We finally created our PDC blog!!! Thanks, Jessie, for finally making it!!!
It was a very special weekend!
Well, a lot of things happened to all of us... but this picture was taken on a fast trip we made to Japan... I'm kidding. We were in Jessie's house... So, we had great food (that's the most important), jk.. so... i want to say what i'm inspired to say... as i'm not really inspired to say anything... i'm talking to my mom right now so... let's go to our commercials...
why do you shop at meijer? MEIJER HAS LOWER PRICES! but why would i go to meijer if i always shop somewhere else? MEIJER HAS LOWER PRICES! but... MEIJER HAS LOWER PRICES! Go Meijer! Go Meijer! Go Meijer! Go, go go! Higher! GO MEIJER, GO MEIJER, GO GO GO! Lower! go meijer, go meijer, go meijer, go go go! Like a cat! Meaw meaw meaw, meaw meaw meaw, meaw meaw meaw, meaw meaw meaw! We are back from our comercials.. I will post my last text about aupairs so you girls can read, this is the "How it feels like for a Brazilian girl to be an aupair in the USA" number 2 but I changed the title... Susan Renner, my english teacher, told me i should send it to aupair in america agency... tell me, Mo and Jessie, what you think...
Being an Au Pair in America - Things I Will Miss
Eight months are gone now. Every day it gets harder and harder to think about leaving this country someday. Time seems to fly by. Seasons are wonderfully changing faster than ever.
When you become an au pair in the United States, you think you are coming here, above all, to learn English. Nothing compares to being in the country where people speak the language you have studied all your life in your home country. No matter how much you have studied, you’ll never learn as much of that new language as being immersed in real daily situations. It’s amazing how much English you learn in one day in the United States! It’s… wow! I used to have a personal dictionary where I wrote down every new word I learned, but I lost control over it! I don’t care about it anymore, because now I need to use those words daily, so everything I’ve learned comes more easily to my mind.
The second reason for coming to the United States as an au pair, besides the fact that it’s a program that guarantees you a familiar environment to live in, which makes your parents trust that you are safe and sound in another country, far from them, is simply to acquire life and cultural experiences. Like the French philosopher and writer Michel de Montaigne said, “Les voyages forment la jeunesse”, which might be something like, “Trips model youth.” I believe everyone needs to travel. Children, youth, adults and elders need to know the world. We need to know it is not as small as a book, a painting, a picture or a TV screen. No matter how much your teacher told you about its geography, physics and history. Nothing compares to seeing the world as it really is. We all should touch it, see it with our own eyes and feel it with our own hands.
What many au pairs don’t expect is that their host kids will soon occupy a special place in their hearts. More than that, they would carry a piece of it with themselves. An au pair divides her day in two parts: the
moments when she is with the kids and the moments when she is not. When she is with them, it’s hard to think about her own interests, about her studies, about the plans for the weekend, and even to answer the phone when her friends call! It’s not because she is busy helping them with homework, or making them Macaroni and Cheese, sandwich and pretzels, no! But because she doesn’t want to deny one second of attention to them! And, believe me, they demand so much of it! Yes, American kids like attention, more than anyone can give. But when their parents are not home, you are the only one who can do it! You are their world! You will evaluate their Lego construction, determine if their new videogame is cool or not, determine if they are cool riding the skateboard and even discuss what they should do when they are bored. You are the one who can make them laugh with a joke, or make them cry, reminding them of the house rules.
I will miss the American smell of my host home. I will miss Joshua and Jacob. I can’t imagine myself living without them anymore. They are like my own kids now. I will miss their smiles above everything. It’s impossible to describe how it feels like to be around when they smile. I don’t want to miss any smile! Each one of them is indescribably special.
I will miss my American community and new friends, the services and the people
from my church. Before coming, someone told me that North Americans are not big huggers as South Americans are. But, I’ll tell you, if those guys in my church are not big huggers, not even South Americans are! I feel so loved, and I value everyone in my American community. I have little 8-year old friends and 80-year old friends. It’s much easier to make friends with older people in the United States, because they love to talk. And they like to tell their whole life to young people, because they know we prefer to listen to their rich experiences rather than say something silly.
And I will miss it when everybody starts laughing at once, and my friends and I stare at one another, laughing because none of us could understand the joke. Yes, jokes are the hardest things to understand when you’re in a foreign country. So, a hint for you who have just arrived in a foreign country: Go with the flow! It’s better to laugh at the very present because, in the future, when you recall your memories, you will laugh anyway!
There are
lots of other things I’ll miss, like hanging out with the other au pairs. It’s so much fun to share the cultural shock with them! It’s like a pain released a hundred times on the right moment they say “Oh! I feel the same!” I will miss going to the mall and looking for things on sale with them, going out for breakfast, lunch and dinner with them and complaining about the caloric food. There’s nothing like getting together with the au pairs, cooking Brazilian dishes and eating like it’s the best food in the world. By the way, one of these days, we had to go to the supermarket at 2 AM because we forgot one of the ingredients should be left to soak all night long!
We will miss the machine saying “Thank you for shopping at Mejer!”
