Franzi in New York

franzi in erlangen!

2007-10-05T17:37:00.000-04:00

i am back in germany, already moved to erlangen. there for i made a new blog. it won´t be that interesting, since there´s not much going on in erlangen, but if ever something is happening, i´ll keep you updatet!!! so for everybody who´s interested inmy new life, my new city, my new home, my new room - check out my next blog:

www.franzi-in-erlangen.blogspot.com

i can´t wait to see you there!

many thanks to all my readers, at-pictures-lookers and commentors: it was a pleasure keeping my blog up for you! you were great in being patient and some of you really showed me your interest! thanks a lot! :)
THANKS! DANKE! GRACIAS! MERCI!

suntrek tour

2007-10-05T15:57:00.000-04:00

i spent the week from saturday, september 16th till sunday, september 23rd on a suntrek tour. together with 12 other girls (which i didn´t know) and our tourguide we made our way through california, nevada and arizona. we spent most time during the day in the bus, the nights mostly at campgrounds or sometimes hotels. we were just missing water at our grand canyon campround, once we had to pay for showers, some nights were damn cold, but it was just more than great!!! here just A FEW pictures from my amazing trip!!! i can just totally recommend this tour...

san francisco:

yosemite valley national park:

the group

our kitchen

our minivan

mono lake:

death valley national park:

las vegas:

we went to a huge buffet in one of the casinos - they printet a map on the back of the receipt!!

"new york"

we rented a limousine, of course not one of the small ones! hell was that fun :)

"paris"

the water fountain show in ront of the eiffel tower...

of course i won!!

don´t overlook the brooklyn bridge on the left...

grand canyon, baby! we saw the sunset, sunrise and walked along the south rim at daylight:

it doesn´t only look dangerous...

unfortunately the weather wasn´t that good while visiting joshua tree national park:

one of my favorite pictures... don´t miss the windshield wiper!

los angeles:

absolutely no glamour at hollywood boulevard... :(

kodak theatre, where they give out the oscars (check out the plastic elephants...) hell, i was so disappointed from hollywood!!!

my favorite star on the walk of fame! hope the homeless don´t sleep on this one...

the chinese theatre at hollywood boulevard

downtown l.a. - nothing nice exept of the skyline...

MIAMI!!!

2007-10-04T09:06:00.000-04:00

my first week of traveling after my au pair job took me to miami - I SO DESERVED IT!!! i visited my friend jule from germany there! whata great time...

downtown miami

we went out to an alligator farm out in the everglades. we got dangerously close to the alligators...

what a weather...

i'll be back :P

2007-09-30T14:50:00.000-04:00

well i am back in good old germany... i hope i get to load up the latest pictures from my trip soon - please be patient :P

"what you deserve is what you get" - seeed

2007-09-12T20:14:00.000-04:00

well don't cry about not being up 2 date, i am really busy traveling ;)

right now i am visiting jule in south beach, miami. hell there's absolutely nothing to do and the heat is so exhausting us, that the only thing thats left is relaxing on the beach... :P

well on saturday i'll be flying out to san francisco for my one week trek tour: san francisco, death valley, yosemite, las vegas, grand canyon and los angeles... don't be mad at me, i'll make up for all the vacation you guys need so badly ;)

on the 23rd i'll be flying back to brooklyn for the last days before returning to germany... so be patient, i'm there soon :)

happy birthday naomi!

2007-08-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

naomi turned 3 on september 30th! so we made a nice chocolate cake. the same day julia (the new au pair) arrived. so our second project for today was a welcome julia sign. what a messy day... but the cake was damn good! :)

julia (the new au pair), me & michaela (the former au pair on a visit)

erlangen...

2007-08-24T13:35:00.000-04:00

out of my 13 applications for college (biology) i got only two positive answers: koeln (cologne) and erlangen (by nuernberg). since erlangen is the better college and has the better subject, i choose
erlangen. i plan on moving there as soon an possible after the 30th of september, we'll see how that works ;)

for everybody who wants to check it out:

i'll be back :P

2007-08-15T15:24:00.000-04:00

my return date is september 27th. so i will arrive in the morning of the 28th in frankfurt a.m.

can't wait to see ya all :)
GRILLPARTY might be on the 29th, so forget about planning something "more important" ;)

GRILLSACHEN UND GETRAENKE BITTE MOEGLICHST MITBRINGEN!!! ich weiss noch nicht in wie weit ich dazu kommen werde einzukaufen, werde aber hoffentlich ein bisschen was besorgen :)

some days in sheboygan

2007-08-02T23:01:00.001-04:00

on sunday we cruised up to sheboygan. on the way there we stopped in milwaukee to say hi to melli's family (they also lived in our house in berlin). bahira was so amazed that she stared at me the whole time (well we couldn't reach her earlier to tell her i am coming, so it was quiet a surprise...). big surprise also in sheboygan for aki's family, even though they knew i was coming. i liked it so much there, that i stayed for a couple days - in fact i am still here. i will take a greyhound bus back to brooklyn on saturday (supposedly 20 hours). unfortunately aki is working a lot, but melli is here and the whole family is entertaining me a lot :) we are just wasting our time on the beach or in the car... i didn't have a relaxing vacation like this in a long long while. but here is just nothing else to do right now and that's exactly what i needed!
so we're going swimming, skating, gum-bubble contests, watching movies, cruising around, etc. way to good!

melli, me, bahira

aki & melli

pita!! mjjjamjamjam

the "biggest american flag worldwide":

huge ass big flag...

smartass armin - i love him!

CHICAGO!!!

2007-08-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

on july 24th my plane took off to chicago. the place where i stayed the first days was so gross, that you really don't want to see any pictures of that... anyway, i had a great time: some cultural stuff like museums (chicago art institute, field museum of natural history, historical museum of chicago, museum of contemporary art: try to read - it will drive you crazy after a time...), a lot of walking trough the city, a lake and river cruise with a special and of course the amazing view from the sears tower! but the best thing about this trip was the meet-up with aki, that guy i grew up with in berlin. some of you might remember him... we were really close until about 10 years of age and totally lost contact when his family left berlin for wisconsin in 2000. well i put his name up on myspace this march and found him there! and last friday i finally got to meet him. that feeling is just too crazy, it even took away my words for a moment (which doesn't happen very often ;) ) well we had a great time in chicago, but we checked into another hotel ;) hehe

a walk trough millennium park:

chicago style pizza (stuffed pizza)

a strange bridge...

the "chicago bean" was one of my favorites...

a walk around navy pier with fireworks later the evening:

view from the ferriswheel

our lake & river cruise:

"the corn cobs" first 10 floors are parking lots, the rest are condos. was in some famous movies with cars crashing through the fences...

skyline :)

view from the skydeck of the sears tower: daylight, sunset, nighttime and fireworks! damn good :)

skyline at night

2007-07-14T20:25:00.001-04:00

i went down to the promenade to pose a little in front of the skyline ;)

manhattan bike tour :)

2007-07-14T20:18:00.001-04:00

on friday we went on a bike tour: brooklyn bridge, uptown by the water, central park up to 72nd street, west side bike path all the way to pier 17 and back to brooklyn over the brooklyn bridge :) we had a lot of fun! maybe a little tiring with that hot weather...

broadway show "CHICAGO"

2007-07-14T20:14:00.000-04:00

i loved the show! very different from "phantom of the opera", "beauty and the beast" etc. - without all the glittering and sound effects, but i actually noticed the very good acting :)

AMERICANS ARE NOT STUPID?!?

