My name is Kathleen and I am the author of this Au Pair Guide. I am a girl from the Washington, D.C. area (NoVA) who is travelling all over Europe while working as an au pair. Currently I am working as an au pair for a truly wonderful host family in Vienna, Austria. I previously worked with another family in Vienna, and last year I worked with a family in Berlin, Germany. From each one of these experiences I have gained a great deal of knowledge. I have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of au pairing. It is my hope that from what I have experienced other au pairs and host families can learn to avoid mistakes and find what works best for them.
Why did I choose Au Pairing?
Well my degree is in Modern Foreign Languages and Literature with a concentration in German and a minor in Secondary Education. During my time abroad I have been on continuance at my home university where I will eventually complete my master's in Secondary Education and become a certified German teacher. So for me au pairing has a true career-oriented purpose. I chose my countries based on the language I wanted to learn/perfect. When I graduated I knew my German was no where near where I wanted it to be in order to feel comfortable teaching the language. I talked with some other people who held similar degrees and all agreed that living in a country with the language for a long period was really the only way to get where I wanted to be. So after much research into how one can live abroad for extended periods I found au pairing the be the easiest and most cost efficient way possible. So here I am living as an ex-pat in Austria.
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| Sporting my German Fan Paraphernalia at the Berlin Fanmeile during the EM 2012 |
My hobbies
I love sports. Honestly just the competition and the emotion of it all is just about better than anything else. I love watching sports, participating in sports, and well I am fairly competitive. I'm a die hard Redskins fan. I love the Nats and going to their games with friends. I get overly emotional watching sporting events on TV. If it's the Olympics you will see me go through an entire range of emotions during each and every event... typically with me weeping about either outcome. When Phelps got his 8th gold in Beijing I wept like a baby. I played soccer until high school and then switched to lacrosse where I played goalie. I continued playing through part of college as well on the club team. I also was a member of my school's color guard in high school. Both of these activities have stuck with me after college and I coached both on the high school level. For lacrosse I was the Head Varstiy coach of a team for one season and was an asst. Instructor/Choreographer for my old high school Color Guard for 3 years. I try to keep my competitive side quiet, but it tends to leak out. I love to bike and explore the great outdoors. I love to travel and am making it a point to visit as many cities and countries as I can while I'm here. I also enjoy crafty types of hobbies and cooking. I really love experimenting with new recipes when I'm cooking. I tend to take recipes I find online and use them as a starting point on my culinary adventures. My cooking abilities have greatly improved though since becoming an au pair.
My Family
I LOVE my family! I have an awesome mom and dad and kick ass little sister in my immediate family. Poppy (dad) is an engineer/real estate broker/professional photographer (... and occasionally our personal mechanic). He is extremely smart and quick witted and definitely the source of my sense of humor. He has pushed me to be my best my whole life, and I'm incredibly grateful for him. Momma is a hero. Plain and simple. My mom is an Emergency Room nurse at a large and busy hospital. Everyday my mom saves lives and she is my inspiration. Kara- my little sister- is the most determined human being I've ever met in my life. She is seriously SMART and works extremely hard to achieve her goals, which she simply refuses to not only achieve but exceed! She is an Aerospace and Ocean engineering major and a member of her college's marching band, but besides all of that she is a great sister. I love her more than life itself. Then there is my entire extended family! All together I have 8 aunts and no blood uncles. I do have uncles for almost all of those aunts, but my mom and dad both only have sisters... and lots of them! On my mom's side I have 10 cousins - 9 of which are younger than me. On my dad's I have 4. So I have been surrounded by children and people who love children my entire life! My grandparents are all seriously amazing people. Both on my dad's side have passed, but they are not forgotten and are with me everyday. My Mimi and Gramps are still kickin' it in Florida - as all retirees should. Mimi is an energizer bunny! She absolutely never runs out of energy and plays tennis against 40 year olds DAILY! She is in better shape than most of the family! She is also one of my best friends. Gramps is the sweetest man you have ever met. He also grows the sweetest fruit and best veggies you'll ever find. He is patient and kind and simply a great man. I tell you all of this, because these people are the people who made me me. To get the proper context about my writing you have to understand how important family is to me. My family is a part of my soul, and it is often hard for me to understand families who don't have the kind of bond I have. I want that for everyone. LOVE is the key component to every action I take. It is a vital component to the au pairing experience.
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| Kara and I with my wonderful Gramps |
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