When an opportunity crosses your way to live in the U.S.A., what would you do? I said YES!!
After college and about to start the university in Holland I received an invitation to be an au-pair with an American family in Los Angeles. I had to choose between a 4-year study or living an American adventure for 1 year: of course I packed my suitcase and left!
Santa Monica pier & beach (image http://www.flickr.com)
An American friend of my father helped me to find an au-pair family in Los Angeles. I was invited to spend Christmas with him and his family before I started to work at the au-pair family. He organized a shared limousine service to his home in Palm Desert, which seemed to be a normal transport in the States… On our way we had to pick up some luggage at Frank Sinatra´s home in Bel Air, the most exclusive area of L.A. My first American Christmas morning I enjoyed in the desert and with a Christmas sock filled with presents: a warm welcome to the U.S.A.!
I was about to turn 21 years old, which in the U.S.A. is the age you are allowed to visit the clubs and to buy alcohol, when I arrived in Los Angeles. It was my first trip outside Europe and far from my homeland, family and friends.
My au-pair family lived in Manhattan Beach, a coastal city in the Los Angeles area. Besides taking care of their 2 little girls, I had the evenings and weekends off to enjoy with my own car. The family was friendly with me, I guess I was lucky again and they let me drive their classic car (same age as myself!) in my free time.
“My” Plymouth Duster from 1972 (image from http://www.pbase.com)
The au-pair family introduced me to their friends, who also had au-pairs, and in a short time I was meeting other au-pair girls from Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. We started hanging out lots of time together as we all had the same free time. In the weekends we shopped at the enormous malls, played volleyball on the beach or visited the clubs.
Living at the beaches of California means that people are very busy working out, eating healthy and avoiding to drink alcohol, but we did all the opposite and had lots of fun!
During the weekends we often went out in Hollywood where we met famous actors. I remember once stepping on the toes of Bryan Austin Green, he was back then, very famous with Beverly Hills 90210. And we met Jean Claude van Damme several times in a club, at about 1 meter away from us. I am sure there were more but I do not remember anymore…
Rodeo Drive (image from http://www.getcarriedaway.net)
The family invited me to spend a weekend at Disneyland in Anaheim with them. When they went on their summer break I enjoyed a week with a Dutch friend driving around in the family´s convertible… We even took the boat to Catalina Island, of the coast of Long Beach, where wild bisons still live.
Living in the States and living in Los Angeles is very different from Holland. Everything is BIG: cars, freeways, shops, malls, meals, drinks. You order a (small) drink and it is still very big or you order a (small) meal but you never finish it alone. When you go to a mall in the U.S.A. it is important you remember where you parked your car, if not…
Being from a country where everybody bikes, it was shocking to see that in the States everybody drives. Even to go 2 blocks away they would take the car.
Some weekends we spent outside Los Angeles, like Halloween in San Diego with some girls. Half way the year my father and grandmother came to surprise me in L.A. It was my grandmother´s dream to visit the U.S.A. and even though she was 80 years old she insisted to come. We ate lots of the typical American pancakes and visited Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu and much more. She remembered me about this trip all her life!
In the evenings I started classes of international business at the University of Los Angeles in down-town L.A. as I felt I needed to do something more besides babysitting. This gave me also an opportunity to meet more people from all over the planet, like Koreans, Russians, Turkish etc. Driving in the classic family car to down-town L.A. on a 5-lane freeway gave me a huge smile on my face. I mean, how many times in your life you enjoy this kind of situations?
Down-town L.A. (image from http://www.mapio.net)
After 12 months living with this nice family and having lots of fun during the weekends with my friends, I got a bit homesick and decided to go back to Holland. It was hard to say goodbye to my friends and the 13-hour flight to Amsterdam was the saddest I remember.
I left behind an amazing time, I learnt English, I visited the Los Angeles area, San Diego, Palm Springs, Palm Desert and I made friends for life. It was one of the best times of my life and I will never forget it!
Keep travelling and till next week!
Jessica's travel blog 