Rebecca Ng Yuet Foong @Winter Park, Florida

It’s been 4 months in The United States since I left Malaysia to become an Au Pair in America. My host family is from Orlando, and I am taking care of one 4-year-old boy. From feeling worried, until slowly got used to the lifestyles here and now, I am enjoying my Au Pair life here so much. It is just so amazing how the past 4 months went by, I have had lots of fun activities with the Au Pairs in my area. I enjoy taking care of the child in my host family; in fact, we are like a good companion and been doing many activities together. American children are generally outspoken and able to express themselves well, it is a good experience to be with them and learn from them as well. I considered myself as a lucky au pair as I have a host family which likes to travel a lot. We went to The Bahamas, England, Czech Republic and Poland within these 4 months of my stay. Travel is fun but for me it is not a major issue in joining Au Pair program, the most important thing that I have learnt from The United States is the communication with others. Time flies when being an au pair, because it is so much fun when you know how to appreciate the host family and live your American life to the fullest.

I turned 23 the other day. This is the second time I am celebrating my birthday out of Malaysia and without my family. Lisa, my host mom has been asking for a couple of time prior to my birthday what I had in mind. A party? A trip somewhere? Dinner out? A certain present? I was spoilt for choice. Being the indecisive person that I am, it wasn’t until 2 weeks later, when Lisa asked me again that I decided that I wanted a party. Then came the other question. Where? When? I told her that it would be nice to have a party at our home. Easier. She then asked me if I wanted gifts or money… Being the sentimental person that I am, I chose gifts. Boy, if only I knew what was in store for me!

It was decided that my birthday party would be on the 2^nd of July. It was a Sunday. The night before that, we had another dinner party at our place and we went to the beach to watch the 4^th of July fire works display. I live in a gated lake community called Smoke Rise. It is a beautiful community with a lake and a man made beach, another lake that is used for ice skating in the winter, 2 play ground, a stable and arena for horses (Lisa loves horses), and a ski trail amongst other amenities. Anyway, coming back to Saturday night, our dinner party went late into the night with a few drinks here and there. It was a fun night. Gerry did charades for the songs that was playing and it was so difficult guessing them… Of course, songs from the early80s??? Way beyond my league.

The next morning, I was all set to go to church and Lisa was like ‘Wait… Gerry is working in the basement... your birthday present’. So she yelled to Gerry to cover up whatever that he was doing. I came down and all I saw was this insanely huge plywood lying on the floor. ‘You’re giving me wood as my birthday present? Go Santy’s’. That was my first reaction. Anyway didn’t think much of it. Came back from church and went straight for my bed. Haven’t recovered from last night party yet. We went to bed like 3 something…

Was awakened by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Heard voices down stairs. I couldn’t keep my mouth close the moment I got down to the kitchen. Everything was blue. The cutleries, the napkins, the balloons, the drinks (blue margaritas!), ‘blue’ blue cheese, blue salad dressing blue table cloth.. and everyone was dressed in blue!!! Now I understood why Lisa kept asking for my guest list. At first I find it a little odd. She didn’t ask for a list last year. But this year she was persistent. She never stopped asking. And I invited a few people whom she didn’t know and she asked me about them. That was weird. But I thought nothing of it. I also found out that she sneaked into my bedroom while I was having my shower to get numbers from my phonebook to make calls to my friends, asking them to wear something blue!

The party was awesome. Loads of laughter and love. Come present time, I was really excited. I got amazing stuff. A gift card from Victoria’s Secret and TJ Maxx, A Yankees baseball cap, a Giants jersey (American football), and a couple of DVDs from friends. Then came the time to open the stuff from my family. Started out with the tiniest one. Was a gold necklace with a blue topaz pendant! Beautiful. A baby blue jewelry case. A scrapbooking book. (Am starting to scrapbook) A bean bag. A picture frame with 98 pictures in it!!!! That blew me away. Lisa has painstakingly Photoshop my entire year with them. It was just mind blowing. Words could not descript my emotions. It will always be my most treasured possessions in life. It is more meaningful as Gerry was working on the frame with 5 hours of sleep and a hang over. I found out later that Lisa spent at least 3 late night working on it. I never thought I’ll be this loved.

