nanny diaries.

holla..
okay so this just happened.. like an hour ago. it was after dinner and Lisa was going to the bathroom and she wanted my help in wiping her.. (not a problem.. ) so I went to wipe her bottom and she yelled ` STOP!!!!` . I asked her what was wrong. She replied " you have to do it from front to back.. front to back no exceptions". I wanted to laugh soo badly but just kept it to myself as I thought she might be a little offended. At least she knows the healthy way to do it!

But anyways.. here I am.. monday night. the first night I have got to sleep in my own apartment in a week im SOOO excited.! I havent had a day off for a week either so I am quite enjoying myself. Also Wednesday is "All Saints Day" which is a public holiday.. and aparently au pairs get it off too! So i get from tomorrow afternoon till thursday at noon off.! ohh yes.
Oh and just if anyone was wondering.. they do not celebrate halloween here! Not going to lie.. I dont really miss it.

The rest of the trip in Tirol was pretty good. We went to mass on sunday morning and it was all of a half hour which i considered really short.. they considered it normal. It was okay though because Barbara was starting to annoy the elderly. A huge difference between the churches here and back at home is that the ones here have been here for .. hundreds and hundreds of years and are absoulutly amazing. I didnt really mind going to mass on Sunday even though I didnt understand a word of it because I was just looking around at all the beautiful carvings, paintings etc. Every single church I have visited so far has been just like that too..

The weather is getting colder. I was 23 a few days ago but since then has really cooled down. Relativly speaking though, the family here considers -10 absolutly freezing which I find quite entertianing. I also find that they tend to over dress according to my "north american standards". When its like.. 15 degrees above they make sure I have a jacket with me. Not just a sweater or something to possibly throw on.. a JACKET!!

We also got to stop in Salzburg on our drive back from Tirol. I think we walked around for probably 2 hour-ish. I am going to come back either this coming weekend or next. The train will cost me 50 € for a roundtrip ticket and then 15 ish for a night in a hostel .. not to shabby.
Also I discovered this "deal" lets say.. where I can take the night train to Venice, spend one night in a hotel and then take the train back the next night for €109 .... which is stellar. Oh and I am definatly going on the Sound of Music tour. The family pointed out a few spots where scenes were shot while we were there and it was so cool to see it so many years later.. so the tour is a must!

Other than that.. I have read 5 books so far which is good but now I have nothing to do on Sundays because there is nothing else to read. My German is slightly improving. I can count to ten now.. go me! I can read it better than I can speak it tho. Oh and my knowledge of world events is superior at the moment because the only TV station that is in English is CNN oh well its not so bad. At times its almost like watching a movie because of all the action that seems to be happening in the world at this moment.

In case anyone else keeps up on world events.. im never flying to Nigeria.

anywayys .. almost my bedtime..!

till next time!

ps. there are now new pictures in my photobucket.

Tirol

Soo. .i have spent the better part of this week in Tirol which is in Upper Austira..

Its so nice here. There are a lot of mountians and little villages hidden everywhere.
It is a nice time of year to be here too because all the trees are turning colors and it looks very nice.

We went to the 'zoo' today which was more like animals running around a mountian and we walked through it. They had a whole bunch of deers and goats etc.. just walking around. Interestingly enough it is mating season right now so every few minutes we could hear the buck's (male deer??) doing their mating call. It was funny because there was this little cute goat who I thought was a baby and we were petting it and then this other mini one came up to it and started humping it. Lisa asked me what was happening. I couldnt stop laughing so her mother had to explain to her. We also saw monkeys, ducks, llama's, kangaroos .. turkies (yuck!!). Over all a good experience. .plus this 'zoo' was located on the side of a mountian so the view was quite nice.. I have tons of pictures from it but I will have to upload them later... i dont have my cord with me.

Staying in Tirol is very nice but I dont feel as though I have anytime to myself as I have been staying in the house with the family and I sleep in the living room so I pretty much see everyone until right before bedtime and then again right when everyone wakes up. Its interesting because .. they also own this house. Must be nice to own a whole apartment building and a house in the mountians.! But I guess I too am enjoying their grand life style so I really shouldn't be one to comment.

