well folks ... i'm back in canada and settling in. no, it's not the ideal situation (i would have loved to stay in rome), but things are smoothing out and i'm job hunting so that i can get back to roma within the next 6 months!
in the meantime, i'm getting involved in the local community in a way that means so much to me ...
*******
I'm gearing up to kick cancer's ass!! That's right folks, it's that time again and I'm putting another team together for this year's Relay For Life (Hanover). I'm also volunteering as the Volunteer Coordinator and throwing myself into this 110%!
If you haven't already heard, Relay for Life is an annual event run by the Canadian Cancer Society in an effort to raise funds and awareness about cancer (see http://convio.cancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=RFL_ON_faq_event). It takes place all over the country, and the one I'm participating in is in Hanover.
I'm asking you to help me with this. Join me, pledge me, or volunteer for this amazing event. You can pledge me by clicking https://secureccs.ca/eventmodule.aspx?lng=en&did=2&eid=33&pg=donation_step0
and clicking "pledge a participant". Then just search me - Candice Reich -- it's super easy and only takes a few minutes!
If you want to know more about how you can get involved, contact me! I'd love to talk to you about how you can help!
Thanks everyone, I couldn't do it without your support!
***
So please, pledge me (even just $5!), join me, volunteer. Do SOMETHING for this amazing event. We all have loved ones who have been affected by this horrible disease.
xoxoxox Candice
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
travelling!!!
hey folks! just a quick update ... i am currently in sorrento enjoying the sun and sea! i will be staying here until thursday or friday, at which point i will be heading north to firenze and cinque terre.
my flight home is the 21st.
i went to pompeii today! stay tuned, there are many many pictures to come!!!
xox
my flight home is the 21st.
i went to pompeii today! stay tuned, there are many many pictures to come!!!
xox
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Updates
Wednesday, April 30
Life in Roma is, well, life. Ups and downs, good days and not so good days. However, my days in Roma have been made even more enjoyable by a FRIEND! Yes folks, it’s true, I have a friend. Holly! She is, like me, an au pair. She is here from England and we met through good ol’ facebook. I still have a bit of bitterness toward that whole program (please, STOP sending those stupid application invitations). However, it is immensely useful and its incredible popularity has enabled me to find some companionship in this massive city.
I have also, finally, started to put together some pictures to post on – you guessed it – facebook. The link will be here – VATICAN and COLOSSEO – when they are up (this post may be up before the pictures). As you are aware (at least if you have read a few posts back), my internet access is quite limited and so it is not a very easy task to post blogs or photos on a regular basis. However, I am getting more organized. Soon my camera battery is dead, and since I have not yet found a voltage converter that actually WORKS, I will be a very sad explorer until I manage to charge up. So, task of the moment is to find a converter!
Tomorrow (probably yesterday or the day before yesterday when I get this online – Thursday May 1) Holly and I both have a random day off (thank goodness, I had the children all day for two days this week and I need a break!). So we are heading to Firenze – once again, that is Florence to us non-Italian speaking critters. Let’s hear a big cheer for random days off and traveling to Firenze! Hahahaha.
To those of you who have let me know that you are enjoying the blog – namely Aunt Lori and Gillian – thank you! When I am writing, I am talking to you inside my head, which gives me motivation to try to be a little more creative. :)
It is only 9:17pm right now (so only 12:17 for you, aunt lori) … but I am exhausted! Holly and I rented a funky little bicycle buggy today in Villa de Borghese. I will post pictures of that soon!!! It was great fun, although a LOT of work – especially on those hills! I wonder what kind of adventures we will get up to in Florence tomorrow!!!
Much love!
Xoxo
Candy
***
Monday, May 5
Well folks, sooner or later the truth always comes out. That is partly why I just don’t lie. It’s not worth it. I can’t even lie in my blog!
So here it is … I’m going home. Now before you start thinking that something horrible has happened or that things are shitty (like the Spain experience), let me explain. The family – and especially the children – are very nice and friendly. There have been, of course, some moments (perhaps more than a few) where I have thought that perhaps the parents go a little overboard with certain things. I’ll put it simply – they are meticulous about everything and the mom is prone to sudden fits of yelling things in Italian that I often don’t understand. And when I say “yelling” I really mean something more along the lines of screaming and ranting. But overall they are very nice people and mean well.
But … I am just not happy with this life. This family, though nice, is quite restrictive. To be reassuring (Jay this is particularly for you, if you are reading this) – they are not what ‘au pair families’ usually are (I get this impression from talking with other au pairs). I don’t want to make them sound like horrible people or anything … but we have finally discussed what I have been observing over the past couple of weeks – that what they want and need is, in fact, not an au pair but rather a full time, live-in housekeeper. And I did not come all the way to Rome to be a full time housekeeper! And so we have agreed that I am not going to stay.
Now I could easily find another au pair family, one who knows what an au pair is all about and who wants an au pair. There are many of them out there and if I reactivated my profile on au pair world, I could easily find a family within a few days. But to be honest, I just want to travel around on my own for a bit and then go home, get a “real job”, and save up for the next adventure. So my flight has been changed to May 21, and this weekend I am leaving the majority of my stuff here and taking off for 10 days or so to see more of Italy on my own.
I’m so excited about that! My first month of independent traveling gave me a newfound love of the adventure, independence, and exploration that this kind of traveling offers. So another 10 days before I head home for a while is really ideal. And things with the family are as amicable as ever … we have both acknowledged that what they need and what I am here for are very different things and that this is a good opportunity for me to travel a bit more.
Although I have decided not to stay, I am so glad for having had this entire experience. I have learned so much and seen more than I had ever thought I would see! I have made an amazing friend and – hopefully!! – we will have the chance to be travel buddies as well! And I’m not saying that au pairing is a bad idea at all. When it works, it is a fantastic opportunity to get to know another country, another culture, often another language, while earning some money and (hopefully!) doing some traveling too.
