This week (Nov 30th till Dec 6) I was really busy. My hostparents were very busy with work and the kids were pretty tough this week so I had quite a lot of stress and I was really tired after work. We were celebrating the Dutch holiday called ' Sinterklaas' or 'Sint Nicolaas', so the girls could put their shoe and at night time a few times this week and then Santa Clause but we celebrate this holiday from the second week of November till December 6th. Something typical we eat with this holiday are small cookies that are called 'pepernoten' and they taste a little bit like gingerbread. So this week I baked pepernoten with the girls which was very nice! I got a package from my parents last week for Sinterklaas and they also had a few gifts for the kids and my hostparents! Tonight we opened the presents together and they were very nice! So sweet that my parents did this for me and the rest! I miss them and my sister so much! Wish I could be with them for the holidays! It's so different here without my own family! Not that it's not nice! In contrary! But I just prefer to be with my own family during this time of the year and especially with this pandemic... This whole weekend I had a weekend course for my 3 credits of my extension period as an Au Pair. Al Au Pairs need to do courses to earn credits as part of our J-1 visa status. I preferred to do a weekend class again (same as last year for my photography and child development course), because then it's only one (very intensive) weekend and then I'm done. But unfortunately with this 'Discover the US virtually' course, there were and are so many assignments we have to do! But some are fun at least! And I also got to meet many nice new people who even contacted me after a class! So nice! On Saturday after my class I went out for a walk and I met with my friend Aaliyah to admire the Christmas Village in Philly which was beautiful!
Happy Sint Nicolas!!
This week (Dec 7th-13th) was a very busy and stressful week again. It was cold outside and the girls were busy with their schoolwork. We still had fun and we went to the playground a couple of times which was nice. Unfortunately there were not many friends they could play with, probably because of the cold weather. We played tac with some other kids and we did a lot of movie nights this week. I finished my assignments for my weekend course from last week on Tuesday and I already received the credits for it on Wednesday! Also I booked my first trip for 2021 to Miami with my friend Mariame and I am really excited for this as it will be our last trip together as she will go home on January 11th. This weekend I was really busy planning my travel month which starts the first of March officially but I am gonna be off from February 19th because I am planning to join my friends to go to Alaska first. This is possible because I still have one week of vacation left then and because my host family is flexible which is really nice! I'm so happy my host family confirmed this weekend that I am allowed to go to Alaska! I've always wanted to go there!! On Saturday unfortunately my host mom got a phone call from her hairdresser she went to this Monday that she was tested positive for Covid-19.... This really sucks because that means my host mom might have been exposed even though they both wore masks of course... My host mom 'isolated' herself in her room immediately after she heard this and I took the kids outside for a few hours and then their dad took it over from me as it was my 'day off' actually as it was Saturday... I really hope none of us has Covid, but no one has symptoms yet at least and it has been a week already that my hostmom might have been exposed.. she'll get a test on Monday or Tuesday next week.. Hopefully it'll be fine as we're planning to go to the grandparents again next Sunday...
Love this view every morning!! #Morning run
This week (Dec 14 - 20th), was a very busy week. And I experienced the first snow in the US! It was amazing! I loved it! I could'nt even remember the last time I saw snow in my life! It felt so great! The kids loved it too! We had hot chocolate of course and we made a snowman. We also had a snowball fight which was fun. Unfortunately on Wednesday it was one of the worst days I had ever had with the kids... The youngest one really did not want to do school and she got kicked out of the meeting 3 times on one day because she behaved so bad. Even though she was muted, the teacher still saw her hitting me and freaking out. I started to cry and I didn't know what to do. Luckily my hostmom helped me out and in the afternoon when we went to Rittenhouse square, my hostdad came over which was nice. I took the oldest one to the playground because I felt so bad for her as she had to deal with all of this. They both had a great time the rest of the day! On Friday I met a new Dutch Au Pair, named Romy, at City Hall and it was very nice! But so cold!! On Saturday I went for a run, (very carefully because there was still snow and ice!) and then I cleaned the house and called with my parents. Later I met with Mariame and Aaliyah and we walked around Christmas Village. On Sunday we left to Harpers Ferry all together (my host parents and the kids) and we celebrated the grandma's birthday. We organized a surprise party for her and she loved it!
Lovely Surprise party for the grandma!
This week (Dec 21st - 27th) the girls finally had the last schooldays of this year! They had school from Monday till Wednesday and they did a lot of fun Christmas activities which was nice. On Thursday we were baking cookies all day long and then we celebrated Christmas Eve with the whole family which was very nice and we had cheese fondue for dinner! I actually never had that before but I really loved it!! We played games afterwards and then we went to bed. Of course the girls were very excited because the next morning there would be lots of presents under the Christmas Tree! Even though they know Santa is not 'real', they still act like they do and they love Christmas and getting all the presents of course! They woke up at 6:00 AM on Christmas, and they had to wait for everyone else to be there to open the presents and of course that caused a lot of drama, especially for the youngest one... When everyone got together, we had a nice breakfast while the girls started opening some presents. The rest of the family did 'Secret Santa', but because I already bought presents for everyone, I didn't join with that. I bought some personalized gifts for my host family and luckily they liked them! I got very nice and sweet presents too! So sweet!! Later that day I called with my family and some friends and then for dinner we had a delicious curry with shrimp! I loved it! We also had some apple cake which one of my hostmom's sister made and that was so delicious!! On Saturday I called with another friend and my parents for a bit and we went for a little walk in the afternoon. Later we watched 'Home Alone' all together with some pizza and salad which was nice! On Sunday it was time to say good bye unfortunately. It was hard for me this time, as I knew I would probably not see everyone together again before I leave. I might not even see anyone other than my host parents and the girls. I thanked everyone for making me feel home. This family is wonderful and I wish I could spend more time with them... But I'll definitely come back!!!
The most wonderful time of the year, with the most wonderful people!
