Livin' La Vida Down Under

Hello wonderful readers! This coming Monday will mark my first full week here. While I have yet to explore Toowoomba and other parts of the country, I love being here. Part of why I have not had much of an opportunity to explore the town this week was that I was sick from Tuesday evening to Friday morning.  That said, I consider myself lucky not to have experienced serious jet lag. Aside from being sick, I have been familiarizing myself with my routine and getting to know my host family. 


Because I did not find my family through an au pair agency, the possibility of the family not working out would have been greater than if I found a family from an agency where the staff could have screened families to rule out potential problems. However, let me alleviate any worries you may have by saying that my host family is AWESOME! Both the kids and parents are super nice and fun to be with and immediately made me feel like a family member rather than an employee. Though you may think taking care of four kids can be overwhelming, it is actually not as hard as you might think because the two older kids can take care of themselves. Nicole owns a tea shop and is a chef by training. Let me also add that she is a great cook. :) Patrik is an agricultural engineer who works at natural gas mines about two hours away from Toowoomba. He works in three week blocks and is home for five days, so when he is home, I get to travel! I did meet him today because he came home to fix the gas heater. Reegan is 14 and is very independent. Not only is she able to take care of herself, but she is incredibly helpful with both her younger siblings and me. She does not hesitate to show me where the boys' lunchboxes are or reinforce to the two younger boys that I am in charge. Reece is 11, and while he and Reegan both do not need a lot of care from me, he often needs to be reminded multiple times to feed the pets or put his shoes on. Sixten and Sebastian are 5 and 4, respectively. Both are energetic, cuddly, and affectionate, but sometimes have a hard time listening. For example, they love to jump on me. Not only do they come close to hurting me, but they often end up hurting themselves. Basically, getting them to stop jumping on me involves me saying "no" and explaining how they and I could get hurt, usually multiple times.  Although they often get upset when I discipline them, five minutes later they forget about it.

Like any job, some aspects of au pairing can be challenging or overwhelming. That being said, I have learned a lot the past week. While this job is not my first time overseas, working as an au pair and living with a family is very different from studying abroad and traveling with my family. I will go into more detail about these joys and challenges in a future post, but I can tell you that I have learned a lot about myself living with a host family in ways that I have not when traveling with family or students from my alma mater.

Until next time!