Hello, everyone how are you? I'm doing well here. Now, let me introduce my host family to you. They are a happy and busy family of four. My host parents their work in energy efficiency in buildings, renewable energy and sustainable buildings for the US government. My host father work full time and he travels overseas about four times a year. My host mother works about 4/5 time. And the seven year old twins (girl and boy). They are interested to learn about things and most of time they play well with each other.

My schedule of the summer time, I need to take them go to camp at 8.30am and pick them up at 3.00pm. Usually, I will use the middle of the free time to explore the Washington, D.C. Last month, I had visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery and the Chinatown. So far, I had visited the National Museum of Natural History, Washington Monument, The Smithsonian Institution Buildings, National Zoological Park. And all the museums are free admission! Lastly, you can't miss the White House. The White House is the oldest public buildings in the District of Columbia and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most famous address in the United States.

While, in this three months I had meet a lot of friends come from different countries such as, Germany, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand and Korea. Sometimes, we have party of international food, Yammy, Yammy food! In this three months I really enjoy with my host family, new friend and a lot of interest place of the Washington, D.C. Here, I wish you all the best and I will enjoy a year in the USA. Thank you Aceglobal and Au pair in America!

After 2 years of knowing the program, I had finally submitted my application to become an au pair in America end of Jan, 2006, the 1^st week of April, I had decided to be matched with my current host family. Regardless the mixed feelings of the whole process, I want to shout out loud to my family, friends back in Malaysia, ‘I AM GLAD I MADE IT, I really am.’

After more than 20 hours flight from Malaysia to United States, after the tight scheduled orientation where I was fighting against jet lag, after the waiting for domestic flight to fly to my host family; I am so thankful that now I am with my host family in Solon, Ohio, a peaceful, relaxing suburban area. I am taking care of 2 kids, Josh is 11 yrs old, turning 12 soon & MeiMei is 6 yrs old.

Some friends asked me, ‘What makes you want to join this program, the monthly allowance is less than the salary that you earn in KL?’ Why?

Well, I don’t really think of that, I was purely attracted by the combination of this program, ‘Work-Study-Travel’. But first & foremost, I believe the experiences that I will gain from being in USA would be definitely different from being in Malaysia, may it good or bad or neutral, it will benefit me someway somehow. & I was thinking, I had spent so many years in Malaysia, experiencing one year in USA, why not?

What I love the most about this family is I am really being accepted as one of their family members, I still remember the 1^st thing my host mom said to me was ‘Welcome, this is your home, you are one of us, you can use everything inside this house, eat whatever food that you like, be comfortable, I want you to be happy here.’ At that moment, I was suddenly flooded with relief; only god knows how nervous I was to meet this family that I am going to spend my whole year in USA.

My host mom is a fun, friendly, straightforward lady, she is very sensitive & supportive in terms of being with me walked through the intense missing Malaysia feeling, missing family, friends, boyfriend, food…She took me to one of the Asian Market to buy whatever food that I familiar with, which she said it helps to ease the pain of missing home feeling. Well, somehow, it helps.

Currently, kids are on summer vacation, so we spent a lot of time together. For our family, we don’t really have a schedule or plan to follow, basically we will decide what we are going to do on the day itself. If it is too hot out there, we stay indoor, Josh taught me how to play chess, ok, he beats me every time; & he learnt from me how to pronounce 1 to 10 in Chinese while we were playing Congkak; or sometimes we will just stay warm, watching cartoons or movies. While with MeiMei, I enjoy playing toys with her, or do some paintings, but sometimes I just stay close to her, let her be with her toys & observe her imagination runs wild; we had tea party together with her stuffed animals, I have to admit it was kind of funny at 1^st, but after awhile, it was actually very fun to have me behave in a kid’s way, again. We also like to do simple arts & crafts together, we decorated boxes with sea shells, to do necklaces, Josh even made one bracelet for my birthday.

If the weather is good outside, we will play outside the house, we chase after each other & end up lying on the grass looking up the sky; or we spray each other with the hose after we water the plants; we ride bicycle to go round the neighborhood; we play ball, play with the swing & glide at the backyard, which MeiMei likes me to use the hose to spray water on the glide to feel like water theme park while she glides down. Josh & I will play basketball outside, I always use this chance to make him practice his English spelling if he couldn’t throw the ball into the basket.

