Is it already the end of September?

Wow that means I have officially been here for a year. Actually tomorrow will be my anniversary.
Before I came here, a year seemed like so long and I was so scared to commit myself to this for so long but the year actually passed by quickly. At the beginning of course I counted the days and then the days became months but now it is actually 365 days and I have another 12 months to go seeing as I have renewed my contract.
Now that date seems far away but I guess every day at a time and before you know it the time is up.

I didnt do anything special for my year of being here but let me fill you in on the past few weeks....

I was invited to attend a different 'au pair coffee' on Sunday 2nd September and went with Lacey. Most of the girls that go are French speaking Canadians but I had the chance to meet another Australian girl named Vicki and really got along with her.



Here are the girls from the coffee

It was a shame though because Vicki left a fortnight later. On a good note though I got to go to her farwell party and met all of her friends who are super nice. Here are some photos of our night out!




Huw, Vicki and I - the aussies!!

Vicki is now working her way through Europe so hopefully I will meet up with her sometime soon if it works into my schedule. She just finished a contiki tour of Turkey so now she is just seeing where the wind blows her.

The following night I went to another girls farwell party (everyones leaving!!!) and she had organised a cocktail party where we all wore dresses and headed into the city to one of the more famous bars in Zurich the Kaufleuten (sp??)



Seeing as I had actually had 3 hours sleep the previous night I didnt want to go out but I was committed so I went but left early. It was good to see some of the girls and say goodbye to Patricia but it was an early Saturday night for me... the group shot...


So with that weekend over it was time for me to start looking forward to the following Thursday. Lacey, whose boss is a pilot had secured us first class seats to Antalya Turkey for the cost of taxes only which was only like 82 francs (about 82 aussie dollars!!!) So after trekking out to Laceys house late Wednesday night we then woke up at 4am Thursday morning to be on out 6.45am flight. The surprise of the day was then the opportunity to go and sit up in the cock pit with the two pilots. We got to see the takeoff and enjoyed watching the sun come up and then also to see Kai land the plane which was perfect!


The 5am shot

Beautiful sunset

Reto - the other pilot

Not many people get the chance now to go in the cock pit of a huge plane so I was so grateful to be able to experience that. After 3 hours and a time change we landed in Turkey with 30 degree plus weather and the issue of getting to our hostel.

After some wandering, sweating and more wandering we finally agreed on a cab to the suburb of Kaeici in the oldtown. We luckily had found the best hostel which was run by a super cool aussie guy and we got upgraded to a twin room for only a little extra. We talked to Mike for hours on what to do and see and then set about the city.


With Mike, better than Lonely planet.

The whole time there we had perfect weather, met some of the nicest travellers ever and really explored every corner of this booming city.
We went on 3 different boat rides where we went to the famous Dudan waterfalls on one and also on our day trip ride we went to an island in the middle of the Antalyan Gulf and jumped off the boat into the ocean! It was so warm and clear and we got to float around on those huge orange jackets. We had a lovely lunch and got to spend quality time with our new friend Lisa.
We ate great turkish food at the same restaurant 4 times, drank apple tea, went shopping like crazy at all the different bizzarres selling everything from tea cups to prada bags and also just relaxed!


Great food,

Warm water,

and the fleeting chance to cool down for a moment.

We did alot of drinking (!!!) while away and also got to see a live Turkish cover band which was cool. Whilst away I bought a mini hubbly bubbly and some really nice tea cups. The Turkish lira was so similar to the swiss franc so we didnt spend alot of time converting things in our head, we just new that Turkey was alot cheaper than Switzerland.

It was such a nice holiday that it wad a shame to go home. This holiday was different from alot of our other trips in the sense that we did alot more leisurely things like shopping and going out in stead of having early nights and spending the days packing a tonne of sight seeing in. It was a nice change and Lacey and I had the best time.

We got to fly home again sitting in the cockpit for some of the time but the best bit was being able to walk out and inspect the plane with the pilot himself. We got to have photos and see what makes a plane fly!

Here are some of the photos of the scenery that I got to enjoy in my 4 days in Antalya...














Thank you Kai and Lacey for giving me the chance to fall in love with Turkey!!

So then the past week was busy as always so it was nice to go out again Friday night and have a picnic by the lake Saturday.

Had a quiet night in on Saturday night and got pizza and a few movies with Lacey.




