Of course my staying abroad does not just include looking after the kids and exploring Sydney. There is a lot of work to do, most importantly improving my language skills. 

Every now and then I am lost for words and Nikhita, 3,5, helps me out. My host family is very helpful too, when I am not sure how to use a certain word or if I pronounce it wrong they correct me. Every now and then I catch myself making a grammar mistake, but at least I know I made the mistake. At the moment I am reading moonwalking with Einstein which is really interesting, but full of words I never heard of. Words I can add to my vocabulary list :) 

I go to playgroups and ballet with the kiddies, so I meet a lot of native speakers. In the weekend when I am off, I meet with other au pairs, from all over the world. Some are native speakers some are not, but we all speak English together. Those who are native speakers, help me improve my English, while I help some of the none natives as they are struggling.

I still hate making phone calls, so preferably try to avoid those. There have been less than 10 phone calls since I got here. Getting there though. Having face to face conversations with random people is much easier.

Accent-wise I still have the American R but I am working on it. My host family is British, so I am hoping to catch some of their accent. I just asked Seetha (my host mum) if she thinks my accent improved since I got here. Her reply: ” Don’t think you had a really strong accent (Dutch) when you got here”….”now it is more of an Australian British mix.” I guess it is better than American/British accent. Hope that it will be one accent by the end of August. 

As for thinking straight, I completely lost my mind. Thinking isn’t just about random thoughts anymore. I think in three different languages! Sometimes it is very exhausting to have my brain. I start counting in English and end up in Dutch. When I Skype with friends or family I cannot find some of the Dutch words so I say it in English. 

Now I am geting back to teacher’s first love: portfolios. -.-“

One of the things that was on my To-Do list was surfing. I did not expect to actually do it, since I am terrified of the sea. Saturday 5th of May I did the unexpected: I went surfing. My aim of the day: catch at least one wave. ( Romy was convinced that the only thing I would catch was a cold ) 

Together with Ida and Larissa we signed up for Surfing for Beginners. We were expected at Manly, 9:30. You would say that this is a reasonable time, and it would have been, if only we did not have to travel for almost 2 hours. So in the freezing cold (yes it is cold in Australia) Ida picked me up at 7.15. We took the train to the city where we met Larissa and walked to Circular Quay to catch the ferry. All we could think was “Why on earth did we sign up for this!?” but we were also looking forward to it.

Ryan was waiting for us in front of the McDonalds, after a quick introduction we went to get out wetsuits. Of course ‘the perfect size’ for me looked ridiculous when I put it on. My too long legs and not too long upper body do not match any wetsuits, I can assure you that. I felt like a Teletubbie all day. 

We went to Dee Why for a day of surfing. Before we could get into the water we had to learn how to jump and stand on our board properly. Right at that moment I knew surfing was going to be a disaster! Fearless as we were we head to the waves hoping we would catch at least one. The first time I barely could jump on my board properly, let alone stand up. After an hour I finally managed to stand on my board, well it looked like standing and lasted for four seconds. I had about 6 more waves like those. I was more than proud of myself.  After two hours it was time for a break. 

After a nice lunch with an amazing view, it was time to catch a few waves again. After another half hour I finally caught a wave. This time it was great. I did exactly what Ryan told us to do. I was standing on the board and the wave took me closer to the beach. I was standing proudly on my board and I ended my wave with a bang! Literally. 

Because it was so shallow the front of my board touched the sand. I flipped over and landed on my arm while I was tangled in the leash. So here I was, an arm that I could not move and trying to get the leash off my throat happy it was shallow so I could at least breathe properly. And there was another wave. Thank God for Ryan who unleashed me so at least the board was not trying to pull me back and forth in the waves. The next 15 minutes I sat watching Ida and Larissa. 

We only had another 15 minutes left, and I did not want to spend those sitting at the beach watching. I got ready for another few waves, and actually caught a few! Felt really cool. If it wasn’t for the winter to arrive I would have signed up for more lessons. For now I’ll just enjoy the memory of being a Shark Biscuit for a day together with Ida and Larissa!! :D Thanks girls! 

Love!

Let me teach you a little bit of one of Australian most important national day: ANZAC DAY. I do want to point out that I am not going to write an endlessly going on text about Anzac day, it is just a little bit of information for your general knowledge if you do not know what it is. I also want to share something about War Memorial which really impressed me and maybe it will impress you too. 

April 25th is the day when all Australians remember the ANZACs (those who fought and died during the war).
In 1914 the Australian government wanted to establish their reputation among the nations of the world. The Australian and New Zealand soldiers were set out to capture Constantinople (Istanbul). The forces landed on Gallipoli on April 25th. The battle lasted for eight months because of the strong resistance of the Ottoman defenders. Over 8,000 ANZACs were killed. April 25th became the day of remembering those who suffered and sacrificed. Nowadays all the soldiers of all the wars are remembered on ANZAC day. 

War Memorial, Canberra - I have visited the place where they pay their respect to those who suffered. It was impressive how much information and illustrations they have here. The most imposing thing were the walls full of red poppies. This little flower always reminds me of my teacher Kate Ward, without her I might have not known where this flower stands for and I would not understand the meaning of these walls. I want to share a glimpse of these walls with you. 

Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made.Charles Bean, 1948
 

Every single day
hundreds dawdle and drag their feet
Trying to catch a glimpse
Of the magic I see. 

