Fall Hike & Chinese Food (Yummy!)

Taking a break at Elliot Tower after our hike.

Last August, when we were driving home from our camping trip, one of the au pairs mentioned that she would like to go on a hike for one of our monthly au pair activities this fall. There happens to be a great place for hiking just a few short miles from my house, so I told the girls that  we could meet up at my house and then head over to Blue Hills for an afternoon hike.   Everyone seemed to like that idea.

There were 3 Chinese au pairs riding in my car. As we were talking about things that the au pairs enjoy doing with their host families, one of them mentioned that she loves to cook.  Well, I love Chinese food.  Stephanie told me she would be happy to show me how to cook some traditional Chinese dishes.  That’s when I got the bright idea to combine these two things.  We could meet up at my house, drive to Blue Hills  for an invigorating hike, and then come back to my house to prepare some tasty Chinese dishes for everyone to enjoy.

This all sounded great, so I immediately sent out my Evite to the au pairs in my cluster.  As always, I told them to feel free to invite a friend or two.  I figured we would have about 10 or 15 people show up for the hike.  As it turns out, we had about 25 guests RSVP for the hike and Chinese food get together.  Yikes! That’s a lot of dumplings to prepare.  I decided I should prepare some food ahead of time so that the hungry hikers would have something to fill their stomachs while we were busy cooking all of that Chinese food.

We would be making Chinese dumplings together and Stephanie, our Chinese chef for the evening, would also be preparing several main course meat and noodle dishes for us.  I wanted to make something that would compliment what she was making.  I went through my recipe books, and couldn’t find anything that sounded good.  Then I remembered that Au Pair Sis has many interesting recipes on her Pinterest account, so I went there to find something that was easy to make, would feed the masses, could be prepared ahead of time, and had an Asian-inspired theme.  I found a recipe for Coconut Chicken Soup that sounded like it just might do the trick.  So, I prepared my soup and awaited the arrival of my au pair friends.

Girls hiking up Great Blue Hill.

After everyone who was planning to hike arrived, we headed over to Blue Hills.  Blue Hills Reservation is composed of 22 hills that stretch over 7,000 acres from Quincy to Dedham and Milton to Randolph.  The tallest of the hills, Great Blue Hill is easily accessed from the Trailside Museum, which is about 4 miles from my house.  We started our adventure at the Trailside Museum, up the Red Dot trail to Elliot Tower which is at the top of Great Blue Hill.  The elevation is 635 feet which provides for a great view of the Boston city skyline.  It also provides a great place to take pictures.

Anna, Monica and Ligia enjoying the scenery.

The hike up to Elliot Tower took about 30 minutes.  So, you would expect the hike down to take maybe 20-25 minutes?  Well, that sounds about right except we took the wrong trail.  So, instead of the quick straight downhill hike, we took a long meandering hike that took us about an hour to complete.  But that was okay because we were all having fun chatting and getting to know each other better.

“Chef Stephanie” preparing our food.

When we finally arrived back at my house, the real fun began.  Stephanie prepared the filling for our Chinese dumplings.  Her “assistants” Lilly, JinJin, and Shirley demonstrated the finesse needed to properly stuff the filling between the dumpling wrappers.  Ksenia, an au pair from Russia, made one small change to their recipe.  In Russia, when families and friends are gathered for celebrations, Russian dumplings are a traditional dish.  They are very similar to the Chinese dumplings, but the stuffing is a little different.  One of their customs is to secretly hide a special treat inside one (or more) of the dumplings.  The person who received the dumpling with the special surprise is said to have good luck!  So, for fun, we hid some pieces of banana in a few of the dumplings.  (The special ingredient can be just about anything–the point is to make the dumpling different than the rest.) 

Our Chinese cooks preparing the stuffing for the dumplings.

We had a lot of fun tasting all of the yummy dishes that Stephanie and her crew prepared for us.  And it was interesting to see the various ways the au pairs from different countries liked to wrap their dumplings.

Learning the tricky art of stuffing dumplings!

Our good friend, Lilly, was getting ready to return home to China later that week.  So, we all enjoyed a special farewell cake.  Lilly was especially excited about returning home because she was expecting a proposal from her boyfriend at the airport.

Dani, an au pair from Brazil had just arrived a few days before and was able to join us for her first cultural activity.  “I really enjoyed this experience!” Dani said. “My favorite part was to know so many girls at once, chat with them and know a little bit more about their cultures and their experiences as au pairs. ” “And, of course, the food,” she added.

Stephanie heard from Lilly shortly after she returned, and confirmed that Lilly had, in fact, gotten engaged.  Congratulations Lilly!  Best wishes for a bright future.

The Gathering Was Bittersweet As We Said Farewell & Best Wishes to Lilly.

A New Affordable Education Opportunity!

Bunker Hill Community College recently launched a special program that was tailor-made for au pairs! The Department of State mandates that au pairs complete an equivalent of 6 credits at an accredited college in order to fulfill the educational component of the au pair program. This provides these young international visitors an opportunity to get a taste of what life is like for an American college student. Up until now, it has been virtually impossible for Boston-area au pairs to accomplish this for the $500 that host families are required to pay towards the cost of education.

