Colourful Interim Report

Aug 6, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts, Trips, Updates

Blog post number 70!

I can relax a little, as the kids are taken to their activities by the host mum. The scores for my meatpie with noodles stretched from 98/100 to 1000000/1000000 and there was enough for everybody… 🙂

Directly after the Winterreise I faced the most demanding weeks to that day: The school holidays.
On the one hand the new kind of routine (making breakfast for the kids, no returns from school, etc.) and on the other hand the fact that the kids are at home for the whole day made for an exciting 2 weeks.

For the girls have more classes per school day at their school than the boy’s, they get an extra week off. Due to that I dropped off and picked up the boy together with the girls in the last week… I also tried to make good use of the holidays, taking the kids to the museum, the park for a picnic or an indoor playhouse…
A few days they spent at their grandparents’, which made for some welcome breaks for me. 🙂

We crumb the chicken nuggets ourselves…

Now that the school holidays have long passed, I am more than happy about the old routine: Being with the boy in the morning and drop him off at school then. And only at 3pm I tend to the kids again.
To whom thinking about becoming an au pair: There is a groundbreaking difference between the kids staying home or having kids who are in school/ kindergarten already…

Meanwhile I have found an amazing group of friends, and we all regularly come together to enjoy the life beyond being an au pair. 🙂 Next to that, it is always the sweetest thing to meet travel companions of the past…

Last Sunday we celebrated Celine’s birthday with a walk along the Skyline Walkway in Wellington.
It was a rather cloudy day, but luckily the sky held back the gift of rain. 🙂 Instead it was insanely windy! Partially you couldn’t walk straight up and the hood of my jacket rattled like mad. 😀

View of Wellington from Mount Kaukau.

View on a wind farm west of Wellington.

I had to reissue the WOF (Warrant of Fitness) for my car the other day and my darling actually needed some reconditioning… At least for another 6 months I don’t need to worry about that now. 🙂 With cars made before 2000 you get the WOF for 6 months, newer cars get 12 months and brand-new ones 3 whole years from the day you buy them…

In our town new houses get built and even though I didn’t see the building sites at home up close as often, I think there are some differences to spot:

Parcel

Jun 30, 2015 | The Great Journey, Updates

My first parcel has arrived! 😀

Even the postman must have noticed the levels of happiness, due to my cheering. 🙂

A little smushed, but all in all undamaged I took on this package of home and expertly opened it using my favourite pocket knife. Just the way my dad always did…

And what do great parents send their child? 🙂

  • Sweets. 🙂 Some if it is meant for the host family, which will make them happy! 🙂
  • Clothes. Some pieces were a little tight back then, but fit quite nicely nowadays. Besides that, they smell of home and are perfect for cushioning! 🙂
  • Personal things like my beloved dictionary, greeting cards (Thank you my dear ones, you made me happy! 🙂 ), birthday presents of technical matter and even a present to the household of the host family.

 

 

 

 

The next week I will spend with another au pair in the North Island, as the grandma comes for a visit for a whole week, so I get that time off! 😀 I bet it will be a most special time!

War and Peace

Jun 25, 2015 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

My blog is all about my life as an au pair, yet there are too little posts about that specific topic. Please indulge in a dry technical report that is more differentiated and critical than rose-colored and idyllic. 🙂

There are nice days and there are days less nice. There is success and there is failure. There are moments to rise up inside and there are moments to be happy.

As an au pair of 8 weeks I can’t talk about long-time experience, but I have learned some deal about rules and regularities of the matter.
The weeks are turning rapidly, by the way, thanks to the structure in life of the family.

Talking to other au pairs, you get a sense of whether your own situation is good or not. And my life with the family is good, that said beforehand.

In preparation I asked myself, how the balance of time working and spare time would look, as you are living with the family all around the clock.
My family has had a long history of au pairs and thus, there is a plan for everything. Every week and every day is planned out. My tasks I have in writing and they are well assorted to the 5 days of work.
Therefore my duty as an au pair is done when those chores are complete and the parents have returned home.

After that I don’t have to care about whether the kids listen to their parents or not. Now I am only the older brother, as my work day is over. But as an older I still try to transport an important lesson of my life: Listen to your parents, respect and honour them! Up to this day I got cross looks and an obvious lack of understanding, but one day they will understand what I mean by that. At latest when they have their own kids…

A great part of my everyday life are the meals. Punctuality and perfection are key here, as nobody wants to go hungry. There are fixed appointmets daily, like sports and other activites and everybody should be pleased with their meal. Now there are kids raised to eat everything and .there are those who weren’t at all. I am presented with the latter.
From gists and gusts of creativity you shall keep your distance and rather indulge in the certain wishes and pleas regarding ingredients and serving methods to avoid great calamity and the bawling.
When things are rough I tend to calm myself by the following:
– They are not your own children.
– You neither will change them, nor will you shake the pillars of their previous upbringing.