We also like to do outings like go to the Public library nearby to check out books, VCR, DVD or CD, & the library here is so amazingly flooded with lot of treasures, good books, good CDs, very useful & fun to read children books, & furthermore, they always have some fun activities for kids such as stories telling session, play with instruments & so much more… well, for adults too, language classes & so on. I never think I will like a library that much J About 2 mins from the library is another place that we like to hang out, Solon Community Park aka Recreational center. My host mom got me a membership of that recreational center because kids like to go to have fun at its swimming pool, they have outdoor & indoor swimming pool. The outdoor swimming pool really bring tons of joy during summer, & if the weather turns cold, we can hang out at the indoor swimming pool. Apart from swimming pools, there is a gymnasium center, basketball court, squash court, jogging lap, rock climbing, they also provide a lot of activities to select from, like martial arts, aerobics, dancing class & lots more. Some days, I will help to arrange play date for Josh & Meimei, either we invite his or her friend over to play at our house, or I send them to their friend’s house to spend some hours.

Being in this family, 1^st thing I learnt is to talk to Josh & MeiMei as if they are adult, it is very challenging, because back in Malaysia, you talk like a kid to a kid, you treat them like a kid, you tell them off to wait till adulthood for things that you find is hard to explain or you ‘think’ it is hard for them to digest… Here, I am talking to them, explain things to them like to an adult, maybe I need more times to explain a simple thing, but surprisingly, they are digesting the explanation, it is amazing. My host mom doesn’t beat her kids for their misbehaviors, they discuss about it, they share their feelings, they talk it out, it is really like what I read about family in USA.

Most of the weekdays, after 6pm, I am free. Some days I like to drive 30 mins on the freeway to go to another county to meet with another Malaysian au pair, I am newer than her here, so she took me to a restaurant that sell Malaysian cuisine, I got addicted to its Nasi Lemak, so yummy, later, we are going to have Thai food, wow.. so excited checking out new places to eat, or to hang out. Last weekend, I went for jungle trekking with a hash group here in Solon, we trekked for about 3 hours, I had real fun with these group of new friends, will certainly go back for more fun time & more friends. Sometimes, I just like to stay home, watch TV, read some books…have time relaxing.

As part of our program, our host family will give us 500USD as study allowance, & we have to take up a short course or courses to meet our requirement. In fact, some tuition fee of the course or courses might exceed the amount, so we have to pay the exceeding amount. Personally, I would prefer to take up some free courses like English as 2^nd Language, American Sign Language or so forth to collect as many credits 1^st, then later will use the study allowance for the remaining credits. School starts at Falls, so I am still researching for more information on courses. After school starts, I will have more free time, by then, I will take up first aid or CPR training courses offered by the American Red Cross in my area which sponsored by au pair in America.

As for travel, my friend & I are planning to visit to Chicago downtown one of the weekend of September, then to the famous tourist spot, Niagara Falls, which is located 3 hours from our place. So far, we are still exploring places that we can drive to instead of to a farther place.

If you would like to be an au pair & explore USA, I would personally advice you to really choose a host family that you are comfortable with, that at least you are comfortable to discuss with them if any problems arise, don’t be too emphasize on the place that you want to go, or too focus on whether is there any Malaysian au pair in the cluster. Take a chance, many people out there we can be friend with, have fun!!

I am Paik Sung, Au Pair in Atlanta,GA since 22 May’06. I am taking care of three boys from 3 - 6 years old. They are very active and smart kids; Of course it is not easy to handle them. Because of that I have learnt more in communicating with children. This is one of the most valuable parts from this program. I am sure one day I will need to apply that knowledge.

My Host parents are very logical, organize and understanding person. They are very busy in their work as counselor in Marketing and IT. However, I will always have my working schedule ready by the weekend, which is very organize and detail schedule and I always have my salary bank in on time.I have learnt a lot from them in varies aspect of life.

I had started my Spanish class on 6 July; I think this is a good opportunity to learn Spanish. As a lot of people speak Spanish in Atlanta, I might take two more level of Spanish depends on how is my first level goes. learning Spanish allowed me to explore more on the Latin culture.

