my au pair diary: halftime

Hello all together!

I hope all of you had great start in the year 2011. :-) Oh yes, I had a perfect New Year's Celebration in New York with my boyfriend. We celebrated in a rooftop bar in New York with an amazing view over Manhattan. Of course, the tickets weren't cheap, but we enjoyed free food and free drinks the whole evening and found ourselves dancing on the beautiful decorated dancing floor. How I missed dancing!! Around midnight we were standing outside on the upper floor, holding a glass of noble champagne in our hands and looking at the Empire State Building. Fortunately we were able to see a little bit of the fireworks from the Times Square, where thousands of people celebrated New Year by standing around in the cold. :D

New Year's Celebration!!!

Christmas Holidays before were completely wonderful. I enjoyed the time with my hostfamily and my boyfriend and we hat a lot of fun. When we were sitting at the dinner table on Christmas Eve talking about former au pairs they counted my name for the first time in their chronology, which was an incredible feeling for me. I'm proud to be one part of their life now and I'm also really proud that I stayed in the USA for almost six months. YES, the first half of my year abroad is done on Wednesday!! From now on I will count down the remaining days!! :-)

Christmas sweets

Time to think about all things I still wanna do and I realized they are a lot! xD I still have to do further thirty hours in a College and I guess I found an interesting course for me. I will tell you later about that! Moreover I wanna travel to Florida in March and my hostparents already told me which week I can go on vacation. As soon as all my travel plans are done I will let you know. :-)

Let's talk about all the experiences I have made in the past weeks. My boyfriend and I had our anniversary on December 26. Unfortunately or fortunately (I don't know, it's both :D) there was a BIG snowstorm mixed with flash and thunder on that evening. But that didn't stop us from driving to New York by train to go out for dinner. We took one of the last yellow cabs that was still on duty and the driver was making fun of the crazy situation. Indeed New York was completely different. There were just a few people out on the streets which were covered all over in snow. When we left the taxi we had to hold our faces down, because the windstorm was pushing snowflakes around us and our legs disappeared in snow. When I tried to look up I could see the skyscrapers disappearing in the snow and in the dark sky. New York was scaringly quiet. I'll never forget this moment! Anyhow we made our way through several streets and finally found a good restaurants, one of New York's best steakhouses! Dinner was perfect!! Afterwards we fought our way back to Grand Central, but made a short stop in front of the Rockefeller Center to see the famous Christmas tree. :-)

during the snowstorm at the Rockefeller Center

From January 2 to January 5 we travelled to Washington DC. What a fantastic city, but not as breathtaking as New York. :P We visited the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, White House and United States Capitol, shopped in the beautiful Georgetown and watched four of the numerous Museums: American History, Natural History, Holocaust and Air & Space. :-) One of the best experiences was the view from the top of the Washington Monument in the four significant directions of Washington DC: 1. White House, 2. Lincoln Memorial, 3. Capitol with the National Mall and the Smithsonian area (the world's largest museum complex) and 4. Thomas Jefferson Memorial, where we didn't walk closer to.

Lincoln and me, haha...

Washington Monument in the background

Korean War Veterans Memorial

:-)

in front of the White House (the closest you are allowed to go)

Georgetown

the Capitol

Washington DC by night

the White House, looks soo small

the Capitol and the National Mall with Smithsonian area (all the buildings around are museums!)

On January 7 my hostfamily came back from Argentina, where they stayed for twelve days and my boyfriend flew back home to Germany. :-( I miss him, but I'm also confident to see him again soon, because I have only six months left and time is flying so quickly! Darling, I love you!!

On Saturday I accompanied my friend Irem to the airport, because her friend from Germany was leaving, too. Yeah, the last weeks were busy with visitors for everybody. :-) On Sunday I met my friend Romina and she showed me a really beautiful beach in Old Greenwich, a town next to Darien, and we had so much fun walking around, taking pictures and looking at the New York's skyline!!!! When I saw the Skyline coming up on the horizon I was totally speechless! That perspective was absolutely affecting – to see the ocean and the big city together! I felt like in a dream. This is all I wished for when I had the dream of one year abroad and it truly came true!! I definitely can say New York is my second home, but I still can't believe that I have the chance to be here!! Just incredible!!