ESL courses are readily available at an affordable price. However, au pairs who speak English as their native language and au pairs who are already proficient in English have traditionally had a difficult time finding interesting classes that are both accredited and affordable.

Dr. Lora Anderson Cook and her husband, Benjamin, were well aware of this problem. Co-directors of the program, Lora & Ben have over 10 years of experience developing programs in international education. Lora got involved with the au pair program when she took a job as a local counselor for an au pair agency in Washington, DC while completing her PhD in international education. During this time, Lora and Ben were co-teaching a class that prepared American students for living abroad in Zimbabwe and Uganda. She began to wonder why no one had developed a program to prepare au pairs for living in the US.

Since 2006, Lora and Ben have taught classes to over 1,000 au pairs in six different US cities at seven different colleges. Lora was doing some work for Bunker Hill Community College and approached them this fall to see if they would be interested in piloting a program that would offer an affordable education opportunity for Boston-area au pairs. The Au Pair Weekend Program “Learning to Live Your American Dream” was born!

Two 3-credit-equivalent courses are offered. Both courses require 5-10 hours of pre-course assignments along with 10-20 hours of post-course work. Each course takes place on an intensive weekend. The schedule is Friday night from 5:30 pm-9:45 pm; Saturday from 8:30 am-6:00 pm; and Sunday from 9:30 am-4:30 pm.

Part 1 is called “You and Your Community”. The purpose of this course is to help the au pair set and keep goals so that she can make the most of her year abroad. Each au pair is required to come to class prepared with his pre-course work completed, including a list of goals, a personal identity collage, and articles on culture and “re-entry” shock. Each au pair must also write a response to the articles, with some personal insight into her own experiences.

“Re-entry shock is something that most au pairs don’t think about,” Lora explained.

Tamara Jane Donaldson, an Australian au pair with goAUPAIR who is finishing up her year and preparing to go home said, “I kind of got depressed when she mentioned this to me. It’s something that I had not considered. I have been away for a year and most of my friends have moved on. I know it’s going to be a challenge.”

Students spend Friday evening talking about their goals, presenting their collages, and learning all about culture shock. “The personal collages are a good way for everyone to get to know each other,” Lora said.

On Saturday morning, Ben teaches an intensive course on conflict negotiation. Each au pair is given a conflict assessment to determine her communication style. Ben discusses the pros and cons of each style and trains the students on the steps to successful conflict negotiation. Through role playing exercises using real-life scenarios, he helps the au pairs put what they’ve learned into practice. (The post-class comment cards revealed that the au pairs considered this to be one of the most useful things they learned from the course.)

The class then transitions to a lesson on the history of volunteerism and the value of community involvement and why it is such an important part of American culture. There is also a workshop on cultural diversity, focusing on racial, ethnic, religious, economic, gender, and disability issues. Students are assigned to watch the movie “Crash” and must write a response to the movie. In their responses, they must talk about their experiences with diversity both here in the US and back at home.

Also on Saturday, the students have a “working lunch” where each student is given personalized instruction and mentoring on how to complete their post-course assignments. The post-course work includes keeping a journal of time spent achieving their goals. They must also come up with a plan for volunteering and becoming actively involved in their perspective communities.

The students spend Saturday evening and Sunday volunteering at various community events. They learn their roles at each event and the background of each organization during the class session on community involvement and volunteerism.

Tamara Jane Donaldson, pictured 2nd from the left along with three of her au pair classmates, volunteered to help Autism Speaks as part of her au pair course work.

After completing Part 1, students who wish to complete the equivalent of 6 hours of credit, may also take Part 2, “USA and Boston in a Nutshell”. The course follows the same schedule. On Friday night, an international buffet dinner is served. Each student must bring a traditional dish from her country. BHCC also invites American peers between the ages of 18-30 years old to participate in the course. Each student spends the evening presenting his volunteer and community involvement portfolio which was completed as part of the Part 1 post-class “homework”.

Prior to the start of the class, the students are given a copy of the USA CultureGram. Each student must obtain a copy of the CultureGram from her home country and write a paper comparing the two cultures. The au pairs present their findings and are then allowed to ask their USA student peers questions about American culture as part of a panel discussion. The evening concludes with a challenging but fun game of “USA Jeopardy” where the au pairs as well as their American peers compete and are asked a variety of questions from the USA CultureGram.

On Day 2, American holidays, rituals, and celebrations and discussed. There are also class sessions on US Politics and History, with an emphasis on events specific to Boston. Saturday evening is spent doing a historical tour of Boston. (Weather determines the venue!)

On the final Sunday of the course, au pairs are given a choice of various places to visit in Boston. Au pairs may choose from museums and historic landmarks. “We give the au pairs a choice of where they want to go so that they each have the opportunity to go some place they haven’t already visited,” Lora added.

The post-assignment work for this course includes completing field trip worksheets. Au pairs must also write a final essay in which they are asked to reflect on their goals and determine where they are in meeting those goals. If their goals have changed, they must explain why. Additionally, they must write an essay on what they learned from the course, highlighting what they enjoyed most.

For more information, or to register for this great educational opportunity, au pairs and host families can visit http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/aupair.