Lately the kids have been better.. I think they are getting to know me and what I expect now. One of my biggest thing is with the older one.. she doesnt often say please or thank you and sometimes treats me as though I am her servent. SO i have resorted to not doing anything unless she uses her manners and I do not do anything for her that I know she could do herself. I constantly remind her that I am there as a friend and someone to play with...not as a servent. Thankfully..her mom also shares this same view so I think it is getting easier because she knows what I expect of her and that her mother also supports that. Barbara too has gotten easier to look after. I have discovered that little ones are very easily distracted... so when she is crying or upset about something I just pull out some random object and shake it all around and make funny noises. It works everytime. Thank God.

I have also realized that I need to start sending some stuff that I brought back home so that when it comes time for me to fly back I dont have to pay for being over weight in luggage. I am going to send back my hair straightner and some other things like that because really.. I get up in the morning have a quick shower and just blow dry my hair and throw it up in a pony tail because.. its bound to get messed up 5 minutes after I start my day with the family. Also.. I have been here for only a few weeks and I have already bought a number of things soo I need to make room. Suprisingly I have not spent that much tho.. I think my biggest purchase so far was a pair of sunglasses but I will not disclose how much I paid for them. .. lets just say they were much cheaper here than I would find at home. haha.

I must say I have been suprised at a few of the people who have either written me emails saying that they have read my blog or people who have left me blog messages.. there are some that I never thought I would hear from or who would even miss me but its awesome!. Its very nice to come on to the computer and find that I have new messages!!!

Anyways! I gotta run..

ps. Thanks to everyone who has been leaving me comments! I dont know how to reply to them on my blog because all the buttons to push on this website are in German on my side so if you want me to reply you can send me an email but just so you know I still read the blog comments!!

Großhoflein

Okay so the village of Großhoflein is where Oma and Opa live.
It takes about a half hour to drive there from Vienna.

All the family gets together there. So there are a total of 5 grandchildren all under one roof.. all under the age of 4. ohh my goodness!

The typical day there.. Lisa and her cousin Maximillian go to Kindergarten... Max stays till 3.. Lisa only stays till noon ish. So in the morning I play with Barbara and Alexander (who is 2 as well). Then we have lunch...and after lunch I play with all 4 of them..or more like supervise seeing as how they seem to play just fine without me.

It is really nice in the village, I get the sense that everyone seems to know everything about everyone else. I think the population is a little under 2000. Close to the village is the boarder of Hungary.

This coming week on Wedesday I think we are going to go to Tyrol which is a 3 hour drive from Vienna. I am pretty sure that I will get to spend next weekend in Salzburg and goo explore the Sound of Music. I am pretty stoked for that!

Today..which is Sunday is my least favorite day because nothing is open.. except for Burger King hahah. Last night I thought the stores were open till 6 but they were only open till 5 which was not good because I needed to get milk and a few other things from the Eurospar but it was closed. So i have nothing to eat. Well I do have lots and lots of pasta but thats all I have.. no sauce or anything so I think I may stop at BK today for some food.

I have also decided that I would really like to become fluent in German. I have been thinking more and more about what I would like to do in the future and I believe that knowing a second language would really be an asset to me. I am thinking of possibly taking a degree in International Relations. But we will see.. still in the stage of being just a thought. I have a book in my apartment that is called `teach yourself German' .. so i have been looking through that for the past few days and learning some new things.. I will also get to take German lessons here in November and I am sure that would be very interesting.

oh and just an interesting fact for everyone..
Did you know that you can get Beer with your Meal at Burger King!!!
haha i thought that was interesting!

Well.. im off to Burger King I guess.. (no..not to get a Beer)
:) Danielle

little children

I have come to the conclusion that when i have children my husband will be the one to take care of the kids from when they are 1 and a half to 3 years old.

2 year olds are terrorists in disguise.

