oddsonsardines

I think it says something when you get to a new place and you can count the negative things on one hand and can't even keep track of the positive.

Apparently not giving Nina tic-tacs means she doesn't like me anymore... I think she'll come back around :)

Here is what I wrote to my mom!!!

I got a Job!!!!!!! The new family is FANTASTIC! I had the interview and they told me to ask Thomas how soon I could start! they want me right away. I got to see my room and its about the same size but with my own bathroom. I don't have use of a car but that is fine, they have a bike for me. My jobs at the house are these (from Melissa's mouth) "Kids, Laundry and helping them clean up their own messes." It also sounds like I am spending most of my time with melissa and just shuffling the girls around. The girls are Luda (sp?idk) age 9 (10 in February) Rachel age 7 and Nina age 5. very very small brunette girls with pretty round faces and hazelnut eyes. They are already WAY better behaved then the boys, all the Melissa had to do was ask them nicely to stop humming and they listened. They speak pretty good English and can understand me pretty well, Nina however, doesn't know much but she did know how to say "I like you. And me?" and would point to herself. I said "Yes! I like you very much. And your sisters, I think we should have a sleepover soon, don't you?" and smiled and laughed and nodded. The whole rest of the time she would just stop and say "I like you." The girls also talked about how much more the liked me already then the last Au Pair, they liked that I smiled and laughed. When I left the older one Luda came running out to give me a hug before I left. I've already been invited to Join them on one of their weekend trips to Paris! And she hopes I will come on all of them, I guess they tend to be last minute? I'm ok with that! She wanted to know my birthday because birthdays are a big deal in the house. And told me about how on Fridays in good weather, they like to have dinner on the beach and loved that I was a good swimmer because that makes it easier for them to let me go head to the beach with a few of the girls while they get the food ready and pick up the stragglers and so on. I agreed to do their starting Salary of 340 Euro and that can get up to 400 if it works out well. Dutch lessons, cell phone and all of that is being taken care of as well.

I also said I was open to the idea of staying longer than a year. Now here are all the options that came up, if i only stay a year I asked to be home in time for Christmas. If i stay longer than a year it will not exceed 2 and i still get to come home for Christmas :). But Melissa knows how important it is to finish school and not wait too long to do so.