Of course I try to impart my personal values where I can, but in the end of the day I am still just an au pair. I help out the parents and take care of the kids. And thanks to the experience of my host parents following a detailed plan.

I am but a face of a short term of this family’s life. Afterwards I will only watch the children grow up from afar.

 

So the relationship with the host parents is more of a professional fashion in my case. On the other hand we have some more time ahead of each other… 🙂
The kids, however, don’t really grasp the concept of work and time off and look at me as their au pair for the whole day.

It is most interesting to see certain mannerism in the little ones. In the morning I spend an extended period of time with the boy and sometimes it is a challenge to keep him on track of his chores. For he is one of the sensitive children, he quickly snaps into tears and sulkiness. On one of those mornings I drove him due to the wintery rain to school and he proceeded to give me a goodbye hug in the car for the first time.
To say the least, I was aghast.
There are a number of times where, after strict rebukes, you get a hug out of nowhere and you get to hear how you get defended by your host kids against others.

As an au pair you get a try on being a mum or a dad, I once said. Indeed you do, but only inside the boundaries previously set by the actual parents. This helps you out of hopelessness in the hefty moments, as well as nice experiences make you anticipate your own kids.
In the end you might know more about nurture and family life than most freshman couples/ parents.

Bottom line: To be an au pair is a demanding process, employer- and subject-wise. But in the end, this certificate shall be recognised in full.

Milestones

Jun 20, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

At this point many thanks for all congratulations, my birthday far from home was a blast!

 

 

In other department I was blessed with success as well!
The Friday before last Friday I spent visiting the authorities focusing on applying for my visa extension, requesting the 18+ card and issuing my New Zealand driver’s licence.

A few words about the visa extension for anyone thinking about that option:
Main requirement is that you spend 3 months (12 weeks, one day per week will count) working in agriculture or horticulture (firm details on the official government website). So anything greenish up to processing food, monitoring canned goods won’t count anymore…
Your income has to be taxed and you have to collect your paychecks, as they are to be handed in alongside your application. I just got a scrap of paper from my employer with proof of all payment…

The ‘standard’ working holiday visa you apply for online and you have to carry a printed piece of paper next to your passport. The extension, however, is applied for on location only, so it is an offline process. Meaning, you go in there with all the paperwork, hand it over in person and in my case don’t wait longer than a week to get the confirmation email back. And you have to hand in your very passport. Thus, you are without one for a short time, which came out well in the end. In contrast to your printed out ‘E-Visa’ you receive an elegant sticker inside your passport and don’t have to carry a folded piece of paper anymore.

Bottom line: Who completes their 12 weeks by every trick in the book, can easily apply for the extension. 3 extra months are a hundred percent worth it! 😉 Oh, and the fee for the extension is a whopping 165 dollars, though it should feel fair for what you get…

 

 

 

 

As I stay for more than one year in New Zealand, I have to carry a New Zealand driver’s licence. That one you can apply for in one of the AA centre (New Zealand Automobile Association).
You fill out a charming questionaire, state some details from both your driver’s licences and the passport and pay a small fee. The passport photograph and some copies of your documents they take on site. I was issued a temporary driver’s licence and very soon I saved an envelope that was not entirely soft from the rain from the leaky postbox:

 

 

The integral parts are still legible. 😀

 

 

As on said Friday I had taken on both obstacles, I went for requesting the 18+ card as well.
This card is a simple proof of age, when you go buy some wine for your cooking. 😛 They are as strict as rigid in the shops here… So when you do not want to carry you bulky passport everywhere, this card is quite the replacement.
But I was taken aback, as I just left my passport, which is necessary to show in order to get your card done, at the immigration office only a few minutes ago and went out of the post office empty-handed.

But when I held the driver’s licence in my hands, I also held a very absolutely legitimate photo ID and that was all I needed. Besides, this is the more badass 18+ card, as you are able to drive on it in Germany too. Getting pulled over might even be fun then. 😀
Ultimately, the 18+ card would’ve cost me ana additional 35 dollars. Now I am not mad at all… 🙂

Yesterday I went for some entertainment which was brought to me by a young choir (regarding the average age and ensemble existence) from Wellington. Next to wonderful music the did something special in the end: They broke the classic formation for the last 3 songs and surrounded the listeners. The concert was about captivity,detemination and resistance and music predominantly coming from concentration camps. It was impressive!

My first singing lessons I also have completed and there shall be many to follow. I have learned many things about myself and among them that singing is one of my greatest passions…