22/05-16/06/24 -Birthday + China blog-

I just turned 19 on 20/05/24 and on the same day I flew to China by myself!

Everything is going so well so far! Coming here was not as stressful for me as I thought, because traveling alone, I had space to think. And I arrived safely on 21/05.

I had some ”problems” with the visa-center, back in my country, because apparently they didn’t know, what an Au Pair was, so it was kind of hard to explain my "summerjob" to them. Also when I got my visa in the mail I also got an order letter to serve in the military, but I'll talk about that some other time! Now, I’m in Shenzhen, China and living with my host-family.

The host-family members are the Mom, Dad, Grandma and two kids.

They also have like 5 tortoises, a little white Pomeranian, called DD and two hamsters!

They've had an Au-Pair before me, from USA.

And you could also say that their driver and Nanny are part of the family, because they are here everyday.

When I arrived at the airport, the driver was there to get me, but I walked past him at first..

(There are two, I found that out later and the older one was at the airport.)

He doesn’t really speak English so we can’t communicate that well. But not to worry! The kids are teaching me Chinese! 😎😎 For example, today I learned what nutmeg is in Chinese even tho I don’t know what nutmeg actually is.

I haven’t been outside that much, but when I am, it’s so much more humid than in my home country. So the weather doesn’t feel that hot. And there are huge snails everywhere.

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So it's only 16/06 Today and you could say after that little entry everything started to go "wrong"..

The kids are very badly behaved liars.. I had to start keeping a notebook about our days, because they would get upset about not getting their way and then lie to their mom about me bullying them and she would get mad at me. 

The biggest question I had was "Why doesn't she use her common sense that her kids are probably lying or being dramatic and that an adult childcare worker who came here from another country for them probably isn't actually bullying them???" Does that happen a lot in this country?? It was definitely an unexpected culture shock for me...

Another culture shock was that cats are sold on shopping malls. I think we only had like fish and hamsters...

The kids are also so hostile towards me, they were so nice at first but then their mom left to HongKong for one and a half weeks (mind you, the kids have not been separated from her for that long before, they still sleep together even though the kids are 6 and 10) and they started taking their anger out on me and distancing me from other people when she got back. I know they were just missing her but the kids make me feel really unwelcome and useless here most of the time.

I haven't worked with kids for that long but I've never before met badly behaved kids like this, that act genuinely hostile against non-family members.

And it doesn't help that the mom sets no boundaries with the kids and allows all of this.

At least the younger driver has been nice to me, he and their dog and maybe the grandma are the only ones from this family that I will miss.

Now to the second part of this lovely experience:

I knew from the start that the kids and the family are leaving to their hometown for summer vacation. The original plan was that I would travel with them.. 

But, now, after having two Au Pairs in their home.. The mom has realised (at last) that her kids do not cooperate or want to learn english and I'm basically useless here, so they are "rehoming" me.

In about two weeks I will go to another family and I would not agree more, it's better that I leave as soon as possible.

I will admit, when I got here I was really sceptical of people with "Au Pair horror stories" because pretty much all of them to me just seem like the Au Pair couldn't respect the familys rules.. I guess I got my Karma.

But I still don't want to call this a "horror story", I think having an Au Pair probably just isn't the right choice for this family.

And I really wish that I liked it here and got along with the kids, but they don't make it easy and I'm already planning my thank you and goodbye-letter to them even though I don't know where I'll go next.

I hope I can still stay in touch with the driver and grandma tho.

Otherwise I've loved the country! I think I would really enjoy living in China if I had my own place and didn't stay in some family's house.. Buying things here is so easy and ordering things online is so fast and convenient!

I kind of want to come here for university but I'll have to improve my grades A LOT to get here.

And I really want to take part in this years Art Fight but with the kids around I haven't got time to draw that much.

Yesterday I was a little sick so I got an extra freeday (not that I even had one this week) but today I feel a little better.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have Chinese class.

Also on Tuesday I'll meet my penpal of three years and her friend! Yippee!

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I know everything will always work out for me because when I started this blog I was very unhappy person but everything turned around for the best right away! 🍀💚

I have so much faith in my luck hehe.