Monthly Archives: March 2013

Au Pair of the Year Award

Each March, the International Au Pair Association presents the Au Pair of the Year Award to the winner selected from among hundreds of au pairs nominated by their host families.

This year the winner is Femke Meyer, 19, from Germany who was presented the award at the IAPA Annual Conference in Rome, Italy on March 13, 2013.

The award recognizes young women for their outstanding childcare, commitment to the au pair program spirit, and their accomplishments in international cultural exchange.

It also celebrates the spunk, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to work hard that young women show when they sign up as au pairs for a yearlong match with a host family in a foreign country.

Two au pairs in our cluster were nominated  for Au Pair of the Year this year!!

The host families of Svenja Denker and Blanca Orellana Reyes were so delighted with their performance that they went to the trouble of writing nominating essays explaining what

WONDERFUL, SMART, HARD WORKING, ENGAGING, FRIENDLY, DEPENDABLE… and altogether “BEST EVER” au pair each of them had been, and how much the families and au pairs enjoyed learning about  each others’ cultures and customs.

Congratulations to Blanca and Svenja for providing excellent childcare and being great cultural ambassadors for Costa Rica and Germany!

NOLBlancaAPYear

NOLSvenjaAPyear


St. Patrick's Day

“May your thoughts be as glad as shamrocks,
May your heart be as light as song,
May each day bring you bright, happy hours,
That stay with you all the year long.”

St. Patrick’s Day celebrates the Roman Catholic feast day of the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick died on March 17, 461. He was born in Roman Britain. He was kidnapped into slavery and brought to Ireland.  He escaped to a monastery in Gaul (France) and converted to Christianity. He went back to Ireland in 432 as a missionary. While Christianity had already taken hold in the country, tradition has it that Patrick confronted the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites, making Christianity more widespread.

Patrick became a bishop and after his death was named Ireland’s patron saint. Celebrations in Ireland were understated though. When the Irish emigrated to the U.S., they created the bigger celebrations and parades known today.  Eighteenth century Irish soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War held the first St. Patrick Day parades. The celebrations became a way for the Irish to connect with their roots after they moved to America.

Fun Facts:

· The shamrock: According to legend St. Patrick used the three leaf clover (or shamrock) to explain the Trinity.

· Dyeing the river green: The practice of dyeing the river green started in Chicago in 1962, when city officials decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.

· Corn beef and cabbage: This is an Irish American dish. Irish Americans were so poor they could not afford certain meals. On St. Patrick’s Day, the best meal they could afford was beef and cabbage. It became a staple for the holiday.

Kids activities including crafts, printable bookmarks and coloring pages:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/st_patricks_day.htm

Spring in City Park

It was not exactly spring, which will officially start on March 20th, but the weather last Sunday was definitely spring-like: warm, odiferous and capricious. After being rained on and blown around by heavy winds, au pairs enjoyed hiding out in the newly installed shelter in City Park… to emerge on a beautifully sunny afternoon not much later.

NOLShelter

NOLSpringCityPark

Erika Talks about Bolivia to Children at St. Paul’s Episcopal School

NOLErikaStPaul

NOLTiwanaku

On March 8, I did my presentation at my little host brother’s school and it was so beautiful.  The best experience I had ever!!!  Just entering the classroom, all the kids looked at me and asked each other who I was, and everyone welcomed me with a smile and saying HI. It was very nice.

I started talking about myself, and then I spoke about my country.

First, I pointed out where exactly Bolivia is located in the map of South America. Then I showed them the map of my country where I also pointed out where exactly I live, how many states we have, and what kinds of weather we have.

After that, I explained to them what were the most important symbols of my country by showing them pictures. Also, I talked about the flag and its colors. But what most caught their attention was the shield/coat of arms of my country because it has two very famous animals of my country like “llama and condor”.  Moreover, I brought more pictures of those animals and they enjoyed so much watching those pictures.

Also, when I asked them if they can tell me my flag’s colors in Spanish, many of them did it correctly. They knew the colors in Spanish very well and almost everyone raised their hands to say something. They all wanted to participate in the presentation.

However, the most exciting part was at the end of the explanation. That is because, when I started to talk about the tourist and historical TIWANAKU, they were fascinated by the architectural work made in stone. Furthermore, I showed them some examples that I brought from my country like the sun gate and a monolith (la puerta del sol y un monolito).

Finally, we had coloring activity and the best ones won gifts, which were the sun gate and the monolith. However as it was so hard to choose the winners, there were five winners, so I had to give pictures to the last three.

IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE!!!