And saying “You’re welcome!” I bet only au pairs talk to machines. I will miss the stores’ employees saying “How are you today?” And “Have a nice day!” And people saying “You can’t take pictures inside the store.” By the way, if you need to do that, you can pretend you are texting someone with your cell phone and take the picture anyway!
I will miss having to turn aside from the dead raccoons, squirrels, moles, minks and opossums on the roads, and from the ducks in the parking lots. By the way, why do they love parking lots? And you can honk your horn, but they don’t go away! I think Obama should approve a law to build parking lots just for ducks! There are other laws related to animals in Ohio, for example, it is illegal to get a fish drunk, to fish for whales on Sunday, to walk a cow down Lake Road, to display colored chickens for sale, and if one loses their pet tiger, they must notify the authorities within one hour. I haven’t seen many pet tigers so far, but... do you think these laws are crazy? I didn’t mention the other states’! It is considered an offense in Alaska to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs in Arizona. In California, it is illegal to rob a bird’s nest from a public cemetery, and to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time. In Connecticut, any dogs with tattoos must be reported to the police. And in Idaho, residents may not fish from a giraffe's back. Do you want to know more? Search for “crazy american laws” on the internet!
On a cloudy day, during the changing period between winter and spring, I was driving the first streets around my house, and I didn’t know if it was snowing or if the streets were covered with white flowers. Then I realized the streets were covered with white flowers. I was happy it was not snow, but at the same time I missed the snowy weather. I know, I know, Americans love summer, and snow is good only on Christmas day, but where I come from, the temperature gets to 107 °F, so I prefer winter.
When I arrived here, everyone was so red! Summer was almost over. I said to myself, “I thought most of Americans were white”. Then I could see North Americans are like that, they get red like a shrimp in summer because they love swimming pools and driving convertibles with the top down, and in winter they get white and fat because there is no sun and they eat a lot more than often. In Brazil we have sun all year long, so we are bored with swimming pools after childhood.
There’s nothing I won’t miss. I have learned more in eight months than during my whole life. Not only because I am in the United States of America, but because one day I wondered how it would be to know new things, to know somewhere else, to make friends around the world, to have another home, without the protection of my family, on my own. There’s nothing that someone can’t teach you when you want to learn something new, when you want to find out how life is, how the world is and how other people may be. In the beginning I missed my home country, my family and my friends like crazy. Now, missing is part of my life, and I realized life is made of missing things. As long as you gather good memories, life is made of missing things. And as my father once said, “Sometimes the house feels sad without you here, but it’s good to miss you, it’s good to feel this, it would be bad if we couldn’t feel anything.”
I’d like to end with the words of Amyr Klink, a Brazilian writer, who said, “A
man needs to travel. By his own means, not by stories, images, books or TV. By his own, with his eyes and feet, to understand what he is. To some day plant his own trees and give them some value. To know the cold, to enjoy the heat. To feel the distance and lack of shelter, to be well under his own ceiling. A man needs to travel to places he doesn’t know to break this arrogance that makes us see the world as we imagine it, and not simply as it is or may be. That makes us teachers and doctors of what we have never seen, when we should just be learners, and simply go see it.”
Eight months are gone now. Every day it gets harder and harder to think about leaving this country someday. Time seems to fly by. Seasons are wonderfully changing faster than ever.
When you become an au pair in the United States, you think you are coming here, above all, to learn English. Nothing compares to being in the country where people speak the language you have studied all your life in your home country. No matter how much you have studied, you’ll never learn as much of that new language as being immersed in real daily situations. It’s amazing how much English you learn in one day in the United States! It’s… wow! I used to have a personal dictionary where I wrote down every new word I learned, but I lost control over it! I don’t care about it anymore, because now I need to use those words daily, so everything I’ve learned comes more easily to my mind.
The second reason for coming to the United States as an au pair, besides the fact that it’s a program that guarantees you a familiar environment to live in, which makes your parents trust that you are safe and sound in another country, far from them, is simply to acquire life and cultural experiences. Like the French philosopher and writer Michel de Montaigne said, “Les voyages forment la jeunesse”, which might be something like, “Trips model youth.” I believe everyone needs to travel. Children, youth, adults and elders need to know the world. We need to know it is not as small as a book, a painting, a picture or a TV screen. No matter how much your teacher told you about its geography, physics and history. Nothing compares to seeing the world as it really is. We all should touch it, see it with our own eyes and feel it with our own hands.
What many au pairs don’t expect is that their host kids will soon occupy a special place in their hearts. More than that, they would carry a piece of it with themselves. An au pair divides her day in two parts: the
moments when she is with the kids and the moments when she is not. When she is with them, it’s hard to think about her own interests, about her studies, about the plans for the weekend, and even to answer the phone when her friends call! It’s not because she is busy helping them with homework, or making them Macaroni and Cheese, sandwich and pretzels, no! But because she doesn’t want to deny one second of attention to them! And, believe me, they demand so much of it! Yes, American kids like attention, more than anyone can give. But when their parents are not home, you are the only one who can do it! You are their world! You will evaluate their Lego construction, determine if their new videogame is cool or not, determine if they are cool riding the skateboard and even discuss what they should do when they are bored. You are the one who can make them laugh with a joke, or make them cry, reminding them of the house rules.I will miss the American smell of my host home. I will miss Joshua and Jacob. I can’t imagine myself living without them anymore. They are like my own kids now. I will miss their smiles above everything. It’s impossible to describe how it feels like to be around when they smile. I don’t want to miss any smile! Each one of them is indescribably special.
