Getting Started

So I have been an au pair (nanny) in Ireland for about 4 months now. I live in Mayo Abbey outside of Claremorris in County Mayo and I LOVE IT! The scenery is absolutely gorgeous.... I get to look out my window every day and see green everywhere! My host family is amazing!!

Anyways, back to the beginning. I can't believe I haven't done this sooner. I am mainly doing this blog to keep in contact with family and friends, but I thought maybe that someone else who was thinking of being an au pair or traveling to Ireland might benefit to hear some of my experiences. If not or no one reads it, then it will just be a good way to keep my memories of my time here.

I thought I would start with why I decided to become an au pair and the process I went through to getting to Ireland... so here is my story:

I graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos in May of 2012 with my education degree. I started working in an office (shout out AANPCP) while I was applying for teaching jobs. A friend of my mom's best friend :) mentioned that her daughter was an au pair in Italy and she told me about her experience. It sounded perfect for me. I have worked with kids since I was around 15 and LOVE to travel! I still continued to work at my office job because I didn't know if I could actually travel that far away for so many months all by myself. I just pushed the au pair thing to the back of my mind. A couple months later I was getting really frustrated with the lack of job opportunities and was disappointed that my "plan" of graduating and getting a job right away was not happening like I expected. So I decided to check out some of the au pair websites/agencies just to see what it was about. I read the au pair comments and saw all the countries I could potentially go to. I got really excited! This sounded so amazing and would allow me to fulfill my longing to travel.

I mulled it over in my mind about whether I was actually brave enough to do this. I was sitting in my room thinking about this when all of a sudden I just decided that I don't have to follow the "plan", I can do what I want now! This is the perfect time to do something like this - I have no commitments to one place or to anyone, so why not? Why not do this? That's it - I'll do it!!! I decided just like that! I am going to become an au pair! I checked out a couple of sites and found one that I liked - Au Pair International. It is a full-fledged au pair agency that walks you through the process, helps you with the paperwork, does background checks on potential families and yourself, and keeps in contact with you throughout your entire au pair time. I had started on a different site that basically was just a place to meet potential families, but I wanted to be safe about it (so did my parents!). I contacted Au Pair International and got more information about what they did and what my experience in a different country would be. After some back and forth emails, I made my commitment to them and I had an interview with Au Pair International where she basically asked questions about my childcare experience, traveling experience, why I want to become an au pair, etc. I told her the countries I was interested in (Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) and she set out to find potential host families for me.

2 weeks went by and I hadn't heard anything... I was starting to get worried... maybe the families didn't like me :( I finally had a couple hits with families but those fell through and finally Au Pair Int. sent me the profile of my current host family (the Fallons - yeah!)... I read over their profile and loved them from the start. They sounded just like my family and we had a lot of the same interests. I skyped with Judi (host mom) and she was great! So easy to talk to and very nice! Basically on that Skype interview we decided it was a go! We liked each other and continued the process from there! AHHHHHH oh man was I excited! I was literally jumping around the room and couldn't stop smiling! IT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!!! Wow. I called everyone I knew and told them the news!!!

Au Pair International got me in contact with their sister agency in Ireland (Cara International) and I had to have an interview with them as well (basically to measure my English). From there I had to then apply for me]y visa... not gonna lie - that was a trying process..... if you are going to become an au pair  start the visa process about 3 months before you are going to leave, you never know what it going to happen. A lot of frustrating phone calls and fretting over whether I would get my visa in time, but fortunately everything worked out and on January 15, 2013 I headed to Ireland!!!

So that is how I became an au pair in Ireland... sorry if it kind of rambled in some parts :)

In this blog I wil be talking about my expectations vs. reality, my daily routine, the places I have been to and seen, what I have enjoyed, etc. Hopefully someone might find it useful or just enjoy reading it.

I will try to update this as much as I can... Talk to you later.