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Passports Not Hallpasses

Family of Four Traveling the World, Exploring New Countries and Learning a Lot Along the Way

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Micha's Blog

Adventures with au pairs…

So I normally post on our adventures as they relate to travel so as to keep a diary of it for the kids, but also to stay in touch with everyone back home. The travel adventures are really only a part of our daily excitement. After thinking about it, I decided that in order to keep a true diary, I need to share more than the places we visit.

Truth be told, our kids are constant source of adventures. Our most recent one was probably one more of heartbreak as well as pride. It’s longer than most posts, but it goes kinda like this…

Since moving to Europe, we have a live in au pair which allows Scott and I both to work full time, but also allows us to enjoy our kids more when we aren’t working. The au pair helps with the kid stuff (their laundry, their groceries, etc). It also provides a great deal of stability for the kids since we don’t have a babysitter or three coming and going randomly.

When we moved to Amsterdam, we brought over a girl from Houston that had been with our family. Overall, she was able to make sure the kids were generally safe and mostly followed the rules we applied to the kids. However, virtually all other job duties were and continued to be ignored. After over a year of that simply not working out, and many talks later to hopefully improve the situation, it became apparent that the expectations wouldn’t be met and it was time to send her back to Houston. The parting was amicable. I believed she was sad to leave our kids, and as she had become part of our family, we were all sad to see her go…

Another girl (from Germany – let’s call her AR) who was also living in London with a family was looking for a new au pair position. AR’s host-family was mean to her and treated her very badly. She wanted out of her living situation as urgently as we needed someone to come in and help us. AR was with us for a week. In that week, she had the kids exactly 1.5 hours by herself while we attended a school meeting. We came home and she was distraught and said that Caden was too “mentally strong for her” and that she couldn’t believe he was only 6 years old. She didn’t want to stay long term but agreed to give us three weeks to find a replacement. I was so sad. I couldn’t imagine that the kids behavior was so bad that she would quit after an hour. Admittedly, I was also quite proud that he was outsmarting and outplaying a grown up…

So that’s sort of where the story gets interesting. I immediately started interviewing new girls for the au pair job. I talked to so many girls, I lost count. I received over 600 applications. I finally found a girl who I really thought was a great fit. We sent many emails back and forth and it looked like we would skype for the final and formal interview and she would come live with us. Then, one night I received a note from her saying that my old au pair (from Houston) knew one of her friends who was an au pair in London. Small world. Come to find out, our au pair that lived with us for a year (and enjoyed many very nice vacations, a great deal of unearned income, and more experiences that she would ever have had in her life) had told the girl that we treated her like a slave, made her work almost every weekend, and (the worst) hated our kids.

Now since she was a very young (mentally) person, I’m fine with the slave bit (she was with the kids generally 22 hours per week and we hired a housekeeper which should have been her job) and even the weekend bit (we hired babysitters almost every time we needed weekend support which was rare). Honestly I wrote that off to immaturity, laziness, and entitlement syndrome. However, I have to admit that the “hating the kids” bit put me over the deep end. How unbelievably sad I was to hear this. I wonder how long she had felt this way and how she treated the kids when we weren’t around… I only hope she didn’t hurt them in anyway mentally. It has certainly taught me to be more aware and not take things at face value.

We lost the au pair that I really wanted to hire because of this. Insult to injury indeed. About four days after this occurred, we learned that the girl from Germany (AR) had moved into our house in order to escape her other family and that in fact she had another job all along which she would start October 1. We were only a place where she could stay in a holding pattern. The biggest disappointment of this was that she blamed it on our kid. Bad show. She of course moved out the next day. That was a good day for me.

So I continued on our hunt for the perfect au pair. We hired a professional nanny to get us over the hump. We were fortunate to find a girl that we liked very much (let’s call her MP). She flew over for the weekend and spent the last weekend with us. Honestly, when she had described herself as Mary Poppins (MP) during one of our many email exchanges, I didn’t believe it. However, when she was with the kids, she was amazing. She took to Caden immediately. Caden played with her almost the entire time she was here. I am happy to say that she is moving in next Monday (9 days away, but who is counting…).

She is a bright amazing multilingual musician/artist/dancer/Mary Poppins. I am hopeful that she will be with our family until at least next summer. I can’t wait for her to come here.

