What am I actually doing?

What on earth am I doing. Well, I’m an Au Pair. I’d never heard of this before so I’ll explain it. I’m basically a nanny. I live with a host family and they provide me with a room and food. They also help me make a bank account, enroll in language classes, get a domestic cell phone, set up health insurance and pay me a stipend for anything else I may want to do with my free time. In exchange, I take care of the children. Every family is different but I live with an amazing Italian family right outside of Paris. My girls are teenagers and so I don’t really have to babysit. Rather, I help tutor them in English and offer an English immersion year for them in the house. Pretty sweet deal.

I take a French class at a community center in my town, about five minutes from my house. It’s called La Clef and as well as offering French classes, they also offer music lessons, art studios, recreational activities (like yoga), concerts, and classes for children. It’s a really multipurpose place. But this has been a great place for meeting other au pairs in the area and of course learning French. This school is particularly cool because it’s in St Germain en Laye which has many international schools and hosts many international families. This means that a lot of the families (and Au pairs) are so diverse. I’ve met people from all over the world and learned about way more than just French culture. The downside of this is that in a few months we’ll all be scattered around the world.

Outside of my regular work schedule, I’ve had the opportunity to do some volunteering and babysitting in my community. Another really big part of my year in Paris has been traveling around Europe. I have been able to take many trips this year by saving my stipend and budgeting my trips well.

I would absolutely recommend being an au pair. I mean I won’t lie; there are some things I really don't like about it. Like the fact that I can’t have all my friends over to my house (because it’s actually not my house) and that I feel guilty eating ice cream at 2 in the morning. But for the most part, it’s been an amazing year. The memories I have aren’t of the work I did, but the excursions and meals and activities and all the amazing people I’ve met. It’s also such a great way to experience a city! I can now say I’ve lived in Paris. I’ve eaten all the food imaginable, I’ve attended concerts, seen every tourist attraction at every time of day during every season, I know exactly which car to sit in on the train to get out nearest to the escalators, and I’ve experienced the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to get anything even mildly official done in this inefficient country.

I really do love France and I don’t regret my decision to move here. I’d definitely tell anyone to be an au pair in the city they love.