Greetings from Cortlandt, NY

[kleine]

Hi all,

Hm how to start Ok my name is Vera, actually I am from Germany, Munich. But I live in the States to improve my English. hopefully I have been here for 9 months now, and I like it a lot even though I miss my family and friends a lot. But everything in life has its good and its bad things
Oh yeah I am 21 years old, I have totaly forgotten to mention it.
On Sunday I celebrated my 21st birthday. It was quite good. Although I almost had a car accident the day before. I was trying to drive home and on the way home I had to drive up a hill. And it was soooo slippery outside that I was not able to make it up there. I have to mention that it is a very steep hill. My car spund around and I almost crashed against a tree. Oh my, I was so lucky that nothing happend to me and neither to my car . My car came to stop about 1 cm before I would have crashed into that tree. Yeah that was my amazing weekend and now you know a little bit about me...

[raincat]

Hi, Kleine

Happy birthday to you for yesterday!

I hope you still had some fine moments yesterday to balance the Saturday's shock! Wish you a great and accident-free time in U.S.!

[kleine]

Hi raincat,

Thank you for your belated wishes . If you wanna write "alles Gute zum Geburtstag nachtraeglich", then you can write "happy belated Birthday" just to let you know. Yeah my hostfamily invited me to a very nice dinner, and we had a great time together. I hope I won't have any accidents anymore

[mimarinX]

Hallo Vera:

You wrote:

then you can write "happy belated Birthday"

...learned something new....

so I just wanna use it at once.....

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, DEAR VERA!!!!!!!!!

[raincat]

then you can write "happy belated Birthday" just to let you know.

Ok, Kleine - thanks for your hint http://www.leo.org mentioned both - "happy belated birthday" and "happy birthday for yesterday" ... but the first might be more usual. I love to learn the correct way in speaking English, so always feel free to correct me, please ...

[kleine]

Thanks guys for your birthday greetings
Oh sorry, didn't know that you can say "happy birthday for yesterday". But sounds right, too. Yeah I think it's the more common thing to say. And by the way I find your English is pretty good. Or do you have to use the dictionary very often, when you try to write something? I'm gonna go on ski vacation. We gonna leave on Saturday, and I'm so excited. Because it's my first time on a snowboard, and I'm gonna learn snowboarding. I hope I don't make a fool out of myself. Keep your fingers crossed for me. K Why do you wanna improve your English? Do you need it for a living? Or do you go to school still?
I'm looking forward to your next message...

[raincat]

Hi again, Kleine

Thank you for telling me my English was pretty good. Depends on the issue how often I need the dictionary. Sometimes I miss these common phrases like this time "herzlichen Glückwunsch nachträglich". Would love to stay at an English speaking country for awhile but I'm afraid it's rather hard to realise because my school days or other education periods are long ago.

Currently I'm working as an assistant/secretary and need Business English now and then. But in general I like the idea being able to communicate in foreign languages. English is my favorite, French will follow. It's a wonderful experience going abroad on holidays and being able to understand the people. Then I always wish I had more time for studying foreign languages ...

Wish you a great ski vacation - have a blast! And of course I cross my fingers! Hals- und Beinbruch!

raincat

P.S. I might have overlooked it - but what do you do in the U.S.? Studying? What field?

(Ist das grammatikalisch ok? Might have overlooked ... ? Thanks ... )

[kleine]

HI raincat,

sorry for my late reply. Honestly I was too lazy to write back That happens. May I ask how old you are? I'm a little curious, since you wrote that your school time is a long time ago. Hey I made my appranticeship as a secretary (Bürokauffrau) too. But as soon as I come back, I'm gonna go to school again. I wanna become a translator. It's going to take me four long years to reach my aim. You wanna know what I'm doing here. Actually I don't know. Just kidding I'm an Au Pair. Just in case you don't know what it is. You come from a foreign country and take care of the parents kids, yeah that's it practically. Of course you get your weekly sallary. It depends on the agency. My agency pays 140 Dollars a week. What is not that bad, since you don't have to pay for food and lodging.

Yeah u can say I might have overlooked it!

Break a leg!

[raincat]

Hi, Kleine,

I guess you're going to start your winter holidays very soon and surely you've already packed your bags. So I hope my answer will reach you before.

I'm 43 years old. It was funny to read your lines for at least two reasons: I also made an apprenticeship as "Bürokauffrau" more than 2 decades ago. Secondly my daughter also worked as an Au Pair in 2001 in London. She was crazy about this city since a visit with her school class and even planned to live there someday. At present she's studying media communication and media sciences.

Your salary seems to be really good indeed! How old are the kids you care of? Do you understand each other without any problems?

Really funny too - the saying "Break a leg"! I never knew it's the same as in German!

That's all for the day - bye & crossed fingers for your snowboarding career!



P.S. Sometimes I'm lazy, too. And what a wonderful luxury in this busy world!

