What were you grateful for this week?My host mom was nice enough to let me switch around my schedule a little bit one day so I would be able to meet up with some friends.

What was the most challenging part of this week?For some unknown reason the little girl had a lot of attitude and anger towards me last week so it was a challenge to remain patient with her throughout it.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.It was my host mom‘s birthday this week so I helped the little girl write out happy birthday in English for her mom. The mom loved it!

Tell us about your week!I had a really good start to my week. I met up with a friend on Monday and we went and explored a local park. It was so beautiful and ended up being way more of a workout than we were anticipating. A new au pair arrived a little later in the week so my friend and I invited her out to coffee. Unfortunately I didn’t realize how early she had to be back home and I had my mandarin class so I really only got to talk to her for about ten minutes. But we at least had a pretty good conversation during that time. The next day I met up with that same friend at dongmen market. We decided we wanted to check out all of the little stores they had down in the metro. We ended up getting some super cute stuff and it was all fairly cheap.

The little girl ended up getting sick again so we pretty much just stayed home and played for most of the weekend. It was my first time seeing the family not really have any plans. They actually ended up staying in their pajamas all day which is definitely something I would do back in America on days where I had no plans. On Monday the two other aupairs here and I decided to meet up for brunch. The place we picked ended up not being open so we walked by the little stores in the metro and stopped at a few stalls to buy buns and breakfast foods like that. It was a nice way to introduce the new au pair to the area and show her around. This week is the national holiday so my host family is taking me on vacation with them. I’m so excited!