Zoo, Volunteering & Booking my first trip!

So recently, not too much has been going on, but I've done some pretty cool stuff such as going to the Cincinnati Zoo with some of the other au pairs, volunteering at the Race for a Cure (USA's version of Race for Life) with Saralyn and Sarah and also I have finally booked my first trip - to Washington DC!!😁🇺🇸

Okay, so I went to the zoo with a big group of Au Pairs. Now most of these girls I had never met before because they are part of another company - we were actually in their cluster meeting, as one of the girls' host mom is a community counsellor for Au Pair Care! Anyway, they were all super nice and one girl actually lives down the street from me! I saw some awesome animals, such as elephants, tigers, rhino's and giraffes - and I even got to feed one of the giraffes! Was a pretty awesome day! It was really nice just to chill and meet new people!:)

One of the things I am most proud of doing here so far is volunteering at the Race for a Cure with Saralyn and Sarah. Basically, we had signed up to be course marshals, so we showed people which way they needed to go along the course and make sure they didn't get lost. Now we all had to wake up at 5:30am and be there for 6:30am to check in, get our t shirts and find out where we had to be. Now what we didn't realise is that the race didn't start until 8:45 so we had so much time to spare, and as it was so cold we just sat in my car with the hearing on watching silly videos!😂 now, much like the Race for Life back home, the Race for a Cure is in aid of breast cancer research, which is something very close to my heart, so it was such an honour being a part of the day, even if it was such a small part. There were thousands of people there - 700 of which were breast cancer survivors who all wore bright pink t shirts to symbolise it! They are all so amazing and so brave, it was inspirational!💞

Now the other main thing that has happened recently is that I have booked a trip to Washington DC for the first weekend in November, which is a week after my birthday, so a little birthday present to myself😉 the return flights were only $115 which was so good! It's amazing because I'm going to stay with Danielle who is the girl that I flew with and was at orientation with and we're going to get the chance to see Holly, another British girl at orientation with us! I can't wait to have some British banter and catch up with the girls, we all got so close during orientation and I've missed them! 

So that's pretty much it for now, not loads but hopefully I'll have more to talk about next time!☺️

Much Love,

Jodie xo

Caroline's Birthday, Austin Mahone, Clubbing & Fireworks!

Okay, so I realise that it has been a while since I last posted, and so much has happened in that time!!

So here's what has been going on..

Friday (August 29th) was Caroline's 6th birthday. The weekend before was her birthday party which was held at Coco Key Water Resort which is this small inside water park attached to a hotel. This place was so awesome!! There were water slides, a "lazy river", a jacuzzi/hot tub area for those over 16 and loads more, definitely things for people of all ages!! Now I held back for the first 30 mins or so as I didn't want to cramp the kids style or to take over, but after a while I really wanted to go and play, so Luke and Drew let me play with them so that Caroline could stay with her friends. It was so cool, Luke and I went down on one of the slides on a double raft and it was so awesome! It was so much fun, Caroline loved it and it tired the kids out so everyone wins!! Her actual birthday was on the following Friday - we had the party the weekend before as the weekend of her birthday was Labor Day weekend which many people go away for - and she got so many presents! I got her a Frozen cup and bracelet/necklace set and the bow and arrow set from "Brave" (incase you didn't realise by now - Caroline LOVES Disney😉) she told me that the bow and arrow set was her favourite present so I'm in the good books!👍 to celebrate, the family and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch Saturday afternoon. I LOVE the Cheesecake Factory and I tried the new lemon meringue cheesecake which was amazing!!! Anyway, her birthday was pretty fun, I love birthdays and mine is the next one in the family ☺️

Okay, so another thing that has happened since I last updated was Jacki and I went to the Austin Mahone concert in the city. My host grandpa gave me the tickets for free, so even though we didn't really have any idea who he was, we went anyway as it was a free night out!! What I didn't realise until about an hour before was that Austin Mahone is basically a lesser well known version of Justin Bieber, in the sense that his fan base is comprised of 13 year old girls!!😂😂 our ears were ringing by the end of the night, it was actually ridiculous, both Jacki and I felt so old hahah!! Although we couldn't really hear what he was singing, we both actually really enjoyed the concert and he was actually really good! The supporting acts - Fifth Harmony and Shawn Mendes - were pretty awesome too! So was a good night in general☺️

Okay, so a few other things that I've been up to! On the Friday night, Jacki, Saralyn and I went to a club in the city that allows people over 18 (the drinking age in the US is 21 - sucks!!) and we went to the last foam party of the year as it's the end of summer. When we arrived it was pretty dead, but as the night got later it filled up and it was pretty good! The music was good, the foam was awesome but there was just one problem - the amount of grinding on the dance floor was actuay ridiculous!!!! A massive culture clash here, some guys were leant up against a wall whilst a girl grinded on him, one girl even had her hands on the floor whilst she shook her butt to the guy!! We were all just stood there in total shock it was crazy! Some guys asked Jacki and I if we wanted to dance with them, but we knew what they wanted so we stayed well clear of them! (You'll be happy to hear Mum!) at one point this guy came up to Jacki, he didn't even say anything and she sighed loudly and rolled her eyes and he kinda got the hint and walked off haha!! Apart from that though, was a great night!👍😂

Now since I've arrived in the states my host dad has tried to explain American Football to me and I didn't really understand it! However, on Caroline's birthday we went to the kid's school's high school football team play, and I have to say it was actually really good and interesting! My host mom explained it to me as it went along in terms I could understand and I kinda got it hahah! The only disappointing part was that we had to leave early as thunder hit and the game had to be stopped which sucked but what I saw was actually really good! 

One final thing so far, which is a pretty big thing in the states is Labor Day Weekend. Now I'm not really sure what it is, but from what I've heard it's a weekend to signify the end of summer, the kids got an extra day off school and loads of people go away for the weekend. In Cincinnati on the Riverbank of the Ohio River that separates Ohio and Kentucky they have a big celebration called the Riverfest where they have lots of food and music followed by an amazing fireworks display in the evening. They had people from both Ohio and Kentucky on both sides of the river, and there was around 500,000 people at the event, crazy!! Jacki and I went with another German girl named Ma Ya who is an au pair in Cleveland, OH (about 5 hours away) who was in Cincinnati for the weekend, and she was so nice! It was an awesome weekend to end the summer!

I think that's pretty much it so far! Hopefully I will update this again a bit sooner!☺️

Much Love,

Jodie xo