On Being an Au Pair...

The au pair experience thus far has been what I have expected... kind of like babysitting, kind of not.  I feel obligated to be around Laura whenever she is home, but recently I have been wandering off when she watches TV or has her friends over.  Those two times are when she doesn't really want to speak English, and when I find the most boring.  The best times we have together are when it is just the two of us, and we can talk (I also imagine its when she learns the most English).  My schedule with Laura is to pick her up from school every day at 4:30.  She goes to a french school that is about a 20 minute walk from here, but the walk is up and down lots of hills.  Today will actually be my first time doing the walk, last week she was picked up via car by Rosa or Dioni with me along for the ride.  When we get home, I make a quick snack for her (usually nutella and toast, her favourite).  Then she does her homework, and I'll help with any English homework.  Then she usually has some sort of extra-cirricular for an hour (French tutoring, math tutoring, piano or horseback riding). Then she watches TV until dinner.  I usually eat my dinner with Laura, because Dioni and Rosa have it too late for me.  Then it's kind of fair game until bedtime, when I put Laura to bed if she wants me to.

My favourite part about the experience is getting to be around a kid again.  I like the age of innocence where they want you to explain things about why things are the way they are.  I like the imaginative play and the joy they get from pretending to be adults sometimes.  Its also fun to act like a kid, playing in the cabana (club house) and making up games.  I also love all things girly, like doing hair and makeup and nail polish so Laura and I are a good fit (she likes these things too, and likes to bring her other girl friends over to partake in the fun).  In addition to all of this, Laura seems to really, really enjoy me as her au pair.  She has been comfortable hanging out and talking with me since day one, which her mom says she usually doesn't do (she usually takes a while to warm up to the au pairs).  She has also told her mom that I am her favourite au pair, which I find very sweet.  Her mom says this is the first time she ever said that.  (awwww!).  She seems to want to hang out with me all the time, see everything I brought, and if it were up to here I think she would talk to me all night and never sleep! It's a great feeling, I hope this keeps up for the rest of the 10 months!

A Long Day Over

After my day of traveling, it felt good to finally arrive in Malaga.  I was very nervous near the end of my train ride to meet my host family.  How would I be received at the train station? Would it be awkward? I just kept telling myself "remember, they kiss both cheeks! be prepared!".  When I got off the train at the station, I made my way into the lobby, and at first I didn't see my host family.  So I kind of stood there awkwardly hoping that they remembered me.  Then I saw Rosa and Laura (mother and child that I am au-pairing with) run up to me with big smiles.  I put down my bags and we had a big group hug (and of course, the double cheek kisses).  It was a really sweet reception at the end of a long day!

Laura and I became immediate friends.  She wanted to show me on her mom's iphone the pictures of her new dog that the family will be getting in October (yay!), and she was asking me questions (which I thought was very outgoing of her).  She even noticed that I cut my hair!  On the drive back to the house, Rosa and Laura were pointing out all of the different landmarks in the city.  It was such a fabulous drive, to be by the ocean, and palm trees, and beautiful houses, and crazy European streets! I kept thinking to myself that I will be able to explore all of this soon!

When we got back to the house, Dioni (the father) greeted me warmly, as did Laura's aunt, uncle and cousins who came over to prepare dinner to welcome me to Spain.  Laura immediately took me on a tour of the house, pointing out necessary things like where the nutella and tea was kept, where I could find paper, all the secret doors to the outside, and the yoga mat that the family bought for me to use while I was here.  Then we all settled down to a tapas-style dinner, with many little items to try.  I fell in love with jamon, which is Spanish ham, and this certain type of cheese from here.  Near the end of our meal, Laura brought out her laptop to show me all of her favourite music.  She was suprised that I didn't know the popular Spanish singers that she loved so much.  Then she was dying to show me that she knew all the words to this Spanish rap song, so the played it and made me watch her sing the entire song (so cute!).  I definitely used to do the same thing to Eminem songs, so I could relate to her pride.  Laura's uncle is the director of a e-health company over here in Malaga, and he was talking to me about going over one day to meet with the rest of the company to start up some sort of employment, which would be great!  Any health experience I can get is great!  After all the socializing and dinner, I took a long shower and fell right to sleep, excited to finally wake up in Malaga the next morning.

The Big Picture

I will be living in Malaga, Spain next year.  I will be an au pair for a family there from September 2012 until July 2013.  I will also be teaching English on the side to earn more money, and collaborating with a health communication firm there (which is what I have been studying in my masters degree).

As you can probably tell, this blog seems to be out in cyberspace about seven months too early.  I am too excited.  I am doing all I can to prepare for this experience, and one of the things I just couldn't wait to begin was the documentation of my travel plans.  My rationale for blogging so prematurely is that I want to fully capture the entire experience surrounding these travel plans (it's the best rationale I could think of...).  Therefore, up until I fly out of Canada and over to Spain, I will be blogging about my preparations, thoughts and feelings about this experience.  The posts may be few and far between... but they will trickle in, as I progress through the next seven months of wanderlust.