In the mean time, we keep doing what I think everyone with kids does: keep on keeping on. Caden has had the best behavior ever the last month or so. I think he has only had 2 time outs in the last 2 weeks. Anyone who knows our naughty, feisty, spirited, bright and beautiful boy appreciates this as almost unbelievable! We are looking forward to the next adventure in our life!

Italia – it gets better and better every time…

Almost two years ago, we bought a week in a villa in Tuscany with several other couples from Houston. The villa was supposed to be this great big, winery vineyard which would blow our minds… So three weeks ago, my mom kindly agreed to fly to London to watch the kids, while Scott and I went on this dream adult vacation.

We were slightly disappointed to arrive Florence without any bags. No big deal…

We were really surprised to learn that the villa was double booked and we had no place to stay. As hugely disappointed as we were, we were certain that the six other couples who had flown from the States (much farther than our 2.5 hour jaunt from London) would be outraged.

Another surprise for me about human nature. Not one person was mad. No one. Of course we were very fortunate that the villa offered us our week again in 2013 (much more strategically planned in summer to avoid school issues) so we will be returning in a couple of years. Even nicer was that the villa folks were kind enough to honor the trip we would have had. They put all of us up in extraordinary hotels. The first four days were in Sienna which was great. Scott and I neither one had been there.

The last three days were in Venice. We had been there several months ago, but that didn’t take away at all from the time we spent there. In fact, it was nice to see Venice without the high tides and floods.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip for us was going to a Tuscan vineyard. This particular vineyard plays Mozart on Bose speakers to the grapes 24 hours per day. It is believed to make the grapes sweeter, resulting in better wine. We tasted a few while we were there, but the cases we ordered arrived this week, so I’ll know better in a few days. (-;

We met some new friends while we were there that we look forward to seeing once we arrive back in Houston. Scott and I were also able to spend some much needed stress-free, work-free, kid-free time together. We ate, we drank and we were merry! We are looking forward to the villa trip in 2013.

The video:

Honorable mention:

The bar we hung out at last time, only this time sans flood…

The bar we hung out at this time, nicknamed the Bra Bar by our crew…

I’m no fashionista, but this guy gives Americans a bad name…

This guy gives all proper beer drinkers a bad name… as he sits with his wife (and her big beer).

Legoland? Yes we did.

We finally made it to Legoland a few weeks ago for Caden’s birthday. It was without question the coolest place in the world for a 6 year old boy.

We were fortunate to be able to spend a bit extra and get the Q-bot. It let us skip all the lines and walk right to the front. Super fun day for all. Probably contributing to the fun was the fact that I lost my crackberry on the first ride. Never expecting to get it back, I was encouraged by Scott to stop at the lost and found at the end of the day. Surprisingly, they had it waiting for me! Wow! So happy to see there are still so many good people in the world. Indeed it was a successful birthday celebration for Caden. Now we are negotiating everything for trips back to Legoland…

The video:

The joys of relocation

I’m happy to say that it is over. I am also happy to say it wasn’t nearly as painful as the USA –> Amsterdam move. Here’s sort of how it went…

Prior to leaving, Scott and I had a quick weekend getaway to Brussels, Belgium. We had a great time just hanging out in the old world streets and squares and drinking a few beers. We had a great dinner and Scott used his frequent travel points (again we benefit from his travels) to score us a great hotel right in city center. What a great city. A definite must for a quick stop during a European adventure.

Following our trip to Belgium, Scott, Caden, Keali and I loaded up on a plane and flew to Manhatten, USA. The attempts to get our UK VISA in Dusseldorf were painfully unsuccessful, but we were bound and determined to make the USA trip work. We arrived in the US on July 4th morning in preparation for our July 5 appointments for fingerprints, document drops, etc. Because we planned to only be there for 4.5 days, we decided to keep the kids on Amsterdam time. I am happy to say we were successful at this, but shocked at how difficult it was in New York City.

Due to the six hour time difference, this meant the kids being in bed at 3:30pm for the night and waking up at about 12:30am. Well for all those fellow NYC fans, the city that never sleeps, well, it sleeps. It sleeps soundly but for the few partiers out running around on their way home. The only thing open at 2am for breakfast are some (sketchy) 24-hour diners. Even the playgrounds are locked until 8am. Well, maybe my kids are trickier than most, but entertaining two kids in a small NYC apartment from 1am to 8am is impossible!