Currently I am the only Malaysian Au Pair In my cluster. Therefore I always hang out with most of the south American Au Pair. The first time when we went out with some of Brazilian guys, I was shocked when the guy approached to kiss my cheek. That was just too funny to fell shocked, as that is just the America Latin culture to greet people. Malaysian Au Pairs always can speak good English than some of other countries’ Au Pairs. So they will correct my Spanish and I help them on some English.

Well! About Travel. Atlanta itself has the Head quarter of CNN and Coca-cola. Atlanta also Hosted Olympic in year 1996.Georgia has a lot natural scenic places like beautiful lakes, caves, mountains and Waterfalls. In Some Weekends, Some Malaysian Au Pair from another cluster and I will plan a trip in a car, to go some of the scenic places. The trip always Fun and full of Excitement. Sometime we almost get lost. However we usually printed the map in www.Mapquest.com or we will use GPS system to help us to drive in US.

Whenever my host family goes for travel inside US, I am invited. We just came back from family Gathering vacation with my host family in Emerald Isle, NC .It is a very beautiful long outer Bank Beach, with the extremely round clear Sunset. The beach was just right behind the condo that we stayed. We went to beach everyday. I have experienced vacations that I may not be able to afford on my own but now I do not need to pay a single cent!

After almost three months in US, I have learnt their culture and their language. My spoken English has improved a lot. I have tasted a lot of American food. I have seen some of their beautiful natural scenic places. I learn new thing Everyday and I believe I will see more in the program and make myself more fulfilled.

After graduating from University, i wanted to take a long break before entering working world. i know after i start working, i will not have this opportunity to travel so far for so long. That is why I'm in Au Pair in America program. Being far away from home country for 11 months now, the lessons and experiences that I gained is priceless. Even though, I have a hard time at the beginning where I have to speak English all the time, eat Western foods everyday, drive on the opposite direction, have to get used to the cold weather and everything look so different to me. You will never realize that, As the time goes by, you started to enjoy yourself.

I stayed with a small family in Atlanta, Georgia, taking care of a baby girl who just turn 1 year old last May. Her name is Catie, a very happy and chubby girl. I guess she is double the size with those who same age with her. At this age, she is very eager to learn new and copy new things. I like being around her even after my working hours. She will never make you bored with her silly acting. I teach her to speak Chinese and a little bit of Malay as well as sign language that i learned here. Catie did not know how to speak yet, but she understand what I said. For example, Catie like to go outside. So when the weather is good, then i will said to her "Let go Kai Kai", then she will follow me to the door, when she hurt herself and i will said "Sayang sayang" to comfort her, she will stop crying. When she is hungry and she want to drink bottle, she will sign to me that she is hungry. That's make me understand what she need.

My host parents are really nice and easy going people which make me feel so comfortable staying with them. They give me a nickname at home, "Aunty Eng" and they will try to involve me in family occasions, introduced me to other family members and willing to bring me along for family vacations. I consider myself lucky have the opportunity to travel a lot of places in America. I have followed my host family vacations to St. Louis in Missouri, Seattle in Washington and cruise to Alaska.Last June, my host family organized a camping and canoeing trip for me with a few of my friends in Hiawassee River, Tennessee to spend our weekend. All of us really have a great time. Besides, i did go for vacation with my friends that i met here too. I have been to 12 states in America, Cancun in Mexico and Victoria in canada. I stay in America, but my group of friends are from Australia, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Bosnia and South America. I am happy that I have a diverse group of friends, get the chance to know other country as well. We keep sharing thoughts, knowledge and cultures.

I have a tight time table with the kid at home, so i'm just taking short courses at night in nearby University and free ESL (English For Second Language) class in Family Centre. The most interesting course that i took here is sign language class which bring me to the deaf world. My lecturer teach us how sing by signing and i did a poem by signing about my life in America for my presentation. Have you been to deaf party? It is so different. No music, no sound, no talking, and no noise, but everyone still enjoy in the party by signing to each other. That's really make me realize that there is another community exist around us.

I am glad I'm here in America and I'm extending my year with the same family for another year. My best philosophy is "Colour your life while you are still alive".

Life in USA is full of excitement and fun. I am very blessed to have a wonderful host family to love and care for me.

When I first came here, my girls had to adapt to me and me adapting to them. I start to know how they behave and react to some situations and get to know them better. At the same time, they were getting to know me better too. Things were tough at first, but everything turned out better than I thought. I notice that patience is really the key to success.

