Venice

SO!
i think i should just give up going back to school all together..
and become a post card maker..
haha..

not really. but my pictures from venice are so beautiful..
i cannot believe how pretty of a city venice is..

anyways..
ill put up a few pictures..

My trip to Venice was wonderful. I love the night train because you get to sleep and then when you wake up you are there! On the way there .. in my 'cabin' there were 2 couples both probably in their 40's who lived in Vienna and i had a nice chat with them. On the way back I was in a room with 1 couple who was in their early 20's and another girl who was probably 2 or 3 years older than I am. It was really nice to be able to talk with some people around my age and the night was pretty fun as the couple had some champagne with them which they shared and we chatted and played a little chess.

My time in Venice was very nice as well. I walked around A LOT. I also spent a lot of time on the Water Bus'. It was nice to just sit and relax on the water bus while going up the Canal.. I could see all the sites and when I wanted to I would get off and walk to an attraction. I think my favorite place to see was definatly St. Marcs Sqaure. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE. I wanted to go inside the Basilica but the line was discustingly long. The first day I was there it didnt rain at all .. the second day it rained all morning..so I was glad that I had brought an umbrella with me. I couldnt believe how much water was in the square! At some places I would guess that it was almost a foot deep.. many people bought these things that look like rain boots except for the fact that they are pretty much just plastic bags that you tie around your legs.. haha but they do the trick. I just stayed on the platforms they put out so I didnt get wet. The afternoon of the 2nd day it stopped raining but the water was still everywhere. I went into more of the middle part of the 'main' island where it was not wet and poked around the shops and had lunch at a little resturant. (I had spaghetti).. funny thing though..it was run by an asian family... haha so I guess i had Authentic Asian Italian food. The day before I had pizza for lunch and it was awesome.

There were also little booths and what not of people selling things right by the sqaure. Funny thing... there are black guys all over with blankets that they lay on the ground.. which they sell 'frauda' and ' louis vuitton' and 'gucci' purses.. I found this funny becuse they do it right in the open.. I would have assumed that it would be illegal to sell knock offs right out in the open but.. nope. oh well at least you can buy 'real' fakes.. because its from Italy! haha.

None the less... Venice was awesome and I am so glad that I went.

A good way to end my time here in Europe!

:) danielle

Norma the Lady Bug

I forgot to mention a while ago that I have a pet lady bug named Norma that lives in my armpit.

I dont know why or how this came about. ..

We were driving to the village one day and I think Lisa and Barbara were both crying and I asked Lisa if she wanted to hold Norma. .. and alas Norma the Lady Bug who lives in armpits was born.

I only mention this because.. today it was so funny. I think I asked Lisa not to do something and she wasnt listening to me. The usual threats were not working ie: ' you will not be allowed to go to new zealand.. ' so then I said 'if you dont stop that right now I will never let you hold Norma again!' and Lisa stopped what she was doing so quickly it was so funny.

So if all else fails.. make up imaginary friends. !

Something else exciting happened today.

Lisa told me that I was the half-best Au Pair she has ever had.
I asked her where the other half was.

She explained to me that she was keeping the other half until she met her next Au Pair and if that Au Pair wasnt nice then I could be the whole best Au Pair.. but if her next Au Pair is nice too then we can both be the half best Au Pairs in the world. HA! Sometimes it amazes me how smart she is for not even being 5 years old yet.

Just thought I would share those 2 stories..!

:)

Pictures!

So I finally discovered how to get pictures onto my blog! Too bad I didnt figure it out sooner but thats okay..
Here are a few pictures.!

The picture of the castle is one of the Christmas markets. I thought that there was only 1 market by the City Hall but it turns out there are lots! I have been to 4 so far in the City. They all seem to sell the same stuff but its still exciting to go to different ones. The castle is called the Schloss Schonbrun (í think thats how its spelt).. and yes its absolutly huge. It has very nice gardens, a maze, a zoo and the castle itself is very nice. I didnt take a tour or anything because I found the admission prices kinda expensive. But I did walk around the outsides.

