Woah, it's been a while.

It's been a long time since I last posted.

I have passed my A1 German test! :) I almost got a perfect score.

Now, I am just waiting on a reference, and then I can send it to Germany!

So close now, it's very exciting.



I've been reading some other Au Pair blogs, and I am pretty confused.
Some Au Pairs don't seem to know what they are getting into before they go.
What I'm expecting is: Taking care of children, cleaning, and cooking. Then once that's all done, I can travel as long as it's okay with the host family.

I'm not expecting to travel everyday, and it seems like some people considering being an Au Pair are expecting. Before I decided, I did extensive research on what Au Pair duties are, and the work schedule, and all of that stuff.

You are a babysitter.

It's weird to me when I read "Au pairs are just glorified babysitters". Au Pairs are not glorified in my eyes. An Au Pair is a young adult, who goes abroad to take care of children. That's what they do. Au Pair is not trying to deceive you into believing something otherwise.

Please do some research into what you are doing before you do it.

A little rant, but I feel it's absolutely necessary to know what you are getting into.
You need to love taking care of children, because that's what most of your day will be, along with some housework and possible cooking.

This doesn't and wouldn't put me off becoming an Au Pair, because it'll be an awesome experience. I really want to live in Germany, and this gives me a little idea as to what it will be like. Being an Au Pair will allow me to travel on my days off, learn another language, and I will be able to meet awesome people.

I can't wait to start this journey in Germany.

Explaination of my blog

With this blog, I hope to post at least 3 times a week. I'll try to explain everything that happens throughout my journey in becoming and being an Au Pair.

Right now, I am working on getting my paperwork done to send to Germany. Then the agency will match me with a family and we will work on getting to know each other and I can decide if they are the right family for me or not.

I have many things to get done before I send everything over.

For example, the agency I am with needs me to:

- Get a background check

- Pass an A1 German test

- Write a letter to the potential host family in German

- Fill out an application

- Get childcare references

- Get character references. 

This ended up taking me a long time to finish. I have to finish my letter, and finish getting some more references, then I should be able to really start this journey!

Au Pair? How?

Au Pair? What's that?

I get this question a lot when I tell people what I'm planning on doing.

An Au pair is like a nanny. It's usually a young person (between ages 18-30)with baby-sitting experience who travels to another country to take care of children. You live and eat in the host family's house for free, in exchange for taking care of their children. 

Some other jobs an Au pair might do include:

- Light housekeeping

- Teaching your native language to the children

- Grocery shopping 

When being an Au pair, you get to experience the culture, and language of your host country. 

This sounds pretty interesting. 

How do I become one myself?

There are plenty of agencies that can safely match you with a host family. 

Be very careful of using websites, be sure to verify the safety of the website, and the host family. Never send money to anyone online, be aware of scammers. 

Personally, I have family in Germany, and they helped me out, by going to an agency there. This German agency is called MutliKultur. This is a very secure agency as it requires background checks, and plenty of other security measures. 

Sources: NewAupair, MultiKultur

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