Tag Archives: aupair meeting

Whale watching September cluster meeting

September 16, 2013 – 3:53 pm

From left: Poly and Gianin from Germany , Judith from Austria and Anna R from Germany

From left: Tami, Isabella, Anna F, Veronika from Germany and Petra from the Check Rep.

From left: Tami, Isabella, Anna F, Veronika from Germany and Petra from the Czech Republic.

Anka from Germany with Nawal from France

Elina from Russia with Lynn from Germany

Caren from Namibia with Amy-Louise from South Africa

Michaela and Sophie from Germany who just arrived a few days ago in the USA to start their aupair year

Erika from Brazil with Rebekka from Germany

Nawal from France with Priscila from Brazil, who just started her second aupair year

Poli and Gianin from Germany. Gianin is an Educare aupair who provides up to 30 hours of childcare per week and will need to get 12 credits at an accredited school during her first aupair year.

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Crew members explained the vertebrae bones of a whale to the people on board

For more pictures please go to : Whale watching 2013

Meeting with new aupairs in our Boston cluster

September 13, 2013 – 3:47 pm

In several meetings I could welcome sooo many new aupairs who started their year as aupair in our Boston cluster. Here are Pia and Rebecca from Germany who got information at our meeting from Katja who started her second year as Educare aupair, Michaela who also started her second year in the standart program and Violetta who also will extend her aupair year starting in December in the Sharon area.

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P1030891 - Copy From right: Mariana from Mexicol who told the new aupairs a bit about her year as an aupair, which is almost done. I could welcome Pieta from Finnland, Luz from Colombia, Sophie from Germany, Allison from France, Hannah from Malaysia and Michaela from Germany.

Miriam reached the requirements for the year of her educational part: 6 credits at an accredited college of university and received her certificate.

Mariana reached the requirements for the year of her educational part: 6 credits at an accredited college of university and received her certificate.

Coffee meeting with aupairs who just arrived in the USA

July 12, 2013 – 4:54 pm

4 aupairs just arrived yesterday from orientation to their hostfamilies in the Boston/Brookline area. Janika from Germany who will finish her two years as an aupair this summer helped to explain a lot of great resources and information to the new aupairs together with Emily from the UK who is also knows her way around after being in Brookline for over one month already.

From left: Emily from the UK, Pia from Chile, Janika and Rebekka from Germany, Aom from Thailand and Kate from Austria

April Cluster meeting in the Blue Hills

April 7, 2013 – 5:17 pm

We met today in the Blue Hills in Milton to hike together up to an outlook to enjoy the view over the Boston skyline. Up on the hill we had a picnic together and talked about the outdoors and about plants who are not familiar to many aupairs who come from places where they don’t exist: Poison Ivy. Since none of them has leaves yet, they are hard to find but it’s best to know about them before the leaves are out. I guess everybody is now aware of the “leaves of three, let them be” in order to avoid rashes on themself and the children.

We celebrated the award of the snowman contest which we had after our Nemo blizzard: Lynn from Germany won the first prize and got a T-shirt : I Love Boston

P1080879 - Copy We also celebrated Jia ‘s award she got from AIFS for her volunteering at a Boston food pantry. She won the 2’nd prize in this national volunteering award competition.

P1080892 - Copy Jia talked to the whole group about her experience with volunteering and encourage them to do this too since it is so rewarding for her.

P1080885 - Copy Two new aupairs arrived last week in our cluster: Veronica from Colombia and Anja from Germany. Both of them were able to attend our meeting already and had a great chance to get in contact with many other aupairs on our hike.

Andrea and Ivonne from Mexico ,Kristine and Kim from Germany, Ceci from another cluster and Veronica from Colombia who just arrived in the US last week.

Anja from Germany who just arrived and Anika who will go home to Germany soon after being an aupair in the USA for one year.

Jennifer from Germany who just arrived in our cluster with a friend from Newton

Marie from France and Isabella from Germany who both arrived just a month ago.

More pictures of our cluster event at Hike in the Blue Hills 2013.

Valentine’s Day

February 6, 2013 – 2:58 pm

Please see many ideas for Valentine’Day in the following link:

http://pinterest.com/aupairinamerica/valentine-s-day/

Harvard football vs. Columbia

November 4, 2012 – 3:39 pm

Our aupairs had the opportunity to watch a college football game this Saturday: Harvard vs. Columbia. They had a blast and the weather couldn’t be more perfect this weekend.

