That's right, I have a new family!
I am very excited. I didn't end up going through an agency, but I am still very pleased with the outcome. This time I will have two kids who are a bit older, which is nice, and the parents seem like such lovely people. To top it all off, guess where I will be living?
Paris! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
It turns out that losing the au pair job in Germany truly was for the best. I already speak a bit of French, and I will be living in one of the best and most romantic cities in the world. I can hardly contain my excitement! We are starting the visa process right away, which makes me feel a lot more secure about the job. I can't wait to meet the family and get to know them, and to have amazing adventures in the city of light!
Showing posts with label decisions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decisions. Show all posts
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
When life gives you lemons
...first cry your eyes out.
Then go make lemonade.
I found out some extremely disappointing news the other day: the German host family that I was so excited about is no longer able to host me as an au pair. I can't even begin to describe how upset I am. I had checked my email just before I had to give a presentation for a class, and promptly had to exit and miss that class because I could not stop sobbing.
I have dreamed of living in Europe since I was a little girl. Imagine that you get what you had always dreamed of, and have by this time invested a lot of time, money, and energy into that dream, only to have all of that ripped away from you with one email. So yeah, I was devastated.
I had no idea what to do. I was completely shocked and thrown. I don't think I've ever been that caught off-guard in my life. I was so excited to get to know them, to learn from them and have a great time with them. Then again, this was all happening so easily that I didn't honestly stop to think that something might happen that would throw a wrench in my plans. I feel pretty foolish now. I put all of my trust and an entire critical year of my life into one family that I don't even know. Somehow I felt kind of violated. So I let the floodgates loose, and they ran on and on for a while.
Once I calmed down, I stopped to assess my situation. I had lost valuable time job searching and had ignored or turned down great offers to au pair for other families because I decided to commit to this family. I had spent hours researching Cologne and moving abroad, time I could have spent looking for a family who would actually commit to me for real or doing my thesis work or looking for a job. By the way, I had already notified my work that I was leaving for good in August. So there you go. Adding insult to injury, I now had a one-way plane ticket to Germany that is nonrefundable, and not enough funds by the time of the flight to purchase a return ticket. Then I started sobbing again because seriously, this is not a great situation to be in.
After I spent some time feeling sorry for myself, I realized that I had the power to change things. I may not be able to control what other people do, but I can certainly control what I do and direct my own life. Attitude really is everything, so I decided that the pity party stopped there. It was cathartic and necessary to express my sadness over this awful news, but I had to switch gears. Now I must do everything in my power to make it to Europe for a year: no is not an option. I want this so badly, and I need to make it happen. And it will happen. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and this particular door closing just means that another door, an even better door, was waiting for me all along.
I've reopened my account on GreatAupair and am going to see what else I can find there, but I think I might just go through an agency instead. I'm a little afraid of this same situation happening again, and with an agency that fear is taken away. I may have to pay a bit initially, but I'll be guaranteed placement. I've also decided that if I go through an agency, I'll go to France or Belgium instead of Germany. I already know French, so I'll meet visa requirements for that (I would have had to do a bit of slightly-illegal maneuvering in Germany with the visa language requirement, which I can't do through an agency), and I will also be able to learn German in Belgium if I so chose (which will put me ahead in my graduate studies).
I need to stay positive. I can't give up now. I've wanted this for too long, and I know that if I let one setback get to me I would never forgive myself. I'm still disappointed and upset, but I need to focus those angry and negative emotions into constructive problem solving so I can actually move on with my life and do the great things that I've always wanted to do. So here's to hoping that everything works out this time around!
Has anyone else ever received crushing news, big or small? Did you bounce back?
Then go make lemonade.
I found out some extremely disappointing news the other day: the German host family that I was so excited about is no longer able to host me as an au pair. I can't even begin to describe how upset I am. I had checked my email just before I had to give a presentation for a class, and promptly had to exit and miss that class because I could not stop sobbing.
I have dreamed of living in Europe since I was a little girl. Imagine that you get what you had always dreamed of, and have by this time invested a lot of time, money, and energy into that dream, only to have all of that ripped away from you with one email. So yeah, I was devastated.
I had no idea what to do. I was completely shocked and thrown. I don't think I've ever been that caught off-guard in my life. I was so excited to get to know them, to learn from them and have a great time with them. Then again, this was all happening so easily that I didn't honestly stop to think that something might happen that would throw a wrench in my plans. I feel pretty foolish now. I put all of my trust and an entire critical year of my life into one family that I don't even know. Somehow I felt kind of violated. So I let the floodgates loose, and they ran on and on for a while.