Nicolas and I invented a new game.
We have fun sometimes ;-) Also now just on the lookout for a new camera as I dropped mine in Turkey (!!!!) Kind of annoyed but it is really important to me, what makes it worse is that my ipod died only a few weeks ago so I had to buy that also! Its red though so I am happy!!!

Have a good week and see you all in 10 weeks, I am so excited xox

Die Langest Nacht...of my life!

Well Lacey is still sleep (and its 10.30am) from our previous night out so I thought this morning would be a good opportunity to blog and get you up to date on whats been happening.

School holidays have now been over for 2 weeks so my family and I have been getting back into routine. Noel is now in his second year of kindergarten, the twins now go to a billingual forest group twice a week and I am will start my french class 6th Sept.

Unfortunately last week though I became really sick. I am not sure what I had but I stayed in bed for a few days and couldnt eat and had a fever. It was horrible. I am never sick and then nowadays I always catch the smallest bug! It was a quick recovery though because on Friday 24th of August it was my bosses 40th birthday and I was well enough to go out for lunch with the family and start to prepare for her party.



Lacey and I both attended which was really good. Held in Tieffenbrunnen the theme was "be the popstar you always wanted to be". So being the younglings Lacey and I dreassed up as Shakira and Beyonce respectively, but some people went all out and dressed as Abba, Madonna, Elvis, etc. The night was great and everyone looked fantastic. The location was awesome with an outdoor area to cool down after dancing on the huge dancefloor and there was also a standing room where you could get drinks and food (which was really yum!!)



Lacey and I enjoyed ourselves to the max and were talking to some really nice people throuhout the night. We drank ourselves silly and had had to call it a night after one little person decided she had had enough! A really fun night though, we then spent Sunday by the lake with our friends and David, Laceys new boyfriend joined us. It was also the last time we got to hang out with our friend Svetlana as she was leaving the country to go back home to Canada on the 31st of August.




This past week though I got back into my swimming routine after my full recovery and have also started listening to my french classes. I think I will enjoy french more since I hopefully will pick it up faster than I did german, but it is also really hard. Maybe I dont have a good nack for languages...

Wednesday I was at my au pair coffee metting and had the chance to meet some more people that have started to attend. At one point there was only like 5 girls coming which wasnt as good, but now there seems to be more people going which I think is good, and we got to meet some nice girls who are nannys also here.

It was also decided at the meeting that we would all plan to go to the "Lange Nacht Museum" a night that was put on where all the 40 museums in Zurich are open all night and they each have different events happening within them.

We gave one of the girls our money and she got our tickets for us.

Friday then rolled around and I got to go to the Zurich zoo with Maxine. Nicolas went to his Oma and Opa's house and Noel was at school so we drove into the city and met Laura with her two kids Cami and Jeremy and Krystal with her little girl Patricia. There was also another Canadian girl who was there and she was really nice too, looking after two little american kids.




And as you can see Maxine really likes to look at the camera when having her photo taken!!

Maxine was so well behaved the whole day and we had so much fun together. We saw heaps of animals, got to go in the rainforest and had lunch with all the other kids. After a big day and an icecream we headed home where she fell asleeep in the car. I then had to babysit on Friday night.




Saturday we all decided to go to the flea markets to see if we could find any bargains but it was seriously all just junk - and it grossed me out!!! We sat in the park though and had a nice lunch and then Lacey and I went home to get ready for our long night in the museums experience....

We were told you had to dress nicely so we beautified ourselves and then met everyone in the city at 7pm.
So many of the girls showed up without tickets, and then found out that they werent able to gain entrance. So in the end, it ended up being Lacey and I with Candace and Patricia who were the planners of the night and then the two nannies that we met Amy (from England) and another Patricia (from Scotland - and I swear I cant understand this girl). Oh and a new Brazillian au pair in Lauras german class!

So the night really wasn't what we had expected. You paid for our ticket and we assumed that that included the nibblies and drinks at each place we went to including entrance but unfortunately it didnt. So we just got in then everything else was extra which was sad to me, but it was good to hang out with some different girls I guess. The only major problem of the night really was the fact that I think we probably walked at least 10km around Zurich through out the night and also spent at least 5 hours on various forms of transport.

The night was meant to go until about 5am after visiting such places as the Rietberg Museum, the North America Museum, the Chinese Gardens, a cabaret show, the Zoo and the Kunsthaus Museum but we actually only made it to like the first two before we got bored of wandering throughout the city.