2007-07-10T22:16:00.000-04:00

ADORABLE!!!

2007-07-09T17:49:00.001-04:00

6 flags great adventures

2007-07-01T18:23:00.000-04:00

i spent my saturday at an amusement park in new jersey with lloyd. we had an incredible day, it was just amazing!

check out those rides
we went on batman, el torro, kingda ka, medusa, nitro, rolling thunder and finished with the cute chairoplane!

he took me to the kingda ka first, which i didn't notice first was the tallest & fastest roller coaster in the world and goes up and down vertically! i was so scared! but since it was also the fastest one, it took only 30 seconds and everything was over ;)

kingda ka video

those guys made great music with trash cans and other recycling material. i loved their show!

lloyd and me

the cheesecake curse

2007-07-01T18:18:00.002-04:00

me, rajaa, nadjet and sylvia went out for dinner in the village on friday night. we all had a tiny quesadilla and when we were looking for cheesecake, we could't find any around... what a curse - cheesecake is so popular in nyc... anyway i enjoyed being with the girls :)

madison square concert

2007-06-26T17:21:00.001-04:00

today i took the kids to a children concert in madison square park :) the guitar player of the band is toby's piano teacher.

mets game

2007-06-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

david and ilene took me to a mets game in shea stadium on sunday. it was a great experience! it really wasn't boring at all (like the cyclones games i went to earlier ;) ) i had a great time :)

after a few innings i switched places with david, who has season tickets for a long time now. i got to sit in a box - the fifth row!!! it was just amazing!

girls night out!

2007-06-26T17:05:00.001-04:00

on saturday the four of us went out to celebrate my birthday. we had a great time :)

another weekend in boston :)

2007-06-26T16:28:00.001-04:00

i spent my last free weekend in boston. its some time ago but i just hadn't any time earlier to upload the pictures... so there they are :)

saturday was the right weather for whale watching. we had an amazing time... one guy let us listen to his ipod: spice girls, backstreet boys, n'sync usw - it was great being reminded of "the old times" ;) hehe

definetely the right shoes for a boat trip on the atlantic...

this guy was crazy... he was crawling through rackets!

sunday was our road trip day :)
we had a great time cruising up the north shore! it really felt like vacation while we were walking around in old fishing villages and harbors.

1st stop: prides crossing - a train station with special benches...

2nd stop: manchester-by-the-sea

3rd stop: hammond castle museum

4th stop: gloucester
5th stop: rockport
6th stop: paper house - a house with a newspaper interior...

6th stop: annisquan ligthhouse

7th stop: essex

nice compliment!

2007-06-06T06:43:00.000-04:00

yesterday i got the nicest compliment ever! an approx. 8 year old boy saw me with naomi and said: "ooooh she's sooo cute! she looks just like you!" :) isn't that a nice one? :P

warum die amis kleiner sind als west- und mittel-europaeer...

2007-05-21T08:17:00.000-04:00

ich habe da mal einen recht interessanten artikel gefunden:

<link>

also eure kinder immer schoen gesund ernaehren :P

downtown tour on may 09

2007-05-18T20:09:00.001-04:00

wednesdays is ilka days :)

since we both get wednesday afternoons off usually, we like spending time together. this wednesday we went to pier 17 and all the way up to union square. one of our stops on our tour was the delicious milchreis-place "rice to riches" (rice pudding). they had many different flavors such as peach, mango etc... my favorite still is oldschool cinnamon & raisin :)
ps: zur erklaerung: milchreis gibts hier normalerweise gar nicht... ab und zu was seltsames beim chinesischen buffet, aber nich den echten :( )

boston trip 07/05/04 till 06

2007-05-16T13:07:00.000-04:00

on saturday morning we went to see a minuteman parade in lexington. it was the annual anniversary of some revolutionary happenings.. well they didn't celebrate it that distinctive... reminded us of carnival ;)

minute man march 1
minute man march 2

mt. auburn cemetery was just gorgeous! usually you expect depressive feelings at cemeteries but this one was just amazing!!! wow just impressive the gravestones some people got...

panorama view with boston skyline

"the garment district" was a really strange experience. in the basement they had piles of secondhand clothing on the floor. you could crawl over/through (i wouldn't recommend crawling under though...) and pick whatever you like. the cashier would weigh your pile and ask you for $1,50 per pound :D we didn't really find anything nice of course, but we had a great time :D loel

sure we visited harvard (cambridge) again :) well and of course we got jealous again! :-/

mhhhhh if you ever get a chance to eat at bertuccis you definitely have to go! i think that was the best italian food i ever had!!!

we tried going whale watching, but when we were already out there a big storm came up. the weather was so bad that EVERYBODY felt terrible (including us).. the crew was walking around giving out paper bags for everyone and made several announcements where to stay on the boat to get better... inside you could either see the water OR the sky - rarely both at the same time.. so the boat had to turn and bring us back :( well we just wasted more than an hour but got our money back and had a skyline view for free ;)

walk for hunger in boston common (we didn't run, but of course we got some of the free ice cream ;) hehe)

swan boat ride in public garden:

meine sylvi :)

2007-05-16T12:43:00.000-04:00

wir wollten uns das musical "lion king" ansehn... naja es gab einige komplikationen und missverstaendnisse... letztendlich durften wir es nich sehn und es hat nur fuer ein paar schnappschuesse gereicht :(

i passed the road test!

2007-05-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

yeahhh hab meine driving license :)

bin ja beim ersten mal durchgefallen (aber das scheint hier normal zu sein so ca. 1-2 mal durchzufallen) aber grade eben hats geklappt :)
ich hab nur sau ewig gebraucht zum einparken heute :D danach hat der pruefer sein buch zugeklappt und ich hab schon gedacht "damn wieder nix!" seltsamerweise sind wir aber noch weiter gefahrenund er wollte noch n u-turn usw.. hab ich mich schon gewundert, weil ich dachte es waer schon vorbei... aber ich bin wirklich 1A gefahren, und keine angst das einparken klappt normalerweise auch :P

brooklyn botanic garden

2007-04-28T21:40:00.000-04:00

on wednesday april 25th i took naomi to the brooklyn botanic garden. and spring looks really good :)

check for the turtles...

check out the videos:
video 1
video 2
video 3

playground trip with naomi (4/24/07)

2007-04-28T21:36:00.000-04:00

summer is here :)

2007-04-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

last sunday i went to the beach on coney island with ilka ! we had a great time :)

abortion case

2007-04-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

you should really read this: <click>
i posted some articles about ilene's story before and u already know what i think about the outlawing. but let me know about your point of view if you want.

sunset promenade walk

2007-04-26T12:22:00.000-04:00

on friday the 20th ilka finally saw the world famous downtown skyline from the brooklyn promenade. and we caught the sunset :)

niagara falls bus tour!

2007-04-17T13:45:00.000-04:00

first of all:
on the weekend we took a chinatown bus tour to the niagara falls :) the bus needed about 10 hours with breaks, but it was definitely worth it! it was so cold but we didn't really care because the falls were so amazing! well just check out the pictures! (and look out for the ice blocks in the water :P)

we could only stay on the american site, so we got a good view of the american falls and the bridal vails falls. our hotel was so close to the falls that we could stay at the falls long at night :)

also check out the videos:

niagara 1
niagara 2
niagara 3
niagara 4

my parents in nyc :)

2007-04-16T08:41:00.000-04:00

my parents were visiting me for about 10 days :) so we did a lot of tourist stuff...

old advertisements in the ny transit museum

this one seems to be a little racist with the black kids getting the dishes clean only with "gold dust"...

central park :)

on wedensday we went to the beach at coney island:

happy easter!

