Adventures of an Au Pair in Germany

I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to have this blog and share my experiences. In less than two months my life will completely change. I will be getting on a plane, and after a 12 hour flight, will be on German soil. I will stay with my cousin and her adorable one-and-a-half year old, and after two days I will be beginning my job as an au pair for an amazing family with two girls.

I was very surprised to see how easily everything fell into place. My Mom's side of the family is mostly German, so I went to visit my family in May of this year. Before I left I was enrolled at Weber State University and was planning on starting my pre-requisites for the nursing program. I was completely set on going to college, I'd even started writing a list of all the things I needed to buy for my dorm and began stressing on how in the world to pay for it all. It's funny how so much can change in a short while.

I'd always been interested in living out of the country for a while. With my family being German, my amazing Mom taught me German, so Germany was a logical place to go to during college. During a family dinner, we somehow got onto the subject of au pairs (my cousins had one when they were little and absolutely loved her) and I was very intrigued. I hadn't really heard of au pairs before so I looked them up online and became instantly interested. I signed up with an au pair agency and made my profile that night. I was very surprised how quickly I found my host family. Within a week of contacting me I took a train to Stuttgart and met them. The family is fun loving and amazing. The parents have two girls, an 11 year old (Antonia) and a 13 year old (Celina). I only got to meet Antonia on this trip, but I could instantly tell that I liked her. We clicked immediately and the visit was a success. I met their current au pair, Erika, who is from Hungary.


Erika and I took Antonia to a flute lesson and then we got to talk alone. She is amazing and very talented, not to mention very honest (which I love in people). We ate cake and talked about everything possible, from the family to our likes and dislikes. The end to my visit came too soon. Before I left, the mother showed me around Stuttgart and we signed my contract. So as of September 7, 2012 I will be in Germany for a full year. What a commitment! I usually feel awful making any type of commitment but this felt so right.


So here I am, beginning my blog and awaiting my plane and all my experiences. I know not all days will be fun, there will be days where I won't want to get up out of bed in the morning or deal with the children when they aren't listening, but I know I will have fun and that the good times will far out number the bad. Immersing myself in the culture will be absolutely amazing, I love Germany as it is and I cannot wait to spend more than a couple weeks there. From what I have looked up, Stuttgart has many events and festivals that I can't wait to take part of!


I made this blog to share my experiences and to keep a log of what I do while I'm there (I'm terrible at keeping a diary, maybe this will be different). I hope to not only learn about Germany on this journey, but also about myself and I can't wait to begin. I know this year will not leave me unchanged. September cannot come fast enough!