Hello :)

Wow! So a lot has happened in the past week. Last weekend I experienced Byron Bay, we also went to mooloolaba and I practiced my surfing, all last week Stephanie was in Sydney, Ai-Vy's 4th birthday party was this weekend, which I spent all week planning for, and today I am going in to train for my new job. :) It has been a bit hectic but very enjoyable!

Byron Bay was of course beautiful, the water was a bit cooler but not nearly as cold as back home! We went on a lovely hike up to the light house, or the dragon house as Ai-Vy likes to call it. :) I stood at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland and saw way to many bats.....haha. On Sunday we got up bright and early to go practice my surfing at mooloolaba and so Young could test out his new board. The water was perfect and apparently the waves were to because the water was infested with surfers. I was able to get up a few times and hopefully with a bit more practice I will be able to use the smaller board....it is just a workout trying to lug the long one around everywhere, especially in the water.

During the week I planned for Ai-Vy's birthday party, which included me getting a little crafty. I had a lot of fun planning it and going shopping for everything. I am slowly learning my way around town and becoming a not so pro at driving a manual...but shopping for everything definitely helped! Over all I think the birthday party was a total success! Ai-Vy and her friends had a great time, as did I :)

A beautiful beach and a day with Ai-Vy.

A beautiful viewpoint at Noosa

Well it is official, Noosa is by far my favorite beach! We went last Sunday and it was absolutely gorgeous. About an hour and a half drive up north wasn't too bad, and it was completely worth it. We took a trail with some pretty amazing views back to a smaller beach where the water was blue and quite warm. It was perfect for swimming in because the waves were not too intense, we could even take Ai-Vy and Kien-Nhu out into the waves. :) Later in the day when the tide went out a bit a lot of surfers showed up, I am hoping that since young just received his new custom surfboard that next time we go we will do a bit of surfing and I can practice!

Ai-Vy walking on the rainbow

Last week Ai-Vy and I took a bus into the city to go check out some of the children exhibits at GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). She really enjoyed the bus ride and looking out the big windows. After the bus ride we had a short walk over to the museum. We were a bit disappointing when we got to the exhibit and the staff said we could not touch anything....isn't the point of a children exhibit to usually be interactive and child friendly? Ai-Vy still had a good time looking at everything but got bored after a while. The next exhibit we went to was fun, Ai-Vy was given some stickers and told to place them wherever she wanted to in the room. The room was set up like a house but everything was white with different sized colorful stickers placed everywhere covering everything. After awhile we had a long walk along the water over to Southbank and played at the park and chased birds for a little while. We then went and got some chocolate ice cream to cool off before heading home. Yum :)

Mmmmm ice cream after a long walk

One month in Australia! :)

Hello everyone! I have now been in Australia for about a month and things are going pretty well. I have seen some pretty cool things and am starting to make some friends :) I met a group of other Au Pairs last week in the city for the night and had a pretty good time. The girls were from all over the world, Germany, Finland, France, Estonia, the US, and I'm sure there were more! Last weekend I also made my way to Surfers Paradise for a night with two other girls from the US and met up with many others from all over. It was a lot of fun and I will be keeping in touch with them :)

Last week I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend Nathan arrive in Brisbane after trying for over a week to catch a flight. Stephanie and Young were kind enough to let him stay for a few days until he caught a flight down to Sydney where he will be living and working for the next year. While he was here we kept fairly busy and he was able to see a lot. Ai-Vy got along with him very well and is still asking where Nathan is. :) How cute.

Last weekend we went to Currumbin, it was beautiful and I had so much fun playing in the amazing water. The waves were great for body surfing! Next weekend we are going camping at Stradbroke Island for a night or two with some of Young and Stephanie's friends. I am looking forward to it, as it should be great fun! :)

My new family

Bonjour! I am settling in quite nicely now that I have been in Australia for a little over a week now.
Although it of course takes some time to call a new home yours and feel completely comfortable Stephanie and Young are doing a great job! The house is great and they have kept me very busy :)

Young is very enthusiastic and up beat, something I am going to have to work on during my stay.

Stephanie was out of town for work in Sydney the first week I was here, but has now been back since Friday night. She is very nice, and will soon be teaching me to drive her car... which is a manual and will be driven on the left side of the road, two things I have never done before.
It will be interesting and I will be sure to update everyone on how it goes.

Ai-Vy is adorable with a big personality, she loves to swim and never gets tired of reminding you haha. I am having lots of fun getting to know her and playing games with her.

Although she won't let me do her hair yet, but I'm sure she will come around. She is currently taking swim lessons (what a surprise), and will soon be starting dance...
I'm excited for that and am looking forward to going with her and watching, as I did dance when I was young :)

Baby Kiki (Kien-Nhu) is quite the cutie, he is a great baby... but doesn't seem to like the car much , unless we are off roading, which I find very odd.

