Monthly Archives: March 2011

Prudential Center Skywalk

Thank you Caroline to help to have my camera in the right mode

Thank you Caroline from Sweden to help me with my camera.

Anna from Brazil

Anna from Brazil

With the typical weather for Boston: Sunny and blue sky all around us we all enjoyed the awesome view from the Prudential center skywalk area on the 50’th floor today on March 27.Christina from Germany and Jen from France
Christina from Germany and Jen from France
Meg from the UK
Djamila from the Netherlands and Jen from SwedenDjamila from the Netherlands and Jen from SwedenView to the Charles River
                                                                                 View to the Charles River
Our famous CITGO sign
Our famous CITGO sign
Afterwards we had a great chat at the Vapiano restaurant.
Afterwards we had a great chat at the Vapiano restaurant.

For more pictures please go to Prudential center skywalk 2011

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day – St. Patrick is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland.  St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in the US since 1737.  Traditional icons of the day are the shamrock, leprechaun, the color green and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In Chicago, they city celebrates with a parade and the Chicago River is dyed green!shamrock

Boston celebrates with a parade on Sunday, March 20 . Go to Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Maple sugaring clustermeeting

 

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On Saturday we went to a maple sugaring event in the Belmont habitat where we could learn how this typical New England tradition was made in the early days and today.

Sandy Fisher a teacher for 20 years  taught us which trees can be used, how to drill a hole into the tree             

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Meeting at the sugar house

P1020057 - Copy      P1020071 - Copy     , how we collect the sap of it, how the sap taste directly from the tree outdoors,  how to cook the syrup today and in and old cook stove                               and last but not least we had a chance to eat this delicious sweet syrup on ice cream with dried cranberries and blueberries. To compare this famous Massachusetts syrup to other syrup was really interesting too. My favorite is the New England maple syrup.

We had the perfect day, the perfect weather and temperature and did this in the early start of the season of  Massachusetts Marple Sugaring month of March. We really had a wonderful time. For more pictures go to Maple sugaring in March 2011.

TAXES

Taxes

Taxes have been a big topic lately and I’m sure there are lots of questions. I will go over tax questions at our cluster meeting next week.

Here are some of the basic questions:

Who is supposed to file taxes? – All au pairs (even those who don’t owe money)

Will all au pairs have to pay something? – No, it depends on when you arrived and how much money you earned last year.

When are 2010 taxes due? – April 18, 2011

Where can I get the tax form? –  1040NR-EZ Form

Where can I get the instruction booklet? – 1040NR-EZ Booklet

Where can I get detailed information and see a sample au pair tax form? – APIA Tax Info for Au Pairs