The lego tower we made a few days ago. I think Lisa and Barbara absolutly loved making it .. although after the picture it got knocked over pretty quickly!

The picture of Barbara and her dolls is pretty self explanitory.. you should know though that she doesnt go anywhere without her dolls and she takes very good care of them. She always feeds them, changes their 'nappy'...puts them down for naps. She is so cute when she is playing with them! Dont be fooled by her cuteness though..she is very evil at times.. haha.

And..yes I included a picture of my own of the Hundertwasser Haus..

The picture of me outside the white gazebo (spelling?) is the one they used in the sound of music! I am 16 going on 17.. haha anyone remember??

Anyways! Not too much longer for me here and im pretty excited to come home. In recent days Barbara has been an angel compared to Lisa. I dont know whats going on with her but she gets so angry and me and has these crying fits which are unbelievable.

The other day I went to pick her up from Kindergarten ..she ususally only stays half the day.. so yes I went to pick her up and she was very busy playing and said that she didnt want to leave so I asked her if she wanted to stay for the afternoon too.. she said NOOOO... (she never likes staying for longer than she has to..).. so I said okay then can we please go. So she came with me and as we were walking home she started to get very grumpy and I asked her what was wrong and she said she wanted to stay at kindergarten.. I told her that we could go back if she wanted but she said NOOOO. So we get home and she crawls under the table and starts screaming and crying. Her mom comes down and asks Lisa what the problem is and Lisa tells her that she wanted to stay at Kindergarten.. (at this point im totally baffeled because I asked her so many times if she wanted to stay and she said she didnt).. so her mom just says. 'okay lisa time to stop crying its fine...you can go back after lunch'.. and for a half an hour she wouldnt stop crying and she was being very difficult..rude.. you name it. Finally she stopped crying somewhere in the middle of lunch.. and didnt want to go back to Kindergarten anymore.

Later that day we were eating dinner and I have no idea what happend.. nothing seemed to be going wrong from what I could see and Lisa starts being grumpy again and starts crying and being rude. Then Barbara starts crying and being difficult too. At first I was getting frusterated because its really annoying to have a child on each side of you screaming their lungs out and nothing I was saying was good enough to make them happy. After a few minutes though I couldnt stop laughing.. I realized how funny the situation was.. and then their mom comes in and we just couldnt stop laughing.. I dont know why... but I guess there wasnt anything else to do then laugh. So, I would definatly have to agree with the saying 'laughter is the best medicine'.

I think part of the problem with the 2 girls is that they have so many adult figures in their life..they seem to think if 1 says no then they can just go ask another one. Their dad defiantly is not strict at all and totally lets the kids wear their pants. Ive noticed that their mother is much more strict than the dad. Problem definatly because sometimes if the mom says no the dad will still let them do things. So I think when it comes to me..if I say no to something they definatly dont think that is the final answer and will either start crying because they think I will give in or they will run off and tell their mother what a terrible au pair I am.. haha. Lisa especially does this.. she always tells her mom whenever she can that I did something that she doesnt like. Barbara on the other hand will just lay down on the floor and start crying and screaming.. but if you just let her do that and not pay attention to her outburts she stops pretty quickly when she realizes its not getting her anywhere. Barbara actually reminds me of Breanne sometimes because she has these tantrums ..but I dont think that it would go over too well if I locked Barbara in her room with a skipping rope hahah. It would do the trick though.. im sure.

It also seems to me that their are no punishments for the 2 girls. Lisa never gets sent to her room..never gets time outs.. nothing. All she has to do if she does something wrong is say sorry. Barbara sometimes gets put in her play pen when she does something wrong but isnt left in their for long enough in my opinion because as soon as she starts to cry she gets let out. Whats the point in that! Enough of that though.

