Girls Going Places

Trying to live by this photo. Seen in NYC.

Just wanted to update everyone on what I am doing because I haven't done so in a long time!! Also, everyone is asking where the hell I am... whoops.

I am in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, near where I was before. I was a live-in nanny with the family that I worked for last year, until they found a new nanny and I moved in with the kids' grandma. I have been back here since just after Christmas.

I am actually doing really well, I'm super busy! I'm doing a lot of resume building and self-development so I'm excited to share that because it makes me feel super pumped about life! I took some free lectures at Camden County College about autism from a child care provider's perspective. I learned about what autism is, the differences between tantrums and meltdowns, ways to communicate, how to teach them social skills, and much more. It has been so eye-opening and important! I am using some of the things I've learned already.

I'm also looking to pursue a Behavioral Assistant certification (also free!) which would mean I could help a child therapist with their patients and interact with the kids without having the therapist present. Although I am not planning to work as a behavioral assistant, I am passionate about teaching kids good manners, emotional health, social skills, and other important life skills.

I have plenty of work right now and luckily I pretty much make my own schedule. I have one family that I spend 15-20 hours a week with and three or four families that I babysit here and there for, on top of the learning that I'm doing, so it's great! I am teaching one of my kids Spanish which is challenging and so much fun for me.

I also joined a sign language group which meets once a week. I'm not able to give that one as much attention but it's good to go sit in the coffee shop and at least watch other people interact and try to stumble my way through a conversation. I've always loved sign language but I'm quite rusty right now.

I've interviewed lots with potential host families in the Netherlands about an Au Pair opportunity. If you don't know what an Au Pair is, it is a live-in nanny from a different country. You can hire them through agencies and they have a specific visa, with which the stipulations and duration varies per country but is used as a cultural exchange. It's a mutually beneficial situation because the host family, specifically the children, get exposure to a different culture and language, and so does the Au Pair. It allows a young person to travel and a busy family to have live-in help with the kids. I love the Netherlands so much when I took holiday there in December that I said, "I wanna move here!" and immediately started exploring different ways I could make that happen.

My current plans are to spend the duration of the summer in Jersey, learning and working as much as I can, then come home for all of August to attend a family reunion and spend time with loved ones, then head to the Netherlands in early September for a year-long Au Pair cultural exchange!
I'm excited and hopeful.

I'd love to hear from anyone reading this what they're up to lately, how they are and how their family is doing. I miss home often but can't seem to stay there long when the whole world is out there. So if you write me, maybe I can have the best of both, yeah?

Cheers,
Alison Maglaughlin
alimaglaughlin@gmail.com

Me in Jersey last week. Happy about Spring because it means more skateboarding.

Last week at an art gallery in NYC. 

NYC skyline from the skate park on Chelsea Pier.

NYC again, near Chelsea Pier. Two hours by bus from where I am in Jersey.

Upcoming Travel Plans and Endless Possibilities

So I've been back west for a couple months now, I came home to spend time with family and I've kept it pretty quiet because I am choosing to spend all my time with my youngest two siblings, Hope and Chance, and I didn't want to lose sight of that and get caught up visiting all the friends and extended family that I'd like to.

Hope, Me, and Chance before a horse ride.

We've had a lot of fun since August, and I've been working at a casino in Jackpot, NV and developing myself with leadership courses whenever I can find the time to.
I've created a vision for my life that I can create a way to earn sustainable income while traveling that will allow me to continue to travel. Although I haven't landed at an exact solution just yet, there are a lot of possibilities out there for me that I want to explore. One being doing administrative work for a good friend of mine with his business consulting and motocross coaching ventures. This same friend has invited me to travel to Europe with him in December. Two weeks and I'll be in England and then Amsterdam! I hope that it grows into something sustainable for me.

Meanwhile, I've been making other travel plans the only way I know how: to jump in and figure out the details later. My birthday is coming up in January and I'm looking at renting a house in New Orleans and having friends fly out to celebrate, party and explore with me for a few days. I'll be turning 25 on the 25th, so as my friend Danny says, "We're gunna do it up!"