So we did what anyone would do… Ate breakfast every morning at around 2-3am at the local diners (gathering stink-eye glances from on-lookers for not having our children in bed at that hour)…

We crashed Central Park and their climbing rocks, careful to avoid the homeless people asleep every few feet (you don’t see homeless people overseas very often), took a much recommended cable car ride to Roosevelt Island (opens at 6am!) and played at the local parks (you can tell we have become more European by the picture below where the kids have very little clothes on…).

Once everything opened, we played in the water parks and went to the top of Rockefeller Building and checked out the amazing views, all while we were waiting on the British Consulate to either give us a YAY or a NEE (Dutch spelling).

We generally had a pretty good time, once the sun came up. The flight back, I have to say was fantastic. We flew business class (my first international business class trip) from EWR to AMS. Let me just say: Wow. After I sufficiently fed my fat on a four course dinner, my seat laid all the way flat like a bed. Amazing. What a treat!

Then came the move. Literally. Four days after our arrival back in Holland, the movers went to our house. They packed for one day, loaded the next, and arrived in London at our new home the following day. My saint of a husband handled ALL of it as I had to attend my first meeting as “boss”.

We have settled in nicely and the kids are loving it here. It seems much warmer than Holland, and it’s nice to understand the menus, signs, and mail again. I already miss my new friends in Holland and miss the no-car transportation style, but I think we will settle nicely into London.

In nineteen days, we all flew to the USA, were issued visas, returned to Holland, were packed and moved to London, unpacked AND had Caden’s 6th birthday (which gets its own entry). Busy. Very busy.

All in all, a successful relocation with a few hiccups along the way, but sooo much better than our last that we won’t complain a bit!

Here’s the video of pics…

Honorable mention:
Belt and suspends in real life

Entertainment can be many things in the wee hours of the morning – even stickers on a toothbrush…

Beautiful kids…

The goods and bads of the next adventure…

The Hoopers are gearing up for another big move. This one won’t be quite as far as the last one, but an international move nonetheless. We are terribly saddened to be leaving Holland. We ended up absolutely loving it here. There is so much to love. In honor of my friend Stacy I., I was going to do a top ten list, but I have a hard time trying to narrow down my loves to ten. The easiest way to describe why we like it so much is several -er words. Compared to where we came from, Holland is cleaner, healthier, safer, family friendly-er, and more moderate. Throw in that it is a quick 2 hour drive to Belgium, Germany, or less than 2 hours by plane to virtually anywhere in the European Union, and you have a winner!

Of course there are a few things we are eager to get rid of and quite frankly took for granted while living in the US. For example, when we went house hunting in London, it was almost a strange feeling to be able to read the store front and know what the store was selling. I had become quite used to peering in windows and completely avoiding reading the long, too many consonants, unpronounceable Dutch words, all of which ended in winkel, to determine what kind of “winkel” it was.

Also, it will be nice to be able to read our mail, without taking it to work and asking my Dutch friends to tell me if it is a bill or an announcement, if it is direct debited, or if we need to pay it. I haven’t bothered to add up late fees here on bills because I am afraid of what we might calculate. The good news is that the tv, water, internet, and electricity never were shut off. Not even once…

The last thing I believe will see an improvement on is customer service. For my American friends, to truly understand what the customer service here is like, the best example I can give you is this. Imagine that you have Comcast service which is always dreadful, throw in that you have to pay to call customer service (per minute), sit on hold for several minutes (10-15), get someone who doesn’t care and may or may not speak moderately good English, and is pretty sure that whatever you are calling about is your fault and not his concern, and try calling back tomorrow. Seriously.

While I am excited a great deal about our new adventure in London and even more excited about my new job, I know that we will miss Amsterdam…

Moving on, London has so much to offer! English (albeit the “Queen’s English”) and proper “American sized” grocery stores and refrigerators are two of the many things I am looking forward to. Caden will quickly tell you he is looking forward to Legoland in London, and Keali is excited about going to an all girls school. Scott is happy to go somewhere new and is thankful to reduce his commute and time difference by an hour.

We will be living near Heathrow Airport in western London. In fact Kew Botanical Gardens are about a block from our new home. We will have a bit more space in the new house and even a back yard with a patch of grass in it. The house is in a great location by restaurants, Kew high street, and the underground stop. One stop away is Richmond Upon Thames, and just a few stops away is Waterloo.

Pending our NYC trip and our visas being approved, we will be moving July 14. If we like London half as much as we like Amsterdam, we will be happy ex-pats in the UK!