He is on the brink of walking and is standing up on his own, we are just waiting for that first step which I am very excited to be able to be here for! :)

I can't wait to see how he grows in this next year!

So far I am having a great time in the land of OZ and I'm sure it will continue to be amazing.

I am looking forward to all the adventures that lay ahead! :)

Finally here!

Hello everyone! I have finally arrived in Australia safe and sound. The plane ride was very long and boring but I managed. When arriving at the airport in Brisbane I was very surprised with how easy going through security and customs was, it was quite the relief! :)

After a very long flight with some not so very yummy food I have officially arrived in Australia and was greeted with a camera in my face by Young and lots of hugs from Ai-Vy at the Airport in Brisbane! :) Upon arrival we drove to my new home, driving on the left side of the road....it will take a bit to get used to it. Ai-Vy showed me around the house, and asked to go to the swimming pool right after (she is a fish). We swam for a while but then the rain came so we were off to the beach! Where it was surprisingly warm, but I didn't bring a suit so I missed out on all the fun :/

The second day I was here Young and Stephanie were sure to keep me busy, jet lag was not allowed to ruin the fun. We went out to the country a bit and did some off-roading to get to a beautiful place. Although I was a bit skeptical about the mucky water and what might be lurking in it.......crocodiles, snakes, sharks.....who knows! :) but after seeing everyone swim I was reluctant to jumping in as it was very warm out, and the water tuned out to be quite nice.

Ai-Vy and I enjoyed the sun and the pretty views at the lake.

All Ai-Vy wanted to do was go fishing! She had never been before and was very excited, although she discovered that it is quite boring and involves a lot of doing nothing. She soon hopped in the water with Young and swam all day long. We didn't catch any fish that day, but we did catch a turtle! :)

My third day in Australia it was very hot, nearly 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It involved a lot of lounging around the pool and eating delicious mango's, yum yum.

I have already tried so many new foods here! It is awesome, although in this picture I am eating tripe.....I didn't know at the time, so it was not so awesome ha ha. After discovering what it was I didn't find it very appetizing. Although I did try kangaroo meat tonight and it was surprisingly good, as has all the other food Young has made, he is a very good cook. sadly I haven't had the best appetite since I have been here, I'm thinking it could be part of the jet lag, and am hoping my appetite will resume to normal shortly so I can try more yummy foods.

After an interesting lunch we picked Ai-Vy up from childcare and took her to the beach, she was very happy. The beach was wonderful and with nearly no waves it was good for Ai-vy and the water was very warm. We walked down the beach a bit and found some rock where there were lots of little fish and some cool shells to look at. Next time we go there we will have to bring goggles and snorkels :)

At the beach we found lots of fish, and even caught a shrimp. I have already seen many cool animals, I saw a caterpillar with a horn, some wild turkeys, and a wallaby. Lets not forget the strange sounding birds that wake me up early in the morning, which is 5:00 here! I knows that sounds early to everyone back at home, but it is already light out by then and very warm, so it makes it fairly easy to wake up:)

A little bit about me :)

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful and safe New Years :) I will be celebrating the New Year here tonight! This is a little photo assignment that Young and Stephanie gave me. These four photos were chosen by them from my Facebook, and I will tell you the story behind each :)

This is a photo from my Senior High School prom with two of my good friends, Jade and Kayla on either side of me. Prom is a big formal dance at the end of every school year for Juniors and Seniors. This was right before we went to dinner and before our big pink Hummer limo picked us up!

My beautiful dog Leum in the snow. We were trying to sled although there was only a dusting a snow but it was exciting, we don’t get snow too often here in Vancouver because we live in a valley. Sadly we had to give Liam to one of my dads friends because he was a bad dog Luckily he went to a place with lots of room to run and play!

This was during a high school soccer game, we were winning against a team with good rankings and I just wanted to be out there on the field playing. That explains the look on my face haha! Also one of my best friends was taking the picture so I was just being a goof.

This was before my High School graduation in my cap and gown. My mom made me a pretty crafty confetti cake in celebration J Although I didn’t get to eat much of it because apparently my uncle is a pretty big fan of confetti cake too haha!

Australia, here I come!