As for what’s next … I am actually really excited to go home, live with the parents, and work for a while. SAVE some money and start to climb ever so slowly from this pit of debt that university (and this trip, to an extent) has left me in.
This experience has been everything that I had hoped it would be. I’ve had a chance to clear my head and reflect on what I want to do next, what I am capable of, what I won’t accept, and how I can get to where I want to be. Everything that I have seen, done, and experienced in the last three months has taught me to be patient and to accept that no matter how much I plan things, life is always going to happen! Thank goodness for that, too. If things always went “according to plan”, life would be so dull and we would never grow and learn!
So I’m ready to get back to reality. I’m excited to start on the path towards where I want to go … or at least where I think I want to go! Of course, I’m going to keep blogging.
:) big smiles from Italia!
xox
Candy
Life in Roma is, well, life. Ups and downs, good days and not so good days. However, my days in Roma have been made even more enjoyable by a FRIEND! Yes folks, it’s true, I have a friend. Holly! She is, like me, an au pair. She is here from England and we met through good ol’ facebook. I still have a bit of bitterness toward that whole program (please, STOP sending those stupid application invitations). However, it is immensely useful and its incredible popularity has enabled me to find some companionship in this massive city.
I have also, finally, started to put together some pictures to post on – you guessed it – facebook. The link will be here – VATICAN and COLOSSEO – when they are up (this post may be up before the pictures). As you are aware (at least if you have read a few posts back), my internet access is quite limited and so it is not a very easy task to post blogs or photos on a regular basis. However, I am getting more organized. Soon my camera battery is dead, and since I have not yet found a voltage converter that actually WORKS, I will be a very sad explorer until I manage to charge up. So, task of the moment is to find a converter!
Tomorrow (probably yesterday or the day before yesterday when I get this online – Thursday May 1) Holly and I both have a random day off (thank goodness, I had the children all day for two days this week and I need a break!). So we are heading to Firenze – once again, that is Florence to us non-Italian speaking critters. Let’s hear a big cheer for random days off and traveling to Firenze! Hahahaha.
To those of you who have let me know that you are enjoying the blog – namely Aunt Lori and Gillian – thank you! When I am writing, I am talking to you inside my head, which gives me motivation to try to be a little more creative. :)
It is only 9:17pm right now (so only 12:17 for you, aunt lori) … but I am exhausted! Holly and I rented a funky little bicycle buggy today in Villa de Borghese. I will post pictures of that soon!!! It was great fun, although a LOT of work – especially on those hills! I wonder what kind of adventures we will get up to in Florence tomorrow!!!
Much love!
Xoxo
Candy
***
Monday, May 5
Well folks, sooner or later the truth always comes out. That is partly why I just don’t lie. It’s not worth it. I can’t even lie in my blog!
So here it is … I’m going home. Now before you start thinking that something horrible has happened or that things are shitty (like the Spain experience), let me explain. The family – and especially the children – are very nice and friendly. There have been, of course, some moments (perhaps more than a few) where I have thought that perhaps the parents go a little overboard with certain things. I’ll put it simply – they are meticulous about everything and the mom is prone to sudden fits of yelling things in Italian that I often don’t understand. And when I say “yelling” I really mean something more along the lines of screaming and ranting. But overall they are very nice people and mean well.
But … I am just not happy with this life. This family, though nice, is quite restrictive. To be reassuring (Jay this is particularly for you, if you are reading this) – they are not what ‘au pair families’ usually are (I get this impression from talking with other au pairs). I don’t want to make them sound like horrible people or anything … but we have finally discussed what I have been observing over the past couple of weeks – that what they want and need is, in fact, not an au pair but rather a full time, live-in housekeeper. And I did not come all the way to Rome to be a full time housekeeper! And so we have agreed that I am not going to stay.
Now I could easily find another au pair family, one who knows what an au pair is all about and who wants an au pair. There are many of them out there and if I reactivated my profile on au pair world, I could easily find a family within a few days. But to be honest, I just want to travel around on my own for a bit and then go home, get a “real job”, and save up for the next adventure. So my flight has been changed to May 21, and this weekend I am leaving the majority of my stuff here and taking off for 10 days or so to see more of Italy on my own.
I’m so excited about that! My first month of independent traveling gave me a newfound love of the adventure, independence, and exploration that this kind of traveling offers. So another 10 days before I head home for a while is really ideal. And things with the family are as amicable as ever … we have both acknowledged that what they need and what I am here for are very different things and that this is a good opportunity for me to travel a bit more.
Although I have decided not to stay, I am so glad for having had this entire experience. I have learned so much and seen more than I had ever thought I would see! I have made an amazing friend and – hopefully!! – we will have the chance to be travel buddies as well! And I’m not saying that au pairing is a bad idea at all. When it works, it is a fantastic opportunity to get to know another country, another culture, often another language, while earning some money and (hopefully!) doing some traveling too.
As for what’s next … I am actually really excited to go home, live with the parents, and work for a while. SAVE some money and start to climb ever so slowly from this pit of debt that university (and this trip, to an extent) has left me in.
This experience has been everything that I had hoped it would be. I’ve had a chance to clear my head and reflect on what I want to do next, what I am capable of, what I won’t accept, and how I can get to where I want to be. Everything that I have seen, done, and experienced in the last three months has taught me to be patient and to accept that no matter how much I plan things, life is always going to happen! Thank goodness for that, too. If things always went “according to plan”, life would be so dull and we would never grow and learn!
So I’m ready to get back to reality. I’m excited to start on the path towards where I want to go … or at least where I think I want to go! Of course, I’m going to keep blogging.
:) big smiles from Italia!
xox
Candy
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