[kleine]

Hi raincat,

you are right. I'm leaving tomorrow, finally!!! I can't wait anymore. That's quite funny that you learnd the same profession. And that your daughter worked as an Au Pair, too. How is her English now? How long has she been there for? My sallary could be a little bit more. "My kids" are 10 and 12 years old. It's a couple. The boy is the younger one and the girl is the older one of course Yeah I do understand the kids without any problems. It was very hard on the beginning, because my English sucked. But I still think that my English could be better. People tell me that it's very good, but the Americans are not always telling the truth. They are over the top. So I don't really know where I am at. It might be that I'm just too hard to myself. For example I have problems to find the right words, when I wanna talk about politics. Then I'm struggling through the subject. The people are able to understand me at least That was one reason for me to extend my year. I just wanna be perfect I got to go now. I need to buy snowboard gloves. I haven't done it yet. I like to do my things in the last minute. It's a bad habit

Thanks for crossing your fingers

[raincat]

Hi Kleine,

my daughter spent only 3 months in London due to problems between the members of her host family. Because of that it was a rather bad experience for her. Nevertheless her English is pretty good as she was in London a few times during the last years. As I told you before she loves this city and furthermore she had discovered some special music stores there for buying Reggae and Ragga records. (She's a DJ and always searching for special songs you can hardly find in Germany.)

I can understand your language problems in dealing with special topics very well. I think it's always hard to explain your own point of view in a foreign language as clear as you could explain it in your native tongue. And who likes to be misunderstood?

Bye & looking forward to your holiday "report" after your return

Martina

[kleine]

Hey raincat

Sorry for my late reply, I could have written you while vacationing, but I didn't want to. Because I was snowboarding mostly. But now I'm back and I can tell you something about it. It was great, just a blast I think I already told you that I learned snowboarding there. And the first two days were very hurtfull since I fell and kept falling. My butt was a mess at the end of the week. It still hurts a little bit. But now I CAN SNOWBOARD, and everybody tells me how good I am You see I'm pretty proud of myself. I actually met a boy over there but unfortunately when I talked to him it turned out that he is only 16. But such a cuty :wink1: Since I didn't want to get in trouble and I'm not dating 16 years old I just let it go. On the way back home, a blizzard crossed our way. Therefore we had to stay one more night in a motel, and that motel sucked it was gross :shock:
Fortunatelly it was only one night :dance: And now I'm back and enjoy my own room and the calm :freu: I had to share the room with the kids, and that's not always fun :wink1: if you understand what I'm saying. What have you been doing? Did anything happen? Why didn't your daughter change the family? I have the possiblility to change families, if there is a problem, but first you can talk to you counseler, and she tries to make arrangements. I haven't had problems with my family yet, and I hope it's not going to change :wink1: and I think it won't. They are so nice, and I love them tons. Oh your daughter is a DJ, that must be interesting. Is she doing that for a living? I think you must be very successful to make a living out of it.

Well enough of me. I'm looking forward to hearing from you :bye1:

[raincat]

Hi, kleine!

Nice hearing from you again! I always guessed that you’ve been too busy during your holidays …

Congratulations to your successful snowboarding “career”! And congratulations, too to your endurance! I can image a little how proud you were after managing the snowboard as I learned windsurfing (or studied windsurfing?) last summer. Dozens of times I fell into the water before I could cope with wind, waves and board at higher wind forces. And whenever I left the water I could count some new bruises ... Anyway, I bet you're looking forward to your next winter holidays already!

Your return sounds like an adventure (blizzard and that ugly motel …)

Don’t know anymore why my daughter didn’t try to change her host family in England when these problems arose. Might have been too tired of all the trouble and too disappointed that her big dream – living and working in England – didn’t work in the end. I’m very glad to hear that your family is such a kind one!

No, she doesn’t work as a DJ for a living and I even don’t know if she would like to. I think it would require a lot of travelling or – if your are very well known and very successful – a fixed location somewhere in the city. But then sooner or later all the big fun turns into work, doesn’t it?

bye bye/raincat

(Your encounter with this cute boy sounds really funny! At my age 5 years difference are not such a big deal anymore ... :D )

[raincat]

P.S. Forgot to tell you that I had great carneval holidays in Southern Germany! Don't know, if you like carneval but it was so terrific! We've been to the street carneval in Konstanz and have seen some of the traditional carneval parades with typical fancy dresses and wooden masks in addition. Not to forget the carneval ball on Saturday! And those great Guggenmusik-bands allover the streets!

[kleine]

Hey,

How are you? Tuesday was a very sad day for me, because one of my friends had to go back to her country, since she finished her year . Tuesday was her last day, and I gave her her present, and then she gave me her present. It was a letter. And when I read the letter, I was devastatet. I cried the whole car ride. It wasn't better yesterday. You know the feeling when you think about a person you really like and then you can't help it but cry. Yeah that's what I felt yesterday. Today I feel better, because I tell myself that she is just a phone call away. That is the sad side about my aupair time. First you say bye to your friends and family at home. Then you finally find friends over there, and you get to love them, and suddenly you have to say goodbye again. That's killing me. And it's not going to be easy the next months. Two of my friends are leaving in July, two in September, and in November it's my turn. On the one hand you are glad to go home, and on the other hand you don't wanna leave your friends behind you, but you also have your friends at home, and you don't want to leave them either. Either way it's not easy. But I tell myself, I can always visit and call them, and that's a little comfort. Now enough of self-pity . I sound pathetic Yeah I like carneval, but they don't have it here. That's a pity, that they don't have it. Nice to here that you had fun in Konstanz. I've been to Konstanz a couple of times, it is a very nice city. I think when I was 30, and he was 25 it wouldn't matter much to me. But 16 and 21 is different. Since you are much more mature than a 16 year old boy. Maybe I find someone cute this weekend, I'll keep you informed Hope to here from you again.

Have a nice day

:bye1: