Cakes, presents and a lot of guests!

Does that sound like a B-Day of a (now) 8-year-old girl? YES IT DOES!
Kaitie turned eight on Wednesday, and this was a special day for her, and for us, of course!

Kaitie had been excited the night before her birthday, so she woke up very early, even before we could surprise her with a breakfast in bed!
But, she was okay that we served it to her when we finally got up ;)

Her birthday breakfast consisted of 2 oversize pancakes, mango, icecream- balls and chocolate chips!
Yummmmmmy- I really wished that I was the birthday kid ;)

...and she enjoyed it :D

 

She also liked my present- a Tinkerbell- music box- the sound of it is such a catchy tune that we weren't able to get it out of our heads for the rest of the day ;)

After that she brought some loooovely and delicious looking cupcakes to school- she told us that the kids really liked them - who wouldn't?? (me)

;)
 She seemed to have a nice day at school - got a giftcard from her teacher and was in a happy mood :)

Finally, on Saturday, she threw her B-Day Party at the Kid's Quest close to our apartment- the kids were able to do rock-climbing (they actually were pretty good at that!!), had fun at the adventure land and got some Tinkerbell- cake- but guess what- I actually did taste good! I assumed it to be too sweet (it was sweeeeet) and too creamy, but I really liked it.. and it looked fabulous, don't you think so too?
:D

Doesn't it look delicious?

 

 

Climbing experiences- Kaitie and Kyle were both able to ring the bell at the top of the climbing course!

All in all, it had been an adventurous, nice and caaandylicious day- everybody enjoyed it :)

.......I will continue writing about my weekend now, so that I don't have to do another post..so, here we go:

on Saturday evening, we had an aupair meeting at a local restaurant, which had an event that included making S'mores- Graham Cracker, melted Marshmallow, chocolate, Graham cracker- after that event I felt like I had eaten a hundred of them! But I couldn't resist eating them- they are too good to be true! ;)
I also met a lot of other aupairs, and we had a fun time talking about a lot of things and being able just to hang out in a fantastic atmosphere.. See yourself:

The setting was awesome!

I LOVE my s'more :D

My Sunday was really relaxing- I trained for five hours to get rid of the thousands of calories that the s'mores had given me-no, actually it was a little less (who guessed? ;) ) and then I watched movies with my friend Cansu- who also enjoyed her S'mores :)

And now I am going to watch the start of the neeew season of Desperate housewives- hehehehehe! ;)

Take care,
I miss you all!

Ida

...

Hey Guys!!

I know I am lazy, but I have to tell you a looooot..not that much actually, but a lil bit of my every-day- adventures.. aaand the update will be on Sunday, so be prepared!! :D

Actually I wanted to post some pictures, so that you don't forget what I look like and that you know what I am doing here all day long, but my computer is spidering, so I am not able to do that..I am sorry!! ;)

See ya,

Ida

Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, Appel-Strudel...

and a beer (just kidding) at the German Octoberfest!!
YAY- also Americans loooove spending time in a beer- tent!

I went there with Annika, a german aupair, and Johanna, an aupair from Sweden, and didn't really have a lot of expectations- but it turned out to be soooo funny!
Americans wore "Deutschland"- t- shirts, Dirndlns and Lederhosen and played Schlagermusik! I had to grin when I heard them singing in my dialect :D

Because we all were starving, we had some Pretzel, German Potatoesalad and a Bratwurst- but not a thin one you would get in Austria, but a big one in a bun- they obviously are not able to serve sausages without a bun ;)

We also were able to choose from a wide range of german and austrian food- yummy

Unfortunately they ran out of the Appel- Strudel, so I had some American dessert- cheeeeesecake!!
I loved it!!

And we made another niiiice discovery

not that this would be something that we could use - we hade a nice red bear-stamp on our hand because we're underage- made me feel like 15 again ;)

Actually I felt a little sick, I think due to the food, so I broke up my workout after 15 minutes and ate some soup- now I am feeling better..
but all in all- IT WAS AWESOME!
(and helped me- now I won't miss the Urfahranermarkt, sorry, Urfix, that much! ;) )

Take care,
Ida :)

Hallo Leute

Eigentlich wollte ich ja eher die interessanten Dinge posten, und auch immer auf Englisch schreiben- aaaaber da ich nicht schlafn kann, mach ichs heute mal andersrum..ich schreib über Dinge, die mir gerade einfalln, stelle Fotos rein, die ich grad finde, und schreib auf Deutsch, ist auch leichter für mich..naja.. ;)

Ich hoff, dass euch allen gut geht!
Mir gehts ganz gut- von einigen Heimwehattacken abgesehen, die in letzter Zeit ziemlich stark auftreten- kümmer mich um die Kinder, hab echt viel Spaß mit ihnen, muss sie aber auch oft zurechtweisen, besuch fleißig meine Spanischkurse und lern auch dafür-- hab am Dienstag mein erstes EXAM!!! Obwohl ich in Geografie die Vormatura gemacht hab, ist das Kapitel über die Hauptstädte Zentral- Mittel- und Südamerikas das schwerste für mich ;) aber ich muss ja Gott sei Dank nicht gut abschneiden- also ich mach Prüfungen "zum Spaß", und es ist mir auch halbwegs egal wie ich abschneide- hätt sich auch keiner gedacht, dass so ein Statement jemals über meine Lippen (oder in diesem Fall meine Finger) kommt, ha?? ;)

Treff mich auch oft mit Freundinnen, wie zum Beispiel zum Kaffeetrinken in Starbucks, im Kino (Easy A und Going the distance) oder einfach zum "abhängen"..

Eines der Dinge, das mich am meisten beschäftigt- d.h., dass es mich amüsiert aber auch verrückt macht- ist, dass ich Sprachen vermische-also Englisch und Deutsch (schön wärs, wenn Spanisch auch noch dazukäm ;) de donde se party, goi Claudschi..)- oft fallen mir nämlich nurmehr englische Wörter ein, oder ich möchte an einen deutschen Satz " aren't you" oder "by the way" hinzufügen..!! Lustig ists auch mit den Präpositionen... auf einmal mischen sich die englischen in einen deutschen Satz ein..tsts- ziemlich frech!
Was auch ganz toll ist, ist, dass ich oft im Affekt mit meiner amerikanischen Gastfamilie deutsch rede- Wörter wie "wie" oder "geeeh??" kreuzen da nicht zu selten auf! ^^
Oder ich fang mit deutschen Mädchen an, englisch zu sprechen. So reden Cansu und ich gerade noch auf Deutsch, setzen uns ins Auto, und sprechen Englisch!! OOOder ich verwende "deutsche" Wörter wie Klamotten- nix für meine österreichischen Freunde! :D
Ich muss es auf die leichte Schulter nehmen, aber teilweise ist es echt nervig- komm mir vor, als könnt ich weder Deutsch noch Englisch!! Aaaaaber, das wird ja hoffentlich wieder ;)

So, ich hör nun auf, euch mit meinen kleinen und großen Geschichten, Problemen, Einwürfen zu langweilen, und geh ins Bett-- vorher aber noch ein paar Fotos- bloß so.. ;)

Wir liiiieben es, Samstag morgens Hide and Seek zu spielen!

got a poser in here!! seine Kappe erinnert mi a bissl an Jamiroquai! :D

GUUUUMBAAAALLLSSSS!!!!

um es amerikanisch zu sagen: ä lad of schapping!!!

aaaber- das war ja nicht alles..bin ja dann nochmal gwesn ;)

See ya :)

What a great day in Philly!

I made it to Philly- and I have so much to tell you, that I don't know where to start..I am trying not to forget anything, because this day was awesome!

It started that I was stunned that Americans have restrooms (Klos ;) ) EVERYWHERE- except on a train. An people who know me know that this could end up being fatal for me :P
So, as Cansu, my lovely friend from Germany, and I headed to the train station, I felt that I had to go to a bathroom- the funny thing was, besides the fact, that there are no restrooms on the train, even the trainstation was closed, so that I had no chance to use one! I really was wondering if Americans don't have the need to pee on Saturdays.. ??? ;) But, for god's sake, there was a tool selling store, where I was able to use the bathroom (you could tell from it that there were just men working, buuuuut- better a dirty bathroom than no bathroom, right? ;) ) Jep..
The second funny funny thing was, that our two other friends missed the train- and Cansu and I had NO PLAN- we relied on these two to bring a map and to know where to go. But we took the train and ..well.. almost cried! ;)
As you know, I am just kidding, and after we waited some time at the train station for our friends we were united again..
One shocking experience was that you can see the amount of calories of everything in Philly- from you yummy muffin, from your bread with chicken, from your ice cream- but nevertheless, we were able to enjoy our meals- you'll see!

After Ida and Laura arrived (I had to come to America to find another Ida), we headed towards the Rocky- Stairs- did a running workout there and took photos of the statue of Rocky. I have never seen that movie, but I am convinced that I have not missed out on anything- it was just great fun!

at the Rocky stairs, in front of the museum of art

uh!

wearing our coooool Rocky- T-shirts ;)

 We decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and went back that beautiful street where flags from every country of the world were hanging..except of Austria we thought, but we could find it- yay! My hostmum asked me, if people in Austria think that Americans are stupid, because I told her that they wrote ÖESTERREICH instead  of just Österreich..

Well, the Hard Rock Cafe was exciting- but it didn't look much different that other ones from all over the world.. but, who knows- probably I found something for my boyfriend and bought it.. ;)

Jam session with myself

After that we were STARVING!!!!! it was already 3.30 and we didn't have lunch yet.. we were looking for some real American fast food- but just were able to find McDonald's! We walked through Philly and searched and searched, and we found a food court!! We  ate some really, reeeeaaally healthy snacks and found an ice cream shop where we couldn't help feeling stunned! Strawberry and Blueberry cheescake, cookie dough, chocolate chip, peanut butter, brownies, etc...AWESOME!!!
I took strawberry cheescake and cookie dough- i was finished too quickly- but, never mind, it was delicious!

It drove me NUTS!!!

Well, after that we went shopping for a little bit ( we went to Claire's, not to a shop we don't have in Austria -what we actually are supposed to ;) ), where I bought a bracelet and sunglasses ( I keep on losing them), and then we had to go back to our train station..
As we had some time left, we stayed at the LOVE- park for some couple of minutes

Ida and Ida

 and then we took the train back to Media, where we parked our cars (which we hoped were still standing there ;) )

All in all, it had been an AMAZING day at Philadelphia-  I got a good impression of this city, I love it, and I took the other girls into my heart.. AWESOME!!

impressions of Philly

so, thank you for reading.. more news in a few days!
xoxo :)

I am a Freshman- yay!!

AAAAHH, I still cannot believe it- I am taking spanish classes at an American University- Neuman University in Aston, which is veeery close to Glen Mills!

Today I went there for the first time and was overwhelmed.. it just looked like in the stereotyped American movies- all kinds of different people, they look bored, every sentence started with "i was like- he was like..", some students have huge muscels, other looked like a real nerd..- that was totally funny!

I roamed through the aisles, listend to some conversations and got in touch with some American girls- hopefully I can build up some contacts, or even relationships--we'll see!

It was kinda hard to listen to the English instructions- translate them into German- and use them in the spanish language- but I guess I will get used to it in a little while..hopefully ;)
Buenos dias, me llamo Ida!!

When I signed up at the University yesterday, my hostmum, Shelly, helped me- and look what I got as a welcome-at- university- present from her:

a tie-died cup !!! yay !!!(and you can see my ID card to the right)


 Okay, see ya guys! :)

The weekend at the shore

...in Wildwood (New Jersey) was awesome!!
We left Glen Mills on Friday afternoon and went to the shore for two days- but it is important to know what the shore is ( i didn't know it)- it is the beach! This designation differs from State to State! My hostmum told me that she used to call it "beach", as people from the Westcoast usually do- but that people living on the Eastcoast call it "the shore"..
So we went to "the shore" and buggy-boarded (EVERYONE, doesn't matter how old you are, does this) a lot, swam in the ocean and enjoyed eating A LOT of snacks (ice cream, Teddy Grahams, Chex Mix, Vanilla Wafers, Doritos, Brownies,...). Even the weather was amazing! I got sunburnt because a light breeze kept me from getting aware of the fact that it was actually veeeery hot..! So, as you hopefully can see, we had a gorgeous time and ejoyed hanging out! I also got a little souvenir from this weekend- waves knocked me down and my shoulder was digging in the sand so that I got skinned- but I do like souvenirs, no matter what they look like, right? ;)

The kids loved building huge holes!! Reminded me of the times where I was at the beach in Italy with my family :)

And here we go...

As I experienced some more things in the country of unlimited opportunities, I will upload some more cute pictures of my hostchildren.
I really enjoy being here- everything is exciting and new, I get to know a lot of other aupairs, try out new food, get used to the different streetnames, am able to drive a huge dodge durango, make conversation with Americans, and I love spending time with my hostfamily, because they are very warm-hearted- but I cannot help feeling homesick..- What I miss most are the people I usually spend my time with- I think i don't have to list all of their names now, because you know who I mean. But I have the hope that this will get better the longer I stay here. And wouldn't it be bad if I didn't miss them?
I am so looking forward to experiencing and exploring more of this country and its people (hopefully tomorrow- I will attend Spanish courses at the Neumann College, where I will meet a lot of Americans..tell you more about it later ;) )

So, as I promised..Some more photos!!
Enjoy yourself!
See ya ;)

hangin' out at the pool

Painting project

Playing hide and seek at the park- lovely, uh?

one of Kaitie's hiding spots ;)

nice buddy