Here is our au pair spotlight for March 2020 – learn about the au pair experience as an au pair, and maybe gain more personal insight on what being an au pair is like, and what hosting an au pair means! This month is Annebell from Austria- read on as she describes her time as an au pair:

Hi! My name is Annebell, I´m from Austria and I live since 8 months in Minnesota as an Au Pair. I take care of three kids, twins (boy and girl), five years old and a two-year-old boy. I would love to share some examples how my experience of the Au Pair year went so far.

It all started with the decision to do it or not. To be honest, I never was totally sure if it was the right thing for me to do, even after I made the decision and there was no going back. Even now I sometimes ask myself why I did this. But I would never regret it! In just a couple months you will start growing in your personality, your development, your new path in life – you are becoming a grown up and get the chance to live your best life without the problems and boundaries a job life at home would offer you. If you struggle deciding, everything you want now is still there after a year or two. Then you still can start the job you choose and will do for the next who knows how much years. Don’t you want to life first and enjoy your young years?!

There will be good moments, but there will also be bad ones, where it´s hard to go on and you can get really homesick. Believe me, I was there and so was and will everyone else. As hard as it seems in this moment, the little things like friends, the love from your host kids, the support from family at home and here, or even chocolate will help you through it. Once there it will not be as bad anymore and almost forgotten because thinking back, only the good memories last!

Here are some of mine:
The best thing of all is to see the kids grown and develop and to see how I can have an impact on their life and teach them all kinds of stuff. To feel the love they spread and have for me and make little moments special by a surprising hug or a self-made picture. I love it when the two year old starts putting things together in his head and gets the hang of things I was trying to teach him. Those moments make me happy.

Next to that there are also some other special experiences, like meeting people from all over the world, making friends, going on adventures all kinds and being spontaneous and free. I love to travel, and weekends are perfect for it. There is nothing better than sitting at Culver´s  for a burger and saying that we would love to go new places and spending all evening there, finding the cheapest and best flights to all the places we would love to see. To make a plan, present it to the host parents and get the thumbs up for a particular date and book! Every trip I did so far was different, and every one of them was so great!!
Next to travel there are the weekends and evenings where I go out and meet friends for 5$ movies at the cinemas, go find new places and explore the Twin Cities, go baseball, football, basketball etc. games, meet to go the gym and grab ice cream at Target afterwards which we eat in the car and talk for hours, do all the stuff that is a must do for Minnesota and soo much more. Or even just hang out all day in my room to relax sometimes. Those are all pretty great memories I made already.

I love Minnesota. It is such a great state to live in. Yes, true, it does not have as much to see as other states and cities that are way more preferred by Au Pairs, but there is so much to explore and see which you only can when you actually live here. All the great cities and sightseeing states can be seen in one weekend, no need to live there a whole year, I´m sure it would get boring. Oh, and Minnesotans are so nice. Besides driving, then they are not haha. No for real, I have never met so many friendly people in any other place in the US. I feel safe here and I would never choose a different state. I love my host family, although it is sometimes hard. They are the best and make my stay so worth it, I can´t thank them enough for all they do for me. I hope for every future Au Pair out there that you can say that soon too about your host family and your year and that you will have a blast!!
Thanks for reading this! Be safe, Annebell

Sunday, 1 March 2020 3:58 PM