Paper Planes: Hello America.

After approximately 4 months of planning (maybe even less) I actually made it.
I got on that plane, I said those dreaded goodbyes and I packed up my suitcases (5 vacuumed sealed bags, 3 repacks and a handbag later). I managed to keep it all together without falling to pieces and crying like a 5 year old on my bedroom floor. At times I felt a little like an ice queen, although the lengths I went too to stop those tears included, when hugging my best friend I just kept staring at the cars driving past counting them as they went, just so I could distract myself long enough not to cry.

So there I was. Airport ready. Time to leave.

Bye Bye Mumma Bear

Bye Bye Family and friends.

My last view of Sydney.

Walking down the isle of the plane, excited that I had a window seat, I soon became privy to the fact that my 13 hour flight would be shared with the 6 month old baby sitting next to me. I had lots of sympathy as my best friend had just recently flow to England with her two-year old. The first hour consisted of me "Oh don't worry, it's fine, I don't mind crying, she's cute!" to then then next 8 hours of screaming (and yes she screamed the whole way), my head phones stayed in and movie movie movie the whole way as I was starting to feel the length of this flight changing from 13 hours to 26 hours.

Needless to say after 18 hours of flying I made it to New York City and was about to begin my journey as an Au Pair for the next 12 months.

First night in Manhattan, walking through Bryant Park.

I spent 3 days at the New Yorker hotel in training with 22 other Au Pairs from South Africa, Ecudor, Panama, Serbia, Germany, England, Brazil, France, Poland, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Scotland. The 3 days I spent with these people was amazing, listening to stories about their country, their culture and who they were. At one point we were singing "Incy wincy spider" in 5 different languages.