In the fall

Well it is absolutely official I am coming home in the fall. I have had some wonderful experiences here but without the internship I had originally been planning on I would find it very difficult to continue just as an au pair after summer. My decision has nothing to do with the family, they have been awesome! I talked to them about going home in the fall at the beginning of April but I wasn't going to leave unless they were able to find a suitable replacement. They have found another au pair, an American from NY and she is in the process of getting her visa.
I was offered a job/internship in Cyprus after I met the Cyprus ambassador but the internship only pays for food and housing, there wouldn't be an actual salary and it's a long term committment and while the work is my "dream work" and probably what I will be doing after I get my law degree...it won't work for me now because I would have to start paying off student loans and I wouldn't have the money to do it.
Soooo I guess I will have another year at Iowa in the fall. I have one more year of scholarship money so I will take classes, get another major, I am very close in English and History so that won't be stressful; of course both of those are pretty useless majors unless I wanted to be a teacher, which I don't. Then again I already have two pretty useless majors to begin with. Oh and of course I will save up money for law school in the fall of 2010!

If you look closely in the picture the American flag is there.

Elgin Marbles

E and S are both Greek so many of our conversations are about Greece culture, history, politics. Apparently the British are not on the good side of the Greeks right now. Back in 1803 when Greece was under the control of the Turks a British duke, Sir Elgin, went to Athens and saw the Parthenon and realized the value and worth of the gorgeous ancient statues and wanted to take them back to the UK. The Turks didn't care whether or not Sir Elgin took the statues so they give him permission. Sir Elgin proceeded to send the statues back to London on three ships. One of the ships sank forever losing 1/3 of the statues. The remaining 2/3 are in the British Museum.
For the past 50-100 years Greece has been trying to get the statues back from London, claiming that they never really had authorization to take them in the first place and that their rightful place is in Greece. London has obiously said no for many reasons, one being that the pollution in Athens would completely destroy the statues if they were to go back to their original place.
Just this past weekend a huge state of the art gorgeous musuem was opened in Athens right next to the Parthenon and Greece is now demanding that the statues be returned so they can be in their rightful place.
The following link is a BBC report on the whole situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Wg_d1ZMaw

Joy said we could

The family lives on what we would consider the 6th floor of the apartment. They have a tiny balcony off of the kitchen that we generally hang clothes off of to dry and keep outside toys such as soccer balls. Occasionally D and Ir will take their blades outside on the balcony and go back and forth while I clean up after snack time. Today E was gone in the evening so while I made dinner they proceeded to do this. It is very rare that E isn't there for dinner, this might be the second time the entire five months that I have been here that she hasn't been home so the girls took their blades on the balcony. S came into the kitchen to check on things and saw the girls out their and told them to come in immediately because they know they aren't supposed to be out there. The girls then said "but Joy said we could".
Sometimes I get so irritated with them. They told me that it was ok for them to do it so of course I let them, who am I to question the parents rules. To me it's not a huge deal anyway so it seemed fine which is why I didn't question it. What irks me is that the girls knew they weren't supposed to do it and told me it was ok. wekwmqwe oh well I guess I will just have to ask the parents if every little thing the girls ever do is ok...?

London and York

I got back yesterday from a fantastic weekend in England! I saw Alex and met a lot of the people that are in his group. It was nice to be surrounded by fellow Iowans again. Alex and I took the train to see my friend Abi; we've been friends since high school and have always had many things in common. She goes to school there and graduates in a month, I am glad I finally got the chance to visit her. Back in London Alex and I just walked around the city, overall it was a very relaxing weekend. I loved London this time around. Last winter Alex and I were there and we were just rushing to see all the sights the entire time and this time we were able to just mosey around.
I did get to sit by an interesting mix of people on the varios train rides. From Strasbourg to Paris I sat next to this sleezy old French guy who kept inviting me to his home in Paris. This sounds way creepy and of course it was but it happens more than you'd guess here in France. From Paris to London I sat by a British couple and their Australian friend. They were very nice and were all in the midst of traveling the world since they are retired and fianlly have the money and the time to do it. They also invited me to their home in London, this time it was not at all creepy and extremely nice of them. On the way back from London to Paris I sat next to an American girl my age, she is currently backpacking through Europe and Paris is her second stop I invited her to my house. From Paris to Strasbourg I sat next to a French nun and we shared a lunch and had coffee together.

but how do they get the eggs?

At the dinner table E, S and I were talking about the news and in particular one story about a pregnant high school girl. Ir asked why she was pregnant and the general response was that perhaps she had made some decisions that weren't well-informed and Ir then asked well how can she decided to be pregnant? E said that yes, you can decide to get pregnant and Ir asked how? So E explained that girls have eggs and in order to get pregnant girls need to get the boys' eggs. Then Ir asked in her 8 yr old innocence "but how do they get the eggs??" hahaha I had to leave the table because I was laughing so hard at Ir's honest questioning and E's difficulty in explaining the birds and the bees to her 8yr old daughter :)

Birthday party

Yesterday Ir had her birthday party. Went to the horse club and took ten kids with us. Everyone had a really fun time and there was plenty of room for the kids to run around in and have a good time. We played a rousing game of red rover in which one little girl got punched in the nose "on accident" but other than that it was a success.

Not much has been happening with me this past week, hence the lack of posts. I leave on Friday for London!