Welcome Ericka from Ecuador!

Aline, the Au Pair from Brazil, kindly offered to be the buddy for Vanessa and also for another Au Pair from Ecuador Ericka. Thank you, Aline. Here is welcoming post from Aline.

I would like to welcome a new member of our cluster, Ericka. Ericka is 26 years old. She will be here in US on August 20 and will live in King of Prussia, PA. She will take care of one girl, 8 years old and she is very excited to arrive here.

Ericka answered some questions regarding being an aupair. There it go:

Why would you like to be an au pair? “I want to do the Au pair program because I love babies and kids and in the future I want to have my own Kinder Garden in my country Ecuador also I want to improve my English skills and know more about USA culture.”

What are your hobbies and interests? “These are my hobbies and interests:recycling, animal care (volunteering at an animal shelter), scuba diving, skiing, bungee jumping, painting, creative writing, dancing, fishing,swimming , watching movies, singing/composing music, birdwatching, photography ,reading, collecting dried flowers, yoga, exercising and body building, participating in marathons, martial arts, recipe creation,traveling and exploration .play with my dogs, volunteering, do social work, teach dance to kids, teach special kids, go to the cinema, watch movies and soap opera dramas from Asia but my really favorite hobbies are singing and dancing ballet or another kind of music I studied many years dance I am a professional dancer.”

If you had one wish what would it be? “If I had one wish it would be to have my own kindergarten and also open a charity to help kids and babies.”

What three adjectives best describe you? “I think these are the three adjectives best describe me kind, humble and  hardworking.”

Which places would you like to visit? “One place that I would like to visit is Disney World or something like that a big park with many people, kids, games, and happiness.”

What is your favorite way to spend a weekend? “My favorite way to spend a Saturday is with my family in my house, listening to music, watching a good movie or soap opera , or studying online, cleaning my house, visiting friends, go to the mall, or cook for my family or dancing ballet or go to the zoo, all activities depend in the weather, season and mood.”

I guess everybody is very excited to meet you, Ericka. Have a safe flight and enjoy your family so far. See you soon!

Your buddy Aline and Go Au Pair cluster in Philadelphia.

Lilla, our Au Pair from Hungary

Our new Au Pair Lilla belongs to our cluster for about 8 weeks already. She’s 23 years old and lives with her host family in Ardmore – after working with another host family in Florida. Our Au Pair Brenda kindly offered to be her buddy – thanks Brenda.

Lilla decided to be an Au Pair, because it’s a perfect way to see America, work with kids and experience a cultural exchange.

I am a very positive and happy person, I like to travel and experience new things such as a new culture, languages, food, music and people from all over the world.

Lilla has already some experience living abroad – she spent 2 years on her own in London, UK.

I like to spend my free time active with sport activities, yoga or dancing, exploring new areas and things, meeting new people.

Caring, happy and ambitious – that’s how she describes herself.

I would like to spend my aupair year active and use every opportunity well, see and do as much as possible.

I would love to see New York and Washington while I’m here.

Welcome again to our cluster, Lilla! I’m sure you’ll have a great time here!

Oksana, a new Au Pair from Ukraine

Oksana arrived in her hostamily in the Philadelphia area about 4 weeks ago. She’s 23 years old and our au pair Yoselin is her buddy, who already helped her a bit during her first weeks as an au pair.
Oksana, who grew up in the most beautiful part of Ukraine surronded by the Carpathian mountains,  graduated from University with a master degree in management. But besides her interests in managerical problems she’s interested in other cultures and languages and loves to work with people from different countries.

The main reason why I decided to become an au pair is that I truly love children. I love to see how differently children see the world, and I am happy to be presented with an opportunity to see their development and contribute to it.

To develop my personality I always tried to do a lot of interesting things. Some of them are traveling, reasing, handcrafting, cookind & baking and learning foreign languages.

Before my arrival in the States it was an eventful time for me. I graduated from University and the second child in my host family was born. The third thing – my godson started walking!

Responsible, creative, open-mineded – three words to describe herself.

The only thing I can wish for, in this very tense situation in Ukraine, is peace for my country and its citizens.

