Well, it's been a while.

Hey, Brittany. You spent basically your whole time in Germany and then some without even bothering to update this.

Yeah, about that.

I'm going to tell you right now, being an Au Pair is hard. I ended up coming home about three months earlier than planned, mostly because of sick relatives. There were also a few things I now know and would like to pass on to others that are thinking about becoming an Au Pair. Ready? Alright.

Seriously Follow These If You Actually Want to Have a Decent Time in Whatever Country You Go to.

• Make sure you actually like kids.
• This sounds ridiculous, I know. But you'd be surprised at how many people (me and my best friend while there) didn't actually like kids. While I became pretty fond of the boys I was looking after, they still pissed me off the majority of the time. So. If you want to travel, but don't like kids, maybe think of taking a bar job somewhere, or maybe housekeeping at a hotel if you can't speak the language. 
• Make sure you have a set schedule, try to get the weekends off.
• While my weekdays were pretty set (Mondays off, Tuesday-Friday clean in the mornings, pick up the kids from Kindergarten in the afternoon) my weekends could be hell. My host parents did tandem cycling and raced, so they could be out for hours at a time cycling and I wouldn't know when they would be home, so I couldn't make plans. 
• It's hard being an introvert in a foreign country, especially when your host family are extroverts.
• It's not impossible, but it's fucking hard. My host family eventually realised I needed my time to recharge and hide in my bedroom for a bit, which was good. But finding friends makes being an introvert in a foreign country extremely hard. My first experience trying to make friends happened in an Au Pair club (by which I mean, a basement of a house turned office bulding) in a slightly sketchy area of Nürnberg. No one spoke English, people tried, but I couldn't speak German (I still can't, by the way, so don't ask) and eventually I just tuned out and we all went for ice cream. Thankfully the next week, the English girl they were telling me about came to the club and we became friends, and still are friends. I think I'll rehash some of the more ridiculous nights in different blog posts. 
• If you don't like your host family, leave.
• This wasn't a huge problem for me. I had times where I hated my host family, but I also had times where I loved them. We ate chocolate, drank wine and watched movies, but also I had little time for myself. My English friend had a very hard time with her host family, she had less of a work load than I did, but she also didn't get along with her host family nearly as well. For her, it ended up escalating so badly that she was kicked out and had to stay at my ex boyfriend's apartment until she found a place. There's no point in being in a place that makes you uncomfortable. 
• Only bring one (large) piece of luggage.
• This is important. If you need to leave fast, or need to take train to the airport (which I did) it makes traveling MUCH easier. 

That's really all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. 

I'm in Germany!

Hello all!
And by all I mean all three of you.
Almost two months later and I'm finally updating and I've already spent three days here.

Right now I'm just sitting at the kitchen table waiting for 3:20pm to roll around so I can pick up the kids from Kindergarden. I bike about ten minutes in to town and pickand them up and bring them to a park for a bit then bring them home for dinner and a movie.

The beginning on my day basically consists of a getting up, cleaning a bit and putting away dishes and then either going in to town or doing what I did today and basically dicked around the house and Skyped a few people.

Because it's my third day and the first two were the weekend I haven't really been getting out much. Besides the park with the boys, or going somewhere with the family. Usually Mondays are my day off, but because the parents have an anniversary dinner tonight, I'll be looking after the kids with Sarah (their previous au pair that is here for the week to show me around) tonight and then hopefully tomorrow we'll go in to town and she'll introduce me to some people.

Erlangen is beautiful though. All the buildings are gorgeous and the parks are really nice and everyone rides around on bikes.

Nürnberg is also beautiful. We all went there yesterday to go up to the castle, and because it's at the top of a hill, you can look out and see almost the entire city. Plus there was a music festival thing going on, so you could hear music from where ever you were. There was also a fuck ton of people from Quebec there playing said music... Not sure why...

But yeah, it's been great so far. Other than being in slight pain from biking so much I really have no complaints.

=)  

A Little Update and Doctor Who

Just under two months now. Under. Two. Months. I feel as though that isn't enough time to get everything ready, but honestly, the only only thing that I have to do is say goodbye to people and pack my luggage. I keep having random bits of tearing up when I think about how soon I'm leaving. It's never because I'm sad about leaving people behind, which will probably hit during the last week or so, but because I'm so excited to leave.

The au pair fam is in Ireland for the next two weeks which gives me a lot of hope for when I go. At the moment there's literally nothing I want more than to wander around the streets of Dublin and soak in the Irish accents. God, they're beautiful. I have an insane love for accents, which usually makes me flail when I hear someone with an accent and my friends to respond with either, "he's too old for you," or "he's too young for you." So, I can't wait to actually meet people my age with accents. I'm flailing just thinking about it.

Speeeeeeeeeaking of accents. I've FINALLY started watching Doctor Who. It's weird, honestly, I already know so much about it due to being a part of the Harry Potter fandom, which is often laced with a lot of Whovians and a few of my friends also love Doctor Who. 

I've finished the last two seasons in the last few days and my God. I haven't gotten this absorbed into a TV show since Boy Meets World and anyone of my friends can tell you how much I love Boy Meets World. The first time I went to my best friend's house when I was sixteen we watched the last episode of Boy Meets World and I cried. I'm quite pleased that I didn't scare her too much. 

