blog change again

hey guys, so i know i keep changing blogs, but im really not enjoying this one anymore so from now on i will not be using this anymore. my official blog page will forevermore be 

www.kissingtherain.com

thanks guys xx

Blurb about the Boy

It is true, I do have an American boyfriend- "he'll be my American boy....la la la... :p" so here is the boyfriend 411.

His name is Girish Harinath, His family is full on Indian, but he was born and raised here in New Jersey. He is 25, and works as a cancer researcher at a hospital in New York City. He lives like 10 minutes away from me though, it’s really cool. We have been together for a few months now and it’s honestly been such a joy ride. He is so much fun!  His personality is 5 words would be kind, hardworking, caring, generous, kiddish. Ah man I so love this dude. Here are some of our fun times together (I’ll stop talking about it or some people might throw up it’s so cute :D).  

date to natural history museum :)

comedy club :)

Chipotle in the city, taking the biggest bites we can and smiling :D

driving around on christmas looking at all the lit up houses

christmas morning coffee date

skiing trip with my (gangster)cutsie pie ^^

new years eve (me=sick) waiting for the ball to drop

our infamous dork faces

rollerblading

our starting point- ruby tuesdays

 double dating :D

random city treks

yay okay so now you know a bit more about my man, hehe hope it was entertaining to read. xx

diary entry #?

Dear followers, well I hope I have followers. I would like to say thank you. Thanks for joining me on this most amazing journey ever, today marks the thirteenth  month of being in America, and as much as I miss my beauty, Cape Town, I am loving life in America. Every day I am still learning new things and growing, making new friends and being challenged. Ah I love it!

Anyways, the past two weeks were filled with my sister coming to America, Valentine’s Day party for Jill, and college college college! :)

Shelly came to America last Tuesday and it was cool, we went out for sushi with my boyfriend and best friend, and then out to a bar afterwards for dessert and drinks. It was a fun first night I think. Then during the course of her stay we went out for food a lot, went to a club in jersey which was cool, and went to Menlo Park mall. There they had a dine in movie theatre which we went to after shopping, it was pretty fun. Then we got semi locked out the mall and almost had to walk around the whole mall just to get to our car, but we found some opened door which was good. Anyways we also went to this restaurant at the mall which was like rainforest theme (I was convinced Africa themed). The chairs were like the bottom half of animals and the whole ceiling had like fruit clusters and coconuts and trees and stuff, it was so cool.

some SA and UK goodies...

drive down to the shore

a weird machine that dispenses ice cream:?

rainforest cafe

dine in movies :D

Last Friday I had (what has now become an annual tradition), Jillian’s little girls Valentine’s Day party. It was so cute, she had like 13 girls over and they all decorated cupcakes, made BFF bracelets and ate pizza. I love them so much; it was so nice to be able to do that for them.

Some exciting things coming up, are one of my best friends who went back to Germany, is coming to visit in 2 weeks, and she’s staying for a month! And I have almost the amount of money needed for my gran’s flight. Please pray I am able to sell my brand new still in packaging ipad mini and get the rest of the money :D

Chat soon, xx

Goals for the year

Hey hey :) 

so nothing interesting happened this week really. I've been trying to get into studying- so much reading oh my goodness!! I am however enjoying my class so much and really love what I'm learning.

I was looking through my old blog posts from when i first got here to see if i had any goals or like to do lists for my year in America, and all i found was this bucket list of places to go:

DC

Hollywood

California

Los Angeles

Broadway

Disney world

Liberty stairs

Chicago

Philadelphia

Ohio

Missouri

Virginia

So out of all of these I have been to 

DC

Hollywood

California

Los Angeles

Broadway

Philadelphia

Missouri

and I'll be booking a flight to Ohio real soon for a little vaca at the end of this month

I'd say that's pretty cool :)

Here is my goal list for this year, well the 6 months until i go home

-Save enough to get my granny here

-Save some more for studies

-go skiing again

-Disney world

-Chicago

-Virginia

-see another Broadway show

-become a better version of me by growing and maturing more and more through whatever circumstances come up

we'll see what this year brings, but i hope all of you can set goals and reach them :)

This is my year!

Hey, how is everyone doing?

As this year has been getting on its way, i have come to realize there are many exciting things happening! it is a year of great things and i would like to share what is coming up this year for me (God willing). 

this is in order:

#1- my sister is coming to visit me for a week and a half and we're gana have so much fun! i haven't seen her in over a year and will be good to hang out with family and show her my home and friends and family here in America :D

#2-in March Ines (one of my best friends who went home to Germany) is coming to visit for 3 weeks i think-so cool so cool!!!

#3- my best best friend from south Africa is possibly moving to America for the rest of the year and is hoping to stay in jersey and Au pair like I'm doing!!! :D so excited about that, will be amazing to share everything here with my best friend! I'll never be lonely again!ha ha

#4- April, not only my birthday month, but my 21ST BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! yeah!!!!! only the biggest birthday of my life so far! cant wait.

