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. 

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.

Ich Bin Ein Riese Tintenfisch Von Zorn

Which means, "I am a giant squid of anger". I'm thoroughly convinced that this will be the only German I will ever need. You may be thinking, 'how is that even possible? Clearly you may have to ask for directions or something?' My answer to this is no. Just think about it, it clearly expresses anger, because y'know, it has the word anger in it. Or people will think you are insane, and with my horrible accent they will realise I need an English speaking person ASAP. Personally, I think it's brilliant.

If you're wondering where this thought process came from here's the story: I was at work, and I was trying to edit my vlog so Nicole could use a piece of it for our intro for our collab channel on Youtube (I'll talk about this in more detail in the next post). Anyway, these women showed up in the lobby AND WOULD NOT LEAVE. And I don't mean they were there for twenty minutes. I mean, by the time 11:00pm rolled around and it was time for me to go THEY WERE STILL THERE. They quite literally decided their apartment was not good enough to talk in, so they went out to the lobby. So, for the first hour, I quietly sat there. I mean, I couldn't play my video at work, especially when you can hear me say "fucking fuck" when I mess up on a take. So, after that first hour I've decided, if I play it quietly enough they out be able to hear it. So, I spent the next hour with my ear to my laptop, attempting to edit a video.

Also, I made an attempt to eat spaghetti without them seeing, so I had to duck my head down behind the counter every time I took a bite.

On a lighter note...

* Giant squid of anger... If you don't know where it's from... Google it.