Once I calmed down, I stopped to assess my situation. I had lost valuable time job searching and had ignored or turned down great offers to au pair for other families because I decided to commit to this family. I had spent hours researching Cologne and moving abroad, time I could have spent looking for a family who would actually commit to me for real or doing my thesis work or looking for a job. By the way, I had already notified my work that I was leaving for good in August. So there you go. Adding insult to injury, I now had a one-way plane ticket to Germany that is nonrefundable, and not enough funds by the time of the flight to purchase a return ticket. Then I started sobbing again because seriously, this is not a great situation to be in.
After I spent some time feeling sorry for myself, I realized that I had the power to change things. I may not be able to control what other people do, but I can certainly control what I do and direct my own life. Attitude really is everything, so I decided that the pity party stopped there. It was cathartic and necessary to express my sadness over this awful news, but I had to switch gears. Now I must do everything in my power to make it to Europe for a year: no is not an option. I want this so badly, and I need to make it happen. And it will happen. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and this particular door closing just means that another door, an even better door, was waiting for me all along.
I've reopened my account on GreatAupair and am going to see what else I can find there, but I think I might just go through an agency instead. I'm a little afraid of this same situation happening again, and with an agency that fear is taken away. I may have to pay a bit initially, but I'll be guaranteed placement. I've also decided that if I go through an agency, I'll go to France or Belgium instead of Germany. I already know French, so I'll meet visa requirements for that (I would have had to do a bit of slightly-illegal maneuvering in Germany with the visa language requirement, which I can't do through an agency), and I will also be able to learn German in Belgium if I so chose (which will put me ahead in my graduate studies).
I need to stay positive. I can't give up now. I've wanted this for too long, and I know that if I let one setback get to me I would never forgive myself. I'm still disappointed and upset, but I need to focus those angry and negative emotions into constructive problem solving so I can actually move on with my life and do the great things that I've always wanted to do. So here's to hoping that everything works out this time around!
Has anyone else ever received crushing news, big or small? Did you bounce back?
*also, if anyone reading this wants to be an au pair, just go with an agency if you want guarantees*
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Airplanes: the Good and the Bad
Ah, planes. I'm really thankful for them. They make it so much easier to travel to places that are very far away from wherever you are at the moment. I think back to the days when people had to take trains and ships, and then I think back even farther to the days when people had to take horse-drawn carts and wooden boats, and I realize that I live in a pretty good time period for far-away traveling.
Or do I?
Plane tickets are EXPENSIVE. I feel like I have to give one arm in order to be admitted on a plane, and if we're talking first class then I would probably have to give up my firstborn child. For real. It's a lot of money. At least, it is for me, as a student with loans and a minimum wage part-time job. I'm doing this all on my own, and the financial part is hard. I'm just thankful I can afford a ticket at all.
In order to afford this ticket and still be able to pay for other necessities in life, I had to search around for deals. The first site I went to was Skyscanner. I highly recommend this site. It continually has some of the lowest air fares that I've ever seen. Other sites I went to were Kayak and Hipmunk. All of them gave me good airfare options, but they were still quite expensive. I was searching for the deal. You know, that elusive, once-in-a-lifetime ticket that is unbelievably cheap yet still gets you to your destination on an actual passenger flight? Maybe I was foolish in thinking I would find this deal, but I held out anyway because I was very determined to spend as little as possible on my ticket so I would have as much extra money as possible for getting what I will need when I'm actually in Germany.
And wouldn't you know it, a friend of mine told me about STA travel. It's a business that caters directly to students, teachers, and young adults. I knew that I wouldn't be a student by the time I went to Germany, but I was under 26, which qualified me for their special rates. And boy, did they have special rates! Seriously, the flights here were way cheaper than anything I saw on the other websites.
Then I found it. That once-in-a-lifetime ticket that was unbelievably cheap yet still involved a real passenger airplane. It was a one-way ticket to Düsseldorf that cost me a good $200+ less than any other flight that I'd looked at. So I snatched it up. And now I have a flight booked to Germany for insanely cheap (well, that's pretty relative, but for one-way airfare it's insanely cheap!). Side note: for some reason, it is much cheaper to fly into Düsseldorf or Berlin that it is to fly into any other airport, with Frankfurt coming in close behind. Just a trend I noticed.
The catch is that this flight has a 10 hour layover, which brings my total traveling time to about 24 hours. Yeah, it's not the best situation, but who cares??? I got an amazing deal!!! I am very willing to spend 10 hours at an airport if that means I pay a lot less for my ticket. Besides, I saw tickets that were way more expensive that also had long layovers. And on the bright side, it will be next to impossible for me to miss my connecting flight, with all the spare time I have :)
So it's official. I'm going to Germany. I can't wait!
Or do I?
