soooooooooo, im still alive! whoo hoo, and i have stalled here for like ten minutes while talking to my mate on the phone haha... dam, carrying on---> so this last weeks been really good, im really excited because one of my best mates (LAcey) is coming back to New York from the UK tomorrow=) beans beans beans, i feel beans!!! and it is gonna be my friend Zsofies last week in New York before she goes back to Hungary=( that really sucks!

moving on though, this week has been awesome, met loads of new people, got to know people better and life in the USA is still grand(0_o). im also really excited because in a couple of weeks i leave to go back to South Africa to visit, and im really keen to see if anything has changed, or if culture shock takes effect again!! but yeah thats it for now just checking in to let ya know im alive and kicking! xxx

DUN DUN DUN!!!! so on sunday when I get back Im told i must pack my bags yet again, coz im going to New City for the week with the kids to the grans house because of the construction!!!!! OMG New City is so boring, it's where people go to die hahaha, im dying here, so at some point during this slow moving week im gonna take pics of this dead beat town, and show you what this place lacks!!! I had to walk 3 miles just to get free wifi (at the only starbucks with terrible service in the whole town) just to update my blog, death i tell you! so if you do not hear from me again, i died!

So i got back from Montauk on Saturday the 8th and on Sunday there was this music festival at the Williamsburg waterfront (which is every Sunday until the end of August, yay) and i met up with my amazing friends and met some more crazy ppl!! It was mad insane, and i want to do this every sunday, it was a great mission some crazy things were said and done, but thats what friends are for right???

Okay well this last week of July myself and the family went to Montauk, which is the last stop on Long Island and its beautiful. It's a 15 minute drive from the Hamptons which is also really pretty and i want a holiday house there LOL. While we have been here they are renovating the house back in Brooklyn, adding an extra room upstairs, and yes!!! yay, i finally have my own entrance to my room, i don't have to go through the kids rooms anymore, and the company doing the job are doing a great job, plus some cute guys which makes for great eye candy!!! ;), but getting back to Montauk, its like a little beach town, and the weather is great and the houses are beautiful, but some of the ppl there walk around like they own the place which is really annoying but hey, who cares!!! there's also this department store called "whites" and they sell everything and nearly anything! But it was a great week of vacation!!! i wanna go back, but i did miss my crazy friends!!!

ok well July has been a month and a half! haha 4th of July (independence day) was amazingly fun, Miguel and i went to a house party on an apartment building rooftop, and he introduced me to all his friends and then i met some more ppl and now have even more great american friends=) you could see the fireworks clearly from the rooftop, in lower east side Manhattan!

got my tragus (inner ear) pierced by my mate Miguel at his tattoo and piercing shop. went to some more rooftop parties, hahaha, with my american friends, Libby , Abraham, Ingrid, Imran, Miguel and the crew, el sumbrero tequila and four loco leads to trouble haha, and some of my au pair friends, csilla, simone, lysaan and nathalie joined, then we hit some bars in williemsberg! that was great fun=) met some more awsum people, radi, james and marcus, crazy crazy awsum ppl!

ooh went out with Libby to artichoke pizza-------> if you are ever in New York, artichoke pizza makes the best pizza in the world, you gotta go! Friday night, myself, Lacey and Mina (from Finland) went to Coney Island for the free fireworks and found a nice bar on the beachfront! the cocktails were great because one free refill haha and the cocktail glasses were amazing! we bumped into some odd characters, a gay guy from Italy named Marco, wester a married man, Patrick a Chinese guy (cute) from Australia and I think his name was justin and his friend is making a dick movie called "Dick" and he's premiering in it, hahaha.....I know where do you find people like this, not only in movies, but Coney Island too! haha

catching up*

So I am going to briefly sum up this year so far, from January to July:)

6 Jan - Myself and a whole lot of other South Africans arrived in Stamford, Connecticut for our orientation. Here we stayed at a holiday in for 3 days before moving onto our new host famalies. It was great, we met girls from all over the world, got plenty of free time to shop and GREAT FOOD!!!

9 Jan- Yes this was the *BIG* day, we had to go to our famalies, my family came to fetch me

from the hotel itself, and they were about half an hour late, so naturally i was convinced they had forgotten about me and that i was now stuck in America homeless with n0 money haha, but then they arrived! phew...

We went to the car (Betsy) packed my luggage and started the 40 minute drive home, and things were surprisingly not awkward or weird, probably because i spoke so much and the kids and i seemed like we were competing to get words in, but all was great.

My Host Family- Dad: Adam

Mom: Maxine

Twins: Harry & Phoebe (9 Yrs old since the 16th July 2010)

Dog: Katey

Cats: Squeaky & Cody

They are really amazing, and they have a great sense of humor which makes getting along so much easier. We live in a really nice neighbourhood in Brooklyn and the it takes me 20 minutes to get into Manhattan. I also attended my first cluster meeting and met the other Au Pairs in our Brooklyn area, so that was really good, and now im great friends with most of them.

February- this is my birthday month, i got great presents from my host family and the weekend off, so i had a good weekend with my firends. On the friday night i went to this valentines dance that was at the TWINS school which was a lot of fun and then i met this weird guy at Smiley's Pizza named , Jimmy ( there are way too many Jimmy's in America)! A new Au Pair in our cluster arrived near the end of Feb and her name is Lacey, she's a great girl and a lot of fun, glad to have her living 10 minutes away=)

March- Finally settling into America and BAM! one of my best friends ,Hanna Haubrich, went into rematch but then decided to leave! I was very upset by this but my month was made by my mom coming to visit me for a week in NY and spoiling me rotten! She arrived the day before her birthday and i surprised her the next morning with a typical american breakfast> bagels, cream cheese, fresh mozzarella, salmon, champagne and orange juice. also during March because my family are Jewish they had to do the whole passover thing and i decided to do it too, it's an experience right? so we had to go to New Jersey and Long Island for the Seders, which is a Jewish dinner hosted by someone in the family. it was really fun, and most of there cousins are around my age. Now little miss Phoebe is convinced i should marry her cousin Eric so that i can be family too=) Also during this month my great friend Csilla ( from hungary) introduced me to one of her other Hungarian friends whose name is Zsofi Fodor and she's also awesome!

April/May- By this point I have really settled into the american lifestyle, LOVE shopping<>

June- Was not too eventful, getting ready for summer vacation, schools out and the suns shining! Beaches open and everything is blossoming, it looks beautiful! Went to Union Square which is in Manhattan and met this really nice guy, Miguel, and we hit it off well, was like we were meant to be friends haha, Lacey left to go to the UK and Spain for a month. I got really sick and had to stay in bed for a week which really sucked but i'm all better now. At the beginning of this month Lacey and i started Basketball at the gym we go to, it's a lot of fun and a lot of cute guys haha, which makes it so much more motivating! moving into July......

AMERICA BABY!!

Well this is a blog on my year that i have spent and still spending in America, to be precise, Brooklyn, New York! I am already nearly half way through so I have a lot of updating to do, but we will get there=) Thanks to my good friend Csilla who gave me this idea.