I have read 18 books so far. Next weekend I am going to Venice. I saw Casino Royale last night and am ever more excited to go to Venice now becuse I am goign to go to St. Marx square and see where they filmed some of the movie.! I am taking the night train and have paid a little extra to get a bed on the train so I can sleep.. I am not too fond of sleeping which sitting.. it sucks.

Well.. im going to go to the Christmas market again and try some new and exciting christmas drinks. I tried this drink a few nights ago which was a sweet, hot white wine and it was pretty good but it made me very sleepy.

:) Danielle

Hundertwasser..

I definatly have found my favorite thing to see in Vienna.

The Hundertwasser Haus..

sooo amazing!
I wish that I had found this place earlier in my visits in Vienna as I would have gone and visited it every weekend. I cant describe it.. its just so amazing to look at. It is an apartment building built byFriedensreich Hundertwasser and it is my understanding that he has also designed many other buildings looking like the one in Vienna.. im quite sure there is one in Japan. The building itself looks just as colorful in person as this picture depicts.. The roof of the apartment is covered with tree's as well but because it is wintertime .. I didnt get to see the trees in full bloom but im sure it looks amazing to see it in person. You are not allowed to enter the building as it is actually lived in like a normal apartment building but even on the outside you can just imagine how it looks on the inside.

Other than that.. nothing else was really exciting about my weekend. I just finished reading my 15th book today and have another one ready to start when I get back! Tomorrow is my library day ..which is always exciting so I will go and pick up a few more books which Im sure I will be able to finish by the time I come home. I think I will be able to read.. 5 or 6 more books in the next few weeks.

Ive started to pack.. haha although I dont leave for another 2 and some weeks.. but I need to figure out how much room I have ..if any! I am going to send a small box home tomorrow with some shoes that I dont need here anymore and a few other things just to free up some room for all the H & M shopping I have been doing. I bought a really nice shirt yesterday for 5 € which was a nice find.

Soo yes.. not too much intersting going on here at the moment. I only have 2 weekends left! Next weekend I will go to the Christmas market and do a bit of shopping there ..and probably take some good pictures of that.. and a few other things that I have missed out on photo oppertunites.. and for my last weekend here I think I am going to go to Venice!

Well I suppose thats all for now..

Ta ta..
Danielle

ahhh

So.. this week was very stressful and trying at oma and opas..
i swear sometimes i want to strangle the children!.. haha oh im so nice i know..

but really.. they just make me so angry sometimes..especially the older one because she knows better and she just tries to be annoying. one example is that while im reading my book at night she will come into my room and say that she wants to see my book..which i let her and then she runs away with it and doesnt give it back to me. even after me asking her nicely to give it back she wont and then I will go to her mom and ask her to get it back for me. the minute her mom tells her to give it to me she gives it to me and then starts crying histarically like i just ran over her pet cat.. i dont get it.. In the mornings so also is so grumpy towards me.. i will say goodmorning and she will start screaming 'nein'.. and for anyone else in the house they probably would think that im doing something horrible to her but.. they know better than that. i understand that it would be hard for her especially to have so many people in and out of her life all the time but.. yikes.. i feel sorry for the au pairs to come because im sure that it will probably only get worse because her parents let her basically do what she wants and act the way she wants to.

so needless to say.. i was so excited yesterday at 3pm when i got to take the bus back to vienna to start my weekend. I decided i needed so humor to lighten my mood so i ventured to the movie theatre that i noticed last week.. which was featuring the movie Borat. Definatly what i needed.. very funny. The movie theatres are so weird here. When i bought my ticket the guy asked me where I wanted to sit.. unlike our theatres at home...they assign a seat to you when you buy your ticket.! I also didnt know which number was the row and which number was the seat so i just guessed..and no one made me move so im guessing that i guessed right!

today i went to the christmas market which was amazing. i didnt bring my camera with me but when i go back either tomorrow or next week i will definatly take pictures. its like a farmers market i guess but everything is christmas themed...there are lots of little booths with candles, christmas orniments ..etc..etc.. and it is pretty big.. I think there were over 100 booths and each booth is actually pretty big. It also is situated right infront of what i think is the city hall.. and thats also a very nice building to look at.