Trying to keep up with the little one here ( Barbara) is impossible. She has the shortest attention span EVER and goes from 1 toy to the next in a matter of seconds. However cute she may be.. she is a little nightmare. She has also decided that she no longer needs to wear diapers.. although .. she is far from being toilet trained. She will randomly peel off her pants and start to remove her diaper in the middle of the living room whenever she feels as though she doesnt want her diaper anymore. Although both girls, Lisa and Barbara, can understand English .. Barbara is (understandably) not as developed in speaking English. A girl named Victoria was an Au Pair for these girls some months ago and at that time Barbara would just call her 'tow' ..as in Victoria.. so since then that is the name she calls every Au Pair. Accordingly my new name is Tow. From now on this is what I would liked to be called. JUST KIDDING.

Now as if handling the little one wasnt enough on her own.. it is actually impossible to get the 2 girls to share. Its funny because sometimes they will fight and fight and fight over a certian toy and I have to be the referee and decide who had it first. Once I solve the problem .. whoever was allowed to play with the toy will play with it for 2 seconds and then lose interest. Then, if i offer the toy to the other girl.. they want nothing to do with it. I guess it is true that it is human nature to want what one cannot have.

On the whole..I do quite enjoy the weekdays with the family. I have also decided that I will do as much sleeping as possible from now until I have kids in future years to come because it would seem that sleep is a luxury for anyone with little children. Tonight we are going to Großhöflein which is a village about 50 km outside of Vienna.. where Oma and Opa live. We will be staying there for 2 nights. I have met most of the extended family and they all seem very nice and I feel quite comfortable around them all.

Anyways I gotta make a quick stop at Eurospar and then pack for Oma's!!!

Bye for now!
:) Danielle

Exploring

Hey all-
So i had to do something yesterday that really scared me..
TAKE THE TRAM!

It only scared me because it was explained to me in such a way that made is seem really complicated but its really not. The tram system is actually really well organized and the good thing about it is as long as you know what tram goes back to where you live you can go nuts. Its weird because to get on the tram you have to press a button to open the door and same for if you want to get off. Once you are in the tram you have to validate your own ticket. I hear that once and a while they check but I was on and off the tram over 5 hours yesterdaý and I didnt get asked for my ticket. That is one thing I have found about Austria.. they are very trusting that people will do the right thing. That is like the newspapers here. I know at home they are locked up in metal boxes and you cant open the box till you put the money in. Here however..the newspapers are pretty much in plastic bags with a little box attached to the pole where you would put the money for the paper.

Anyways! Yesterday I did a long day of exploring. I got lost a few times but like i said before.. I just hopped on the tram that I knew went back to where I wanted to be and it was fine. One huge huge difference between home and here is that Vienna has such a rich history. I went to see a church today that dates back to the 13th century. Of course most of the church has been rebuilt since then but its still really beautiful. Also yesterday i was lucky enough to stumble upon the shopping square. It was absolutly packed with tons of people. I think I now have a favorite store here in Vienna. H & M. I know there is one in toronto and some in the states but .. WOW. Its absolutly huge here and it really that expensive. Other than that the rest of the stores were probably the same as anywhere else. There is thís store 'Humaniac' which is like a gigantic shoe store which was pretty neat too.

I also had the pleasure of eating McDonalds here yesterday. Honestlty tho.. it really didnt compare. I think the secret is definatly in the Ketchup. There is just nothing that compares to the Ketchup from our McDonalds at home. Other than that tho..the food here is okay. I find it really bland. On the weekends I cook for myself and so far I have found most things that I like at the local 'Eurospar' aka. Safeway. No Kraft Dinner tho!. :( They have this cereal here called 'Frosties' which is like frosted flakes at home but for some reason it just tastes so much better. I think it may have to do with the milk here. It tastes sweeter. One thing also, I have noticed that milk really is not a large part of the diet here. I think this may be because in Vienna a lot of cheese is eaten which would take place of milk in a diet.