I like to spend my free time with my family and friends. Usually, we go hiking, have BBQ or simply watch our favorite movie together. But one of the most important ways to spend our free time is a volunteer job at the care center for kids with special needs.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good luck. That is why we have to believe in ourselves, vreate our own lives and then live it!

I am very good at making life brighter and more colorful by doing things that make other people happier.

I’m persuaded of being able to be a good au pair, because I’ve always loved children and I had a chance to gain experience with children in lots of different areas.

The Au pair program is a unique opportunity to experience first-hand the culture and diversity the United States have to offer. It is an incredible chance to make a difference. To learn and to be able to teach, to experience and share the values.

During her previous trip to the Unites States, she had a great experience visiting New York City, Conneticut and Montana. And this time she believes  Pennsylvania will be the place where she can meet new friends and make some unforgettable memories.

 

Oksana, I welcome you again to our cluster! I’m looking forward to meet you soon! I hope you’ll have a great year in the US and that you can do and see as much as possible.

 

 

Tania, another new South African Au Pair

Tania arrived at her host family in Philadelphia about two weeks ago. Tania works as an EduCareAuPair and takes care of three kids, one baby and two older girls. She just turned 21 last Friday – happy birthday again! One of our other South African au pairs, Cherry, kindly offered to be Tania’s buddy.

I’ve already met so many other au pairs living in Philadelphia and its wonderful being able to hear where everyone is from and learning about their families and cultures. I am definitely looking forward to getting to know everyone better and meet more au pairs!

I like to collect books, especially Stephen King books, and I try to read as much as possible! I studied graphic and web design back in South Africa, so that is another interest of mine and I do photography as a hobby too. Hopefully later in my year I can add traveling to my list of interests.

She characterizes herself as creative, funny and ambitious.

Places I would like to visits are Maine – because Stephen King lives here – New Orleans, New Mexico, Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and California, Miami, Grand Canyon (Arizona), Las Vegas and Nevada, Washington D.C., and Chicago. 

Two thing I consider to be good at..making pasta and taking photographs.

My favourite part about being an au pair is spending time with the children and being able to teach them new things, especially about South Africa. I also enjoy watching the children grow and see how their personalities develop. Also just being a part of a new family, learning their ways and seeing how they do things and also learning how to live a healthier lifestyle. I love it.

I had already the chance to meet Tania at her birthday party last Friday and for a baseball game on Sunday – we had a great time with a few other au pairs! Welcome again Tania to the US and our cluster. I hope you will have a great time here and that you can see as much places as possible. I looking forward to a great time with you and the others!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Ophelia’s Diary.

As now I am an Au Pair in America, this is the first Mother’s Day I can’t spend together with my mom in China. I miss my mom so much during this special time and I am sure she misses me a lot too.

Even though I am far away from her still I wish my dear mom have a great Mother’s Day. To make my mom happy, I made her some cute pictures. I keep updating my Au Pair stories to mom every week. She knows I have a great Au Pair life here and she is very happy for me.

I am far from my mom but I am not alone at all. I still have host mom, host grandmothers here. They are all my family. My host child Theo is only less than one and a half years old, but he knows Mother’s Day! He is picking up a flower for his mom!

During this special time, I want to give thanks and hugs to my LAR Polina too. She is more like a mom for us. She cares everything about us, just like caring about her own daughters. Thank you Polina. We love you! Happy Mother’s Day!

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary.

Au Pair extension time is coming!

Ophelia’s Diary.

Everything in Philadelphia is great for me. I love being an Au Pair in America with Go Au Pair. I had such a wonderful year here.

But now is the time for me to prepare to move to a new place as my one year contract with my current host family will end in July.

It’s really easy to extend your Au Pair year with Go Au Pair. You can extend it for free, all you need to do is filling out and extension form, updating your profile letter and photos.

My Au Pair experience helped me a lot for my extension. A lot families contacted me in a very short time. They valued my Au Pair experience in Philadelphia a lot. Eventually, I matched with a wonderful host family in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a very special place for me. I had been there twice, there were a lot stories happened in Las Vegas. I will share all of them with you little by little. Also as I had been talked with more than ten host families totally, I would love to share my matching process with you too.

( Come back read about Ophelia’s Las Vegas trip and matching process with her new host family soon! )

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary. 

