Annika - Princeton Jct./West Windsor NJ

18/8/2008, 15:26

Hi, my name is Annika, I'm from Germany and at the moment 21years old...
I live in a village 15min from Princeton in New Jersey.
From my year being an AuPair I'v got about 5 weeks left. But I don't know exactly yet when I gonna be leaving.

I've been in my hostfamily in NJ for 8months now. Before that I have been in Germantown, Maryland for 3months.
I changed my hostfamily because of the age of the children. I'm not good in caring for kids who aren't in school yet...

My 'new' hostfamily are my hostmom (she is divorced. the Dad lives 10min away though) and two girls: G. 12y. and M. 9y.

Invité

Welcome Annika!!!

19/8/2008, 01:29

Welcome Annika ! welcome

Do you intend to stay a 2nd year ?

You must know NYC as your pocket, don't you ? Laughing

I hope you are going to give us all your knowledge about NY on the forum. That would be great ! Very Happy

Most of member have not begun or are going to begin their year so we need advice ! Razz

Hope to see you soon on the forum !

PS : To access to the forum, you need to read and sign the Terms of use just above "Our introductions". I'll give you the access after that. Thanks.

19/8/2008, 04:17

Welcome Annika!

What have you visited during your 8 months? And where have you been? have you met many people?

Is your host family nice? How is the mom with you? And the kids?

As Tan said lots of us are still in France and we quite like reading witnesses about the Au pair experience. I think we all are a bit stressed and knowing that everything is fine for you will be a good thing!!

What are you planning to do in 5 weeks? Do you have to finish your studies?

Pauline

19/8/2008, 10:09

Hey ! Welcome to you Annika !

19/8/2008, 13:03

Welcome Annika

7/9/2008, 10:29

I'm going back now to Germany in 25 days. I'm gonna attend college there (Geographie in Cologne).

My hf is very nice and i really liked being there. they even painted the room yellow as i wished (it needed to be painted anyway)

I wasn't in NYC much. Maybe about 3times or so? but it's kind of really easy to get there, at least from where i live. the NewJersey-Transit, a train which goes from my place to Penn Station (one of the/the main station in NYC) at least once a hour. From my place (it takes about 70-90min to go from here to NYC by train) a Round-Trip (to and from NYC) costs 20$, cheaper than going the same distance in Germany *__*

During my time in Maryland I visited Washington D.C. a few times and with my old hf I went to Cleveland in Ohio about 3 times bc they had family living there..
After I changed my hf I finally found some friends (I lived in the country in Germantown about 20min away from anything and my Cluster wasn't the best either).

With one of those friends I travelled to Virginia Beach for four days and visited also the Shenandoah National Park. But it was just Spring (over Easter) the it was still cold and the trees weren't green yet. I totally recommend doing sth like that during late spring, summer and early fall. Especially during Indian Summer which is so beautiful here. I've never seen so many colours at tree-leaves before *___*

Then in May I went to the Niagara-Falls with 2friends. You can find cheap and more or less good bus-trips to almost anywhere on www.gotobus.com! They start from Chinatown in NYC and is kind of the best way to go somewhere when you don't have much money which AuPairs never have ... ^^
So we went to the Falls and Toronto which is as every other big city, grey and busy. But at least we now can say: I've been in Toronto...
The Falls have been impressive though my hostmom believes that much closer to us are much more impressive Falls. I don't know where exactly and if it's true....

In March I also went to Nags Head on the Outerbanks in North Carolina. It was really windy and therefore freezing. But I saw the place where the Wright-Brothers flew the first time with the first Airplane ever and also some Dolphins!
It's really beautiful there even though it was March!

My next Trip is going to Boston the next Weekend coming. Then, the weekend after that I'll spend the whole weekend in NYC, my parents are visiting.

About finding friends: If you want to you can find plenty. But you need to look for them! All the AuPairs being here already have friends. Most of them don't mind getting new ones at all but you must call them and ask them out!!
If they forget to call you back, call them again though we don't have so much to do we still are very busy XD

7/9/2008, 10:50

Welcome ^^

7/9/2008, 11:01

Welcome Annika cherry