Inside of all of this, the family that I nannied for in Jersey has been in contact with me. I watched their three kids, Anna, Tommy, and Johnny for 6 months earlier this year, and it was both a fulfilling experience for me and A LOT OF FUN. I've always had a heart for children, and being a part of their development and seeing them change and grow daily was amazing. I really connected with the kids and with their parents, Adrianne and Patrick. We became family. They asked if I was available to come stay with them through January, and it turns out that I can fly out right after Christmas. So it looks like I'll be back in Jersey after all, spending another winter in the armpit of the United States, visiting dear friends and cursing Mother Nature.

Me and the monsters at the Phillies Game - Thanks Patrick and Adrianne!

Me and the monsters at Storybook Land. Tommy rode so many rides he vomited on everything on the car ride home... tons of fun!

With all of this excitement in my future I can only say that I am blessed. I'm thankful for those that have opened an opportunity for me and invited me to join them in their life adventure. I'm also amazed by my friends that read this and keep up with me through my blog posts, who care about what's going on in my life and want to share with me in that. Thank you.

I can't wait to set foot on other soils. To many adventures! More to come...

It's a beautiful life in New Jersey & PA

Hey everyone!
Just an update on how everything is going:
I'm working now - I clean house for a guy that I've actually been out with a couple times; he lives in Philadelphia. I should also be receiving a job offer from Victoria's Secret here soon. She wanted to extend one immediately after the interview I had last week but she said she's going to see what she can do to get me $11.50 an hour.
I have to ride the train for a few minutes and then bike 3 and a half miles to get to the mall that Victoria's Secret is in, so I'll be biking 7 miles a day once I start, and that's not counting the times I'll need to bike to the grocery store or run other errands after work.
I've been biking a LOT. Everywhere we go that's not right next to a train station we have to either bike or walk to, or spend the money to get an Uber. We're frugal when we can be, so basically my legs are sore like, everyday.
Taking the bike on the train is an ordeal, though. The boarding areas are either on platforms or underground, so there are always stairs to battle. Carrying a bike up and down stairs when you're not the most graceful person anyway, and have no upper body strength, is difficult. I couldn't do it while carrying a purse so I made the transition to a backpack purse. I have tried to become as hands free as possible, especially because I have to carry my train pass to scan at the entrances and exits as well. The struggle is real.
The dating scene here is happening. I've been seeing this one guy with a crazy relaxed East Coast accent. He says the wildest stuff; they have exciting and hilarious lingo over here. I've been out dancing a couple times, and Maciah and I try to talk to people wherever we go, so we've been interacting with plenty of folks.

They have this crazy thing here, too! BYOB. The liquor licenses are expensive; there are stringent rules and hefty taxes, so a lot of restaurants let you bring in your own alcohol. I did it with a bottle of wine the other day!

The other awesome part of this area is the diversity of cultures that are present here. We spent an hour on Saturday seated outside a coffee shop in the middle of the 9th street Italian market, eavesdropping on a little girl speaking in Italian who was maybe 7 years old. It was adorable.
I also tried Ethiopian food on a date the other day. It was good! They eat with their hands and these tortilla-lookin' things; I was down with it.

One of my favorite new discoveries is an awesome newspaper publication that gives homeless people a source of income to help them get off the streets. They do it in the coolest way, so that if someone is willing to work, they can achieve self-sufficiency. The "vendor" purchases the papers at 25¢ and sells them for $1 (or whatever the customer donates), and they pocket the 75¢ profit. It actually works out really well. They publish a few simple articles and some fun little snippets. The contributions from the vendors and community members is where the real gravy is. It's hilariously endearing. Here's the link to their Facebook page.


Out of all the things I've observed here so far, these are some of the most notable. I hope it's not too lengthy, I've actually left a lot out. Feel free to leave comments if there's anything you're curious about - or better yet, give me a call!

