Cassandra Moscos - Au Pair in USA

Posted by on 19 January 2010 | 0 Comments

Hi,

Just a quick message to tell you that I made it my host family's home safe, and sound!

Orientation was a lot of fun...

After 36 hours of flying and transfers I finally touched down in Washington DC on Monday at 12:55am (local time). Buzzing with excitement and nervous about the year ahead, I met another Au Pair from Brazil and we made our way to the orientation hotel. My head finally hit a pillow at 3am and I was out like a light!

Needless to say, the 7:30am wake up call the next day was tough to take. Breakfast was great because I met the other 11 Au Pairs and our Regional Coordinator. There’s a great mix of girls and cultures here - au pairs from France, Belgium, Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Brazil, Thailand, China, Columbia and Australia (of course).

We went through some of the basics of the program, the rules and expectations of the program and got to hear from a professor of Child Psychology. Her information was interesting the she was really entertaining, which helped since we were all started to hit the wall just after lunch.

But as they say, nothing beats jet lag quite like a walk in the fresh air…and boy is it ‘fresh’ out here! I tell you, Jack Frost stole my fingers, toes and my nose today! It was absolutely freezing in Washington DC. The freezing cold temps didn’t stop the 12 of us from stepping out after our orientation session to hopefully get a glimpse of Obama.

Day 2 of orientation was our first aid certification....we all passed and i now have my red cross first aid certificate! We went in to see the White House after the session but still no Obama...i have a whole year here though, so maybe we'll meet.

We went over the last of the program information this morning and I was picked up at the hotel by my host mother at 12.

The girls are at school today and my host mother had to go off to work this afternoon so i've now got a chance to settle into the house...I've met Dellah (the quiet dog) and she is great! I have feeling we're going to be best friends....Diesel on the other hand...well she is still a puppy and very playful but I'll learn to love her I'm sure.

My room is nice...i've got my own private area downstairs...with a TV, fireplace and bathroom. I also have access to a car on both my working and free days and just have to keep receipts so my petrol will be reimbursed. I havent really gone over many other details yet but it's only been 2 hours.

I've attached some photos from our orientation for you.

Cassandra xx