Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Aupair World

Hiya from Ireland!

It's been about two weeks since I got to Ireland and what a fast, happy, fun and busy two weeks it has been!!
I have settled into a lovely family where I'm learning the ropes of looking after their three girls. It's been challenging but it has been fun! The girls are so sweet and very good at helping me along when I'm unsure of where something is or something about their routine. It's exhausting though... I find myself completely knackered by the end of the day. I think that's also because my body is coming out of holiday mode. I'm looking forward to the coming months when I have developed a good routine and everything feels like second nature to me.
I had my first Irish walk to school rain storm! I do two walks to school everyday (one needs to be picked up at 1.30 and the other at 2.30) and I (mainly, the girls had good rain jackets) got drenched!! So needless to say, in the following days I went to Dublin and bought myself a good rain jacket- an investment in my future I like to believe. Oh, and I got drenched walking to the bus stop to go to Dublin and walking home! Cheers, Irish weather!

Just few days after I arrived I got up early on a Sunday morning and took the the bus to the airport to meet some English rellie's that took me back to Cathy and Ciaran's who are my Irish cousins! I spent a beautiful day (literally, no rain in site and lovely sun!!) with all these relatives that I'd mostly never met but heard so much about. It was just the best day, such an opportunity that normally wouldn't come! and I'm off to Cathy and Ciaran's in a fortnight, so here's hoping there's many more lovely catch ups to come! 

I have met a few others Aupair's in my estate/area- I think there's probably about 5 of us but I've only really met two. They are lovely and so so helpful! It's a shame that they'll be leaving in a few months, but I intend to enjoy my time with them. We have been to Zumba classes- I'm not very good at it so thankfully the last one was tonight. Friday night we shall have a movie night also.
One of the girls went with me to Dublin. We just shopped, no touristy stuff. I was finally excited to just shop because now I am based and not going anywhere (with all my stuff) again for a while so it was nice to have a little spree. I've done some touristy stuff in Dublin before so I probably won't do too much more but I'm excited to go there more often and get to know the city!

I keep having to tell myself 'this is it Charlie, this is it' because here I am doing something I have always dreamed about. I'm finally at that point where I'm not saving to go oversea's or saying "I'm going to be an aupair in Ireland" because I'm at that point and it all feels so normal.
And I know it sounds silly or simple to have a 'life long dream' to be an aupair because don't get me wrong I like to learn, I like education and the school part of my life will come around again. But my Dad always told me 'you can do anything you want with your life, you can be anything' and so I will. So I've decided that there are things I must do, I must experience before other things because that's what makes me happy!
 My only problem now is focusing on this dream and not thinking about others- I have a tendency to want to do everything at once!

.......I wonder what Canada is like??!? ... (I'm just kidding.. kind of)

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

a beautiful month in Danmark.

Wow, it has been a few weeks since I have posted. Ooops, Sorry!

So my month in Denmark has come to a close and tomorrow I am off to Ireland to start a new chapter in my travels. Coming back to DK has just been absolutely brilliant. It's given me a sense of closure of longing for my exchange days because now I know DK in another way- or remember in another way.  Over the past few weeks I have been busy busy busy with the odd few downs days in between.

  • I have spent some time with my 4th host family- Connie and Ken. It was great seeing them and my host siblings again. I have had two lovely dinners with them and they always know how to put a smile on my face! 
  • My Aussie friend Marita came to CPH (she is travelling Europe and was based in Germany  So we booked a hostel which was cheap, good quality, central to everything and had a great atmosphere (highly recommend) for three nights. It was so fun to show her around the city using my 'local' knowledge. I just let my feet do the remembering and we walked and walked and walked (but we got all the main sites in). We were also lucky enough to have beautiful weather so that made walking around the city even more amazing. CPH is such a beautiful place. It's not enormous like Melbs but it's big enough to get lost in! 
  • From CPH I then trained to Germany with Marita and in Hamburg she went one way and I went another to visit a friend who been on exchange in my Rotary district back home. Now let me tell you something. Oh My God, do I HATE German trains! They are always late and they are confusing, however I think it was the not understanding German that made it worse.
    Despite my hatred for their trains I did have a LOVELY time in Germany. My friend Robert, showed me round the town that he lived close to. The town was beautiful and I spent the day being spoilt by his family with beer, chocolate, coffee and cake! 
  • I have managed to also catch up with two Danish girls that were on exchange last year in Melbourne. I spent the night at Karina's house and the next day we went shopping as well as spending a lovely afternoon with Camilla in CPH!
    It has been great to catch up with the previous exchangee's. I got to know them from Safari that I went on with them last year and I just knew I couldn't be in europe and not say Hi to them!
  • I have spent a lovely Saturday night at a local student production of Peter Pan. My host sister was a part of it so Sussie and Martin invited me along. It was a funny night and it really put my danish understanding abilities to the test!
  • Oh, I got a tattoo. Astrid and I went to CPH after I got back from Germany and I got a daisy tattoo on my wrist. I love it. The flower represents DK because the daisy's are so popular here. I've always wanted something to signify my time here because it's a country that has been very good to me and will always be a part of my heart and life. 
  • I had a dinner last Sunday with my Danish friends from school. There was just four of us and we had such a 'hygge' night. I just loved seeing the girls again. It was exciting to see and hear about their lives now and talk about our travels here there and everywhere.
Now finally, I have been saying some goodbye's (more like see you soon- either in aus or dk ;) ) to my host fams. I spent Sunday morning with Sussie and Martin and the girls- Karoline and I made muffins. Monday night Helen and Henrik and the boys came over for dinner with Claus and Hanne and Tuesday night I went to Per and Marianne's where we went for a lovely walk in the forest, then to the beach and then had a lovely dinner.
I had made mini pavlova's for my danish friends and families and took them to dinner and they were pretty successful!
The past few weeks have been filled with lots of other things. This post would be the size of Harry Potter if I wrote them all so I will leave it at that. 

Thanks for the great month Denmark. You always manage to warm my heart and I feel so lucky to have another home all the way across the world. 

Ses xox