Oi – well I guess it’s time to get back in the blog. Obviously, I slacked a bit while home in Indiana. Time just went a bit quickly, and there was lots to be done.
I’ll cover it all eventually, as some of it is a bit interesting – thanks to immigration – but for now, I’ll jump into the present day.
So, after just over a month of time in the states, I was back on a plane – willingly of course – to Paris. For those who have forgotten, when I was in Paris a few months ago, I simply fell in love with the city all over again and started to look for opportunities to move here for the next year.
After some fairly desperate research, I found one, and, with a little effort and speedy paperwork, I was able to get everything together in time to accept a position as an au pair.
Long story short: a friend of mine, one of the infamous tripod members, was an au pair last year. She had an overall positive experience, and seeing as I like working with kids, I figured it could be a good fit for me.
I decided to work with an agency, Au Pair Paris, in an effort to avoid some of the cautionary tales I heard from my own dear friend as well as from other veterans to this particular position, and I could not be more pleased with the result. Thanks to an agency that really does their homework, I’m only a few days into my stay here, and I’m already settling in with a welcoming family (who shall remain anonymous in this blog) and comfortable environment.
I’ve got myself set up with everything put away, a little desk for all of my projects, my very own Navigo pass for the metro, a mobile phone, and, of course…. my French dictionary.
I’m looking forward to meeting the boys I’ll be looking after on Sunday. They’ve been at their grandparents, still on school holidays. I should also be starting my French classes soon (bring it on French language).
For now, I’m just enjoying the company of a few new friends, and slowly building a bit of my own community here. I must say, meeting some of the other au pairs from the agency this morning was a funny combination of enjoyable, intimidating, and inspiring. All of them seem like fabulous people, with their own stories of where they’ve been, how they got here, and what they want out of life. We have varying levels of French – from amazingly close to fluent to just starting out, and I think we’ve got a great start to a little community that can be a source of comfort, encouragement and friendship while we’re here.
For now, I’m just going to wrap it up. I think my writing is a little rusty, and if I type one more cliché, I might cry. So sadly, we’ll have to deal with this rather ineffective conclusion and look forward to better things to come.
xoxox
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