2007-04-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

i know it's kind of late, but i was busy with my parents who are visiting me right now! we spent the easter weekend at the niagara falls - okay we spent more time in the bus... (pictures coming soon)

anyway happy easter to everybody! hope u enjoyed your egg hunt - we didn't want to search in the snow upstate, so we skipped this year...

philadelphia

2007-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

on friday march 30th i had the day off. so i decided thursday night to buy a ticket for a busride to philadelphia. the bus took two hours and the fun begun :)

first i went to the visitor center to get some information about what i want to see. then i went to the liberty hall, took a trolley bus tour, visited the national constitution center and tried to go shopping - which didn't work out that good for me in this city... in between i had the famous philly cheese steak of course! (which was btw nothing so special)

the city has a lot of historical very interesting sights since it was the capital of the u.s. once! i really had a good time :)

liberty bell

independence hall

trolley bus

benjamin franklin parkway

they signed the national constitution of america!

george washington of virginia

liberty plaza

city hall

elfreth's alley still looks the way the irish immigrants built it in the early 1900!

lenox, ma

2007-03-29T14:19:00.000-04:00

i spent four days in lenox, massachusetts. the parents went skiing with toby and simone and i stayed with naomi and the grandparents at their house. unfortunately was the weather not always good, but at least we got a chance to make our snow-teddy :)

hahaha daddy, you will like this one :D

we came back on tuesday - a day up to 80 degrees (ca. 27 grad celsius) in nyc!!!
when i went to prospect park with toby and simone on wednesday i got my first sunburn this year!!! strange enough, that i have a cold and sunburn at the same time xD
in the evening we had a cluster meeting where we wrapped easter presents for homeless mothers and children :)

wednesday 03-21

2007-03-29T14:09:00.000-04:00

on wednesday was ilka-day :) she is usually free on wednesday afternoons and evenings. this time we went to see the famous broadway show beauty and the beast (die schoene und das biest). we enjoyed it so much! the stage was gorgeous and the special effects just amazing! WOW!!!

afterwards we went to toys'r'rus and took the ferris wheel :D was a really funny time - even if we wanted the m&m car but ended up in the barbie car!! can you believe it? :'-( but still, we had a very nice (and childish) day :P

nevele hotel

2007-03-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

i stayed with my hostfamily approx 100 miles upstate last weekend. they organized a synagogue meeting and needed me for some babysitting. the hotel had a gym, a pool, ice skating rink... and it was really crowded: karate/judo meeting, high school graduation trips, normal guests and our synagogue meeting...
i shared a room with all the kids but they were really easy going :)

ice skating rink (not really one of the best ones i've seen...)

i spent sunday morning on the moonwalk stuff... first with toby and simone and fighting with the highschool guys later was quite fun - and i wasn't bad at all ;) hehe

click:
video 1
video 2

bronx zoo

2007-03-19T18:21:00.000-04:00

on wednesday after childcare i went to the bronx zoo with ilka. its not exactly what i am used to from germany regarding the size.. but was quiet fun, even if we didn't see the main attraction, the gorillas (cause they just weren't there :-/)
my favorite part was the baby giraffe (4 months) - amazing how tall she was... but scary how small their "cage" was!

wednesday mornings in childcare

2007-03-19T18:15:00.000-04:00

childcare job in my gym on wednesday morning :) (i get my free membership for that!)

tv report cancellation

2007-02-26T08:50:00.000-05:00

the tv company from germany canceled the report about me. problems with money...so whatever :P

san francisco

2007-02-22T13:03:00.000-05:00

from february 16th till 20th i visited relatives living close to san francisco, that i've never seen before. they're really nice and welcomed me warmhearted :) of course i saw a lot of the city! this trip will stay in my memories forever! the city is just gorgeous - you'll find out if you check out the pictures! my family nicer than i could have ever dreamt of. really one of my best trips ever! :)

chinatown

transamerica pyramid

view from coit tower

exercising on the city's steep streets...

st paul and peter cathedral

lombard street

view from lombard street

the only place world wide where cable cars are still used

streets in san francisco can be really steep

castro

conservatory (greenhouse) in golden gate park

chinese tea garden in golden gate park

city hall

postcard view at alamo square

hmm i loved to visit the famous ghirardelli place. the sundae was really good :)

delicious clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl

sandy and i visited alcatraz, the world famous prison:

gisela's & neal's house

finally winter :)

2007-02-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

finally winter came :)
but its hard though... u should try to push a stroler on either icy or snowy grounds. what a workout for my arms ;) not to forget 2 "outch" screaming older ones cause the icy rain hits their faces. just in case u didn't get enough think of the crazy wind that makes u slide around...
but after this 40 minute trip at 7:30 am i was awake enough for the rest of the day :D
(luckily its not that cold today: ca 19 degrees = -7 grad celsius :)))

ladiesnight :)

2007-02-11T04:02:00.000-05:00

weekend...

2007-01-16T22:07:00.000-05:00

this saturday we had an after-christmas-party. we cooked a big delicious dinner and went to a club afterwards...

on sunday we went to the brooklyn tabernacle to see a gospel chorus :) it was really great, even if i don't agree with their point of view. but their voices were amazing...

kerstin's last weekend

2007-01-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

on saturday we had 21 degrees celsius! unbelieveable... i got a postcard from my parents that the snow is alredy melting in the erzgebirge. the told me spring is coming in germany. and we didn't get winter yet...

for this morning we had planned our shopping tour in manhattan mall. later on we went to the brooklyn museum for the free first saturday party
in january. we were to sloppy to see too much of the exhibition but we had the chance to watch the movie "moulin rouge". how can parents bring their children to that movie? even if the movie isn't one of the worst - it's still nothing for 4 year olds... it's so common to bring children to grown up movies in ny. they don't care about the time, violence or things children don't have to know about.. every time i went to the movies after 10, 11, 12 pm i still saw very young children. also for infants and toddlers it must be very frightening to be in a dark room with those strange pictures and sounds, even if the don't understand. imagine that they brought many children to "blood diamond".

on sunday david and ilene took us to the big apple circus. gosh it was so amazing! i wasn't bored for any second. i always thought "that must be their final act and somebody else will enter the stage instead". but they always stayed and and did something greater. funny and amazing tricks for the children and some really good jokes for the grown-ups. one guy, pretending to be french, went on an 20 cm bike through fire. the japanese stunt men really reminded me of the jackie chan movies. it was just too good :)

in the evening kerstin took the train to the airport and went back to germany :(

friday 1-5-07, the un

2007-01-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

a model of the four buildings

security council chamber

trusteeship council chamber

"the golden rule"

general assembly hall

on friday morning we took a tour at the united nations headquarters. it was so interesting! the un area doesnt't belong to any specific country whether the united states. and i didn't know that the un is responsible for the rule of having traffic lights in every country and expiration dates on groceries... it was pretty interesting because there you could learn what really comes out of this organization. in german school i only had to learn about history and who is in it.

on the way we found a piece of the berlin wall...

i the evening we visited the museum of modern art. it was target free friday night :)

at night we went to a times square cinema to watch "freedom writers". it's a really good movie about a teacher motivating a class which was more into street fighting than into learning. we really enjoyed it :)

crazy weather...

