Susan Wildeboer

Summer Fun with Au Pairs & Host Families! We had a relaxing afternoon together - eating, face-painting, (to support an orphanage in Africa), and then finished off the afternoon with a water balloon toss. The surprise came when the “official” water balloon toss ended, and a FULL cooler of extra water balloons was revealed. The kids grabbed them - and the chase was on!

Imagine, chasing each other with laser guns, through a black light maze with techno music in the background.  That’s what we did for our meeting in April.  Another au pair group joined ours and we had a great time.  Add some pizza and soda and you have an aerobic and tasty evening!

We enjoyed having one, big, birthday party in March to celebrate Everybody’s Birthday!  Everyone brought a gift,  several bakers made cakes, I added the candles and we all sang happy birthday to each other.  Everyone brought a gift, so we drew names to exchange gifts and spent time getting to know each other while we opened presents.

For our February meeting we watched a movie and made our own facials.  The chocolate facial was good enough to eat - just ask Victoria!  Everyone took them home to enjoy.   Stephanie had a little helper who enjoyed applying her chocoate facial. 

I chose our January meeting to coincide with the presidential inauguration of Barak Obama.  We watched together and had a very interesting discussion about their reactions to the event and to the election process in the United States.   I contacted some local newspapers and asked if they would be interested in your opinion and they were!  They asked me to write an article and submit it.  It was published in it’s entirety in the Los Altos Town Crier, and as part of an editorial in the Mountain View Voice.  So, you’re famous!  Take a look and send this link to your families about your local au pair group. 

Local au pairs offer thoughts from abroad while watching Obama’s inauguration.   http://www.losaltosonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16682&Itemid=47

Town Forum of Mountain View Voice: http://www.mv-voice.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=930

Three of my au pair friends and I decided to make a weekend trip to Las Vegas. We arrived in Las Vegas on Friday in the evening, did a tour of the Grand Canyon on Saturday and flew back home on Sunday in the middle of the night. Although it was just a weekend, we left with unforgettable impressions!

I have had many au pairs from our group enjoy this class that takes place each fall. They learn a lot and have a great time discovering California.  Here is what Ana, from Slovenia, told me about her experience: “I enjoyed the class, discovering new places, seeing so many animals and plants close up and in nature. They were swimming 1 meter from us. In my country you can see these animals in the zoo. The teachers were so open to communicate. There were four au pairs and we were very interesting to the other students who were all American. We talked about our cultures and had a great time together. Some of us also went night hiking and saw two large deer. It was a great experience.”

I have added some of her pictures from the class trip for you to enjoy. Learn more about this course reading the information I have online about the educational component. If you would like to take this course registration begins for it in August and it meets the ENTIRE educational component!

Ocean Sea Star

Dominika and Vianka enrolled in the Death Valley Class at Evergreen College which included a week long camping trip with the students and professors. Take a look at their amazing pictures.

Here are Dominika’s thoughts about the class: “The 7-day camping trip to Death Valley was an adventure of my life. I spend a wonderful week having fun with great people (this “great” includes teachers) and visiting astonishing places. Death Valley is an absolutely amazing place: there are deserts (both salt desert and regular one with dunes), mountains (we spend a whole day achieving 2800 m Wildrose), depressions (800m under see level). Also, a great thing is that it was a camping trip so as we had to cook all meals together, struggle with weather conditions together (except for coooollldd nights it was REALLY windy and our tent got broken and we had to move it a few times). All in all, it was a wonderful adventure and if I manage I would love to take the another Natural Science class in Evergreen College.”

We had a cozy evening, starting off with delicious food from around the world, in the kitchen and then moved into the living room for some serious celebrating.

Au pairs from each country sang Christmas songs in their language adn those who were the only one who spoke their native language impressed us with their self-confidence to sing “solo”!  We enjoyed a gift exchange around the Christmas tree and of course more food to close out our evening.  Merry Christmas Everyone!