Lookie!
I'm actually updating this thing already!
Amazing, no?
It probably won't last, but hey, I'll revel in it while I'm writing new things twice in the space of a week.
Anywho, enough of that. What I'm actually writing about is house sitting. Me house sitting, that is. For that is what I shall be doing in a few weeks time.
Tis for a month, 9th of June to 9th of July, and I'm pretty much feeding the cat and collecting the mail. They're also very kindly letting me use their car, so I can get to and from work without getting up at five or something awful like that.
I could've sworn there was more I was going to say about that, but I can't remember what, so I'll stop typing about there and contemplate getting some sleep instead.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Saturday, 22 May 2010
An Update on Life and Such
Right. Now comes the time where I actually attempt to use this thing for good, rather than procrastination. Or something of the like.
I've spent the afternoon catching up on a large portion of the important emails and such that I've been meaning to send to people. I've got a few more still to write, so if I owe you an email, hopefully one shall be on its way soon! Feel free to prod me for things, though. We know how I am with the forgetting. So now is the time for writing here, so's people who are interested (if anyone is) in what I've been up to and what's happening with America and all that can get a bit of an update, without me writing the same thing twenty times (because we know how badly that would end..) or spamming people. I'd better apologise in advance for how incredibly garbled this is probably going to become. My thoughts often go too fast for my typing, and I can get distracted mid-sentence, so this will probably be filled with long sentences that don't really follow and extra-long paragraphs. I'm sorry. My brain is a bit strange at times. Hopefully everyone can still at least vaguely understand what I'm on about.
So, Jaime's life at the moment. Where to start? I guess most of you are aware that I'm taking a bit of time off study, which I'm finding really lovely. I always find it really interesting to learn new things, and find about different ideas and everything. I love to know how things work, what happened in the past, what makes people tick, random interesting facts, and all that sort of cool stuff. It really fascinates me, and I'm sure I would've got a lot of it if I'd gone straight to uni, but at the same time, I often find that all the cool and interesting things of the world lose a lot of their intrigue as soon as you have to study them, and remember the details. I'm possibly a bit strange in that aspect, but I've always loved being able to learn interesting things without the pressure of having to over-analyse them later on, or write up all the little details and make sure I've remembered everything. I'm sure this means I don't remember a lot more of the cool stuff I come across, but hey, at least it stays interesting for me.
Anywho, yes, not studying at the moment. Instead I'm working full-time. That started four and a bit weeks ago, and I've been mostly enjoying it. I'm working as a nanny, for two boys, aged nine and four. I do forty hours a week with them, 7:15-5:15, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesdays as my day off. While I'm finding that the ten hour days are often quite long, I do very much like having the whole day to myself in the middle, which breaks it up a bit. And I figure that if I was doing the standard eight hour days, five days a week, I'd actually lose a lot more time, as realistically I'd probably just spend the extra two hours a day sleeping in, instead of getting up at 6:30am.
The job certainly has its good points, and the not so good points. As I'm sure I've mentioned to several people, I find myself craving good conversation and human contact. The kids are great, and I really enjoy spending time with them, but most days they're all I've got to talk to (besides the cats) for ten hours, which can start to get to me.
On the other hand, I also get paid to make cookies and build forts, so it goes both ways.
As far as America goes; yes, I am still going, no, I'm not sure where yet, and I think I'll probably end up leaving around August.
For those of you who don't know about my plans for America, and have no idea what I'm on about, here's the basics. I'm going over to the States with an Au Pair program. It's a year long thing, and I first applied back in September last year (Spetember? Maybe even August?). Basically I'll go over there, and spend a year living with a family and looking after their kids for forty hours a week. I also get a couple of weeks off at some point throughout the year where I'll be able to travel around a bit, and hopefully go and visit a few of my friends who live over there. After I'm done with my year with the family I'll probably do a little travelling. I can extend my visa for a month of travelling around the States, if I want to, and after that they'll either pay to fly me back home, or on to London. The amount of travelling I do will probably depend on how much I can afford, among other things like how much I miss home, and if I have travel buddies. I'd quite like to go to London for a bit though, travel around England and see a few people, such as my grandparents, and our dear Anastasia. Not sure how long I'd stay over there if I make it over, but I do have a British passport, so I could, conceivably, get a job and work for a bit, if I felt like it. Again, it depends on a lot of things, and I doubt I'll have anything near a decision on that part for quite some time yet.
My progress towards actually getting to America has been fairly minimal over the past few months. This has been for a few reasons, but mostly because of my own incompetence and procrastination. But I'm fairly happy with staying behind for a bit longer. I'm almost finished with part two of the application to families (this comes after applying to the New Zealand service, and then the American one), I've just got to talk nicely to a few people and gather up a bunch of photos of me and some of the kids I've spent time with, and sort out the last of those evil childcare hours.
After that's sorted (hopefully in the next week or so), I'll just have to do a teensy bit more paperwork and I'll be hopefully talking to prospective families!
Plans after I get back home are still a little vague, and knowing me I'll probably change my mind several more times before then, but for the past five months I've been set on training as an air traffic controller. That idea came about in January, after I attended my second Walsh (that flying school thing), and I've thought through it a fair bit. The program involves about a year of study, six months at a training centre in Christchurch, and then four to nine months training at a tower somewhere in the country. I can't start training until I'm twenty, as you can't hold an air traffic controller's licence until you're 21, so it also gives me another excuse for the gap year, and a good reason for delaying the whole America thing for a while. Because, if I can't start until I'm twenty anyway, I think it's probably better for me to have that extra time at this end, rather than after I've been overseas. There's a number of reasons there, but for starters, it's probably cheaper, as I may well not chose to live at home (where I get a nice bed, good food, internet, warmness, use of a car, and such, for $70pw) once I get back, and right now I'm also working, so I have money coming in to pay for travel and savings and things.