Happy Holidays everyone! 10 days and counting till I leave my home here in the US! I can't wait to make my way to Australia and enjoy some vitamin D. I have been talking about wanting to go to Australia since I was young with two of my good friends, just so happens I'm the lucky one that is going to make it there first. I cant wait to explore the beautiful country I have heard many good things about Australia and the people, that they are fun loving and relaxed....although I ran into a girl from Sydney the other day and was warned that the drivers can be a little crazy and that "J-walking" is not acceptable like it is here in Portland. I expect that moving to Australia for a year would be an absolutely amazing experience and a great cultural change for me no matter who I was with, but lucky me, I get to spend it with Young, Stephanie, two kids that are cute as can be, and two pretty cool dogs! :) I presume that I will learn a lot, I have already learned so much and I haven't even arrived yet. Just the whole process of preparing to travel out of my country has been a new experience for me, stressful, but definitely a learning experience. There are many things that I would like to do and see while I am in Australia of course!

1: I would like to see some strange animals! As I know there are many that I have never seen...the animals here are not very exotic, nor interesting.

2: I would love to learn how to surf, I hear it is very popular in Australia, it is popular here too, but the water is too chilly for me :)

3: Now I know this one is pretty cliché especially to anyone reading this from the US, but I would like to see the Sydney Opera House, maybe the space needle....we have one here in Washington, I could compare lol :)

4: Learn French

5: Learn to cook some good food

6: Hike in beautiful places

7: Learn the Aussie lingo

8: Scuba dive, I would be fine with just snorkeling. I want to see some awesome fish :)

9: Make many new friends....or mates! :)

10: Have loads of fun and amazing experiences!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Best wishes to you all, I cannot wait to arrive :)

How this all came to be.

Hello again! Just wanted to recap on everything that has happened in the last few months or so for me here in cold wet Vancouver, Washington.

I found out about being an Au-Pair in October and was recommended the GreatAuPair website by a fellow student at school. Soon after I signed up and created a profile, I was pretty adamant from the start about finding the right family for me. It was distracting me from my schoolwork a great deal...but not too much. I talked to many families some here in the US, some from Europe, others in Australia, and one from Spain. I almost agreed to go with a family here in the US in California, but luckily Young and Stephanie sent me quite an interesting message putting me in the position to "show my true colors" I got very lucky and they liked what they heard! (as did I) :) From there we chatted a great deal via Facebook, maybe a bit too much, they became to think I was addicted.

As we got to know each other better I became more and more excited about the idea of spending the year with such wonderful people, in such a gorgeous place! Once I was sure that I wanted to come and that this family was right for me and I was right for them, all that needed to be done was to convince my parents.....it was a bit harder than you would think. My parents chatted with Young and Stephanie and got many terrific references from them, so terrific that they couldn't say no!

I was ecstatic when I could finally tell Young and Stephanie that I would be coming to join their family very soon, although they didn't think that the end of January was soon enough. So with a bit of work and some more convincing of my parents and cooperation from Young and Stephanie I will be arriving in Brisbane, Australia on January 7th at 7:50 am.!!!! I can't wait to meet everyone in person and have fun with little Ai-Vy and Kien-Nhu! See everyone soon :)

A new addition to the family

Just a quick explanation dear blog reader (sorry French friends, I've got to switch to English now, so you'd better get up to speed with that language :D)...

I know, I haven't updated this blog for a long long time (a bit more than one year in fact). I'm not going to blame anyone, that's just life, "c'est la vie". Two kids, a house, a garden, a job, and more importantly a very demanding wife and that's it, no more time for the blog :(

But first, here is a quick picture of my two little treasures!

Kien-Nhu is growing quickly (too quickly) and is getting cutter by the day. He is looking so much like his mother, which is a good thing I reckon given how pretty Stephanie is <3

But more importantly, he's the best and easiest baby ever! Started sleeping through the night just after two weeks, always happy and smiling, a real pleasure. We are considering having ten like him! Maybe I shouldn't speak too fast... looks like he's started throwing tantrums...

Our beloved Ai-Vy is also growing quickly (way too quickly) and is starting to look more like a little girl than a little baby. She's really cheeky and while sometimes driving us crazy :) is a little girl full of life and imagination that loves animal and horses like her mother!

And here is a little picture of us taken a few weeks ago. Getting older (who said balder??!!) but still sexy!

But who's the newest addition to our family would you ask?? Thanks for asking.
We are getting a new "Au-Pair" very soon... and this is the last time I'm using this word as we don't envisage the "Au-Pair" in the standard way it is defined.
Have a look at the offer we've put on the GreatAuPair web site:

Family's Introduction to Caregivers

We are a young active couple with two kids and two dogs. We are both French / Australian (we have the dual citizenship) and moved from the south west of France to Australia 6 years ago.

We are both sporty and active, love going out, going to the beach and national parks on weekends, four wheel driving, fishing, surfing, dog training, culture, video games, cinema and meeting people.