i also went shopping today and bought a few things.. and i got chased by a homeless man. I usually listen to my ipod while im walking around just because its sometimes really loud and i would rather listen to my music sometimes as opposed to the hundreds of people around me..anyways i was walking around the shops and i assume that the homeless guy had tried to say something to me but i didnt hear him because of my music.. so he followed me and jumped right in front of me which scared the crap out of me.. and he started talkign in german which i didnt understand any of so i just kept walking and he kept following and going off in german. finally i turned around and told him that i didnt understand.. he then says to me in english that he is very hungy and was wondering if i had any change to spare.. by this time though i was really getting annoyed with him for following me and scaring me so i just said i didnt and kept walking. needless to say he was a weird one.!

oh and this week, the aunt of the family left a dvd for me to watch .. its called We Feed the World and is all about globalization and fair trade.. on the whole a very good documentry but part of it was showing the process by chickens go through when they are being sold.. from the hatching them in the egg by the 1000's.. to feeding them and then shipping them off to the factories to be hung by their feet and stunned..then go through a rotating blade which slits their throats.. it was the most discusting thing... poor little chickens!! .. :(

well i think thats all i have to say for now.. nothing much more exciting has happened this week. i am reading my 12th book right now and its really good. mondays have become my day for the library as it does not open till 11am and is only open during the week..and mondays i dont start till noon so i have just enough time to run to the library.

:) danielle

Salzburg

sooo i went to salzburg yesterday and stayed over night there.

i really wasnt a fan of the hostel i stayed in and i tried to spend as least time there as I could.

I had to sleep in a room with 7 other people (girls thankfully) and was in bed by 8pm. No one was in the room yet so I read my book in quiet. At about 10 the first roomie came in.. i pretended I was sleeping because she looked old and weird. So she reads for a few minutes and then turns off the light.. total silence. All of a sudden she has a HUGE fart and I tried so hard not to laugh but oh my god it was so funny. She probably thinks that I was sleeping through the whole thing but .. noooo .. needless to say when I looked at her the next morning.. i had to leave the room so I could giggle to myself.

The Sound of Music tour was so not as good as I thought it was. They didnt even take us to all the spots that I know are in Salzburg from the movie. We saw the gazebo, the church they got married in, the house and thats about it.. although I happen to know of a few more sites from when I was in Salzburg a few weekends ago with the family. The lady who was doing the tour also didnt speak very good english so that was quite amusing. I would have been very disapointed with the trip if I hadnt met some friends..

yes ! i met friends!!! :) :) :)

Their names are Holly and Lyn and are Au Pairs too! They both are staying in Zurich, Switzerland and know eachother through an Au Pair group there. We had a lot of fun on the tour and they were really nice. They invited me to come and stay with them in Zurich one weekend before I leave and I think I am going to go. It was really nice to have someone to talk to and we shared stores about the kids that we look after and some of our experiences.

The tour was much better after the three of us started to talk. We decided to rename the tour 'the red bull' tour because aparently the owner of red bull lives in Salzburg and im quite sure we were shown more things to do with Red Bull than the Sound of Music. We saw the owners house and the head office or something which was actually quite cool, it is in the middle of a large pond and is made mostly out of glass .. it looks like its floating! And yah the tour person went on and on about Red Bull and how most Europeans dont like it. The soccer team from Salzburg is sponsered by Red Bull so their name is the Red Bulls blah blah blah.. good to know but I would have like more about the Sound of Music.

Oh and we also learned a lot about our tour lady, she liked to tell us about herself and how much she can eat. She went on describing many desserts that are special to Salzburg and after each one she would make some comment like ' oh but i can only eat half of it. ' 'this one I would have to share it with 3 people' 'this particular one I could eat 2'. How interesting! .. not.

None the less, its nice to be 'home' again. Its weird travelling to places like Salzburg on your own because you really dont have anyone to call in the city and you dont have some where you belong.