2007-01-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

ohne worte...

on thursday we went to the BEACH (!!!) on coney island! we sat down on the sand and collected some huge shells. can you believe it? in january?!? on saturday we had 21 degrees celsius! but today (01-10) it was freezing and we finally got the first snow. but if you follow the weather forecast: it will be warm again the weekend... where is the winter?

natuerlich mussten wir auch nochmal zum nathan's! hier finden jaehrlich hot dog wettessen statt. mal sehen ob dieses jahr der rekord nochmal gebrochen wird...

baileys mint?? muss ich mal probieren...

wednesday, january 3rd

2007-01-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

on wednesday 3rd we woke up at 5:30 in the morning when the alarm went on. i ran downstairs to turn it off. on the way to the first floor the alarm company called to ask if everything is okay. so i checked the first floor and the kitchen window which activated the alarm. but i couldn't see anything at first view. when i checked the window again i saw that the runner was open although the window was still closed. otherwise we would have been confident with the thought that something was loose because of the constructions, but now we got really scared! did he just run away? or was he still in the house or the basement? (we never thought about the fact that there could have been more than one...) since we still couldn't see anybody we went back to bed (both at the library this time) but of course we couldn't sleep. so around 6:30 i called david who told me the constructions must have caused a false alarm. so we felt a little better. the longer we thought about the fact that somebody actually could have come in let us hear some weird sounds. first we heard noise from david and ilene's room, than the stairs, the girls room... it sounded like he turned the light on - but who would be so dumb to use the light switch???

because we were still a little scared and didn't want him to leave successful, we finally went out of the room and checked the whole house.. of course we couldn't find anybody and it didn't seem like anything was missing.
around 9 a guy from the alarm company came to fix something which was already intact. but he came although his appointment was canceled and i was glad that he came. so i let him check the kitchen window. he told me the constructions must have caused it...

after that scary morning we had planned something really relaxing: we had a spa appointment! we got a good offer for $45 each at nardis. that included haircut with shampoo and conditioner, eyebrow waxing, facial and massage. a place where "many stars go" (...) but the weren't very nice at this place. in fact they got pissed-off when they tried to sell us stuff which we didn't want to buy... but all together it was nice enough :)
on thursday i got an even better offer from another spa: 3 tickets for $23 each with much more service. including live dj and free wine...

my new haircut

afterwards we walked a little through central park and then went to rockefeller center to enjoy the beautiful view from the top :)
view from rockefeller center 1
view from rockefeller center 2

central park

top of the rock:

toys "r" rus:

tuesday, january 2nd

2007-01-10T08:52:00.000-05:00

downtown manhattan skyline

on tuesday 2nd we finally made it to ground zero and the liberty ferry station. but it was so crowded (i thought the tourists are gone after new years...) that we decided to take the free ferry to staten island.

skyline view from the ferry

new years day

2007-01-10T08:39:00.000-05:00

on january 2nd we went to grand central terminal and saw a part of their light show.

afterwards we took the subway to times square again, but this time for madame tussauds. that was the only thing we could do since i was so floppy and the most stuff was closed. everything is open nearly every day. the only days everything was closed are december 25th and january 1st
so far..

ohne worte... ich sag nur, die leute mit ihren ewigen flyern und free movies koennen einen schon etwas nerven ;)

nur fuer dich mone!

2007-01-05T10:28:00.000-05:00

hier hast du noch ein paar viedeos vom times square mone! die wirklich unter totaler langeweile entstanden. also wundert euch nich :P

langeweile am times square 1
langeweile am times square 2
langeweile am times square 3
langeweile am times square 4

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2007-01-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

we celebrated new years eve on times square. actually we had to be there very early (we stuck around from 2 pm!) to get a chance seeing the ball drop. it was a little disappointing as the "big ball" isn't much bigger than a donut... i am also not sure if you could name the very few lights a firework.

on the other side were the people a little bored, too. they should come to germany and attend to a real party ;) since the good vibes were missing, we got bored, too. but we thought about childrens games like "i'm packing m suitcase..." etc. and spent some time with singing songs - in german of course (in the hope that nobody could understand us...). strange that you have to be there so early but the acts don't start before 10:00 pm. by the way: we really enjoyed toni braxton on stage. nobody really wanted her so she didn't get any applause. and when they showed her text on the screen and the audience was supposed to sing with her nobody sung... she felt so unconfident that you really could see it. so it happened that she was one of the main happenings because everybody made fun of her. poor lady...

afterwards we went to webster hall (dicso) and finally toasted with some champagne :)

i wish you a very happy 2007. may all your wishes come true!

klick:
countdown @ times square
happy new year

kerstin in ny

2007-01-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

am 29.12 ist kerstin angekommen :)

video...

2006-12-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

wer noch nicht genug von franzi hat, kann mal auf meine "bewerbung" fuer die fernsehdoku klicken... da erzaehle ich etwas von meinem leben hier und warum ich hergekommen bin. nur fall jemand langeweile hat ;)

christmas

2006-12-27T19:51:00.000-05:00

on sunday (december 24th) ilka and i walked along 5th avenue again. we also took a look into the american doll shop. there you can get a doll just like you. that means you can buy matching clothes, bring her to the "doctor" and even to a hair dresser??? the longer i stay in the united states the less surprised i am by stuff like this...

fao schwarz:

the world famous foot piano

???

in the evening ilka and i went to the ice skating rink in front of the rockefeller center. after we fooled some people we were further in the line and had the chance to skate between 11 and 12 pm. i can tell you: it was wonderful! (it has to be dark, otherwise the tree is very ugly!)

on monday (december 25th) i went to katharina's host family and celebrated christmas in the italian way with a very good lunch. in the evening i went to laurel's house (mother of simone's friend anabelle) who nearly forced me to come over for dinner :)

i had a great christmas!! everybody was so nice and invited me to their house when they heard that my family doesn't celebrate christmas...

crazy christmas decoration (2006-12-23)

2006-12-27T19:40:00.000-05:00

there's a neighborhood in brooklyn called dycker heights with very crazy christmas decorations... if you see the pictures try to imagine the loud christmas music and moving characters or merry-go-rounds. it's a very strange place... how can somebody live in the houses without getting annoyed?

hockey (2006-12-23)

2006-12-27T19:33:00.000-05:00

i got up very early this saturday to see the childrens hockey in prospect park. they start at 8:00am!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2006-12-23T14:07:00.000-05:00

ich hoffe ihr habt/hattet alle ein frohes weihnachtsfest! meins war total anders - aber schoen und ich werde bald davon berichten :)
nur bin ich etwas muede jetzt und fotos hochladen geht zz auch nicht :(

picture update

2006-12-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

simone's christmas gala at nyc elite (12/05/06):

pretty girl

playdate with grace...

... and pasta

central park tour (110th street to 59th) on december 16th:

rockefeller center (12/20/06):

merry christmas!!

the christmas decoration on 5th avenue can be a little to crazy... on this building the snowflakes ligths were moving in time with the very loud christmas songs...
use your imagination how the shopping windows from saks could look like...

ice skating in central park on our cluster meeting afterwards:

me and audrey

me, marlen and katharina

last night of hanukka on december 22nd

kurzer zwischenstand...