Magda from Colombia with Mariana and Ivonne from Mexico

416846_10151314889714042_1056331883_n - Copy 155310_10151314887954042_606098667_n - Copy More pics are here: Harvard football game 2012

We offer our aupairs optional regional events every month for the greater Boston area to have the opportunity to experience traditional events for our New England area. Despite this we also meet in our cluster ones a month to share experiences and share news and discuss childcare topics.

Annual host family meeting at the apple orchard in Stow

September 25, 2012 – 1:52 pm

Local community counselors of the greater Boston area of Au Pair in America

Last Saturday, eight Boston area au pair clusters met at Carver Hill Orchard in Stow, MA for our annual host family/au pair picnic. Host families and au pairs enjoyed apple cider and cider donuts provided by the counselors and the kids participated in fall themed art projects. Families and au pairs also went apple picking and enjoyed a hayride through the orchard.

As per State Department regulation, as an au pair agency, we need to offer our host families an informational host family workshop each year during which host families can also meet each other and get to know the cluster better.

We always like to offer this apple picking venue since it offers the cultural experience that is so much part of our au pair program. Host families had a choice of informational handouts relating to the host family – au pair relationship and cultural differences.

Nat from Thailand with her twin host children and host mother

A host family with their 4 children ( 2 month old baby sleeps in the stroller)

Birgit from Germany with two of her three host children

Hayride into the orchard

Au pair Ari from Spain with Dany from Ecuador with harvested pumpkins

To see all pictures please go to: Apple Picking 2012

Meeting at the Vapiano restaurant in Boston

July 9, 2012 – 9:23 am

Lisa, Mareike and Linda from Germany who will go home after one year of being an aupair

We got together with a group of aupairs to say good bye’s to many of them who will go back to their home country soon after spending one or two years in Boston as an aupair with their hostfamilies.

We shared many great experiences and new friendships developed easily with new arrivals who came for their first meeting.

Left: Anika form Germany who just arrived in our cluster, Right: Vanessa from Germany who will start her travel month soon after being an aupair for 2 years.

Christina from Germany with her boyfriend Wes from Brazil. She also spend two years as an aupair in Boston. We will miss her !

From left: Maye from Mexico, Susanna from Costa Rica and Candice from South Africa.

For more pictures go to meeting at the Vapiano restaurant 2012.

Maple Sugering

March 13, 2012 – 2:59 pm

Au Pairs with Guides

Last weekend, Au Pair in America offered a Maple Sugaring Tour at the Belmont Habitat for their Boston area au pairs. In addition to monthly cluster meetings, these monthly regional events give au pairs the chance to participate in culturally relevant activities. Maple Sugaring is an experience very unique to this area, and au pairs in the area are very lucky to be able to experience this as part of their cultural exchange.

Examining the sugar maple

Two experienced Habitat guides, Ann and Sandy, gave us a wonderful tour. Au Pairs learned about the characteristics of a sugar maple in order to differentiate it from other trees and other types of maples. (branching pattern, leaf pattern, shape and color of buds) We visited a tapped maple tree and learned that the flow of sap is very close to the outer bark of the tree and its flow gets activated every year in the early months for about 6 weeks, when starch that is stored in the roots converts back to sugar that gets transported up the tree in order to feed the buds. This is brought about by cold nights and warmer days.

Taste Test

We tasted the sap right from the tree, and experienced the transformation of the very slightly sweetened liquid into a syrup that is much sweeter by boiling it in the Habitat’s kitchen. The ration of boiling sap into syrup is 40:1! We also compared that natural syrup to the Aunt Jemima kind and noticed how different the two taste. Upon reading the ingredient list of Aunt Jemima, we concluded that there is nothing natural about the product and has nothing to do with the maple sap. Our tour guides also spoke about the different grades of maple syrup and we found out that the darker the syrup, the later in the season it was harvested and the more maple taste it will have.

Tasting our own syrup

The Habitat also has a sugar shack that is not in use any more. This is where the maple sap traditionally gets converted into syrup. Our tour guides showed us the evaporator machine that the farmer used when it was still functional.

In the sugar shack

At the end of the tour, au pairs answered questions to a quiz to see if they remembered what they learned throughout the tour. We were then rewarded by ice-cream that we covered with Maple Syrup, cranberries and maple cookies.

Yummy!

For more photos of our maple sugaring tour please visit maple sugaring 2012