Visit from Austria (May 19th-23rd)

On Thursday, May 19th (Joe's B-Day (I gave him a frame with a picture of the kids and a bottle of my uncle's wine)) after more than an hour delay, my friends and siblings finally arrived!! :D Of course I picked them up, but I had to drive two times since we have a small new car (mini)...
Then on Friday in the morning I had to keep the kids quiet that they don't wake them up, especially Ronan, he always wanted to go in the basement to meet my brother, to play soccer with him and show him all his Star Wars stuff... so cute..
Then after I dropped of Ronan at school Maeve and I baked some pancakes for them. After breakfast we walked to the Capitol and back home, since Maeve needed her nap...
Later we went together to pick up Ronan from school and to play some baseball at the park :D Unfortunately I forgot the soccer ball, because Ronan really wanted to play soccer, but he also had fun at playing baseball!!
After work we went to Vapiano for Dinner and to Fado's to meet my friends (Vanessa, Bianca, Carol and Christopher). After some beers and a confused and crying waitress (we needed 1 hour to pay)we changed to Rocket bar where we had another beer.
The next morning we got up early and went to a fun park called Six Flags. We took the most exciting roller coaster rides and then we went to the water park... it was really funny there, I think I have to go there again! ;-)
After we came home and changed we went to some clubs like Lotus, unfortunately it wasn't that great...
And on Sunday we walked again to the Capitol and after we met Vanesa we marched together to the Mall, the Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and of course to the White House!! :D And after this exhausting day I also had to cook a typical meal for my hostfamily and my austrian friends.. at least I had my sister who helped me preparing... we had Wiener Schnitzel with Salad and Asparagus. It was really yummy and I think my hosts really enjoyed this evening! :D
After my hostmum put the kids down we stayed a little longer with Joe and had some beer and talked a little more..
And on Monday in the morning I went with Maeve and the others to the Air and Space Museum, again!!
And then after Maeve' nap I already had to say good-bye! :(

And this week I also watched the movie "Bridesmaids" which was hilarious!! u guys really need to watch this movie. It was the funniest movie I saw in a very long time.

Yeah and this weekend (Memorial Day weekend) I'll go to Maine and the Acadia Park!! I really look forward to it, because I heart that it's supposed to me nice up there... and next week I am going to Chicago to meet my friend Natascha!! :D

playing baseball :)

Austrian Dinner :D

Denise' Goodbye Party and Roller Derby! (13-15 May)

We organised a Surprise Goodbye Party for Denise, since she decided to go home, because she had some issues and a big fight with her hosts...
It was a nice (house)party, but also a little sad. :(

Then on Saturday I went with my host to a roller derby which was great. For those of you who don't know what a roller derby is... There are girls skating in a circle and push each other down or use their elbows or other parts of their body to hurt the other person.. but it was kind of boring.. because the first girls were too nice to each other! The second team though war great.. almost every round fell at least 2 girls... I really liked this afternoon!! :D
After that I went to Christopher's house and had some beer...And later we headed to H Street to Toyland were we played the jumbling tower game.. I <3 this game!! But except of that it was kind of boring there, so we went to another pub, which was also kind of boring... and since I had to go home anyway, because Denise slept at my place, but she went to another bar and that she doesn't have to wait alone in front of my house, I went home...

And on friday I had my first 90 minutes yoga lesson, which was EXHAUSTING... U are in a very humid room with around 105° Fahrenheit and then u have to do exercises too!! But after that u feel really great!! :D But u are all over wet!!

May 2nd- 15th, 2011

On Monday I went with an other au pair group to a salsa lesson at Lucky Bar. Unfortunately they told us there that there won’t be a lesson, but luckily there were these good salsa dancers who thaught us some steps. Those of you who know me well enough know that it took me some time until I overcame my fear to start dancing… Anyways, after some beers and this embarrasing cheering of all the people from my table I finally accepted a dance-offer. But it was kind of an awkward feeling since everybody looked at me, because all the ladies from my table yelled „GO SIMONE“!!! But it was fun though! :D And later I accepted an other 2 dancing invitaions! :D

On Friday I went out with some girls and guys who we learnt to know the weekend before! It was really fun, but also a little sad, because I learnt that my friend Denise broke up her year. So I had the last time a playdate with her and her hostchild at the mall this Tuesday. I’ll really miss her! 

Then on Saturday I had to get up early, because I had to be at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral, because there was this AUSTRIAN FESTIVAL!! I saw the ad were they wrote and I quote: „The 2011 event showcasing Austria, one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. “ And I was like, I HAVE to see that!! But my plans got almost foiled, because I surprisingly had to work voluntary, because my visitors from Austria are here when I have my May meeting, so I had to help out at my LCC’s work (which counted as a meeting). But back to the Austrian festival…. I arrived there and the first thing I saw were people running around in their Dirndl!! And of course I had to take some pictures with them! I also asked them if they were from austria, but they cheated, because they were americans, except of this one lady who was from Germany.

Anyhow, I also saw the Austrian Embassy, were they had travel planners for Austria, maps from Vienna and so on.. and then this lady asked me if I would be interested to visit this beautiful country and I was like, I am from Austria and suddenly all this people around me started laughing..

There were also some booths with apple-strudel and bratwurst! :D but the rest of this stands wasn’t really austrian…

And then later, these people in their Dirndl, started dancing.. They were called „Alpine Dancers“. And they always said a few words before they started dancing, like „This is a very famous and popular dance in Austria,…“ And I was like, I never saw or heard of this dance in my life before, but I took some videos, so I can show you some when I am back, maybe you know some of this dances. ;-)

And then after that festival I had to go straight back to this voluntary work at the world bank. I’m telling u, it was soo annoying there!! First hey misspelled my visitor pass (Eck Simone), so I had to go back to this guy who didn’t get it what I meant. And then we had to prepare some stuff for this family event, like blowing up some baloons or prepare everything for the station sign in. And then suddenly all this people were standing in front of our booth asking questions over questions, but we didn’t know what to do, because nobody explained anything to us. So we tried as good as we could to put the kids in the activity group for which they signed in, but everything had to be correct, because there were only 10 kids supposed to be in one group. And then there were also some groups cancelled, so we had to find an other group were they fitted in. Anyhow..It was really exhausting and I was glad when i finally could go home (after 4 ½ hours work). And then I was like half an hour  at home and then I had to leave for an babysitter job, where I cared for an very active and lively 6 years old boy, but he is nice though.

Washington Cathedral

my new friends the "Alpine Dancers"

Alpine Dancers

 

working at the world bank

at Spot with Vici :D

Maeve and Eric at the mall

 

Who was in this helicopter... it landed in front of the white house and there were like 30 police cars..

baking Vanillekipferl with Maeve :D

Yesterday I was with Marika at the movies, we watched „Water for Elephants“. I am telling you, that was a really good movie!! It’s a very advisable one! :D