2006-12-05T12:18:00.000-05:00

joa soweit so gut, gibt nicht wirklich was neues...

letzten mi hatten wir potluck dinner, was bedeutet jeder aus unserem cluster hat was zu essen (typisch fuer seine herkunft) mitgebracht. ich habe "schnittchen" mit leberwurst (=liverwurst) und schmalz gemacht.

das war schon der 2. gang...

marlen, maria und unsere "neue" katharina

mein wochenende war auch ganz okay und ruhig. am sonntag bin ich mit sylvia, ihrer dana und carmen zum weihnachtsmarkt am union square gegangen.

am montag hatte ich dann meine erste fahrstunde (nein kai, ich habe nix und niemanden geschaedigt). naja ich war ab und zu mal zu schnell und de kurven liefen nicht von anfang an wie geschmiert. aber alles in allem gar nich so uebel :) mal sehen wie viele fahrstunden ich noch mache. dazu muss man wissen, dass man eigentlich nicht dazu verpflichtet ist ueberhaupt welche zu nehmen :o naja am mo abend hatte ich dann noch meine listening und speaking pruefung vom final exam meines englisch kurses at columbia. naja war easy...

heute abend (dienstag) gehts dann zum christmas spektakel in der radio city music hall :) freu mich schon.

btw habe ich heute morgen eine anfrage bekommen fuer ien fernsehinterview... mal sehn :)

hot hot hot

2006-11-30T22:34:00.000-05:00

wir haben heute den 30. november und ueber 20 grad celsius!!

wie is das wetter bei euch so? auch geschwitzt? ;)

wer unsere ploetzlichen temperaturstuerze und -aufschwuenge nachverfolgen will - unser wetter ist jetzt rechts auch verlinkt...

pre-thanksgiving (11/22/06)

2006-11-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

yesterday they started blowing up the balloons for macy's thanksgiving-parade. i went there with ilka and gaby :)

i like sponebob in this position.. he cant move or talk :D
every time the children turn on tv, spongebob is on - it really doesn't matter which time it is! sponebob is on 24/7... :-/

BOSTON!! (11/18-19/06)

2006-11-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

on saturday morning i went to boston together with marlen (a german aupair). when we arrived we directly get started with the boston freedom trail.

Boston Common
Massachusetts State House
Park Street Church
Granary Burying Ground
King's Chapel
King's Chapel Burying Ground
Benjamin Franklin statue and site of the first public school
Old Corner Bookstore
Old South Meeting House
Old State House
Site of the Boston Massacre
Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
Paul Revere House
Old North Church

and the holocaust memorial:

after that we took the "T" (subway) to cambridge and visited harvard and harvard square. gosh!! i felt in love with this college! all the way back in the bus on sunday i was dreaming about a choice to study in harvard. i would do so much to get there. ilene studied there and i'm so jealous now :( the whole campus and especially the dining hall looked so nice warm and old fashioned, like in "harry potter", if you saw the movie...

the best universities in the u.s. are harvard, yale, princeton and columbia (where my englishclass is *proud*). on saturday there was a football game between harvard and yale at harvard. so the whole campus was full of young people (besides the fact that there are about 50 colleges in the boston area, so the city is necessarily very young) who were either wearing harvard or yale sweaters. and we had the double chance to meet some intelligent, good-looking (and rich ;) ) guys, but we totally failed :( :( :(

afterwards we checked in in our hotel. and we couldn't get out this evening because we didn't find any place which would accept a passport copy (like they do in nyc ;) ). so we bought a big cup of ben & jerrys icecream and had a nice and slow evening in bed in front of the tv. and we were very fit on sunday :) (funnily enough the bars and clubs in boston are closing at two in the morning...)

on sunday morning we checked out and went to the prudential tower to get an overview over boston.

afterwards we took a look at newbury street, a street with small shops in nearly every houses first floor.

a "boston bean" and me

then we took a tour through the public library - the first free public library in the u.s.. it's an amazing building and again it just looked like in harry potter...

then we saw trinity church and walked down commonwealth avenue, a very beautiful street with a park in the middle, to the public garden boston common. all i can tell: it's such a gorgeous city! and of course we did some shopping at "filene's basement" :)

commonwealth avenue

boston common

friday 11-17-06

2006-11-21T13:47:00.001-05:00

on friday i got my first christmas present from ilene!!! it's a ticket for the big christmas show in radio city music hall which should be amazing! so i will go there on december 5. but who shuld i take with me? she gave me two tickets ;)

around 9:00 am the whole family left to go to wisconsin over the weekend. one of the kids cousins is a football player at the wisconsin badgers and they wanted to watch a match of him. that means i had the whole weekend off and was also free on friday evening to babysit anabelle, a friend of simone. laurel, her mother is so nice - and of course i needed the money for m boston trip this weekend :)

wednesday 11-15-06

2006-11-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

last wednesday i had only to work in the very morning (and in the gym, of course). so after that i went to the metropolitan museum of art. it was very nice but so huge that you could easily get lost - like we did several times. we planned to take a tour concerning the highlights of the museum. but abter about 15 minutes ewe lost our guide and we really couldn't find her again - it was so crazy! like she just beamed herself away. and of course we didn't finish our self-made tour through the whole museum. but ilka has a membership card from her hostparents so we'll definitely go there again :)

friday (11-10-06)

2006-11-10T23:15:00.000-05:00

today i worked only 75 minutes in the morning and had the rest of the day off :) i used my free time to apply for my drivers licence learners permit and take the written test. the most time i was just waiting to get to another counter where i got another number to wait for... my written test took me not more than 3 minutes - i swear!!! when i got my test and went to the room where to fill in the form, 5 people were already taking the test. it was so easy that i didn't even read the whole questions... after 3 minutes i left the room (the people were still writing...). i think it was much too easy! you are only supposed to have 14 right answers out of 20 (multiple choice). i passed with 100 % and they told me only a few people are so good... come on, are they kidding??? i really don't have to tell you about the vision test which took only 5 seconds... i will get my real learners permit per mail and can start to drive with somebody 21+ next to me. maybe i will take some driving lessons, we'll see...

afterwards i went to the museum of modern art with rajaa. it's so huge and very nice. here are some of my favorites:

vincent van gogh "the starry night"
marc chagall "i and the village"
pablo picasso "three musicians"
pablo picasso "girl before a mirror"

brooklyn children's museum (11-09-06)

2006-11-10T23:12:00.000-05:00

on thursday morning i went to the brooklyn children's museum with naomi. she had a lot of fun in the toddlers area :) isn't she cute?

sunday (11-05-06)

2006-11-10T23:01:00.000-05:00

on sunday i went to the nyc marathon with ilka. we saw a man running with a leg prosthesis (shown in the picture above) and woman in wheelchairs!! that's so amazing and they have my full respect! we also saw many european runners. for example from france, italy and germany :)

afterwards i went to see the bodies exhibition (koeperwelten) with sylvia. it was very interesting (since im interested in biology ;) ) and we learnt a lot about the human body. did you know that 80% of your brain is water? or that a womans brain has 2,5% of her bodies weight, a mans only 2%? what about the fact that every single blood drop passes your heart once every minute? and don't forget that a woman has more taste-dots on her tongue than a man ;)

new york post

2006-11-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

during the last weeks many people from tv or newspapers called or visited ilene concerning the abortion law.

check out todays article in the new york post!

abortion laws

2006-11-05T11:02:00.000-05:00

this time there is a very important case going on concerning abortion laws. for those of you who want to know more about this click here: USA TODAY

(this article includes the story of my host mom)

HALLOWEEN!! 10-31-06

2006-11-03T16:51:00.000-05:00

in the evening i went trick or treating with the children and ilene. after that i went to see the legendary halloween parade in greenwich village. it's a little alike to the "fastnacht" parade in mainz (but not so great ;) )