I will miss my American community and new friends, the services and the people
from my church. Before coming, someone told me that North Americans are not big huggers as South Americans are. But, I’ll tell you, if those guys in my church are not big huggers, not even South Americans are! I feel so loved, and I value everyone in my American community. I have little 8-year old friends and 80-year old friends. It’s much easier to make friends with older people in the United States, because they love to talk. And they like to tell their whole life to young people, because they know we prefer to listen to their rich experiences rather than say something silly.And I will miss it when everybody starts laughing at once, and my friends and I stare at one another, laughing because none of us could understand the joke. Yes, jokes are the hardest things to understand when you’re in a foreign country. So, a hint for you who have just arrived in a foreign country: Go with the flow! It’s better to laugh at the very present because, in the future, when you recall your memories, you will laugh anyway!
There are
lots of other things I’ll miss, like hanging out with the other au pairs. It’s so much fun to share the cultural shock with them! It’s like a pain released a hundred times on the right moment they say “Oh! I feel the same!” I will miss going to the mall and looking for things on sale with them, going out for breakfast, lunch and dinner with them and complaining about the caloric food. There’s nothing like getting together with the au pairs, cooking Brazilian dishes and eating like it’s the best food in the world. By the way, one of these days, we had to go to the supermarket at 2 AM because we forgot one of the ingredients should be left to soak all night long!We will miss the machine saying “Thank you for shopping at Mejer!”
And saying “You’re welcome!” I bet only au pairs talk to machines. I will miss the stores’ employees saying “How are you today?” And “Have a nice day!” And people saying “You can’t take pictures inside the store.” By the way, if you need to do that, you can pretend you are texting someone with your cell phone and take the picture anyway!I will miss having to turn aside from the dead raccoons, squirrels, moles, minks and opossums on the roads, and from the ducks in the parking lots. By the way, why do they love parking lots? And you can honk your horn, but they don’t go away! I think Obama should approve a law to build parking lots just for ducks! There are other laws related to animals in Ohio, for example, it is illegal to get a fish drunk, to fish for whales on Sunday, to walk a cow down Lake Road, to display colored chickens for sale, and if one loses their pet tiger, they must notify the authorities within one hour. I haven’t seen many pet tigers so far, but... do you think these laws are crazy? I didn’t mention the other states’! It is considered an offense in Alaska to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs in Arizona. In California, it is illegal to rob a bird’s nest from a public cemetery, and to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time. In Connecticut, any dogs with tattoos must be reported to the police. And in Idaho, residents may not fish from a giraffe's back. Do you want to know more? Search for “crazy american laws” on the internet!
On a cloudy day, during the changing period between winter and spring, I was driving the first streets around my house, and I didn’t know if it was snowing or if the streets were covered with white flowers. Then I realized the streets were covered with white flowers. I was happy it was not snow, but at the same time I missed the snowy weather. I know, I know, Americans love summer, and snow is good only on Christmas day, but where I come from, the temperature gets to 107 °F, so I prefer winter.
When I arrived here, everyone was so red! Summer was almost over. I said to myself, “I thought most of Americans were white”. Then I could see North Americans are like that, they get red like a shrimp in summer because they love swimming pools and driving convertibles with the top down, and in winter they get white and fat because there is no sun and they eat a lot more than often. In Brazil we have sun all year long, so we are bored with swimming pools after childhood.There’s nothing I won’t miss. I have learned more in eight months than during my whole life. Not only because I am in the United States of America, but because one day I wondered how it would be to know new things, to know somewhere else, to make friends around the world, to have another home, without the protection of my family, on my own. There’s nothing that someone can’t teach you when you want to learn something new, when you want to find out how life is, how the world is and how other people may be. In the beginning I missed my home country, my family and my friends like crazy. Now, missing is part of my life, and I realized life is made of missing things. As long as you gather good memories, life is made of missing things. And as my father once said, “Sometimes the house feels sad without you here, but it’s good to miss you, it’s good to feel this, it would be bad if we couldn’t feel anything.”
I’d like to end with the words of Amyr Klink, a Brazilian writer, who said, “A
man needs to travel. By his own means, not by stories, images, books or TV. By his own, with his eyes and feet, to understand what he is. To some day plant his own trees and give them some value. To know the cold, to enjoy the heat. To feel the distance and lack of shelter, to be well under his own ceiling. A man needs to travel to places he doesn’t know to break this arrogance that makes us see the world as we imagine it, and not simply as it is or may be. That makes us teachers and doctors of what we have never seen, when we should just be learners, and simply go see it.”...
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hope you guys enjoyed... more texts of mine coming soon...
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like Monize always say: _ eh verdade!
ReplyDeleteI love read your texts Ellen=D
HUGS. Jessie