Plane tickets are EXPENSIVE. I feel like I have to give one arm in order to be admitted on a plane, and if we're talking first class then I would probably have to give up my firstborn child. For real. It's a lot of money. At least, it is for me, as a student with loans and a minimum wage part-time job. I'm doing this all on my own, and the financial part is hard. I'm just thankful I can afford a ticket at all.
In order to afford this ticket and still be able to pay for other necessities in life, I had to search around for deals. The first site I went to was Skyscanner. I highly recommend this site. It continually has some of the lowest air fares that I've ever seen. Other sites I went to were Kayak and Hipmunk. All of them gave me good airfare options, but they were still quite expensive. I was searching for the deal. You know, that elusive, once-in-a-lifetime ticket that is unbelievably cheap yet still gets you to your destination on an actual passenger flight? Maybe I was foolish in thinking I would find this deal, but I held out anyway because I was very determined to spend as little as possible on my ticket so I would have as much extra money as possible for getting what I will need when I'm actually in Germany.
And wouldn't you know it, a friend of mine told me about STA travel. It's a business that caters directly to students, teachers, and young adults. I knew that I wouldn't be a student by the time I went to Germany, but I was under 26, which qualified me for their special rates. And boy, did they have special rates! Seriously, the flights here were way cheaper than anything I saw on the other websites.
Then I found it. That once-in-a-lifetime ticket that was unbelievably cheap yet still involved a real passenger airplane. It was a one-way ticket to Düsseldorf that cost me a good $200+ less than any other flight that I'd looked at. So I snatched it up. And now I have a flight booked to Germany for insanely cheap (well, that's pretty relative, but for one-way airfare it's insanely cheap!). Side note: for some reason, it is much cheaper to fly into Düsseldorf or Berlin that it is to fly into any other airport, with Frankfurt coming in close behind. Just a trend I noticed.
The catch is that this flight has a 10 hour layover, which brings my total traveling time to about 24 hours. Yeah, it's not the best situation, but who cares??? I got an amazing deal!!! I am very willing to spend 10 hours at an airport if that means I pay a lot less for my ticket. Besides, I saw tickets that were way more expensive that also had long layovers. And on the bright side, it will be next to impossible for me to miss my connecting flight, with all the spare time I have :)
So it's official. I'm going to Germany. I can't wait!
Friday, April 19, 2013
How I Became an Au Pair
Or really, how I am becoming an au pair (because I'm not actually there yet, sadly. Gotta graduate first!).
1) I researched what the best websites were for connecting families with au pairs.
I ultimately decided not to go with an agency because, while it is a secure option, I didn't want to have to pay a fee to join an agency and I wanted to be able to choose my own family. I have a pretty good gut instinct when it comes to people, and I wanted to make sure that I had more control over who I would be living with.
Over all of the options that I came across in my search, I ended up going with the website Great AuPair, which I highly recommend. It is super easy to use, is recommended by many different sources as a good self-serve website, and you can do pretty detailed searches when looking for families. I like that you can favorite families and they can favorite you back so you know who is interested, and vice-versa.
2) I figured out where I wanted to be an au pair and created a profile.
You can literally be an au pair anywhere in the world. As someone who has a very small list of places that I don't want to visit, narrowing down the areas where I want to work was difficult at first. I knew I wanted to live in Europe for sure, so at least I could narrow down the continent. Narrowing down the countries was the real challenge.
I speak French passably well, so I figured France would be a natural choice in the beginning. But I didn't want to limit my options, so I opened myself up to other areas as well. I know that for grad school, I will have to know two languages in addition to English, and German is highly desirable in my field, so Germany became a top contender as well. And I have always wanted to visit Italy, so I figured that country into my search as a minor option. As a bonus, all of these countries figure into my ethnic heritage, so I would be exploring my (long past) roots no matter where I went. So France, Germany, and Italy became my countries of preference on my profile.
In the end, I focused on Germany because the best families that expressed mutual interest were German families. This ended up working out really well for me because not only will I be learning a third language (so cool!) that is directly applicable to my future career, but the family that I will be working for also speaks French and Dutch (in addition to English and German), so I will have the opportunity to work on my French and possibly learn a bit of Dutch as well. Germany is also pretty centrally located in Europe, so I could travel nearly anywhere in Europe fairly easily and cheaply from my location. As an added bonus, the guy I am seeing lives in Germany, and the closer proximity makes me a very happy woman!
As far as the profile went, I just presented myself honestly and enthusiastically. I really want to get along with my host family, so it was important to me that we are truly compatible. The process was a bit long, but fairly easy.
3) I found a family that I am excited to join.
Finding a family is the hardest part, though it's definitely worth it. It involves a lot of back-and-forth communication, exploration, and thought. I went through families that I ultimately decided against and narrowed it down to a few families in Germany and one in France. When I video chatted with the family I will be staying with, however, I knew that I had found exactly what I was looking for. Thankfully they felt the same way!
