All posts filed under: Germany

Dirdls & Steins

Published by Jenn

Part of fully integrating into foreign cultures is obtaining a social life. This could be the single greatest fear of a potential au pair: “Am I going to be lonely for the next x months?? Will the children be the height of my social interaction? The house…a prison?” If you’re considering au pairing, you have to accept the fact that you may be sans-friends for, well, the first month (at least). Depending on the networking your host family is able to perform, you may be luckier than others. Last night, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a birthday party of a friend of a friend. Bavarian themed, I donned a Dirdl  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirndl] and jumped head first into what was bound to be a long night of trying to digest German.  Luckily, this was not so much the case and I was pleased to discover that Germans know A LOT of English and are quite happy to speak it.  I was even more pleased when I met another au pair! Phenomenal, this is the best possible scenario for …

Late Night Inspiration

Published by Jenn

11:11pm (aka: 23:11)* *I.e. later than I should have gone to bed already Introductions are overrated and in the best interest of me going to sleep soon (I’m sick!) we’re going to make fast friends. “Hi, I’m Jenn. I’m a Canadian spending my Summer ‘break’ in Celle, Germany.” [Vigorous handshake here.] Long story short, I am au pairing for a phenomenal Germany family in this romantic, yet sleepy, city. This is my second au pair experience. Three years back I spent 7.5 months in the very romantic, yet sleepy village of Bonaduz, Switzerland. I will admit, I am at a slight disadvantage at present. My German is less than stellar, though tolerable to most who dare converse with me. This brings about my first observation (which was inspired by a friend). North Americans are language snobs. We know that the international language is English, so why strain one’s cerebellum when everyone in Country X can understand you just fine? Certainly, they must want to practice their English skills – oder nicht? Unglaublich! But of course, you …