"trick or treat"

sunday 10-29-06

2006-11-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

packer collegiate (toby's and simone's school) pumpkin patch on sunday
(the children could play many games and win prizes)

donut-wettessen

saturday night (10-28-06)

2006-11-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

sylvia, carmen, elli and me tried china club on saturday. it has about three floors and i had a lot of fun :) but the music could be very annoying sometimes...

pictures @ victory2

friday evening (10-27-06)

2006-11-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

on friday i went to a bar on smith street with rajaa (french au pair from across the steet)

2 person special for $10 ;)

very cozily with the chimney :)

grand central terminal (10-23-06)

2006-10-30T10:52:00.000-05:00

the very best icecream i've ever had in my life!!

farmers market in the terminal

good german brands...

my weekend

2006-10-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

my weekend was very nice! on saturday i went to connecticut with the family to a naming of davids niece. so we took the car and first picked up ilene's mother. with her we visited ilene's father in the nursing hospital. toby seemed to worry a lot about him - just like last time. but before we left he gave him a very big hug and they thought about their time they spent together some time ago. it was such a lovely moment that i could naerly start to cry... after that we went to the synagogue where the ceremony was. they had a lot of children there - especially toddlers. it was very nice and fast... before we left we had some bagels and (salty?) chocolate cake. we had our real dinner at a nice irish restaurant, together with ilene's mother. i ordered a good chicken pie :) i really enjoyed the whole day.

on sunday i worked from 9:00 am till 1:00 pm. afterwards i went to visit my first museum in nyc: the transit museum, a museum about the new yorker subway. it has only a short exhibition but i liked it. maybe it would be very interesting for my dad ;)

an article about the constructions at the nyc subway (look at the last part...)

in the evening i met ilka (a german au pair from the upper east side) and we went up 34th street through times square. we had great pizza at "sbarro" and were at the "hard rock cafe".

2006-10-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

finally time to tell you about the last days. during the last week i was working like usually, spent monday, wednesday and thursday at columbia university for my english class and the time whichwas left mostly at the gym. i am there nearly every day :) last friday was my first working day at the gym kindergarten! :) i will work 3 hours every wednesday morning and get a free membership - great deal :) my first day was pretty easy. neither the boss of the gym nor the other babysitter was there. so i did my workout until one two year old girl came. she was very nice and smart and easy :)

the friday before i went to the social security office to apply for my social security card. i need the ss number for my drivers licence. and i also went to the department for motor vehicles (dmv) where i got a drivers manual. i studied the manual mostly in the subway on my way to columbia. my ssc arrived the last days. with that i have to go to the dmv again to apply for my drivers licence, take the vision and the written test. after that i can choose if i want to take driving lessons at a driving school or with someone else 21+. before my roadtest i also have to take a 5-hour-class. sounds not very difficult at all but i'm still afraid of driving because i habe absolutely no experience except my first very slow driving lesson with matti in berlin last summer ;)

last wednesday i went to the zoo in prospectpark with naomi. we had so much fun. you must have seen her face - she was so excited!!

washington d.c.

2006-10-10T13:41:00.000-04:00

wow! i had a great weekend! i went to washington d.c. on friday night. (4:30 h / $35 roundtrip) i had to work longer than 6:00 pm and my bus left at 7:00 pm from 88 east broadway (chinatown). so i was really in a hurry because i needed to be there 20 minutes earlier. otherwise they could sell my ticket to other people. but i managed to be there at time when an asian girl braught some chairs and boxes to sit on until we waited for the bus. she was afraid that we could run away for some reason... it was so funny when we sat down on boxes in the middle of chinatown - and on the sidewalk! we all laughed a lot.

but the bus was okay. it wasn't that overloaded some guys had told me, the ac worked and we were only 30 minutes late :) but the "bathroom" was really disgusting! i was content with the "eastern travel" company - it was better than other chinatown-buscompanies i heard from. so remember that, if you need to travel from nyc ;)

yvonne (a friend from the orientation week) picked me up in nw d.c. around 12:30 am. the town is really beautiful! a very nice landscape, big and expensive houses with unfenced gardens. and there are no high buildings in the city... it't so different from nyc.

on saturday we did a sightseeingtour with a bus (free reboarding). so we visited

the arlington memorial (jfk's grave, tomb of the unknowns, arlington house)

(there are guards 24/7 at the tomb of the unknown soldier; changing of the guard every hour)

the white house

washington monument

capitol

jefferson memorial

f. d. roosevelt memorial.

but it was really silly to buy a ticket for $ 20 because we walked most of the way (the sights are close and the inner city isn't very big). and unfortunately we missed the last bus so we had to walk all the way back to the parking garage...
but the buildings are very beautiful! usually i don't linke the boring cultural tours that much but i really enjoyed our washington tour. next time i have to visit some of the great museums :)

oh and we saw the pentagon by acciddent when we got lost before our tour.

pentagon

yvonne and me at the museum of modern art

in the evening our disco plans failed but we were to the big tysons shopping-mall and had a lot of icecream at "cold stone creamery" and a cinnamon-vanilla-chocolate-cake at "cinnamon". you really have to try that if you are in the u.s.

on sunday we visited the lincoln memorial which we hadn't visited on saturday. after that we went to tysons again - but this time for shopping! it's so huge! but i managed not to spend so much money ;) and i'm so happy that we've got h&m over here :)

lincoln memorial

lincoln

tysons

german chocolate

habits

2006-10-05T13:35:00.000-04:00

immer diese leute mit den ghettoblastern... bis jetzt habe ich das nur bei farbigen naehe der fulton mall gesehen... der kerl in der einen hand die musik (in form einer riesen anlage), an der anderen ein kleines kind. oder die eine frau (!) mit ghettoblaster und 3 kleinkindern! am geilsten aber war einer im rollstuhl, vllt so mitte bis ende 20. er hatte hinten am rollstuhl seine grosse anlage festgemacht und rollte mit bass in den ohren die strasse entlang. vor allem hab ich auch schon rollstuhlfahrer bei rot ueber stark befahrene strassen rollen sehen - schoen gemuetlich. die autos muessen dann halt einfach warten. oder aeltere menschen - nichtmal die kuemmern sich um traffic ligths. ziemlich gefaehrlich alles, da die autos ja auch nicht unbedingt langsam und vorchtig fahren... und die kleinen kinder machen schon alles nach. das finde ich immernoch am schlimmsten. aber wie sollen sie's lernen, wenn mama ihnen schon ein schlechtes vorbild ist? dabei koennen kinder entfernungen von autos noch gar nich richtig einschaetzen! zum glueck sind toby und simone in dieser hinsicht gut erzogen und warten an jeder strasse brav :)

simone

2006-10-03T13:46:00.000-04:00

simone lost her front teeth!