I am so excited to meet and get to know my host family. They seem so warm and friendly, and I have a good feeling about them. And, like I said, I tend to be right about my gut feelings. It will definitely be a big change from living with my family in the US, but I'm up for the challenge and I know that I will really enjoy myself and have a great time with my host family. I'm actually really excited about hanging out with the kids, too. They seem super cute and fun, I can tell we are going to have a great time together! I'm currently trying to find them small presents that I can bring with me from California. I want to make a good first impression after all! And I love giving people gifts.
I know I will miss my family back home, though. I'll be gone for nearly a year, and the longest I've been away from home is two weeks. Despite our differences, I really do love them and they love me. The excitement and joy with living in a new place will keep me pretty occupied though, and I'll be able to video chat with them, which will definitely make me feel better. Thankfully, while they will miss me too, they are all very supportive of my decision, so I think I'll be leaving in a good place with them. Now I just have to finish my thesis and graduate so that I can focus on getting to Germany! I probably won't be able to write for about a week because of thesis work actually, but I'll be back soon!
1) I researched what the best websites were for connecting families with au pairs.
I ultimately decided not to go with an agency because, while it is a secure option, I didn't want to have to pay a fee to join an agency and I wanted to be able to choose my own family. I have a pretty good gut instinct when it comes to people, and I wanted to make sure that I had more control over who I would be living with.
Over all of the options that I came across in my search, I ended up going with the website Great AuPair, which I highly recommend. It is super easy to use, is recommended by many different sources as a good self-serve website, and you can do pretty detailed searches when looking for families. I like that you can favorite families and they can favorite you back so you know who is interested, and vice-versa.
2) I figured out where I wanted to be an au pair and created a profile.
You can literally be an au pair anywhere in the world. As someone who has a very small list of places that I don't want to visit, narrowing down the areas where I want to work was difficult at first. I knew I wanted to live in Europe for sure, so at least I could narrow down the continent. Narrowing down the countries was the real challenge.
I speak French passably well, so I figured France would be a natural choice in the beginning. But I didn't want to limit my options, so I opened myself up to other areas as well. I know that for grad school, I will have to know two languages in addition to English, and German is highly desirable in my field, so Germany became a top contender as well. And I have always wanted to visit Italy, so I figured that country into my search as a minor option. As a bonus, all of these countries figure into my ethnic heritage, so I would be exploring my (long past) roots no matter where I went. So France, Germany, and Italy became my countries of preference on my profile.
In the end, I focused on Germany because the best families that expressed mutual interest were German families. This ended up working out really well for me because not only will I be learning a third language (so cool!) that is directly applicable to my future career, but the family that I will be working for also speaks French and Dutch (in addition to English and German), so I will have the opportunity to work on my French and possibly learn a bit of Dutch as well. Germany is also pretty centrally located in Europe, so I could travel nearly anywhere in Europe fairly easily and cheaply from my location. As an added bonus, the guy I am seeing lives in Germany, and the closer proximity makes me a very happy woman!
As far as the profile went, I just presented myself honestly and enthusiastically. I really want to get along with my host family, so it was important to me that we are truly compatible. The process was a bit long, but fairly easy.
3) I found a family that I am excited to join.
Finding a family is the hardest part, though it's definitely worth it. It involves a lot of back-and-forth communication, exploration, and thought. I went through families that I ultimately decided against and narrowed it down to a few families in Germany and one in France. When I video chatted with the family I will be staying with, however, I knew that I had found exactly what I was looking for. Thankfully they felt the same way!
I am so excited to meet and get to know my host family. They seem so warm and friendly, and I have a good feeling about them. And, like I said, I tend to be right about my gut feelings. It will definitely be a big change from living with my family in the US, but I'm up for the challenge and I know that I will really enjoy myself and have a great time with my host family. I'm actually really excited about hanging out with the kids, too. They seem super cute and fun, I can tell we are going to have a great time together! I'm currently trying to find them small presents that I can bring with me from California. I want to make a good first impression after all! And I love giving people gifts.
I know I will miss my family back home, though. I'll be gone for nearly a year, and the longest I've been away from home is two weeks. Despite our differences, I really do love them and they love me. The excitement and joy with living in a new place will keep me pretty occupied though, and I'll be able to video chat with them, which will definitely make me feel better. Thankfully, while they will miss me too, they are all very supportive of my decision, so I think I'll be leaving in a good place with them. Now I just have to finish my thesis and graduate so that I can focus on getting to Germany! I probably won't be able to write for about a week because of thesis work actually, but I'll be back soon!
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