Aupair Experience: Saying Goodbye

Good byes are always hard. Meeting up with your family or friends and saying bye for a pretty long amount of time is hard. I personaly hate goodbyes. Me being in the spotlight, hiding the tears when I feel like they want to come out... I. Hate. It. 

I already said my goodbyes to my best friends. One went on a trip to Brasil for the whole summer and won't be back until a few days after me leaving. So she was the first person who I had to say goodbye to. Then, the other just left for a whole month of non-stop traveling; she will come back 10 days after me leaving and I recently said goodbye to her. 

I also had a big lunch with my boyfriend's family last week. We all got together in my house and we all spent the day together. We ate lunch talked, had some drinks... And as a birthday/goodbye present they got me this amazing winter jacket for extremelly low temperatures (which I will be facing in France, as in the area where I will be living the temperatures go as low as -10ºC). That was our official goodbye; we will be seing each other more often, but that day we all got together for the last time.

And during this week I said goodbye to my aunts, my grandparents, to my cousins and to another couple of friends. 

These things can be hard, it can get scary thinking of not seeing them for a while and you might have to hold a few tears in. But remember you will bee seeing them soon, and that you are going away for a reason, and more importantly that you are going away because it is something you wanted to do. 

Aupair Experience: Being an aupair while having a boyfriend.

I know I have mentioned it before, but I decided to make an entry about it. I have got a boyfriend and I am going to move to another country 1000km away for a whole year. We know it's crazy, we know it will be hard, but we are hopefull that everything will be okay.

First of all I need to tell you how much he has supported me through all of this and how necessary his support has been in order to make this choice.

We have been together for three years now, and I need to say that I told him about this plan long time ago. We met each other a year after I came back from the United States, where I spent a year as an exchange student and from the very begginig I told him about my plans to repeat the experience as soon as I finished college but somewhere in Europe and as an aupair this time. To be honest, at first he didn't like the idea of it very much, but back then we were just starting to date and as those were plans for the future we didn't talk much about it. 

At first, my plan was to go to Sweden (a country that has me completely in love with it since I went there for a week with my classmates as an exchange trip when I was 16) or to Germany. But as time went by, and as I had a boyfriend I decided to go to a country closer to home, and as a teacher knowing French will be more usefull for me than knowing German or Swedish, so, I decided to go to France.

So as time went by, we started to talk more about it and I must say that he has always been my biggest support though this process. He has never asked me to stay, he has helped me to get ready for the experience and he has made it very clear that even though he is sad about me leaving but that he will never make anything to stop this from happening. Whenever I am sad about us not being together for a whole year, he supports me and tells me that this won't break us up and that in fact we will come stronger out of it. 

He has accessed to me going to a country he clearly dislikes (I don't know why, but for some reason he really dislikes France), to visit me as much as he can and to sacrifice a whole year as a couple. 

If I tell you the truth, I know that this experience would be easier and more real if I had no boyfriend. I know I would be less nervous about it and that I would not be visiting home that much. All in all, everything would be easier. 

But I wanted to write this post for all those aupairs who decide to start this adventure while leaving your boyfriend or girlfriend back home; for you to know that it is possible, for you to know that you are not the only one. As the experience progresses I will write more about this topic and I will tell you if things go as we had expected. 

Aupair Experiences: Visiting my host family (part 2)

The next day we woke up at 9.30 in the morning, thanks to the alarm I had set up the night before (if not, we would have slept until noon and we would not have had time to spend with the family). We had some breakfast and as the kids were still sleeping and the adults seemed to have lots of things to do, we decided to go sightseeing in the city on or own. First, we had some breakfast to make up for the dinner we had the night before, so, for about 15€ we had some crêpes, a chocolate milkshake and a coffee in the terrace of a very nice cafe. 

We also bought some souvenirs to bring back home (a couple of bottles of wine and some souvenirs that we always bring to keep a family tradition going on) and we walked on the city looking of nice places to see; and I must say I am extremely glad my boyfriend was there with me, because if not, I would have gotten lost. 

We got to the house before 12 and we all met up around the pool again. We talked in a mixed language mae of French, English (which everybody could speak) and Spanish (which everybody except for the grandpa could understand and both the grandma an the aunt were fluent at). We also played with the kids and the oldest boy had great fun playing with me with the toys I had given him the night before.

I also had a minute to sit with the host mom to go through and sign the aupair contract. This was great as it was possible to go through every part and comment on them and answer every doubt we had.   

After that, and feeling a little bit afraid after the dinner we had the night before, we sat for lunch. And surprisingly for us we were served some pretty good food. First they served us some watermelon with ham (which I had never had before but that was not too bad) and after that they served chicken with potatoes, and that tasted really good! So we spent a couple hours eating, talking and laughing and with a full stomach we cleared up the table and did the dishes. 

But at around 4pm we packed everything up and started saying our goodbyes. The parents had a flight back home at 6pm and had to leave, and although we were told that we could stay a little longer, we decided to leave at the same time as the parents so that the grandparents and the kids could relax.

Overall, it was a very short visit, but they all were extremely nice to us and we loved the trip up there. This visit also was great as now I know that next month I will be much more calm when I move in with them and things will also be easier for the kids, as at least the oldest one will remember me and they will adapt to me more easily. 

Aupair Experience: Visiting my host family

3 more weeks and I will start working as an aupair! It's hard to believe that in less than a month I will pack all my stuff and moveto France. But this trip to visit my host family made it all much more real. 