#5-i am paying for my granny to come and visit me around April.... she has never been to America, and she is also my favorite person in the whole world so this will def be a big thing for me :D

#6- my friend Nassim, who also went home to Germany already, is coming to visit for a month in May! so cool!

#7- I am going back home in August!!!!! I cant wait! i cant wait to taste South African food and drive South African roads, ah man I cant wait for that!

#8- I am hopefully coming back to America on a student visa and will start studying social work full time....

Wow what a good looking year ahead right? can't wait and I hope you'll enjoy hearing more and more adventures of my American dream!

xxx

365 days of a dream

Hey all you crazy peeps :D

So today, as some of you may know is the first anniversary of my arrival in America :) Firstly I wanna say happy one year to all my fellow au pairs who I had the pleasure of meeting at the training school this time last year. I hope you all had an amazing year and whatever you decide to do this next year, good luck and God bless :)

Wow, the land of the free, the home of the brave, and now the home of Naomi :) this year has a rollercoaster ride!!!! I have had the most amazing, thrilling, adventurous, scary, independent, emotional, daring, educating, wild, eye-opening, relaxing, and courageous year of my life. It has truly been a year of all emotions and experiences and the best thing I can say about it is that I made the most of [almost] every opportunity handed to me.

Starting with the first week year, I was challenged to love these kids as my own, as well as discipline them, as well as encourage them, as well as keep them in check. I can now say being a mom is tough, I have semi first-hand experience :p but I can honestly say I feel these kids have taught me so much more than I could have ever taught them. They taught me how to love and trust, and to forgive and forget quickly. They taught me how to be young and free, and how to rely on others when you can’t do something alone. They taught me how to let go of the small things, and to try new things every day, even if it’s not a first choice preference. Mostly, they taught me about family. There are so many times when Jillian (the 5 year old girl I look after) will call me her sister; and so many times matt (the 8 year old boy I look after) will include me in counting the members of the family. Oh I do love them so much and couldn’t have been more blessed to be a part of this family.

I did not realize I liked travel as much as I do, until I started travelling. It is an amazing (and uncomfortable) thing to live out of a suitcase, and I recommend it to everyone! This past year I went to Niagara falls, Maryland, Washington dc, Amherst in Boston, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas city Missouri, Philadelphia,  New York city of course, and obviously around Jersey… I have loved seeing every different place, and definitely plan on continuing my travels this coming year.

This year has been most significant for me because for the first year in the past 5, I have had a stable place to call home, amazing people to call family (Jess and Evan), and met the most amazing friends from around the world (Germany, France, El Salvador, Mexico, and England). Being away from home teaches you real independence and how to trust yourself. I have always said when you take yourself away from everything you think makes you who you are, that’s when you find out who you really are, what you really want, and what you believe in and stand for. This I have done, in one short and long year and it’s truly an inspiring thing. I now believe in myself, have strength and courage to do things I never thought I could, I know what I think is right and wrong, without a grown up telling me what to do, and have just grown in maturity so much.

All I have left to say is praise God! Praise Jesus for this past year, that I made it, and still love my job and life as much as I did in the beginning, and praise God for his faithfulness this year. Thank you to everyone who has followed me this past year, who have helped me and encouraged me to push on, and who have stuck by me the whole time. I love you all so much. I am truly excited for another amazing year of being in America and “kissing the rain” :)

Happy belated new year....

Hey all, Happy happy new year, I know it's late but this year has just been so crazy, and it's only the 12th...

New years weekend was a long one for me and I spent it in NYC as well as the Poconos in Philadelphia...on the Friday I went to new York city and met my boyfriend Girish for lunch, then I stayed at a hostel in NYC. At the hostel I met 2 cool people and went out to an Irish pub with them in downtown Manhattan, it was so much fun.

Then on Saturday I went with Girish skiing at bareback mountain resort at the Poconos  Oh my gosh it was the most amazing experience ever! The first slope we went on was the expert one, but we didn't know, so we're going up the biggest slope they have and there's only one way down. Oh my gosh it was so much fun, we both fell like a million times but it was such an experience. Then we went on the smaller slopes and by the end of the day I was an expert, Girish, ahhhhh not so much :p

Then back to NYC...That night I went to my friend Tracey's house to sleep over, it was so nice seeing her again, I really missed her, and we just went to mc Donald's and chilled.

The next day was new years eve, or old years day. Me, Svenja, Girish, and Svenja's two friends and two sisters ended up on 57th and broadway and in perfect view of the ball drop in times square. it was awesome we got there at 11, waited an hour and saw the ball drop. it was great. my new years resolution is to save money. :) what is yours?
xx