My name is Claire, and when I was 16 I became an au pair for 5 weeks near Dublin in Ireland. I had a great experience with a family with 3 lovely children! My mission was to take care of them 3 days a week and a few evenings from time to time... With children, every day could bring us little surprises! I had to wake them up (often they didn't need me to go watch cartoons), then we did activities all together, it could range from board games to a walk in the park, including a rollerblade ride (freshly bought, which earned a few boo-boos) and a little game of tennis. We also did a lot of cooking, the children loved making cakes or crepes! From time to time I had to show a little authority, which can become complex when you don't know all the vocabulary of the angry nanny!! So you speak in French, the children look at you weirdly and by the time you realize you weren't speaking the right language, it's already too late...
I went there for different reasons, the first was that such an opportunity to discover new people, a new lifestyle, a country I had never been to, a new culture, another language etc... is hard to refuse!! Plus I have always loved children (Which can be quite good when you are an au pair). Another significant reason is the fact that my level of English was not super great and after this stay, I obviously didn't come back bilingual but I had still made clear progress! I was able to go to this family thanks to Dana's help who had a contact there! Before leaving I was able to get to know this family a little, we chatted a bit by email to plan the stay and to get to know each other a little.
Before leaving I obviously had a lot of apprehension, I was afraid of never managing to speak English and not understanding or managing to make myself understood... I was afraid of not getting along with the family, especially with the children with whom I was supposed to spend a lot of time! I was afraid of living far from my family because I had never lived alone away from them for so long (even if 5 weeks is not that long, in an unknown environment, it can be slightly stressful). But in the end I was so excited about the idea of experiencing something completely new that I couldn't wait.
Over there, the only French person I knew was another au pair who was also leaving thanks to Dana, we did quite a bit of sightseeing, I remember dragging her into a few (too many) art galleries, some not bad others a little less great (it takes all kinds to make a world)!!
The adjective I could use to describe the city of Dublin is "joyful". Not everything is always rosy, for sure, but the memories I have of this city are memories of smiling people. I thought I would only meet tourists there but when you get lost a little bit (I must admit we got lost a lot in Dublin but we always found our way back), in the outlying streets of Dublin, you find quite nice and atypical neighborhoods.
One day we found ourselves a bit by chance in a sort of open-air festival with a concert whose sole purpose was to throw colored powders at each other when we felt the music was loud enough!! We didn't want to leave!! The atmosphere and the people were completely crazy, there were colors and music everywhere it was completely crazy!!
This stay in Dublin changed a lot of things for me!! The most obvious is English: it was radical, according to my mother's testimony, I dreamed and spoke in English during the night, I was much more at ease in the language, my vocabulary was greatly enriched!! I managed to be more confident and efficient in English!
Living far from my family allowed me to gain maturity too I think. I learned to live with an adorable family, I will never thank them enough (as well as Dana)! I left with a passion for paninis leaving my passion for ham croissants made in Ireland behind.