday we picked up the younger son from this summer camp where he stayed for five weeks. The following day they all went on vacation to Italy for ten days. Therefore I was on my own which was a little bit boring because I was new to this area and I did not know anyone. During these days I started to play tennis at the gym and I found a good tennis player to play with. I also met some other au pairs in my area. There is another male au pair living close to me. He is a really nice guy from Brazil and we are having a great time together. I went over his house to hang out with him. We played some video games, went swimming, to Starbucks or even to New York City to visit the U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament.

I really like New York City, there is so much to do. I already have been there three times and I still have not seen everything yet. It is such an amazing city which I will visit pretty soon again ;)

So, after a workless beginning I really have a busy week right now. Last Saturday I met the other boy I have to take care of. He is autistic which is a real new experience for me to live and work with him. It is a tough challenge. This week my hostparents are working all day long and the other son is at a baseball camp, so I am home with the autistic boy all on my own for almost the whole day. Sometimes it is a little bit difficult to take care of him but we are having a great time together. He is such a nice boy. The other boy I have to pick up from his baseball camp every day and I am having a great time with him too. Last weekend we played basbeball together and I found out that catching a baseball is pretty hard ;)

All in all I am having a great time in the U.S. here. The hostfamiliy is so nice and I am getting along with them really well. With the boys I am having a lot of fun together. Right now I also have to study for the driver's license test which I have to pass.