I wouldnt say I didnt enjoy going to Salzburg but I am sure I could have gone with out it. The only good thing was meeting the girls..and now I am poor. My spending money of the week went towards train tickets, the tour and the hostel.

Anyways.. till later..
Danielle

1 month

Hello!

So I have officially been here for one month to the day!

I wouldnt say the time has gone by fast..but I wouldnt say it has gone by slow either..
just right I guess.

I think I will be ready to come home after the 2 months is up. Dont get me wrong I really love it here but it would nice to actually have people to talk to.

I spent this whole week in Großhoflien (oma and opa's) and have learned a lot about the extended family seeing as how I spent the whole week with pretty much everyone except the mom and dad of the family im staying with. I have decided I do not like the Oma of the family. Its funny because she cannot hear so she talks super loud and when she turns on the TV I swear the next village can probably hear it too..(thats not why i dont like her though). She just seems to do things in a way that really annoy me. For example, Linda (the mom of the family) will turn on Winnie the Pooh for Barbara (the little one) because sometimes its the only way to get Barbara to stop crying and then she will leave me and Barbara in the room to watch it..then 5 minutes later Oma comes running in and turns off the TV which starts Barbara crying again. Then Linda will have to come down and tell Oma to leave it on. (I get the impression that Oma thinks I let the kids watch TV all the time .. which I dont.. I only watch TV with them when Linda turns it on). Also, yesterday Oma told all 4 kids that lunch was ready at 1130 (which it wasnt) so she gets all the kids to sit at the table and of course they are going to get restless sitting and waiting in one spot... so I let them go back into the play room and Oma got mad!! Funny thing is- lunch wasnt ready till really close to 1230. AHH! The 2 Aunts of the family are very nice and easy to get a long with, the both speak good enough English for me to have a conversation with. The 2 boy cousins are full of energy and do not listen to a word I say. The older one, who is 4, gave me a kiss on the lips this week. It was really funny and random. Oh and I had to take the bus from Vienna to Großhoflien on Monday morning which was interesting. I had to take the Strassenbahn.. (streetcar) to the bus station and then find which bus went to where I wanted to go.. which was hard because there are 40 bus stations and I was told just to look for the village name on the sign. Okay that wouldnt be too hard to do except for the fact that Großhoflien wasnt on the sign, it was under the name of Eisenstradt (the next town over) SO I had to ask a few people before someone finally understood where I wanted to go. And then when i got to the bus, the bus driver wanted to charge me €6 but Linda only gave me €5 and said that the bus would only be €4.50. I think the bus driver was quite angry but he let me on anyways for €4.50.. ahh adventures in foreign places.. gotta love it.

Other than that, I now have a library card and am on my 10th book since I have gotten here. The librarians are very nice and the english section is pretty good. I also visited a hair salon last weekend to even out my attempt at a hair cut. Now that I think of it ..it was probably the most expensive hair cut I have ever had.. not even a cut at that.. it was a trim, I think she probably took 1 cm off and charged me €25.. so just under $40 canadian.! yikes!!

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to go to Salzburg. I say attempt only because I have to figure out 3 things before I can go. The right street car to take to the under ground; the right underground to take to the train station and then the right train to take to Salzburg. I am sure I will (eventually) make it. I am booked at a hostel for Saturday night. The family says that their 3 last Au Pairs have stayed in this hostel and have really enjoyed themselves. I will also finally get to go on the Sound of Music tour which I am really excited for and will definalty take tons of pictures!!

I also learned that Mozart was born in Salzburg and have already seen the house where he was born. Its funny because there are stores that are dedicated to selling Mozart things. Mozart chocoloates... pens.. pencils.. postcards.. shirts.. bags.. etc..etc..etc.. its nuts!

Anyways I should get going. .its almost 6pm and i have go to back to the apartment to cook dinner and shower and pack because tomorrow will be an early morning!!

:) danielle