One person that I am totally grateful to is my host mother, Marylee, who has always been so supportive of what I did with the girls. She also advice me how to handle a lot of situations. When started to learn about the girls, I asked Marylee many questions and she patiently answered all my questions. I am very lucky to have her in my life. She taught me a lot about the girls and life too.

I made more and more friends here, especially Malaysians as we have yahoo group. We contact each other and talk on the cellphone after 9pm on weekdays but weekends all day due to the talk plan here is free at that time. Not forgetting leaving voicemail is free here too. This is a great talking plan and I hope that one day Malaysia's cellphone plan have this too, then everyone would be so happy, talking and keeping in touch with everyone that they know.

As for my study, I took two weekend courses which is study and travel to Montreal, Canada and Washington DC. I like to study and travel as I can learn about the place and travel at the same time to new places. Since I have just graduated from University before I came here, the study tours worked out best for me. I make friends with many au pairs from various countries in the tour especially Europe.

My host family took me to Jamaica a few months after I came to USA. It was great! They paid all my expenses, they took me to many places. I experience many first time at Jamaica like horse back riding, waterfall hiking at Dunn's River Falls, rafting and etc. The food there is great too, especially an Italian restaurant that has good service and serves good food too.

At the end of July, I went to a Yankee baseball game with two of my friends which are au pairs too but they are from Thailand. I had a wonderful time watching the game although it was nasty hot! The Yankee stadium was packed with people and everyone was cheering for Yankee team. They cheer "Let's go Yankee" a few times. In between, they also sang "God Bless America". I think that Americans are really patriotic. Although I know that I am not as patriotic as Americans, but still I am proud to be a Malaysian. Malaysia will always be my home sweet home.

I myself experience a lot of things here for the first time too like watching a basketball game live in front of me, so close that I could say Hi and they can hear me. The basketball game was between Universities students, it was great to see that. As my host father Ralph used to study at that University for his Masters so he buys the basketball tickets every year. I am so fortunate to be with my host family. Also they took me to see a Broadway show for celebrating Chinese New Year. They brought me to Hibachi Japanese restaurant to celebrate my birthday, not forgetting some gifts and birthday cards too. As we grow older, the lesser people celebrate our own birthday, so I am totally glad that I can celebrate with my host family at USA. A totally different experience for me.

After living here for almost one year, I learned a lot from my host family and friends here. I learned to say "Bless you" when someone sneeze near me, say positive thinking to everyone always at all times. I think that as Chinese, we are trained from young to be negative, always thinking about the bad side of things. Luckily my mother is English educated, she always make me think positively and staying here in USA made me even more positive thinking. My host parents always encourage their children by saying "Good job! Well done! I am so proud of you!". How I wish my parents would say that to me when I was young. But never too late, I would definitely say that to my kids in the future to encourage them.

Although I was studying in KL away from my hometown for four years. I wasn't that independent as I thought I was because I had always grab every opportunity as I can to go back my hometown for the weekend. But after staying here makes me really independent as I cannot go back to see my family always and rely on them. I used to rely on my parents to solve my problems, they were always there to protect me. My home was my shield and shelter. But now coming here, I have to solve every problem by myself. I learn to be strong and bold, thinking that every problem I can solve by myself with the help of my God as I am christian. Many problems we think that it was so difficult at first, but after sometime it turn out to be a small matter and memory. Nothing is impossible to solve if we try to solve it.

I know that when the time comes for me to go back, I would definitely miss my time here and everyone that I know. So to prevent myself from regretting the things that I didn't do here, I will try my best to do all the things I want here before going back. The one thing I would miss really much is I get to travel to many states and every states have its own unique attractions. As time goes by, I would always treasure the memories that I had here.

Last of all, I want to take this wonderful opportunity to thank my family and friends that supported me throughout my desire to come here and still supporting me now. I wouldn't have make this far without their support. They were always there for me whenever I was happy or sad. I know that I am truly blessed and grateful to have so many people that supports and love me for the way I am. I am very glad that there are so many people waiting for me to go back and see them. Waiting is a long process, but they are willing to do that which shows how much they love and care for me. I know that I can never ever repay what they have done for me so I will try my best to live here as the best I could as a way of repaying them.

Thanks so much for reading this article about my life in USA. Take care everyone and all the best!

