Yearly Archives: 2011

June Clustermeeting

We had a chatty lunch and  afternoon together at our June clustermeeting at my house in Braintree.

To many aupairs we had to say good bye and new aupairs already arrived who were happy to get in touch within our cluster.

I am so thankful to have so many fantastic aupairs who share their information with traveling in and out of the US, taking classes at local colleges and opportunities how to get together with each other.

Our buffet was tremendously good with International food everybody shared within our group from their home country recipes.

Erika from Brazil, Shante from South Africa, Lindia from France and Djamila from the Netherlands

Erika from Brazil, Shante from South Africa, Lindia from France and Djamila from the Netherlands

Maria and Alexandra from Germany and Anna from Brazil

Maria and Alexandra from Germany and Anna from Brazil

Nancy from Thailand, WenJuan from China and Mikaela from Sweden

Nancy from Thailand, WenJuan from China and Mikaela from Sweden

Alexandra with Meg from the UK

Alexandra from Germany with Meg from the UK

Our group together outside on the deck.

Our group together outside on the deck.

At our next cluster meeting we will have our rain check for the kayaking: Sunday, July 17. Please mark your calendar !!

For more pictures go to

June clustermeeting 2011.

Cultural Fair at the Children’s Museum

IMG_0864May 1st was a day of cultural education and fun, sponsored by Au Pair in America at the Boston Children’s Museum. Over the course of the afternoon, hundreds of enthusiastic children and parents toured the exhibition, received earth and skin friendly tattoos, had their faces painted with country flags, and chatted with au pairs representing countries from around the world.

The Au Pair in America Cultural Fair was truly a multi-modal event.
Traditional dance in authentic costume highlighted the presentation by Thailand while the German au pairs entertained visitors with traditional German spring egg craft and painting.  South African au pairs proudly painted their country’s flag on little and big smiling faces alike, while a  colorful and tempting piñata dangled overt the Mexico booth.  Au pairs from many other countries served as international teachers of the culture and beauty of their homelands as well.  Photos of this great event are available on our cluster photos link below.

Cultural Fair Pictures  and Heike’s pics 

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

Valentine’s Day Clustermeeting

Yesterday we celebrated Valentine’s Day together at my house. Since we had many new aupairs who just arrived from Germany, Brazil, Colombia and Sweden we had a lot to chat and share information within our cluster.P1010733 - Copy      P1010735 - Copy   P1010751 - Copy

To see more pictures from our meeting please go to Valentine’s Day 2011.

Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday

 

15 years after Dr. King’s death President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law making the third Monday of January a national holiday celebrating the birth and life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It took many years for Congress to decide to celebrate the holiday. In the years leading up to the official decree many African-Americans celebrated the birthday themselves with a few states declaring King’s birthday a state holiday. The bill was finally passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate and was signed into law on November 2, 1983.  The first national celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday took place January 20, 1986.

Each year on the third Monday of January, schools, federal offices, post office and banks across America close as we celebrate the birth, the life and the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It is an occasion for joy and celebration for his life and his work toward nonviolent social change in America and the world.

Snowtubing in Nashoba Valley

We had wonderful conditions for our snowtubing event tonight. The slopes were really fast and without wind relativ mild conditions. Alot of fun for our cluster as well as for all other clusters who came to this fun event from the greater Boston area.

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P1010522 - Copy  For more pics please go to snowtubing 2011.