Phew. That was a fairly long ramble. I do believe I've covered the main stuff, so I'll stop writing for now. The plan is to update this thing fairly regularly, with updates on how the America stuff is progressing, and any other changes in my life, and then attempt to write in it daily once I make it to America.
We'll see how that goes...
I've spent the afternoon catching up on a large portion of the important emails and such that I've been meaning to send to people. I've got a few more still to write, so if I owe you an email, hopefully one shall be on its way soon! Feel free to prod me for things, though. We know how I am with the forgetting. So now is the time for writing here, so's people who are interested (if anyone is) in what I've been up to and what's happening with America and all that can get a bit of an update, without me writing the same thing twenty times (because we know how badly that would end..) or spamming people. I'd better apologise in advance for how incredibly garbled this is probably going to become. My thoughts often go too fast for my typing, and I can get distracted mid-sentence, so this will probably be filled with long sentences that don't really follow and extra-long paragraphs. I'm sorry. My brain is a bit strange at times. Hopefully everyone can still at least vaguely understand what I'm on about.
So, Jaime's life at the moment. Where to start? I guess most of you are aware that I'm taking a bit of time off study, which I'm finding really lovely. I always find it really interesting to learn new things, and find about different ideas and everything. I love to know how things work, what happened in the past, what makes people tick, random interesting facts, and all that sort of cool stuff. It really fascinates me, and I'm sure I would've got a lot of it if I'd gone straight to uni, but at the same time, I often find that all the cool and interesting things of the world lose a lot of their intrigue as soon as you have to study them, and remember the details. I'm possibly a bit strange in that aspect, but I've always loved being able to learn interesting things without the pressure of having to over-analyse them later on, or write up all the little details and make sure I've remembered everything. I'm sure this means I don't remember a lot more of the cool stuff I come across, but hey, at least it stays interesting for me.
Anywho, yes, not studying at the moment. Instead I'm working full-time. That started four and a bit weeks ago, and I've been mostly enjoying it. I'm working as a nanny, for two boys, aged nine and four. I do forty hours a week with them, 7:15-5:15, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesdays as my day off. While I'm finding that the ten hour days are often quite long, I do very much like having the whole day to myself in the middle, which breaks it up a bit. And I figure that if I was doing the standard eight hour days, five days a week, I'd actually lose a lot more time, as realistically I'd probably just spend the extra two hours a day sleeping in, instead of getting up at 6:30am.
The job certainly has its good points, and the not so good points. As I'm sure I've mentioned to several people, I find myself craving good conversation and human contact. The kids are great, and I really enjoy spending time with them, but most days they're all I've got to talk to (besides the cats) for ten hours, which can start to get to me.
On the other hand, I also get paid to make cookies and build forts, so it goes both ways.
As far as America goes; yes, I am still going, no, I'm not sure where yet, and I think I'll probably end up leaving around August.
For those of you who don't know about my plans for America, and have no idea what I'm on about, here's the basics. I'm going over to the States with an Au Pair program. It's a year long thing, and I first applied back in September last year (Spetember? Maybe even August?). Basically I'll go over there, and spend a year living with a family and looking after their kids for forty hours a week. I also get a couple of weeks off at some point throughout the year where I'll be able to travel around a bit, and hopefully go and visit a few of my friends who live over there. After I'm done with my year with the family I'll probably do a little travelling. I can extend my visa for a month of travelling around the States, if I want to, and after that they'll either pay to fly me back home, or on to London. The amount of travelling I do will probably depend on how much I can afford, among other things like how much I miss home, and if I have travel buddies. I'd quite like to go to London for a bit though, travel around England and see a few people, such as my grandparents, and our dear Anastasia. Not sure how long I'd stay over there if I make it over, but I do have a British passport, so I could, conceivably, get a job and work for a bit, if I felt like it. Again, it depends on a lot of things, and I doubt I'll have anything near a decision on that part for quite some time yet.
My progress towards actually getting to America has been fairly minimal over the past few months. This has been for a few reasons, but mostly because of my own incompetence and procrastination. But I'm fairly happy with staying behind for a bit longer. I'm almost finished with part two of the application to families (this comes after applying to the New Zealand service, and then the American one), I've just got to talk nicely to a few people and gather up a bunch of photos of me and some of the kids I've spent time with, and sort out the last of those evil childcare hours.
After that's sorted (hopefully in the next week or so), I'll just have to do a teensy bit more paperwork and I'll be hopefully talking to prospective families!
Plans after I get back home are still a little vague, and knowing me I'll probably change my mind several more times before then, but for the past five months I've been set on training as an air traffic controller. That idea came about in January, after I attended my second Walsh (that flying school thing), and I've thought through it a fair bit. The program involves about a year of study, six months at a training centre in Christchurch, and then four to nine months training at a tower somewhere in the country. I can't start training until I'm twenty, as you can't hold an air traffic controller's licence until you're 21, so it also gives me another excuse for the gap year, and a good reason for delaying the whole America thing for a while. Because, if I can't start until I'm twenty anyway, I think it's probably better for me to have that extra time at this end, rather than after I've been overseas. There's a number of reasons there, but for starters, it's probably cheaper, as I may well not chose to live at home (where I get a nice bed, good food, internet, warmness, use of a car, and such, for $70pw) once I get back, and right now I'm also working, so I have money coming in to pay for travel and savings and things.
Phew. That was a fairly long ramble. I do believe I've covered the main stuff, so I'll stop writing for now. The plan is to update this thing fairly regularly, with updates on how the America stuff is progressing, and any other changes in my life, and then attempt to write in it daily once I make it to America.
We'll see how that goes...
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