I think if I was maybe wearing like hiking shoes and more prepared for a night of fitness and not a night of fun and drinks then I would have enjoyed myself more.

So Lacey and I headed home to Meilen on the 11.51pm train and came home and watched a movie.

She is now awake and we are looking for yet more travel deals and at 4pm we will leave to go to yet another au pair coffee with a different group of people to hopefully extend our network of friends.

Sorry my blogs have been so few and far between, hopefully I will be more diligent and pop on here more often in the future!

Hugs and kisses,
Megz


I keep telling Maxine its bad luck to put umbrellas up inside....

I dont know if I am just tired....

I have been saying it ever since Kim and Kate left but I think I want to come home.

I miss everyone too much. Its not enough for me to speak to my mum on the phone all the time.
It hurts too much now to hear about my sisters lives from a distance.
I dont want to be away from Mel and Mandy and D and Sahar (if shes still around) anymore.
Its just Lacey and I now and I am so lonely. Manda and Sara left and it feels like I wont make any more friends. People that I will love anyway. And if I dont love them then whats the point?
I love the kids I look after. I love the beautiful big house thats right on the lake. I love so much jumping on a plane for an hour and being at another stunning holiday destination,
I am just more sad these days than I am happy.

I miss you guys. I think about you all - all the time.

More goodbyes...

The weekend following the girls leaving was the actual last weekend in Switzerland that Sara, Manda, Lacey and I were together so we all camped at Laceys house and drank a heap of wine and made a tonne of nice food for the whole weekend!



We talked about going shopping or taking a hike but none of it happened. I think we really just wanted to be with each other, there were a few tears. Yet it wasnt the last time we saw each other. Just Manda and Sara had to say goodbye.



Sara then left for Ireland and it was Manda, Lacey and I left to celbrate the Swiss National Day on August 1st. Luckily it was a week day so we got the day off!
We celebrated in style by all buying Swiss flag t-shirts. We the made it down to the lake and spent the afternoon drinking my duty free vodka and having a nice lunch. My boss had also invited everyone to my house for a BBQ so we went there at about 6.30ish. We had a huge dinner along with my family, Catherines brothers family from Belgium, Beats mum and Manda's friend Miles.



We played in the lake for a while and once it got dark we let off fireworks from our backyard. It was amazing to be on the lake as we can see into the mountains and all up the lake so there was fireworks going on for kilometres - it was a great atmosphere. The kids had a great time even if Maxine was scared of the noise and then Beat offered us one of his famous Cuban cigars so I had a chuff of that.... blehhhhhhhh! Manda and Lacey though it was great because they have never seen one as cuban things are forbidden in the U.S.



After a huge day Lacey and I went to walk Manda and Miles to my train sattion yet we didnt make it so far as Lacey fell in a mud slide. She went over on an already sensitive ankle.... whats the date today? Oh yea 15th of August so two weeks has passed and my poor little Lacey is still limping!!



Catherines brother Fred and his family left to go home on the 6th of August and then my family left for Barcelona late Tuesday afternoon. I was staying here for the week and planned to go on a few day trips.

On the Wednesday after the au pair coffee that I attend Lacey and I met a new girl and took her shopping. As Sara's gift for me since she was leaving she gave me a 30 frnac voucher for the Freitag (Friday) store in Zurich. http://www.freitag.ch/ These are original bags made in Zurich and cost an arm and a leg so it is my aim to buy one before I go home! Thanks Sara for the cool present! So we spent half of Wednesday in the store looking at the bazillion of bags they have available.

Lacey then slept at my house Wednesday night. We invited Svetlana over for dinner and I made the girls a chicken curry, which was really good!!! After that we then began our Harry Potter marathon. I just started the book so I am really obsessed!

Thursday was spent dragging Lacey (who is still hobbling) across the city toone of the larger shopping malls in Zurich called the Glatt! I have not been to a mall here before so it was cool to be at the Glatt.... kind of like a Westfields!

I didnt go too nuts, just preparing for the party I am going to soon for my bosses 40th birthday. The theme is "be the popstar you have always wanted to be" so I am going as Beyonce! 1) because I love her music 2) because I can wear a short dress and not feel skanky and 3) because I want to have big hair!

So I got a dress and I am nearly ready just have to begin the fake tan process soon because people keep saying I am not black..... LACEY!!!



