Hi y'all! After discussing this with MANY (ok, two) of my followers, I decided to write a recap in English about my first weeks here in the US. Just in case someone, who doesn't A) understand Finnish or B) want to use GT, wants to read about my adventurous life here in The U S of A.
So, as many of you know, I'm working as an au pair here in East Walpole, in the beautiful state of Massachusetts. EW is located southwest from Boston, approx. 25 miles or so. My host family consists of a host-dad and two kids, a 10-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
I arrived here Dec. 3, and felt welcome right away. I have my own room with a TV (and lots of channels!), a comfy bed, a couch, a table, a closet and all of that. EW is a small community with basically a barbershop and a café and nothing else, but it's located along the Boston-Providence Highway, and the highway is lined with shopping opportunities. =) The city (haha, city, more like a village) is actually in between Boston and Providence, and you can drive to both cities in something like 30min (with good traffic, that is).
I work Mon-Sat with varying times. Usually Mon-Fri the kids are at school, and I get up with them at 7AM and give them breakfast and get them ready to school. Then I drop them of at school at 8AM and have time off until 2.30PM. I usually go shopping or just relax at home on my free time. I pick up the kids at school, we come home, eat a snack, they do their homework and then we might play a game or something, but usually the kids want to relax and watch TV. Dinner at around 5.30PM, more TV, at 7PM they get ready for bed, and when the kids go to bed at 8PM, I'm off. My chores include changing the kids' sheets, cleaning their rooms with them (dusting and vacuuming), doing their laundry, helping with homework, and whatever. On Saturdays we might go out and play, or, like recently, I might have almost the whole day off when the host-dad takes the kids somewhere. In the evening I might "babysit" them (by sitting in my room while they sleep) if my host-dad goes somewhere. Sundays are always off.
During my free time here, I've visited Boston 3-4 times already (I love that city! Seriously! It's awesome!), seen The Patriot Place, shopped at Legacy Place, Dedham Mall and of course the Walpole Mall, and also just sat home Skyping and watching Gossip Girl on my laptop. This whole week I've stayed home because I have the flu, but fortunately the host-dad pays lots of money for different TV channels, so there's always something on. And we have On Demand, too, so there are all kinds of movies and shows available, any time.
I consider myself as one of the fortunate au pairs, as I have my own car (a 2010 Toyota Rav4) which I'm allowed to use for anything (except driving to downtown Boston. But I'm not suicidal, so I don't mind...) at any time. And I get money for gas, too. I usually take the car to a subway station (or "The T", short for MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority [subway/bus/commuter rail]), and take the subway to downtown Boston. Easy peasy! The traffic here is quite chaotic at times, but with a bit of courage and lots of patience, I'm doing just fine. And with the whole traffic system with 1000 different roads and routes, I'm lucky to have a GPS in my car.
Well, that's a good start, I think. Feel free to comment and ask me questions! =)
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