Life with my New Host Family

Greetings! I have been at my host family for a little over a week, and I have been quite busy learning their routines and more recently, getting over being sick. Not that I’m trying to put this in the Guinness Book of World Records, but my this weekend was the THIRD time I have been sick here. So not cool! Thankfully, tea with lemon and honey, soup, and cough medicine all seem to help so I should be 100% better in the next few days. Sincere apologizes in advance if I send anyone germs in this recent blog post.

My host family lives in St. Kilda, a suburb in Melbourne. The houses are quite charming and remind me of my aunt’s (mom’s sister) neighborhood. Both the skyline of the buildings along the park where the dog can run off leash and the beach look like various “Windy City” buildings and Navy Pier, respectively. Though I still have a lot of exploring to do, my impressions of Melbourne/St. Kilda so far is that it is a more laid back, less busy version of Chicago.

Ella and Jack are adorable. Ella is 9 and loves to read, draw, paint, and watch Friends. Jack is 4 and is at the age where he thinks everything is a gun or a light saber. He is a big fan of Star Wars and Spiderman, among other action heroes. Although Jack can get a little fussy or does not put his toy gun or light saber down the first time one asks, both kids are very easy going and well behaved—they are MUCH better behaved than the two kids who made my last job difficult. The parents are both very nice as well. Sophie owns a yoga studio and Jamie is a business consultant. They have a dog, Dusty, and a cat, Jazzy.

Though I am not dealing with driving on the opposite side of the road or kids not listening to me, I still have faced some challenges. Four years ago, Ella had a brain tumor and while she has made AMAZING progress with her recovery, she still needs extra help with things like getting dressed and walking up the stairs. Although I have many years of experience working with kids in different settings, I have never worked with kids who have had physical challenges like hers. Also, learning routines of another family is overwhelming. Trying to get the kids ready quickly in the morning or knowing where the dishes go have taken time to learn, but I’m slowly starting to get the hang of what I need to do. Because Sophie knows exactly how she wants things done, sometimes she forgets that what makes sense to a mom in her own house does not to someone who an au pair who does not know the home as well as she does! Despite these challenges, I’ve done many tasks well and have been able to put my mad organizational skills to use by organizing the kids’ playroom so she can turn it into a bedroom.

I don’t have to work this weekend, so I’ll have the opportunity to explore Melbourne! Besides this weekend, I’ll have a few days to sight see as I am finishing my job a week from tomorrow. I was going to stay until the 28^th, but for various reasons, Sophie and I thought ending early would be better for both of us. I’ll spend a few nights at a hostel and then it’s adios down under. :( I was supposed to go home on the 28^th, but decided to change my flight so I could have a full two weeks to prepare for my move to DC and allow my internal clock to adjust to CA time. We’ll see how I do with the latter since 17 hours is a HUGE time difference!


Let me end this post by leaving you with a highlight of my time here. Unlike most of you whose 4th of July involved parades, BBQ's, and anything else associated with the holiday, I got proposed to twice! Much to your disappointment, the proposals were NOT from hot Aussie men. Instead, Jack and his friend Reuben proposed to me at the playground. They told me they had a secret, which was that they both wanted me to marry them. As soon as I told them that only one of them could marry me, they fought over which one was going to do so. However, they ended up marrying each other but I officiated at the "wedding." Even though they ended up marrying each other, I still thought it was cute that they both wanted to marry me. :)


More soon!