Friday then rolled around and I decicded to go to Strasbourg for the day which is in France but right near the German boder also about 2.5 hours away from Zurich. My friend Laura came also and we had a nice day exploring, sadly the weather became bad by the end of the day but it was still a nice day.




Saturday was spent organising meeting places, etc to go into Zurich for the would famous street parade. Simlar to the gay and lesbian mardi gras the whole city was alive. It started at 1pm and went through to 10pm. There was so many people there (at least 1 million) and everyone had earplugs in so you can imagine how loud it was. Massive trucks were driving through the city and on each truck was a DJ with heaps of dancers on the back just rolling through the main streets.



It was a good experience but way too many people on drugs. I saw a friend get sloshed with something similar to beer and decided it was time to leave after only about 2 hours... it was sweltering hot in the city so Laura, Kristi and I went back to Lauras house and watched a movie and then I went over to Laceys house at about 10pm.

Sunday was a definate slow day spent relaxing and planning trips (or discussing them anyway) Lacey has it in her head that we need to go to a beach somewhere... (dont think she knows Im an albino) so we are trying to head to Greece or Croatia or somewhere in the coming months.

Monday arrived and went without my knowledge as I spent the day doing my scrapbooks. Finally!!!

Then yesterday (my final day home alone) I went to the airport and said good bye to Manda. I had already actually said goodbye to her because I thought I was going away with my family and I wasnt going to be here to say goodbye but plans changed and I was able to see her off. It was so weird that she has been here for a year and now she is going home. I could tell that Manda was torn. Excited to be going home to se all the people that she loves. Yet also sad because she was leaving us and the good life that we had all built together.








I am not sure when I will see Manda next but we have promised to keep in touch and it is safe to say that Manda is seriously one of my best friends now who I will miss deeply.

Its so hard becuase now that she is gone I am worried about new friends, etc etc but I guess I will be ok. Lacey and I have made some new friends already it just isnt the same as Manda and it is hard to start again.

The remainder of Tuesday I went to Constance on Lake Constance, Germany (the third largest lake in central Europe - situated between Austria, Germany and Switzerland)
A great town it had a huge mall, where I got my hair all chopped off, and got to see all the pretty sites. I still think Zurichsee or Lake Zurich in English is the prettiest lake ever but it was still nice and I love the town. I will definately also go back there to do my shopping as it is so much cheaper than Switzerland.

It was cool though because the train actaully pull into the station and you are still in Switzerland but then you walk over the border into the German train station!

It took 2 hours to get there by train from my house so it wasnt too far at all. A nice break for the past week, the family is all home now after the trip to Barcelona. Nicolas was so excited after being on the aeroplane and Maxines hair is white and she has a great little tan.

Glad everyone is home. The construction on the house is still going so it is very noisy here but this afternoon we will all go into the lake which is crystal clear today since it is so hot!

Hope everyone is well back home. Going to dedicate some time to replying to emails soon... also just trying to learn some French at the moment so there isnt enough hours in the day.

Ciao xox

I didnt think it would hurt me so much to say goodbye...

I feel so slack that I havent blogged in over 3 weeks but the last couple of weeks have been really busy. Busy in a good way though because it was when Kim and Kate were here.

After the weekend on the Zuri Fest, on the Sunday night I stayed over at Laceys as she lives near the airport. Kim and Kate flew in Monday morning at 6.15am so I met them there in the early hours and drove them back to my house to introduce them to my family.

It was so weird to see them both. As they walked through to the baggage claim I could see them through the glass and they both looked so pretty even after stepping off a 24 hour flight. I had been longing for this moment for the past few weeks and it made me so happy to see them. They both hadnt changed at all just seemed more grown up and looking really cute! Once I got to talk to them it was like they hadnt been absent in my life for the past 10 months, it just felt like it was meant to.




The girls were really exhausted from their flight obviously so Monday was a quiet day for them and I also had to work but Tuesday they went on a trip to Luzern to meet Kims friends for the night. We organised their Swiss travel pass for the two weeks and off they went.



Wednesday after the girls came back from Luzern I organised them to meet all of my friends at one of my favourite restaurants called Zic Zac. Everyone came which was really nice and all my friends loved the girls.





It was then on Thursday that we flew to Nice together. I had already been to the South of France but hadnt made it to Nice yet and some of the other tourist spots so we went there to relax and spend some quality time on the beach. We stayed at one of the tope 10 hostels in the world. We were in a great room with a view and a bathroom and the hostel itself was so great! It was full of aussies and we enjoyed cheap drinks and good food the whole time we were there!