We live about 12 km from the Brisbane CBD, the best city in Australia where 4 months of spring follow 8 months of summer! While close to the city, in a top class suburb, and at equal distance to both the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, our house is beautiful with a unique setting, with the pool overlooking a forest with Koala, Kookaburras and Wallabies. It has a big garden, is also huge and modern and the Au-pair will have her own private room and bathroom.

Job Description

We are looking for an Au-pair to be PART OF OUR FAMILY and look after our two lovely kids (1 year old boy and 4 years old girl). It is NOT ONLY A JOB... Of course, there are requirements: you need to genuinely love kids, be playful, active and patient. We even already have cleaners, gardeners and someone to look after the pool... however we would like you to help with house duties to an equal amount as we are... not more, not less.

But more importantly we want someone fun, sociable, easy going and eager to SHARE OUR FAMILY LIFE, participate in our sport activities and curious to discover the Australian culture. Of course you will also get your own personal time and will be encouraged to go out and make friends outside of the family. We want someone who shares our values: honesty, respect, curiosity, openness, commitment, and work ethics. We are looking for someone with a good education and mature, not someone who is "just looking for a job, free food and accommodation", we want the right person with the right philosophy of life! We want someone committed to stay at least 6 months to establish a strong relationship.

Working arrangements are flexible. Accommodation and food (top class healthy food cooked with love by the daddy who's also making his own bread) is provided and "pocket money" will depend on merit and amount of time the Au-pair wants to be involved... Money will not be a problem. But you'll get richer, not only with money, but from the unique experience you'll get with us. Even if we are French, we are both fluent in English and can teach the Au-pair English if necessary and we've got lots of Australian friends.

If you recognize yourself in this offer and think you are the right person, you'll find that this is probably the best Au-pair offer you'll ever find. The position is open starting from now, but there is no urgency, we'll wait as long as needed to have the right person.

You can get in touch with me by forum email; I'll then give you my Skype ID. We'll have a chat about the position, our expectations and your desires and see if we are on the same page! Then we can meet and have a coffee together in Brisbane if you are already in Australia or have a video conference on Skype.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

So after only one week, we've received more than 55 applications, and were spoiled for choice. Some very good candidatures (in theory, with diploma and past experience with children...).

I was in charge of interviewing the applicants (Facebook technique...). Fortunately it didn't last too long as my wife was starting to freak out seeing me chatting with that many young women!

I ended up feeling a very good connection with two young candidates, Meagan and Elizabeth, which were, by the biggest coincidence, of the same age, from the same country and from the same region (Oregon/Washington). That must mean that good crops are growing there (hope that makes sense)! It would have been very difficult to choose as they were both great and very different, but Libby wasn't available till April anyway, so that solved the dilemma for me!

So Meagan will very soon be with us. She is a young woman full of energy and enthusiasm, cute, smart, sporty, artsy and obviously with a genuine love for children. We are so much looking forward to welcoming her and strangely, while we haven't known her for such a long time, we already love her very much and believe she will bring lots of joy in her baggage!

So stay tuned as she will be posting on the blog, talking about her experience Down-under!

Introduction (me anxiously waiting to arrive)

Hi blog readers! My name is Meagan.

I am 19 years old and from Vancouver, Washington USA.

I live right outside of a fairly large city called Portland, Oregon where I enjoy going for entertainment, good music, and wonderful food.

I am currently living with my parents and younger sister...but not for long! My family enjoys animals, as do I, we have a variety....cats, dogs, chickens, my dads pigeons, and my rabbit who we call olive.

In the past two years I have graduated high school and am now working on my college education, whilst in school I had numerous hobbies and held a few jobs. I thoroughly enjoyed my first job as a gymnastic coach for young girls, not only was it rewarding....but I got to jump on trampolines for work! I played soccer all through high school, and still play on occasion, as I love being active. Although we only get about one good month of summer here I take full advantage of it and am outside and in the water everyday, whether it is cliff jumping, wake boarding, or just going for a dip and laying in the sun, I love it all.

My family is very important to me, I have loving parents and a wonderful sister who have helped and supported me in all aspects of my life. They have held me to standards and stood up for me when need be, I will miss them greatly while I am away but I know they will always be here when I need them and just a "skype call" away.

My education, and sense of adventure is also important to me, that is what will get me through life. I think it is important to go out and explore, see the world from another's point of view and experience new cultures. Living in Australia will be educational and a magnificent experience as well....especially since I get to spend it with such a wonderful family.

This up coming year is going to be amazing, and I have no doubt that it will be anything but boring. I am extremely excited to join Young, Stephanie and their two children for an entire year, we will have grand adventures and I will learn alot... including some French.

I cannot wait to see everything that Australia has to offer and get to know this wonderful family <3