saturday night

2006-10-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

time to tell you about saturday night. i was with sylvia and carmen (an au pair from mallorca) at "webster hall". with clubplanet we got on the guestlist. the normal entry fee is $10 before 11:00 pm and $30 after. the disco is very huge and great - seemed like they made it out of a normal house... there were 4 or 5 floors with all kinds of music except house music :( in the bathroom they sold snacks, brushes, ponytails, braceletts and even comfortable shoes! i love that idea! selling shoes for those girls on high heels - that's great :) oh and we had some really good and cheap pizza :) the pizzaboy introduced us to the president of the disco because of carmens mother language (spanish). he was so nice to give us special cards for free drinks and we could choose anything we like! and the drinks are very expensive. you got a small vodka-redbull for $11. that's really crazy. but the president gave us his business card and next time we go ther we should ask for him. so we can get free entry and free drinks :) after our party i spent the night at sylvia's house of course ;)

acrobatic show

bathroom sale

english classes, cluster meeting und fitnesscenter

2006-10-02T16:03:00.000-04:00

hachja ich bin die letzte zeit so schoen faul :) und glueck fuer euch, dass ich selbst jetzt zu faul bin in englisch zu schreiben ;)

also meine letzte woche war recht ereignisreich. meine english-classes an der columbia university haben angefangen. nach einigem hin und her hab ich von den morning classes in die evening classes gewechselt und am do meine verspaetete erste stunde gehabt :) die evening classes gehen jeden montag, mittwoch und freitag von 7:00 bis 9:00 pm. und bis zur uni brauch ich auch eine stunde mit der subway. erstaunlich wieviele japaner, chinesen und koreaner usw. an dem angebot teilnehmen...

am mittwoch konnte ich nicht am englisch unterricht teilnhemen, weil wir ein cluster-meeting hatten. d.h. wir haben uns mit den au pairs, die mit der gleichen orga gekommen sind, aus unserer region getroffen. unser local coordinator (lc) hat eine walking tour durch greenwich village organisiert. und es war sowas von langweilig... im grunde haben wir uns kaum von diesem komischen park wegbewegt und der fan von geschichtsdaten bin ich ja auch nich unbedingt ;)

unser cluster

schaufenster fuer hunde - accesoires

am dienstag habe ich mich mit sylvia bei crunch fitness angemeldet :) das ist ein klasse club! dort gibt es nicht nur so langweilige kurse, sondern sogenannte "fun-classes". und die machen echt spass :) bis jetzt hab ich es sogar gemanaged fast taeglich dorthin zugehen. bis jetzt habe ich fatburning pilates, step & abs (bauchmuskeln), pilates mat und strenght & alignment (body forming mit gewichten) ausprobiert. und ich muss sagen, ich glaube ich hab noch nie so sehr geschwitzt wie bei dem step & abs kurs. beim "normalen" aerobic (was ich auch in deutschland gemacht habe) hat man irgendwie ab und zu mal einen slow down zwischendrin. aber dieser kurs ging von anfang bis ende einfach nur doppeltes tempo und hatte nich eine kleine pause. aber ich glaube ich werde wieder hingehen ;) und auf der couch fernsehen gibts ab jetzt auch nicht mehr. die cardio geraete haben dort alle einen flachbildschirm mit tv programm. dazu noch kostenloser towel-service, sehr saubere duschen mit shampoo, conditioner und body wash for free :) dazu sind die leute dort wirklich super super nett. aber genug werbung gemacht :P

my home

2006-09-24T19:19:00.000-04:00

a saturday on the beach...

2006-09-24T19:01:00.000-04:00

on saturday i went to coney island (south brooklyn) with sylvia, her hostfather lance and his daughter dana.

the view from the wonderwheel in an amusement park for children

beachparty

heath ledger

2006-09-23T14:56:00.000-04:00

i forget to tell you, that <heath ledger> is one of my neigbors - if somebody is interested to meet him... ;)

friday night ;)

2006-09-23T14:28:00.000-04:00

friday was great! the family left friday morning for rosh-ha shana (and will be back sunday evening) after my babysitting from 6:00 till 9:00 am i slept very long :) then sylvia invited me for some pasta. i am so glad that i met her! she is a very nice person and we have a lot of fun together :) so at friday night! we met a girl from long island and went to little italy where the festival still went on. after our dinner in a very nice restaurant we went to a popular club. but there was no normal clubparty but a hot contest for a new opening club. secondary the people partied... those of you who want to know more about can contact me ;)

easy week !

2006-09-21T14:32:00.000-04:00

this week was very easy. i did some babysitting, went for shopping at fulton mall (i got these nice puma-shoes for $45. footlocker is not very expensive here and i became a v.i.p. member :D loel) and spent my chinatown-monday in chinatown ;)
on tuesday i was at the festival in little italy with sylvia. was a nice evening but they had some kind of horrible food! and some weird games where you could win small fishes and turtles.
yesterday i was so tired that i took a very long nap :D
and today, september 21st, i spent my morning with naomi (that means a lot of potty training) and did the laundry, washed the sheets and pillowcases of the children, made their beds etc... like every boring thursday :P maybe later i will have some time to check some sportsclubs and hopefully i will find a cheaper one! i really need some sports...

a fact about our tv programs

2006-09-21T14:22:00.000-04:00

the channels on our tv go to number 1914 !!! unbelievable!

a very nice weekend :)

2006-09-21T13:03:00.000-04:00

on friday (09-15-06) it rained all day so that i stood at home the whole morning. after picking up toby and simone i got them ready for the synagogue and walked them to "imagine", naomis daycare. there we met naomi and ilene who introduced me to the caretakers. in the u.s. daycare startes at the age of 3 month. that is very early but a opportunity for the parent who both work all day. and the daycare goes to 6:00 pm or longer. thereafter we met david and had a big family-pizza before we went to the synagogue. on this sabbat they sang all their prays. (there are special themes in the synagogue every friday) i enjoyed it very much! unbelievable that i was not bored at any time ;) but i think the synagogue is not that fancy like our european churches. is was not a church at all! just a smaller room with a little community...

oh what must be mentioned is that naomi uses the toilet regularly since that day and wears underwear instead of her diaper. potty training can be very hard and you need a lot of patience... just think about accidents...

on saturday morning, september 16th, i had my first shopping succes ;)i was at fulton mall, an area of colored people, 6 blocks away. it is a very nice place for cheap clothes-shopping if you are calm enough for the annoying people who want to sell you everything and make you stupid compliments... but if you are in good mood and have the strenght it is a very nice place. so i got 3 t-shirts and a sweater for less than 20 $ :) after my short shopping trip i took care of the children. afterwards i met marcello in downtown manhattan and we took the free ferry to staten island. the skyline at night again - but this time seen from the ferry. it was really nice!

brooklyn view from wall street

brooklyn at sunset

manhattan skyline view from ferry

broolyn bridge view from ferry

we missed the next ferry back to manhattan so we spent an hour in staten island. that was time enough to buy something what was supposed to be baileys but tasted very different... but it was not that bad ;) and the shop assistant did not want to see my ID ;) it is so weird that you are not allowed to drink alcohol in public. the only way to carry it outside is to hide the bottles. so when you buy alcohol you always get a paperbag. and you can not buy alcohol in the supermarket. you need to go to special liqueur-shops...

times square again

on sunday was davids birthday and i spent a lot of time with the family. at first we visited ilene's grandpa at the nursing hospital. the children were a little scared of him because he layed in the bed all the time. that was a sad moment. after our visit we went to an american diner in bethel (connecticut). it was one of the old original fashioned diners. and everything was so greasy!! i had a double cheese tomato burger (i have no idea what was supposed to be cheese) and the only thing i thougt about my first bite was "gosh, how greasy!" but after that we had a very healthy afternoon at the apple-picking-farm. it was so nice to walk along the beautyful landscape with the family and eat so many apples until my stomach hurted... and the weather turned so hot again! unbelivable - i think we had more than 70 degrees. in bethel was also a famous icecream factory where i had a small cup (damn it was so big!) of chocolate icecream. that made me nearly throw up after all that apples. the rest of the day i ate nothing...
in the evening i met marcello and sylvia (a very nice german aupair from brooklyn) and we had some nonalcoholic drinks in manhattan.