Pictures from yesterday can be found in my photobucket in the 'exploring around Vienna folder'. I didnt upload all of them because it takes soo long so I just put the good ones up. And convienently my camera just died soo I think there are about 8 up there.

But anyways I think its about time for me to go back to my apartment and start my big plans for today which consist of doing nothing because this city pretty much dies on Sunday. There is pretty much nothing open except for the Internet cafe.. yay!

Till later.. Danielle

first few days...

Hey!!!!

Alright so! All I have to say is that I am finding a German boy to marry. SERIOUSLY when I landed in the airport in Frankfurt.. every single young male who worked at the airport was .. very very good looking. ! Anyways!

I really love it here. It seems as though everything has some kind of elegance to it. Where I live is fairly close to downtown Vienna and all the buildings are very old and very pretty. The building I live in has 10 apartments total. If one where to walk in the front door of the apartment .. like any apartment there is a staircase leading up. All 5 apartments to the right of the staircase are owned by the family I am staying with. The other 5 are rented out to some randoms. I live on the first floor.. the families 'dental office' is on the second floor. The grandma of the family lives on the 3rd. The family lives on the 4th and the uncle lives on the 5th. The aparment itself is kinda weird. It is pretty big but.. pretty much the only space I use is my room because it seems to have everything in it. In my room I have a couch which turns into my bed.. my own kitchen which has an oven and stove.. and strangely enough my shower is in the kitchen.. haha. I have a lot of closet space and a table. It is weird because here.. there is not really a typical bathroom. There is the 'toilet room' which.. has a toilet and a very small sink. Then there is a seperate room which has a bigger sink in it with cupboards. Im guessing one would never find a toilet and a shower in the same room.!!

Other than that.. the family is really great. The two little girls I am looking after are kind of a handful. The little one.. Barbara is 2. She is very indepedant which gets herself in a lot of trouble. If she doesnt get her way she starts crying which is annoying haha. The older one Lisa is 4. She is pretty good but likes to boss her little sister around which starts problems..

As I understand, my typical week will be spent in 2 places. Monday to Wednesday will be spent at home and Thursday/ Friday are spent at Oma and Opa's which is in the countryside. I didnt go with the family this Thursday because they thought I would enjoy some time exploring.

The parents of the family are really knowlegeable.. I think I am like their 6th au pair so this is not new to them. The dad, Hans, has told me that going to Venice is a must. Aparently there is a 'night train' which I can take on Friday night.. then spend Saturday in Venice and come back Saturday night. That way I do not have to pay to stay in a hostel at night. Who knows tho.. maybe I will want to stay!

I have uploaded some pictures of my apartment. Click on 'My Pictures' and it will take you to the home page of my online album. In the top right corner there is a space to enter text. Put in 'farawayfrmhome' and it will take you to my pictures. The ones of my aparments are under the 'apartment' link.

Other than that! The german language isnt as bad as I thought it would be. I thought it would be so much uglier haha. All I know so far is 'nein' and 'ja' (yes and no). The 4 year old girl tried to teach me numbers and colors yesterday but it didnt really stick. All i remember is six.. because its the same in both languages.!

Alright. .well if you took the time to read this .. leave me a comment or send me an e-mail! I would love to hear from everyone..

:) Danielle

2 days

Alright..

I put pictures of my "going away party" in my photobucket which you can see by pressing the "my pictures" link on this page. Friday night was a lot of fun. It was really nice to see a lot of people come out and say good bye.

I just have one thing to say to a certian guy.
IM LEAVING FOR TWO MONTHS!
This is your one chance to say anything you wanted to me and not have to fear anything.
You could say anything...but yet you choose to say nothing... hmm.

Anyways.. if anyone is actually reading this yet... leave me a comment!!

:) Danielle

9 days

soo..there are nine days until I leave.
I cant believe that I am actually just picking up and leaving for 2 months.
I am kinda stressed out because there seems like there is a lot to do before I go.
butttt im sure it will be okay.
I made a list of everything that I have to do // want to do before I go..
not going to lie the list is pretty damn long!

:) lata..