No longer homeless! (and other updates)

Yesterday we spent most of the day in Newark, which is New Jersey's largest city, walking around and exploring things. We found a beautiful library, walked past a lot of interesting little shops, rode the bus, and found an awesome little pub that we really enjoyed.
In the evening, we were picked up by a friend of mine, Jenna.
The crazy thing about Jenna is that we met about 5 years go on Twitter! I ended up following her one day and after that we would interact from time to time, and eventually we got each other's phone numbers and Snapchats. For some reason we've always clicked, and she was kind enough to drive two hours after working all day, pick us up at the library, fight rush hour traffic, take us back to the airport, wait for us to get our bags, help us load them into her car, take us to Applebee's, and drive another two hours for us. As if that wasn't enough, because we were having a hard time booking an airbnb, she opened up her home to us. She graciously offered a couch and a shower, which we are indescribably grateful for. We are very blessed! Thank you, Jenna!
We woke up this morning and took an Uber to Cherry Hill, NJ, where we met a woman we've been talking to about renting a couple rooms from. The house is beautiful, in a great location, and the rent is affordable - so of course we jumped at the opportunity!

The lady's name is Judy, she is a good friend of the Chinese couple that owns the house - they don't speak excellent English so she helps them out. Judy's real name in Chinese is Yu Feng, which sounds kinda like you-phone. She is very sweet! She gave us a ride to the bank and then we filled her tank and she took us to Jenna's to get our bags, then back to the place in Cherry Hill, which took more than an hour and a half, so we are very grateful for her as well! We had so many suitcases that we shoved her car completely full and still had to share a seat in the back; it was very tight quarters!

J

She told us that she works at a bank and sometimes they use a temp agency to hire people, and she thinks we can get a job there very easily so we took down the number and that's on the to-do list for tomorrow.
We wanted to get familiar with the train so we walked down to the station, which is less than a 10 minute walk, and took the train to Philadelphia for the afternoon. The streets here are really cool, we walked down some thin cobblestone streets that look like alleyways but have house fronts down them. We didn't get too stay long or explore much, because we had to get groceries and unpack.

As far as landscape goes, this area feels a lot like western Oregon. There are a ton of trees and vines and other green, growing things. A lot of the trees have vines growing all the way up the trunk and onto the branches, which our Uber driver was telling us is unhealthy for the tree.
So far I'm very grateful to have a roof over my head - a place to shower and sleep! I'm interested in everything around me, and excited to start looking for work. I think there is opportunity here, and there's definitely new things to learn and do!

Safe and sound!

We landed in Newark, NJ!
I was distressed when I went to baggage claim and found that my suitcase had been ripped and all my personal documents lost. By the grace of God, after seeing the ladies at the baggage service desk, we found the documents and they gave me a brand new suitcase to replace the ripped one.
It's 9 a.m. here, and my friend Jenna will be here to get us in 8-10 hours, so we paid to have our bags held and we're waiting for a bus to take us somewhere downtown maybe. If we can sit down and have an omelette that doesn't cost $14 that would be a-okay.
Luckily we were able to freshen up a bit in the bathroom so I feel more like a human now, after traveling all night.
I have also been in contact with a nice lady this morning about renting a room in south New Jersey, close to the train station that runs into Philadelphia where we can hopefully find work. I'm probably going to meet up with her tonight and maybe we won't have to find a hotel room. We're taking it step by step! I would tell you how we feel but I hardly know myself. Up until this point we've been too busy making sure we get to the right place with all of our stuff. Feels like this might be where the fun part comes in!
Cheers!

Here we go!

After some last minute scrambles and nervous packing, we made it to the airport! Our plane to San Fran will be boarding soon.
Through some miracle, United was having issues with their software so ALL of our checked bags were free!! That's the first good surprise in months! We were thrilled to say the least!

We should land in Newark around 6 a.m. local time tomorrow. I have a friend named Jenna, whom I met through Twitter years ago, picking us up tomorrow evening. I guess we're just going to kill time until then, and probably reserve an AirBnb so we have somewhere to stay tomorrow night. We'll see what happens in the next 24 hours!