Chasing this American Dream (and sleep)

15 days USA!

Feels like waayyy more.

So last week was quite relaxed because the grandparents were here and they played with the kids often times so I didn't have as much to do as normally.

However, a few important things I have to do or am doing:

I have to get a New York State driver's license. The car insurance is very expensive and it will get cheaper when I have that. Sooo I'm doing my driver's license. Again. I was so happy when it was over in Germany but I'll do my hostfamily that favor. They are doing so much for me. Getting an American driver's license is just a fair deal.

I am going to college ! To Tompkins Cortland Community College. While typing this, I suddenly understood why they're calling it TC3. 

Throughout my whole year I have to get 6 credits. Now I'm taking a class for which I get 3 credits, so I have to take another one in the spring semester. Or maybe I'll go to a weekend class. We'll see.

I am so excited cause it starts tomorrow! Every Wednesday from 4pm to 5.15pm. "Creating Online Media". Actually exactly what I want to do, also after this year.

I just hope that I'm gonna find the college and the room! It's in Dryden which is 20 minutes away.

So far I found everything, even without GPS. Yay disoriented me!

I will also get a membership in the gym. That thing is a dream! Far better than my gym in Germany. And more expensive ... America's making me poor! There are so many cool things here that I want to buy. 

Driving here was kinda weird at the beginning, but I'm getting used to it. I definitely prefer German streets and rules ... People don't seem to know priority to the right here. But they have a loooot of Stop signs. And hills. I hate driving (and walking) uphill !

local diner

Gugelhopf :D

Last weekend, we were at some kinda Austrian restaurant which was really fun because I had Schnitzel and a Gugelhopf. They also had German beer which I didn't drink of course. I just smelled it ... I also hate being underage again! :p

But that was a piece of home. It was nice.

American food - French Dip Sandwich

Taughannock Falls

We were also at Taughannock Falls. Like I said, soo many waterfalls. So much nature. That one is like the tallest in the region or something. Beautiful.

The children are nice, most of the time. Actually they're nicer when I'm alone with them which is weird but good. 

Yesterday was the first day of being completely alone with the kids. It is soooo exhausting, but fun. Sometimes. Hey, I'm the master of changing diapers now ! ugh

I'm fine, actually. Homesickness is under control. Most of the time.

Thanks for your support, guys. You're awesome. I'd probably die without WhatsApp ^^

Yeah, it's quite lonely here. 

Sunday I found a "Au pair in Ithaca" Facebook group. I even met one of the girls yesterday, we went shopping :D Variety is the spice of life, hahahahahahaha

#swag

Just kidding, I'm buying sth almost every day. And I thought I can save some money here. Joke's on me.

I think that's it for now. I am really tired, we went swimming today. And I didn't feel so good during the last days. Guess I caught a little cold. Sorry for grammar or other mistakes, I just can't concentrate anymore.

xoxo

Christin

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

Hello from New York City !!

Right now, I am sitting in a hotel in New York City, waiting for my bus.

It's Thursday and I am in the US since Monday.

It's crazy. Everything! 

Berlin ... New York City

Monday, I got up at 4am and drove with my parents to Berlin. Of course my suitcase was waaayy too heavy so I packed some stuff in another Au pair's case. I still had to pay. Oh well ... 

The goodbye from my parents was terrible. My mom and I cried so much. 

Fortunately, I sat together with the other Au pairs during the flight so we could talk - which was good because there wasn't much else to do. Actually I looked forward to the flight because I thought I can watch cool movies and play fun games and stuff. Nope. Not with United Airlines. The only good thing was that the weight of the hand luggage didn't matter.

The flight took 8 hours and 55 minutes.

We were all quite excited when we arrived at Newark. We saw the Statue of Liberty from the plane! So cool! 

Well, my excitement came to a stop at the security check. The officer (I just call him officer, I don't know what exactly he was) took more time to check my papers than for the other girls. Suddenly, he got up and went away with my passport and everything. He told me to follow him, so I did. I got nervous because I feared they wouldn't let me in! So I asked the officer if there is a problem and he said "Probably not. The device couldn't read your papers." Or something like that.

So I had to sit in a separate room and wait with other people to let my papers get checked. I felt like a criminal! The thing was that I couldn't tell the others to wait for me or something else, because there was no WiFi. So I just sat there and hoped that everything was okay. 

At the end, it was. But I was so shocked at the beginning!

DoubleTree Tarrytown

Then a guy from the organization picked us and other Au pairs up and took us to the hotel in Tarrytown which is one hour away from the airport. They put you together in a room with people from your region so I didn't know who would be my roommate, but it turned out to be a very nice German girl. In case you are reading this: it was a pleasure to share a room with you!

The rooms were good, the beds were huge! Bigger than my bed at home.

The following days, we had "classes" about different topics. There was a first aid course, we talked about the American culture, how to deal with the kids ... I thought there aren't that many differences between the German and the American culture, but oh there are. Culture clash, I'm telling you.

Our program

Surprisingly the American food I ate yet was not that good. I mean, you could eat it, but it was not really good. They put a lot of cinnamon in the desserts, it always tasted like Christmas. 

Tuesday afternoon, we went on a city tour in New York City. It was so great! New York is crazy.

We went to Top of the Rock, so on top of the Rockefeller Center. You can see Central Park the Empire State Building and whole New York City from there. It's beautiful.

Oh and it rained all day long, but when we arrived in New York, the sun came out :D 

We also ran around Times Square where I got some post cards. The stamps to Europe are quite expensive! Halleluja. But it was worth it for me.

I don't know how you call the place, but during sunset we stood opposite the Statue of Liberty and watched the lights going on and it was magical.

All in all, we were only 4 hours there so it was way too short, but we saw the most important things and it just looks like in the movies! Crazy.

Top of the Rock 

Times Square

sunset

So now, I am still sitting here and my bus should be here in an hour.

The first days were really exhausting, we sat all day and suffered from jetlag. I think that's okay now, for me. It's only weird when I text my friends at home and I'm like "breakfast in a few" and they say "we just ate lunch". I can't get used to that.

Another thing is that during Orientation, so the last few days, they told us what can go wrong. And that's a looooot of things. Now I feel like my kids will die on the very first day. Probably everything will be fine all year long, but I just hope I can do it.

I hope my family likes me.

I hope my room's nice.

I hope they have WiFi.

I miss my parents and friends! And Nutella. 

So excited to meet my host family in ... 5 hours !!

Christin xo

Tomorrooooow

Tomorrow's the big day. Actually, tomorrow at this time plus one hour, I'll be in New York City. I think that I finally realized that this is true. I am really doing this!

I am done with packing.
I said goodbye to everyone and gave the important people my new address. I love postcards! And letters. Also e-mails. Or any message, really.

 I guess there's nothing more to say. I am not sure if I am ready for everything that's coming. But I know that there will be hard times. There will also be good times, a lot of them. And I can't wait to visit the city that never sleeps or the city of angels and I am really looking forward to the US in
general.

Bring it on!

Christin xo

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