gigantic skyscraper and little devils

2006-09-15T10:17:00.000-04:00

this week has been very stressful. marcello from germany stays her since sunday (in queens) we first met on monday morning after i brought toby and simone to school. we met on times square and first walked to the central park. but we did not walk in there very deep because it looked so ugly on this part. after that we walked down 5th avenue and broadway.

then i returned to brooklyn for bringing simone to gymnastics. the school is called "nyc-elite". all the little girls in their small leotards looked so nice and it was so cute to watch them doing their practises. then i met marcello again and we walked through chinatown. if you walk on two streets you feel like beeing in italy - that is so funny! thereafter we had pizza in soho (south of houston). i had a salad-pizza. yeah believe me or not, it was like cold pizza with salad on it.. sounds strange but it was really good :) after that i brought simone home from her gymnastic classes (although she knows the way better than me)

on tuesday naomi stayed at home with me all the day and ilene brought toby and simone to school. but unfortunately simone forgot her backpack and i had to walk to school as well :-/
in the evening i met marcello again and showed him brooklyn. seeing the manhattan skyline from the brooklyn-heights promenade at night was so great! after that we walked over the brooklyn bridge. is was such a nice view! i like beeing outside and watching the lights at night. you will not believe how many planes we saw in the sky - there is a lot of traffic still at night...

wednesday was very great because i had a lot of freetime :) all i had to do was getting the children ready for school and do the drop off. but unfortunately there were still some problems. in the morning simone needed a lot of attention besause of her "hurting arm". she felt down the day before and had a very small wound. but it really was not that bad! so she did not take a shower and needed much help to get dressed because she "could not move her arm" children can be devilish if they want to :P on monday toby and simone had a big argument and toby said stuff like "i hate you" and "i wish you were never born" all the time. then i asked him to apologize but he only responded "sorry, but i don't mean it!" and simone cried a lot. that was a very hard situation... especially in the last days toby wanted to go home as fast as possible. and he screamed all the time that we should hurry up and stuff like that. on tuesday he did not want to trust me. he can be very annoying some days. my new strategy is to bring simone with her scooter to school. that is fast enough for toby and we would not be late :)
so on wednesday i met marcello again and we went to the empire state building. the view from the top was so great! but actually i thought nyc is much bigger...

after that we went to the cinema and watched the movie "wicker man". it was a very weird movie and had no sense at all! it is about a village full of women who invite men to take part in their strange rituals. and of couse the men do not know about that... never ever watch that bad movie and try to understand it!! and never eat popcorn in the cinema :D it was salty and with much butter on it. and there was an extra butter dispenser. first i wondered why she offered me napkins for popcorn - but i understood when i tried it...

strange nyc...

2006-09-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

last friday i took part in sabbat, a jewish holiday (for those who did not know: the jaroslow family is jewish) they sang a lot an praised everything - in hebrew! it was very funny when the whole family sang something i did not understand. afterwards we had a delicious dinner :)
after that i had a conversation about the crazy people in nyc with david. i remember when i walked down the street with naomi in her stroler and i waited for the traffic light to turn green before crossing the road. (besides: the traffic light for the pedestrians are not really green colored) there was a police-car in front of us on the street and the officer was surprised because i was waiting. then she told me i should cross the street and take no care of the traffic light. i nyc nobody cares about traffic ligths - not even the police... but i had little naomi with me and wanted to teach her about the traffic light! crazy city... even the poeple in the subway are very strange! i thought about writing a book about people in the subway ;) i was never bored in the subway till now - it is so funny to watch those strange guys around you... but my favorite is chinatown. i can not stop smmiling and laughing when i am there!

my first working days

2006-09-09T15:11:00.000-04:00

my first working day was on monday september 4th. it was pretty easy because it was labor day and i just had to take care of naomi. the only problem i had was to bring her to bed when she should take her nap. i think she was afraid of me in the first days. but michaela was there and helped me.
in the evening david took the whole family and both au pairs to a steak house. it was so expensive but is was really good. the waiters were always around the table to bring us more water, to fold the napkins, to bring us some bread etc. it was very fancy. so now i can say i have been to an american steak house ;)

the family (david, simone, ilene, toby and naomi) and michaela

on tuesday it was raining all day so i stood inside with the kids or sometimes in front of the house. i like them very much! simone is talking all the time and is very active. she is just like me when i was younger :) toby is very quiet but not always calm. if you want to talk with him you have to ask something about baseball. it was so crazy to see his eyes when we have been to the baseball stadium one day later.
on tuesday evening i went with michaela to a sushi bar. there we met gracy, another earlier aupair of the jaroslaw family. that was really funny. it was a nice evening and the sushi was so good! and it was not that expensive like usual dinner in new york.

on wednesday i got up at 5:30 am. then i woke up the children and we went to their first day of school after their vacation. there was a buffet in the court of the expensive private school.
in the afternoon we brought michaela to the airport. i am sad that she had left because she was so patient while she explained everything to me i have to know (of course in german ;) )
after that i went to the baseball stadium with the family. that day the BROOKLYN CYCLONES (they belong to the NEW YORK METS) had two games because of the rain on the day before. in the baseball season the teams have a game everyday. i enjoyed that evening so much. since michaela is gone the family is more interested in me. i like michaela very much but now we have the time to build up a good relationship. david explained me baseball in a very easy way (like he does to every au apair). i think it is a little similar to "brennball" on german schools. so it is not that difficult like everybody says :) i had so much fun that evening :)

my first weekend

2006-09-09T14:51:00.000-04:00

on saturday we first spent some time with the children at the bookstore. you are allowed to sit down there and read the books as long as you want. the children like that and it is a very easy job ;) btw: toby was so nice to bring me "the best " book about baseball. he is very crazy about that kind of sport... david (my hostfather) said i will be a professional in baseball when i return home... after that david took michaela and me to a small supermarket. i can tell you: everything is big! and if you want to buy some cookies it takes you several hours to choose some of hundreds. but then you can get a family pack that lasts two weeks and more...

you wanna know what i ate on sunday? i had some waffle with ham! sounds weird but it was not that bad, because the waffle taste like nothing and the ham had also no flavor. so after my "breakfast" i went to chinatown with michaela. i have never been to china but it felt like being there i guess. they had crazy things to eat there but you can get food less expensive in chinatown. and all the weird people on the streets. everybody wants to sell some stuff and they are whispering (or screaming) "gabanna, prada, gucci" or "you need a watch? watch! watch! watch!" that was really crazy!

"knorr"

mc donalds...

after that we had been on a baseball game on coney island. it was my first baseball game ever. (btw: i have never been to a soccer game...) so the game was okay but sometimes very boring. and i understood the most important things :)

brooklyn cyclones stadium

michaela & me

"hotdog-run"

changes!

2006-09-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

the first time they talked a lot with michaela. that has to do with the fact that they know each other very good and she left on wednesday. on the other side i am not alwazs able to say what i want. to express my feelings is sometimes impossible by now. that made me a little bit sad because i am a person who is talking all the time (many of you will know ;) ) and normally my english is much better... but the last days have been so overwhelming that i was confused sometimes. but the family will know that it is not that easy to change your life completely. but that is what i wanted all the time and it will surely take not that long to get used to my new life!