My mind's trips

Δευτέρα 10 Δεκεμβρίου 2012

The first weekend of December... Christmas are here!!!

Saturday, December 8th 2012

Having the party for the boy's birthday!!! 15 classmates from his grade came to greet him, have a good time and mostly HAVE FUN!!!! Yet, the grown ups had fun as well by talking, eating, playing with the kids in a beautiful place of many trampolines!!! Having the appropriate mood to play, jump and laugh are the necessary "things" to feel happy!

After the party, we went to get the Christmas tree (a real one! ), which is 10 feet tall/ 3,05 metres and a wreath for the door!!! However, it was sooooo cold!!! It was freezing !!!

Sunday, December 9th 2012

It's the day for the Au Pair monthly meeting at Jade Garden close to downtown. It's a very popular, inexpensive, chinese restaurant with great food. And when I say popular, I mean it. I couldn't enter the store because of the long queue!!! I had a great time with the other au pairs by discussing many interesting things, telling and listening to the news and stories and be informed for things that are going to happen in Seattle.When I returned home, after getting some exercise by walking and knowing much better the city, it was the time to go downtown again with my host mom and the kids to make a Ginger Bread House. On the table, there were two big and two little bit smaller pieces of ginger bread, a star and the frosting "glue". There was also a buffet full of hard candies, cookies, cereal etc. to decorate the house as we wished to. One hour later, having finished the house, we were full of frosting, sugar on our hands!!! :P
At last, but not least, when we left the food corner, where we made the ginger bread house, we went to St' Stephen Episcopal Church in Laurelhurst area to listen to a boy choir singing traditional carols and songs for the Christmas! It was amazing! I felt that the Christmas are coming soon!!!

Τετάρτη 5 Δεκεμβρίου 2012

Thanksgiving in Colorado 2012!!!

I am in the United States of America for almost 8,5 months!! During this time, I have experienced the Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, the 4th of July, the 14th of July (I was in Paris during the summer), Halloween and, now, the Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 22nd 2012
My host family and I were supposed to celebrate that day in Colorado (state) where my host mom grew up. Our trip started in the morning at 04:00 am., because we had to be early at the airport! After 3 hours flight, we reached to our destination, the Denver's airport, which is one of the biggest airport in the whole country. Leaving from the airport, we were heading to Golden, CO where we stayed for the night. That first night was the Thanksgiving day!!! PFFFFFF!!! So much food!!! I learnt how to roll instead of walking!!! :P Many dishes to taste and I wanted to taste them all!! I didn't want to miss out anything of this celebration, even the sweet potatoes with the melted butter, brown sugar and marshmallow on the top (it's a main dish, not a dessert!!). The whole decoration on the table was about the Thanksgiving. For example, turkey-candles, paper napkins with turkeys on etc. Everything was great!! I could say that I have an idea for what it's going to happen at Christmas!!! The food, the wine, the people, the laughter, the voices, the smells, everything was amazing! :D

Friday, November 23rd 2012
After a big breakfast meal (of course !!!! :P ), we left with destination Vail. Vail is a city close to Rocky mountains and it is "alive" because of the Vail Village, the ski resort. While I was in the car, I saw the snowing mountains, ponds frozen and pine trees everywhere!!

We arrived in Vail, and the first exploration just began! The Vail Village is almost a "copy" of Switzerland's ski resorts or the ski resorts that are placed in Alpes. The experience of the day was the ice skating! AAAAOOOUUUUCCCHHHHH!!!!! I have never tried it before, but then I wanted to do it! :P I did the round of the ice floor 7 times, holding always the sidebars, and I was better and better, BUT suddenly I lost my balance and I fell on the ice!!! AAAAOOOUUUUCCCHHHHH!!!!! My tail bone!!!! :'(

After my falling, I went for a walk (very slowly...I was in pain! ) and I saw the Colorado Ski Museum and the Vail Ski &Snowboard Academy! Furthermore, I haven't seen so many stores with the North Face brand inside!!!

Saturday, November 24th 2012

One of the children had his birthday (when he was born, it was Thanksgiving) !! It was one more special day of our trip, and specifically for him!!! :D After having breakfast, we went again to Vail Village, but that time we wanted to go up to the mountains with the ski lifts known as Gandhola! The scenery was breathtaking! I can't say anything else. If anyone had a similar experience, he/she could understand how beautiful can be!
Afterwards it was time for swimming!! We put our swimming suits on and went to the OPEN pool of the Vail Club Resort! It was freezing, but the pool was very warm and the hot tub besides even warmer!! It was quite refreshing!! :P

Sunday, November 25th 2012

We had returned to Golden the previous day, and it was time to explore Golden little bit more. What made me big impression is the Colorado Mountain College, because a whole mountain has the capital "M" letter on.

After, we went for a walk to the stores, but the children wanted to go for bowling!! They were very excited!!!

End of the day and eventually the end of the trip had come as well. We had to go back home and pack our things for the next morning's flight to Seattle, WA.

I will close this "journey" with that photo, which is my favorite!

Παρασκευή 2 Νοεμβρίου 2012

Halloween Experience!

Prologue: The last two weeks, everybody is talking for Halloween, costumes, pumkins, candies etc. First Thing to Do on the list is the costume. What should I get dressed this year? The kids of my host family had already answered to this question. The boy was about to get dressed the "David Crockett",

and the girl a "pioneer girl". After having bought the fabrics and making the costumes as they wished to, it was about time decorating the house. ------------------ >

Wednesday, 31st October 2012
HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, the day when the kids are dressed up and go from house to house by saying "Trick or Treat" has finally come..

Few hours before going outside and experiencing the Halloween tradition, we had to decorate. WE SHOULD HAVE THE CREEPIEST HOUSE !!! Hahahahahahaha... Curving pumpkins, putting fake graves and skeletons in the garden, fake spiders' web all over are some of the things that we did. ( I thought that putting lights on the Christmas tree was difficult since I tried to put the fake spider's web on the bushes! This was difficult, because it's supposed to be as much realistic as I could. Plus, it needs a lot of stretching and time!! )

Trick or Treat!
At 18:30 with my host family, we got outside to find the neighbors and start going from house to house. The boys got crazy!! (I could say wild as well!) They were running to take as many candies as they could in 2 hours. During running after the boys, we saw interesting decorations, like the Haunted House of the neighborhood (the entire garage became the Haunted House like the ones at the Fun Parks) ; and mascarades, like two boys got dressed dices or a boy with a beautiful robot costume or a dog dressed up a HOT DOG!!! ( a dog with two pieces of buns on his ribs and a fake sausage with mustard on his back! CRAAAAZZYYYYYY!!! ) .

At the end of this crazy-creepy night, the kids counted their candies. Results: the boy got 99, and the girl around 50!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Δευτέρα 22 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Pumkin Patch!!

HOST FAMILY DAY-----> Date: Sunday, October 21st 2012

Location: Jubilee Farm

Today, this morning , we had the pumkin patch at Jubilee Farm (1 hour away from Seattle). When we got there, we got on a big truck to go to the place where the pumkins are growing. The soil was muddy because of the rain , so everyone had to wear rain boots or hiking boots. Wherever I looked there were pumkins in all sizes! After the patch, we ate the most tasteful tamales and drunk hot cider (hot apple juice with many spicies inside). Yummie!!! :P A!! I forgot to mention the beautiful scenery of yellow and red trees during the trip to go and come back home.. !