Happy Easter 2014!

Ophelia’s Diary.

Even though I have been an Au Pair in Philadelphia almost 10 months, there are still a lot new things there waiting for me to explore. I just had my first Easter as an Au Pair!

Easter is a new holiday for my host child Theo as well. Theo and I had a good Friday together.

I prepared a little basket for him, he likes it a lot!

I attended an Easter party with Au Pair Adriana’s host family.

People performed the stories about Jesus there. After the performance, children started looking for the Easter eggs.

The host prepared two thousands eggs totally!

This was such a big festival!

On Easter Sunday, we song in the choir of the Chinese Gospel Church. This was my first time to attend a choir. In China, only people who can sing really very well have the chance to sing in the choir.

America is really a great place where people have enough freedom to enjoy their life best.

I love being an Au Pair in America!

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary. 

Meet Monica, Colombian Au Pair from Philadelphia.

There are  many excellent Au Pairs in the Philadelphia and NJ Go Au Pair cluster. They work hard and are very active and enjoy being in the U.S. The Au pairs explore the country, volunteer, and try new things.

I would like to introduce the outstanding Colombian Au Pair Monica. Last weekend Monica and another Au Pair from Mexico Annie became Color Runners and completed 5K the race with  “Run or Dye”.  There was an unforgettable festival with music, dancing and massive color throws. “Run or Dye” is known as a color-blasted celebration of life, friendship, health, and happiness.

Meet Monica. Monica is very active and has participated in many Au Pair’s activities. Monica likes to try new things and enjoy novel experiences.

“I am in”, is her usual answer if we are talking about trying something new.

Monica said that her favorite Au Pair meeting was volunteering at the Philadelphia Marathon with her Au Pairs friends. She and her friend Annie were the last people to leave the event!

She likes interacting with Au Pair Sis  on facebook and sharing photos, videos and stories about her experience. Monica even took a photography class because she enjoys taking photos and has hundreds of them.

She likes to create unforgettable moments for her friends. For example, Monica threw a birthday party for the Au Pair from China Ophelia. Monica has many friends and is always busy doing something with them. She  loves to engage and share her experiences with her Au Pairs friends.

 

The Impression of Washington DC

Ophelia’s Diary.

I had two days tour to Washington DC with Cultural Hi-Ways as a part of my class/trip with the Au Pair program. The first day my Au Pairs friends and I visited the World War ⅡMemorial, the Vietnam Wall, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and saw the Capitol Building and White House.

Washington DC offered us so many great things to see. This was my first time attended a group tour. As an Au Pair in America, I can always have so much great experience.

This makes me super happy.

On Saturday afternoon, we visited a lot places. But my favorite was World War Ⅱ Memorial. I was impressed by the great design. I found the two columns with Alaska and Hawaii on it.

This reminded me the good memories I had in Alaska and Hawaii with my host family.

The next day, we spent most of the time at the Smithsonian Institution.

Jackie, Adriana and I visited a lot museums together. The Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum are our favorite. We saw so many high­tech products at the Air and Space Museum.

The natural History Museum offered us an indoor zoo!

We had to leave DC at Sunday afternoon. This was so sad, but we are planing come back one day!

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary. 

My first Christmas in the US with Ice and Snow!

Ophelia’s Diary.

It was  my first Au Pair‘s Christmas being far away from my family in China, and I had  my first Christmas in a world of ice and snow -in Alaska. My host family is originally from Alaska, so we came there together before the holiday.

I got a lot of gifts from my host family. Especially, from a grandma, she gave me a lot of scarves, bags and chocolates. Also, I got a kindle from her, this will help me improve my reading and writing abilities a lot.

After Christmas dinner, we built gingerbread house together. I was in a group with Sam. We built very pretty house. Our house won the second.

My host parents won the first! Their house showed how lovely this family is. I am glad I can live with this No.1 family.

Another interesting story in Alaska was I made a good friend whose name is Maggie. She is grandma’s dog.

Maggie is so sweet, every time when I saw her, I couldn’t help giving her a big hug. I had a two hours long walk with grandma and Maggie. We all enjoyed the pretty view of this snow world.

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary.