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The Pre – Au Pair – TAG

Hello loves, I feel like  doing a little Au Pair tag (the before) I got this from This gal and I believe she got it from another. So with out further to do, My Pre Au Pair Tag!

  1. Why did you decide to be an Au Pair?  Well two big parts is that my Boyfriend is in Sweden and I have a love for travel adventure and new things. I have wanderlust in my soul and always will.
  2. Why Denmark?  When I was looking at places to Au Pair in, I was at first looking into the Netherlands or Norway but then I remembered that I did enjoy Denmark last time I went and I must say Danish is the language that sticks in my head the easiest and strongest so I figured that would make things a tad easier.
  3. Which agency? I had the fun of doing everything on my own. I found the family on a Danish Au Pair website and went from there.
  4. When did you apply? I believe I applied December 12th 2016.
  5. How much childcare experiences do you have? I use to attend a youth group and I spent a lot of time teaching kids to draw and I played a lot with them.
  6. How long did it take until you got your family? I spent about 3 weeks in total I think. I tried many websites for Au Pairs looking for host families.
  7. First impression of you hostfamily? When I scrolled to theirs on the website I had such good vibes and I knew right there they where prefect. I am an artist and when I read that their daughter loved to draw I was hooked and I knew they where going to be my host family. I paid 10$ just to message them.
  8. For how many children will you take care of? Two sweet kids, one is a 9 year old boy and one is a 6 year old little girl.
  9. Where are going to live? About an hour north of Copenhagen
  10. How are you going to live? In a room between the kids.
  11. Which are your 3 biggest fears? The first being that I wont find any friends. The second being that since I am in a small town so far away from the city that I will get bored. And finally the fear I think all Au Pairs have and that is that the family might be too good to be true.
  12. What do you expect from that year? To make life long friends and that I have the time to figure my life out and that after this everything will work out.
  13. What are you going to miss the most? Hershey chocolate, convince, my family and my cat.
  14. What aren’t you going to miss? The gross look of American cities and streets, and Florida’s heat.
  15. What do you want to do after those two years? I hope to have my life figured out so I hope to move in with my boyfriend and I hope to have a great portfolio that will make finding a job easier.
  16. What do you absolutely want to see in Denmark? Well Copenhagen obviously, I really want to see all it has to offer. I also want to see more of Europe.
  17. Which are your goals for that year? I want to find friends and have a real life away from the computer or a little more away from it.
  18. How are going to deal with the different culture? I already have a good taste of it so I am not to worried, the convince is the thing ill miss, not having 24/7 stores will kill me.
  19. What does your family think about it? My close family is happy for me because the know it is really what I want. My Aunt is not happy at all and thinks I am stupid and wasting my time. Also my sister just had a baby so I think she is sad that her daughter wont get to grow around her aunt, I am also very sad about that.
  20. To what do you look forward most? Being close to my boyfriend and being in a different country. I also cant wait for the experiences I will have.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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)