Hi Everyone! Welcome to my first blog post. My name is Sophie, I’m 18 and I am an Au Pair from New Zealand.
I am living with a lovely host family just outside of Washington DC in Virginia. I am looking after 2 Kids who are 8 and 10 years old. Their family also has a very cute dog! Today I’m going to talk about my experience in the USA so far, and what it has been like the past few months especially because of how drastically my experience has changed due to the pandemic.
My departure experience was very different. This is because my departure had been delayed multiple times before I ended up leaving due to Covid-19, but I finally made it to the USA! I travelled alongside 2 other Au Pairs from New Zealand and they are some of my closest friends here. Me and Katherine were initially supposed to travel together in March, and it was so cool that we both still got to travel together!
We arrived in America on the 23rd of May 2020 and I was amazed at how empty all the airports were that we travelled through. Because of Covid, our orientation was moved to online so we would travel straight to our host families. 4 flights and about 40 hours of travelling later I finally made it to my home for the next year!
When I first got to my host families house, they were very welcoming! I knew that I made the right decision to leave home and start a new life over here in America. Settling into your new life can be difficult especially because you have never met this family before, most Au Pairs only talk to their future host families a couple of times before their arrival. Because my departure was delayed so many times, I think it gave me the chance to Skype and email my Host Family more often to talk about the current situation and get to know them better. I would encourage any Au Pairs waiting to arrive to their host families to make an effort to talk to them as much as possible even if it is a brief call or an update email weekly.
I think that being in lockdown with your Host Family has many positives especially if you have recently arrived into the US. It helps you form a stronger bond with your Host Family as you are around them 24/7 getting to know them, life for most families has slowed down a lot with parents working from home, kids not having school and not having all their usual activities that fill most of the day. This gives you a chance to hang out with your host family and do activities you usually wouldn’t have time for! I love to go on hikes in new places with my family, it is great exercise and you get to see more of nature, but most importantly you can get out of the house!!!
I can’t wait to see what my future brings as an au pair and I can’t wait to travel and explore more of the USA.
If you want to see more of my day to day life as an Au Pair don’t forget to follow my Instagram @aupairsophie