As I mentioned in another post, my host family was going to go to Tarn (400km away from where I live) to visit some family members, so we made plans for my boyfriend and I to go visit them while they spent the weekend there.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, got ready and got on our car at 8.30 starting our way to France. We had a 4 hour trip ahead of us. But we decided to take the trip with calm and to enjoy the stops on the way; as we had to stop to rest, to smoke and to use the restrooms the 4 hour trip ended up being a 6 hour trip, but we really enjoyed it. 

So finally, after a long but relaxed roadtrip we got to the house at around 2.30. My host parents had arrived with the little son (the big one had already been with the grandparents at their house for 3 weeks) at 12 so while giving them some time to stay with their family we got there relatively soon so that we could spend as much time as possible with them.

We parked our car and I sent my host mom a text message and in about 2 minutes she showed up at the door holding the little one in her arms. The grandma also came by to say a quick hello as she was going shopping with her daughter and her son's girlfriend. So, we entered the house and we said hi to my host dad and the oldest son, who were playing in the pool. My host mom inmediately showed us the house and the room where we were going to sleep (in the top floor of a three floor house right in the city, how amazing is that?).

After getting settled, we gave the host mom the gifts we had brought for the adults (some typical whine from my area and some typical sweets) and after that the host mom took my boyfriend and I on a tour around the city. Tarn is a small and beautiful city, we saw the city gardens, the new theatre and a huge cathedral that is in the middle of the city but which we could not see from the inside because they were celebrating a wedding.   

After an hour of sightseeing we sat and ordered something to drink, and as I already knew, getting drinks or food out in France is really expensive, at least compared to Spain:

A beer + 2 waters + an ice cream= 16.90€

So after a couple of hours of visiting the city we went back to the grandparents' house. There we met the grandpa, who was going to go to a winery with my host dad. They invited us to go with them, so we got in the car and went to the winery. The communication-channel we had in the car was pretty fun: the grandpa would tell the hostdad something in French, he would translate it to English for me and then I would translate it back to my boyfriend. We got to the winery and after trying some wines of the area and buying two boxes full of wine bottles we went back to the house. 

By the time we got to the house, everybody was there, my host parents, the two kids, the grandparents and even the aunts and uncle. We all sat by the pool and while talking they offered us something to eat: some watermelon, ham and bread with tomato and cuccumber. So the frist impression we had of the bread was pretty good, but we were not expecting what would come for dinner...

Before we had dinner, they fed the kids and were going to put them to bed, so I asked the mom and decided to give them the presents we had brought for them. With the youngest boy everything had been easy until then, he would let me hold him and he would easily start to play with me; but the oldest boy, although he did look at us with interest had been distant and I had decided to give him some space instead of pressuring him to talk to me. But when I gave him the presents, before he even took them, he hugged me and gave me a big kiss (sucha sweet little boy...). He loved the toys and after opening them and saying goodbye and kissing all of us goodnight, he went to sleep. 

And then came the dinner... we first got served something similar to cuscús with such strong taste that it was difficult for us to eat. And then they served us some meat with vegetables that looked amazing, but that we soon discovered that had been cooked with honey and that was hard to finish, even though we did eat it all. And for desert, we were served cheese, a delicious chocolate cake and the sweets we had brought for them. 

So feeling kind of hungry, but with the feeling of having spent a great day with my future host fmily, we went to our room and fell asleep inmediately after a very tiring but amazing day in France.

My host family

I feel extremelly fortunate that I found the family I will be moving with. I was lucky to meet in person this family last summer. We met each other through aupair-world.es (very well on advance, as I met them last summer and I had no plans of becoming an au pair until this summer)and on a skype conversation we had the host mom mentioned that they go on vacation to a town an hour away from mine every year. We made plans and met in a town very close from mine. They basically came where I live! How cool is that? They are truly amazing. As soon as we met I inmediately clicked with the parents, they were nice open and with an adveturous soul just like mine. With the kids everything was harder, as a language was a barrier. The oldest one was 3 at the time and he only spoke French, which I'm not good at, and the little one was only 4 months old at the time. 

Ever since that first meet up the host mom and I have exchanged letters in a weekly basis, she updates me on how the family is doing and I tell her how I am doing, we have agreed on my duties while I am there and she has made great efforst to help me know more about the place where I will be staying. 

I have learned that they live in a pretty big appartment with a great yard and a very nice terrace. They both work long days and my dutie will be to take care of the children after they get out of school and kindergarden and to feed the oldest one lunch at lunch time (so picking him up from school, feeding him lunch and driving him back to school). I will also be doing some light housework that mainly includes cleaning after the children. I will be living in a small town and they will let me use the family car, which is very convenient both to drive the children around and to get to my French classes.

Overall, I feel extremely lucky that I found them, and I really hope that once I get to their house we will keep getting along as well as we do now. 

Welcome to my blog

Hi guys!

My name is Enara, I'm 21 years old and in just a few weeks I am going to start the amazing adventure of being an aupair. 

Starting from now, I will be telling you my preparation to be an aupair and once I get to my host country, I will be telling you my experience  so that future aupairs, au pairs who are already working as so and people considering becoming aupairs can read my story and ask questions if they want to.

Starting an adventure can be hard, thousands of questions and fears come up to our mind and we all collect stories that we would like to share with others. This is why, anyone who reads me can feel free to ask any questions, and if you want to you can send me advice for other au pairs and stories you would like me to share with others.