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Month: December 2016
My journey to becoming an Au Pair
Why did I want to be an Au Pair?
Now in the previous blog I stated that I was in the process of becoming an Au Pair in Denmark and in this blog post I am going to go over why I chose Denmark and what challenges I had to face just to apply to be an Au Pair.
So Why Denmark?
Now it may be weird that out of all the places I could want to be an Au Pair at I chose Denmark and not a country like Spain or France. To me it wasn’t that strange Denmark was already a pretty clear winner in my head and here is why. Two big reasons I chose Denmark is one being I wanted to be closer to my boyfriend Johan that currently lives in Sweden and what you may be asking your self is why didn’t I just Au Pair in Sweden? I currently have a resident permit application going through their migration system that prevents me from stepping foot in Sweden in till it is excepted, it is pretty dumb I know. Now here is the other reason that I picked Denmark. In 2015 I visited Denmark and i must say I really enjoyed myself, I enjoyed the people, the language and the culture and I made a lot of friends there and so before I ever met Johan I thought I was going to end up in Denmark one way or another because I had a lot of friends there and when picking colleges I thought I would pick one in a place I had many friends in.
How did I find my family?
I honestly didn’t spend that long on searching for a family in Denmark, I spent about two weeks looking which isn’t that long compared to many other Au Pairs I have heard from. I looked on about 6 different sites 5 of them where free and 1 of them cost me 10 dollars. I heard from two different families and one really worried me because all she wanted me to do was clean and that isn’t what I wanted at all and the host mom basically told me the other Au Pairs she had in the past quit within 6 months! Now right away I was uncomfortable so I went on with my Skype interview with the other family that I found off the paid site. Right away I connected with the family and I knew it was a match. The family I am going with is really nice with chickens and two amazing sounding kids.
Here come the problems!
One thing I forgot to mention was that me and the host mom share the same nationality and that doesn’t seem like a problem but the Danish Migration site states 
There is a glimmer of hope because it is not a yes but at the same time it isn’t a straight no and that gives me hope and the host family is willing to risk it and so am I. Another bump came up when I figured out that I needed to go to one of 5 locations to have my bio-metrics recorded (facial photo and finger prints scanned) and to submit my application. I chose to go to Chicago because it was the cheapest. It was about a week of stress in planing my appointment and my flight but in the end I booked my appointment for 12:00 and in the same day I would land in Chicago at 8:00 am and I would leave the same day at 8:00 pm. It was a one day trip and it was super stressful to plan but at the end of the day it all went well minus the fact there was a little hidden fee that I wasn’t ready for. Besides all of that stressful stuff I had a fun day in Chicago and now I just need to wait for the results on my visa.
Here are some lovely pictures of my fun in Chicago and also stay tuned for more updates and posts.
My Bucket list
Everyone has goals and things that they want to do before their time on earth is done, here is mine.
1. Fly first class 2. See the Northern Lights 3. Bathe in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland 4. Dance in India 5. See the glaciers in Greenland 6. Have brunch in Paris 7. Float in the Dead Sea 8. Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans for the 2nd time 9. Be in Ireland for St. Patrick's day 10. See the tulips in the Netherlands 11. Camp in the trees 12. Attend E3, Comic Con, or Paxprime 13. See Tokyo 14. Swim with sharks 15. See a wild Polar Bear 16. See a wild Killer whale 15. Ride an Elephant 16. Get a French Bulldog 17. Go to Tomorrowland 18. Cliff dive 19. Paddle board 20. Visit Falmouth in the United Kingdom 21. Get a degree 22. Take DNA test to see my ancestry 23. Party in Russia 24. Get married surrounded by giant trees 25. camp in the mountains in Norway 26. Camp in the mountains in Switzerland 27. See the Redwood forest 28. See a volcano 29. See a bamboo forest 30. Have some French pastries in France 31. Volunteer for a good cause 32. Make a difference 33. See a hot air balloon festival 34. See as many cities as possible 35. See New York city 36. Have the best New Years ever 37. Camp on the beach 38. Make something out of wood 39. Visit South Africa
Cheap travel, Au Pair
So many people like myself are young with a gap year of college and having a severe case of wanderlust, or in some cases you are just a young adult wanting a different life with a different culture.
There are a few ways to fix this like backpacking around Europe and living in tents or you can go the rout of being an Au Pair. I am here to tell you almost everything you need to know.
What is an Au Pair?
An Au Pair is a cultural exchange program for young adults and being an Au Pair is when you go to another country and basically live with a host family and being their nanny. Most of the times its you being around the host kids and picking them up from school, helping them with homework and all around all the work will be around the kids. In some cases you will be more like a maid and will be cleaning more then being a nanny. Every Au Pair will have a different family and have a different set of needs. Most Au Pairs get money a month for example in Denmark its around 4050 kr a month which is around 567 usd a month. You also get your own room and food is usually included.
How do I become one?
It sounds really complicated and hard but it isn’t. There are usually two ways you can become one.
1. Going with a company
2. Doing your own research
Now going with a company is usually the safer way but it is usually the more expensive way and sadly for people outside of the USA planning to Au Pair in the USA going with a company is the only way to Au Pair in the USA. For US citizens going to Europe there are sites like https://www.interexchange.org/au-pair/ this site makes things a little less stressful and has smaller risks. A down side is you are paying for that security and you are also limited on the countries you can Au Pair in. Basically the main process of being an Au Pair is getting a host family to host you.
The seconded way is basically doing your own research, this is the way I went but this wont be for everyone. The best way to find a host family and get started is this site https://www.aupairworld.com/en its like online dating for finding Au Pairs and a Host Family. It is really simple all you do is sign up and fill out your portfolio because host families will be looking at that and then you can start looking for a family for you in any country you want.
The next step is when you find a family or a family finds you is make sure there are no red flags with the family and that its is exactly what you want, my advice is that if you feel there is something off with the family DON’T TAKE THAT FAMILY. You need to feel 100% in your gut that the family you found is the one for you.
Now if you did this on your own another great tip is to do your research! Go one the governments migration page for the country you want to go to and make sure you meet the requirements for an Au Pair visa.
For example, some countries demand documents like a document of good health, birth certificate, High school diploma and maybe some other documents. Another thing to keep in mind is that most Au Pair visas have age requirements and most have a requirement that you can not be married with kids. Every country is different with different requirements and wait times.
Happy travel!
(This is my 1st post on being an Au Pair so stay tune for more)
Pursuit of Travel 