As well as exploring Nice we also spent a day exploring Antibes and Cannes and then on another day we went to Monaco for the day and went to one of the nicest beaches I have ever been to. That day also on the way home we stopped at Villefranche at another beach that was nice too but a little bit overcrowded and dirty.

Nice itself was really pretty. I had heard some bad reviews about it but all the beaches were clean, there was heaps of great shops, and the public transport system was really good. You obviously pay more for everything being on the french riviera but that was to be expected and we had such a great time.



The flight home on the Sunday night flew into Basel (one hour from Zurich) really late so we stayed at a hostel near the train station. In the morning we woke up fairly early and left for Zurich. We planned to meet Catherine and the kids and then catch the steam boat to Rapperswil. We went to a really nice restaurant for lunch and then caught the train home.



The following Thursday we flew to Barcelona from Zurich. We arrived at about 9ish into Barcelona and caught the 'aerobus' to our hostel which was on the most famous street in Barcelona the Passeig de Gracia. The first night we were here we stayed in a 12 bedroom dorm whcih wasnt the greatest but ok and then for the following two nights we were in a 6 bedroom dorm with three other Polish girls who were so nice.

We decided that the Friday would be our shopping day, but I while in Barcelona I wanted to see the famous Sagrada Familia so we did that first which was oretty amazing and then we went back to the shopping strip and spent lots of time in changerooms and plenty of euros but had a great time going to all the cool shops and then on the Friday night we went on a 'tapas tour' that was put on nightly by our hostel. For 18 euros we got to go to a tapas restaurant (where you got to choose 5 little meals)and get some Sangria, go to a Flamenco bar, go to an Irish pub and get a free shot, then walk on furthur to a club (haha and get another free shot) and then go to an underground dance party.



My sisters and I left after the club as we had walked across the whole of Barcelona by this stage and were fearful that we may never find our hostel again but we met some nice girls and had a really good time for the evening!



On the Saturday Kim the beach bum had to get some sunshine so we walked for a good hour with a girl named Magda from our room to the beach. Nothing in comparison to the French beaches, Kate and I went to a nice restaurant instead while Kim was baking!

The Saturday night we were pretty tired so we went to a Spanish restaurant and had fajitas! Then surprisingly on Sunday morning Kims friends that she had met in Luzern showed up to breakfast with her boyfriend! We all ate together and then caught the metro to the Park *****. It was a huge park that overlooked the whole city. It was actaully a really nice way to spent the last day as we had to leave for the airport by 2pm. Kims friends Louise and Brendan were so nice and I was glad to meet them!



Our flight home was good and I think we flew over some of the prettiest landscape ever (which I think was the south of France) and we got home at about 8ish Sunday night. The kids were all excited to see us again which was a nice welcome home!

After Barcelona the girls had two more full days in Switzerland so they took the opportunity to go down to Interlaken for the day and go in a cable car up to the Schilthorn which is home to the famous revolving restaurant in the James Bond film. While here they also went exploring in Zurich, and go to the famous Rhine Falls on the border of Switzerland and Germany.

On the girls last day here we stayed together and went out to lunch after doing some work for Catherine and the girls packing their bags!

On Tuesday night then at about 7.30pm we left for the airport. The girls werent looking forward to the flight obviously because it is so long. We checked them in and thankfully their bags were both on 20kg (our limit!!!)

We sat in Starbucks for a while until it was time to say goodbye and then I walked them over to the passport control. It was then that it finally hit that I had to let them go.

I am already nervous about saying goodbye to Manda who is one of very best friends here so to say goodbye to the girls just reminded me of how many times I have had to wave bye to people that I love recently.

It hurt me so much to see them go. I know that we argued about silly things while they were here and I know they needed to go home but I feel like I am missing out on so much of their lives while I am here.

Katie was stong for us all when we departed as Kim and I were so upset but hopefully now that we have seen each other again we will stay in better contact on email or whatever once they get home.

I am so proud of the girls with how they carry themselves in life. Katie is now at uni and doing so well and Kim has such a great attitude on life that I know they will both do so well in the future. I am so glad that I will be home to see them in 4 months and I think as we grow older we become more than sisters and we become good friends too. I know the girls will be with me every step of my life and I hope they know that I am always there for them even if I am so far away.

Thank you for coming over Kim and Kate and thank you Mum and Dad for letting me see them, thank you for the best gift ever!