I have had a hard time in making my decision when I first decided to join the APIA program. Beside to let my family understand and support me to make it happen, I have to put down my career and also another great chance to further for higher level of academy of UK qualification.

After I've been accepted into APIA, it took time to wait for any call from host families. Fortunately, APIA Malaysia Forum helped out a lot in giving advices, suggestions, even introduce the current Au Pairs in United States or other Pre-Au Pairs like me. Finally I've made up my mind to accept one of the six families in my list and fly to US after 3 months. I feel lucky too because I was able to meet my host father in Malaysia before I departed.

My host family live in Palmer, Massachusetts US. My host father works in Malaysia and my host mother works near Boston. There are three children in the family who are: Daniel (17years old), Ashley (15 years old) and Ian (6 years old). My main responsibility is Ian. My daily duties including: wake the kid up and prepare breakfast, put him to bus and get him from bus after school, teach him on his homeworks, play with him and drive him to practice, classes or activities, clean his play room, our share bathroom and bedroom. Sometimes I have to drive the other kids to their practices and activities too. At the beginning, it's really hard for me to get into their family. It's a normal circumstance due to I was still a stranger to them although I'm not the first Au Pair that they have. Also different lifestyle and culture are another reason that hard to communicate to each other. Nevertheless, 2 minor accidents which happened within a week in the Winter caused my homesick got worse than I expected. Crying was the only way that I could let out my stresses.

However, the understanding, care and help from my host family, my family's and friends' support made me overcame it easily in a short period. Since then, I have a group of Malaysian Au Pairs that we called each other like family. I celebrated the first Chinese New Year in US with my Au Pair "sisters" in New York. When I got home in Massachusetts, I felt so touched because my host family decorated my room with a lot of Chinese New Year stuff and I had a $20 angpow that made me almost cried.

As time went by, my host family and I are getting closer to each other and I feel like I'm part of the family. Recently all of us went to Malaysia for our summer vacation. I had been told that I'm the first Au Pair in Malaysia that have a chance to go home during the program year without paying my airfare. I was so happy to meet my family and best friends that apart for half year. I had a great time in Malaysia with my host family.

My Au Pairs family: Vernie Chen, Apin Ong, Pei Yee Choong, Crystal Ng, Annie Hu, Chloe Tang, Amy Tin, Yi Duan and Annabelle Tan, we all always help out each other and meet up often to sight-seeing to a lot of places. I've been to Philadephia PA, New York, Boston MA, Houston TX, Washington DC and more in just 8 months. It really makes me feel so good that I can travel around to see something new. My life even busier after I get the chance study in UMASS Amherst MA. I have a lot of friends who come from most of the countries around the world.

I'm now having a satisfied life that I always want and I'm so happy each day. Besides sharing experiences with the current Au Pairs, we also help out in giving advices and comments to other Au Pairs who will arrive soon. Thanks to Aceglobal and APIA for providing a link to a brand new life and experience in way to live and study in US.

Hi Regene

I finally arrived in stanford california friday night, today is 1st time can get online.

everything is fine, and my host mom is very nice. and community councelor contacted me.

I would like say thank you, for helping settle my flight for New York. I late for orientation I did catch up, and did meet some nice au pairs in orientation. I'm glad everything is work out now.

Thanks everyone for helping from Aceglobal

That's for now
will see you again :)
have nice day!!

Kristie

Sorry for late reply, everything are up to my ears right now. Busy with study for the driving test, search information for study, spend time with host mum and her two girls, learn about cooking, get use to the advanced facilities, fight with the cold weather...... I just finished removed all the furniture and stuffs in my room because Teresa (host mum) asked the workers come over to paint the room. Actually the color in my room still bright, but she said I must choose the color that I like to live with, just I will feel happy with the environment. Ha-ha, I do not know whether it is true or not!

I just recovered from flu 2 days ago. I went out with an Thailand Au Pairs ( also from our agency) to downtown, we walked around the pub and then hang around the city in the cold weather, then the next day I got sick. Before that I felt quite cold at here, but after recovered from the illness, I found that I can stand more against the coldness. It is not so bad!

The 2 girls are hyperactive; they are cute when they are obedience. Anyways, if they are moody, it is like the 3rd World War occurs. Can you imagine how "amazing" it was?