Anyway, yeah. I haven't been this obsessed with a TV show since Boy Meets World and it's insane. I've become increasingly obsessed and when the 9th Doctor regenerated I didn't even know what to do with myself. And the episode "Doomsday"... For those of you that have seen it, I probably don't need to tell you how much I cried. For those of you that haven't watched Doctor Who... Do it. Do it now. 

Also, for those expecting a pure au pair blog, you probably won't be getting it. I'm, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, a nerd, I've accepted this and embraced it to the fullest. If you aren't, well, I recommend giving it a try. You get to be overly enthusiastic about things and don't have to feel bad about it! It's quite nice really. 

If you haven't watched Boy Meets World either you should probably give that a go as well. It's amazing and one of the best shows of the 90's.

Cruises and Travelling with Family

Wooooow. I've been away for a while... Sorry about that. I was basically just being incredibly lazy, except for the last two weeks I've been packing/cruising/hotel living/being in airports. I'm currently writing this in Cleveland, Ohio, so my travelling still isn't done yet.

During all this travel I've realised a few things. Two of which I touch base on in this video:

The main one being that I hate living through a camera. My cousin spent the whole trip living through the lens of her camera. For example, on the last night of the cruise we had a show called "Blue Planet" and she recorded the whole thing and at the end she turned to me and said, "I watched that whole thing through my camera." To me that's not a fun way to spend a trip. 

The other one being how stressful it is to travel with family. The last two trips I've taken have been without either of my parents, and lets just say going back to travelling with one or both of them is extremely hard. My mother, who was the only one of my parents with me, tends to get worked up really easily if something doesn't go the way she expected. She also worries about everyone besides herself. I was the youngest one there, and I'm nineteen. So, we were all adults. She also tends to treat one of her sisters like a child, so that wasn't fun. 

All in all though, it was a good trip. We ate a ridiculous amount of food, every night we had a three course dinner, but most of us ended up ordering two appetizers, two entrees, or two desserts. Or more. And it was free in the dining room we were in, which made it infinitely more awesome. Here's my dinner from the first night, sans dessert because I had to get it to go to make it to a show. 

My next trip is Germany! 

VEDA and Failure

Helloooooooooooo,

So, I'm doing VEDA, which means "Vlog Every Day in April", if you didn't know. I'm doing this not on The Expat Chronicles, but on my own channel.

In the vlog that I just did for VEDA I talk about how I failed HORRIBLY attempting to flirt with the cashier at the drugstore... So, yeah check it out.

And this is my most recent video for TEC, in which I talk about my need to change everything before I leave for Germany and all the freaking books I bought.

Yep! Bye!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

On one of the mornings I got off the night shift and I couldn't sleep I had the idea of changing my room around.

Okay, that's a lie. It started out with me thinking how much I REALLY needed a bookshelf. And I do. I have books EVERY WHERE in my room, to the point where they are flowing out in to every room in my house. And when I say "every room", I mean EVERY ROOM. So, the bookshelf gradually progressed to me thinking about how I should get a desk so I can start filming vlogs in my room. Because honestly, it's really uncomfortable being in my kitchen while my dad is about five steps away listening to me rant on about Harry Potter or how excited I am to leave Halifax, and everything that goes with it, behind for Germany. Anyway, since I couldn't fit the desk we have in my room the way it was originally set up, I decided to change everything around. I'll attempt to get a picture tomorrow because it's still a mess.

Through changing my room around I've realised just how much stuff I have. Like really, really useless things. Things that I don't even know where I got them or why I still have them. And as useless as they are, I had a REALLY hard time throwing a lot of it out. I suppose it just brings me back to my childhood.

Which brings me to another thing. Yesterday, well it's midnight now, so two days ago, I was watching Hook (y'know the one with Robin Williams) and I had a COMPLETE breakdown. My mother walked in to my room to ask if I wanted some carrots and I looked at her and she slowly backed away. It just reminded me horribly that I'm growing up and nothing I do can stop that. It was an awful feeling, but I suppose growing up has it advantages as well. Like being able to move to a different continent by yourself.

It's weird, because as I get closer and closer to leaving I keep wanting to change things. My room has changed now, and I'm thinking about dying my hair right before I go over. I don't know what that's about, perhaps I'll ask Emily if she experienced it in my vlog tomorrow.

And I've yet to get a bookshelf.

Plane Ticket, St. Patrick's Day & No Sleep

The title basically sums up my entire weekend.

The best part being I finally bought my plane ticket! I'm quite pleased about this. I cannot waaaaait to go to Germany. I genuinely wish I could leave this second. Perhaps have a nice nap on the flight over. But alas, I have to wait until July. What can you do?

I woke up at 12am today... It's 5:44pm right now and I'm at work. I get off work at 11pm tonight.

So, because I do weird shift work here, my sleep schedule is always screwed up, but it seems to have gotten A LOT worse lately. This weekend has been horrible. I've been staying awake for literally full days. I just can't seem to shut off my brain. I've tried taking melatonin and such, but NOTHING seems to be working, and I'm breaking a little.

Anyway, since I didn't wake up until midnight I couldn't really go out, because I'd of had to shower and look halfway decent which would take me about 45 minutes to an hour. So, I stayed home. And dicked around on Youtube and make sugar cookies. Which were awesome.

So, thus concludes what I did this weekend.

... I really need to get out more.