The magic I see 
Every single day
Too bad for those feet
Who are walking that way

The way to the end
Where they can say
I caught a glimpse 
of magic today.

At the end of the way
They leave it behind
The magic I see
They do not seem to mind. 

The Sisters waking over me 
Together with the trees
Every single day
Where thousands come to see

How the falls keep me fresh
And the leaves protect me
How the sun shares her warmth 
By shining over me.

The feet keep dawdling 
Not realizing what they leave behind
I give them my magic
But they do not mind.

I am a part of a mountain
A very special one 
A mountain full secrets
And I only share one. 

The last month has been all about getting to know my new home. Like you all know the Dodds are wonderful and so is my new life in West Pennant Hills. There is just one little but in there and her name is Dora. 

Nikhita and Jai LOVE Dora, Dora the Explorer. She’s an 8 year old girl who has exciting challenges every episode. She and her talking monkey Boots use the Map, Backpack and friends to help them. Of course there needs to be a bad guy, in this case: Swiper the Fo who runs away when you scream: ‘SIPER NO SWIPING!’
Dora also has a good friend with his own spin off: Diego. Diego has his own friends as well, but the only thing I recall from that show is his camera that loves to sing “SAY CLICK! TAKE A PIC!” 

Until last weekend I didn’t realize what an impact Dora has on my life, and a bunch of other au pairs for that matters. Last weekend we were enjoying the view in Watson Bay when we wanted to take a picture of us together. I heard the 5 words (mentioned above) Larissa said and I heard the irritating voice of that singing camera in my head. Not much later we were just walking when I heard myself, with even a more disturbing voice than the camera, sing ‘d-d-dora, d-d-d-doraaaa, dora the explorer!!!’  When I tried to get rid of that sonorous sound more of them popped in my head. I heard the map singing that he’s the map and I heard the sound of the purple backpack while I was screaming SWIPER NO SWIPING! with another part of my brain. All I could think at that point was ‘oh man’ of course with Swiper’s voice. 

Sometimes I feel just like Dora; an explorer exploring her new world. Instead of the map and backpack I have GoogleMaps and a handbag that has pretty much everything in it to survive for a few days. My new friends are just as helpful and caring as her friends. The only thing I am missing is the best part: A talking Monkey named Boots who knows everything. 

My first weekend in Sydney slowly started and by the time I realized it, I was preparing for my second. Dearest Sabrina had to leave soon, and we started her goodbye party with the best spontaneous pre-party ever!

Guests: Sabrina Metzger and Esra Guzel.
Styling: Seetha Dodd.
Drinks: Romy Dodd
Transport: The Bus
Time to Prepare: less than an hour.

So after a long day preparing a lovely dinner for birthday girl Seetha, Sabrina and I were exhausted. We both felt like doing absolutely nothing at all, but there was this feeling. With a smirk on her face Sabrina asked: “Shall we go out” expecting a “NO!” but receiving a “Sure, why not”.
That’s how it all started.
While we were showing our garbs to Seetha, Romy was preparing us some drinks before we left and some for on our way. Of course the only way to get to the Big Smoke was by bus. The city lights welcomed me into the nightlife of Sydney, I was ready to party in this new city I can call my home! We went to the worst bar ever.

The next day we were ready to go for another night in the city. This time we had the whole day to prepare and we took all our time to do everything but. By the time (6pm) the guests, Larissa and Jemina, arrived, we were still in our PJs. Dinner was served and so were the drinks, time to start our party. Who cared we were wearing our PJs, we didn’t. After dinner the bus was waiting for us, well technically we were waiting for it after missing it. 

The bus was packed, with Galahs who weren’t supposed to be out so late and 2 Sheila’s. I took the spot next to one of them avoiding the whackers and had a chat with the girls. When we got off the bus our party of four became a party of six.
After a few grogs it was time to switch to lolly water and we continued our way to King’s Cross. 
Unfortunately we never made it that far, because there was a chunder among us and yours truly lost her wallet helping the victim. It was an interesting ending of the evening. A night that neither one of us expected, but hey, life would be quite boring if everything went exactly as we planned. 

After the worst train journey I’ve ever had, I finally arrived in Sydney. Seetha, my ‘host mum’ was so kind to pick me up from Central Station late at night.

Just a little note for everyone in Holland who love to complain about the NS; BE GRATEFUL!
Down Under it is worse! I only travelled twice by train and both times they had a delay. Buses are either too early or too late and it is actually good weather, imagine how it must be when they would have a winter below 10c degrees!

Okay let gets back to my actually story: arriving in Sydney. Seetha picked me up and we hopped into a taxi to get to a bus stop where we had to catch the last bus (which FYI was too late.) Altogether it took me more than 12 hours to get to my new home. Where Romy, my ‘host dad’, welcomed me with the words: “So Es, giant huh?” 

The next morning it met the kiddies, Nikhita and Jai, they are adorable! Lucky me they got used to me quite fast, especially Nikhita. Jai needed a little bit more time, but we’re buddies now. 

I also met Sabrina, the Austrian au-pair that I was going to ‘replace’, but more about her in my next blog tonight :) 

My new home is really feeling like a home and I am more than happy to be a part of a lovely family. Life is treating me well. 

Much Love