There are still a lot of stories, so, this mail i will set it as "to be continue"......

Hi Regene, thanks for your greeting :) Im doing good here, adapting the completely new culture as you mentioned. I’m starting get familiar with the neigbourhood and get to know many friends as well. They are helpful and lovely, i like them so much.

Well, everythings are really fresh to me :) Cold weather, left hand side driving, hanging traffic light, smart american kids and friendly american.

ACEglobal and the consultants are really appreciated with sincere. Thanks a lot !!!!

Hey, sorry for my late replied. many apologies. How are you doin? Im doin good now. It was a long haul flight! That was tired and jet lag though. The orientation was good and informative. My counselor is a very nice guy. He always called and asked how am I doin and stuff. The first few weeks was kind of tough as to learn the american culture and the cold here. I need to learn to drive on the opposite direction and get to know the area and stuff! It was kind of weird and sometimes I was actually driving to the opposite direction as I used to drive in M'sia! Oh Wow! What a great challenge! They girls I taking care of is fine. oh well, I just got back from vacation in New York and Florida with the family. We've been gone for 10 days. It was awesome. We went to Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, World Trade Centre Rebuild Site and been on the subway too. As for Marco Island, Florida is kind of a place for beaches, seafood and sightseeing of wildlife. It was fun and we had a great time. And now we are back to our normal life and eat normal. Oh well, get to go now to do my laundry. Take care. Talk later.

Dear Regene,

Thanks for mailing me. Sori for reply late coz i m still busy adapt to my new environment. I m very fine and happy here.

YUp, the 1st time meet wif my host family really tension but everything is OK although they are late picking me up frm the hotel coz they lost.

I think i make the right choice. They treat me well and i really feel like a part of the family. The girls are adorable and they like me very much. My host parent buy me 10 KG of rice at my second day arrive in Jim Thorpe. They are very nice and my host mum try to cook food no too salty. Later we will have a "Chinese" party oso.

Jim Thorpe really is a very small and beautiful town. It's very peace here. My host parent try introduce their frens and neighbour to me so that i wont feel lonely here. Later i will join the choir in church wif my neighbour. They are no au pairs in my town/stay nearby and tat's the oni things that no really good.But i know the family is more important.

Hi Regene,

How are you? Thank you for your greetings. I'm doing good in New Jersey. I enjoy to spend the time with the family. They are being so nice to me so that I won't feel like homesick so much.

I will go to school in fall as summer is a great time to have fun. There will have a lot of outdoor activities and I definitely will enjoy so much. Later on I'll join the Trek America too...it must be so exciting!

Thank you aceglobal again for giving me this opportunity to join this wonderful program. My host family love this program so much. I'm the 11th au pair in this family. Can you imagine that?

Hi Everybody!!

I've reached here for almost three weeks now. My body was not used to the time difference for a few days when I arrived here in Connecticut,because of the disruption of my body rhythms, which meant I tended to sleep in the afternoon because it was sleeping time on Malaysian time, guess what all Asian whom I met in the orientation like Thai, Korean, Singaporeon and all the Malaysian were also jet-lagged, hahaha.., but my body is adjusting well to the change now.

It's spring here... and it's raining these few days, I would say it's hot and humid now!! I've got a pool pass here, so I can go swimming very often. The swimming pool that I go is not too far from my place, the water is very cold but the weather is hot.

I enjoy the weather and new environment here...My host family treats me good, they've provided a cozy place for me to stay. We even went to an Asian market last week, at where my host dad
had bought a lot of Asian foods for me. And most of all, I work along well with the kids, they like me and I like them too, they are sweet, cute and adorable.

Culture wise.. I would say American culture is a brand new exposure for me. Worth exploring in term of their lifestyle, eating habits, American's belief, taboos, so on and so forth!!

I am considering on the courses to study right now...I may participate in official class work in the Fall. Meanwhile, I am looking for some additional classes to spend my spare time such as Martial Art, basic and intermediate Yoga classes, authentic dance of 'what-so-ever' as well as some volunteer works ;) Anyone in the same cluster with me have any information on these activities? I appreciate your inputs.

Well, here's the updates of myself in the States, which I hope those who know me can know how am doing now, whereas to the pre-departure Au Pairs, this is my experience to be shared with you all, and good luck!!

With warmest and best regards,
Cindy