Real News, Views & People
Now you've just got to checkout some of the real stories below. What a blast you can have on these exchange programs abroad.
2008 AU PAIRS
Tessa Murphy from Ngaruawahia left NZ in February to live in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the Duval family. Her host mother is a professor and Tessa looks 8 year old Ali.
She says “I'm doing really well. Have met a few girls in the area and everyone is really nice. I'm still not quite used to this cold weather. But have been making the most of it with learning how to ski and going sledding etc. The difference is fun!!!”
 Kelly Clark from Auckland left in March to live in Centerport, New York with the Belt family. Her host father is a landscaper and her host mother is an attorney. Kelly is looking after Cole (5) and Blake (3).
“My family is lovely! The boys are very well behaved and we get on very well. We always do things as a family and they invite me to just about everything as I am part of the family.”
Priscilla McIvor of Putaruru left NZ in February to live in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the  Johnson family where her host mother is selfemployed. Priscilla is looking after Gracie (6) and Isaac (3).
“We couldn’t have gotten along better! They are wonderful, and treat me so well, I felt at once at home. We had a lovely weeklong vacation in Arizona when I first arrived here. They are always asking me how I am doing, offering me good advice with the children and are full of good resources. My host mother is awesome at looking for things I can do with the children in and around the home.”
 Adele Perry from Rototua left NZ in March to live in Lake Ridge, Virginia with the Harrell family where both her host parents are involved in research. Adele looks after 11 year old Clay and 8 year old Tommie.
“Tommie and I get along really well. We’re always wanting to do things with each other. She always hugs me before I leave to go anywhere. Same goes with Clay, although he’s older and doesn’t show his feelings much, we do some cool things together, play air hockey and we cook together. They’re like my younger brother and sister.”
 Marnie Rydon from Tokoroa left NZ in April to live in Larchmont, New York with the Levine family. Her host mother is an attorney and Marnie looks after Alex (13) and Abby (11).
“I am having the best time! I went to Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago with Abby because her grade was going on a trip. It was a nice place, shame about the weather though but it reminded me of playing netball in the rain because then and in Philly my feet were soaked. I have become an expert on playing MarioKart on the Wii and can tell you what Abby will find "cute" and what won't be. I can't wait for what else the year will bring.”
Hi Kiwis,
I am with Levine family in Larchmont, New York. Laura, my host mother, is great, easy going and likes it when I go out with my friends but she also likes it when I sit and chat with her.
My kids - Alex (14) and Abby (11) - are really good, I love them to bits. We get on really well and do lots of things together.
We all get on really well, I can walk into a room and do things with them or if I am in my room the kids will come and see me and Abby always wants to talk to me.
I went to LA for three nights and then Las Vegas for two with another au pair from Larchmont. It was so much fun and I would definitely go back to LA because there was so much to do.
Lots of my friends are away with their families at the moment as it is summer but there are five of us that want to rent a car and go away on our weekends off to places like Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Maine and other places close by.
T he kids are at summer camp at the moment and my family and I are moving in August so my jobs while the kids have been away is helping to pack stuff which I don’t mind doing at all because I’m still getting paid and I don’t think it’s fair if I do nothing and still get paid.
I really love it here and am having a ton of fun. I can’t stop smiling and everyone knows who the Kiwi girl is because I’m always laughing and doing things to make everyone else smile.
Write to you soon
Marnie Rydon
Hi all,
I’m in Lake Ridge, Virginia and am here for a year as an Au Pair for the Harrell family. I look after 2 children, Clay (11) and Tommie (8). The kids are always great, the family life is really good and my social life is awesome.
On Friday Meg, the kids and I went to Kings Dominion for the day. Clay and I rode all the big coasters (that Tommie was too short to ride) together. We had a great time and he loved them.
We meet up at various times of the day. Tommie, Clay and I rode all the roller coasters together that Tommie was able to ride. She loved them. She'd never been on a roller coaster before.
Other cool stuff I’ve done while in the USA includes going to a baseball game with my host family. We saw the Boston Red Sox play the Oreoles. That was pretty awesome, the Red Sox won and Manny got his 500th home run. The baseball game was in Baltimore, very pretty city, will be going back to visit sometime.
I have celebrated two of Americas traditional holidays so far; Memorial Day and 4 of July.
 For Memorial Day Meg and Mike were on their anniversary vacation and the grandparents had the kids up at their house in Maryland for the weekend. Karissa (another au pair) and I went to DC to celebrate the day. We watched the parade down by the major street in DC by the national mall.
For 4th of July (Independence Day) Meg and Mike had a BBQ with a few close friends, I also had a few friends over. After the BBQ the girls and I went to DC for the fireworks. We got there just before it started (timed it great) and the fireworks were awesome.
The family is great. The kids and I have had a great week this week. It was mostly Clay and I because Tommie has been at brownie camp all week, so we played a lot of Knee Hockey and other stuff he wanted to do.
BYE!!! XOX
Adele Perry
Mika Hancock from Matamata is living in Cary, North Carolina, looking after Kyle (11), Jordan (8) and Emma (6). She says…
The girls come in to kiss me goodnight before they go to bed and write me notes saying how cool I am. Kyle and I have bonded over hockey and music, he likes the same kind of music as I do so we chat about that and also he is teaching me about inline hockey which he plays.
I went to Florida with my host family and we went to the theme parks, which were amazing. We also went to an Australian/New Zealand themed water park, which is like nothing I have seen before!! At Aquatic they had an Aussie saying “kia ora” and “whanua” and he pronounced it wrong – it was annoying haha!! The trip down took around 8 – 10 hours so I saw a lot of the countryside and we passed through Georgia and South Carolina.
I also visited Wilmington recently – it is a town close to Wrightsville Beach and it was great! We went to a serpentarium and saw some old mansions, went to an American drive in and ordered food! We were in a movie!!
Hey everyone
 I’m really enjoying it here! I have meet some really cool people whom I really enjoy spending time with so that’s really good. I’ve been out a few times with them and we have had a blast. On Saturday night it was our Au Pair meeting and we went to the coolest place and did a really fun game called demolition ball. Now I know it sounds kind of dangerous but it is in bumper cars. What you have to do is get a little ball and score goals by hitting a backboard, all the while trying to steer and keep away from the other team and there are no brakes! It was so much fun!!! I hope to find something like that back home.
Let me tell you why I was in a good mood today and believe me, I am very happy about it. Okay, are you all ready? Try not to fall off your seats ladies and gents. Okay, here it is... I just received an email informing me that for the course that I had been doing at college, I received an A for my work of the semester. So I'm feeling pretty good about that because I loved doing it, it was so much fun and even though I’m really happy about it I’m still a little shocked. So anyway, that was what put me in such a good mood.
Well I’m going to go now and leave you with this email
Bye guys keep rocking!
Jenna Martin
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