My last month as an au pair

I'm finally done with my au pair job! February 25th was my last day of work in my second host family. For the past few weeks, I've been working 40 hours a week until late Friday evenings. On Saturdays and Sundays, I would usually be with Jana. One weekend, my friend and I went to Death Valley NP. It was really beautiful and diverse, so I'm very glad we managed to do that. Then, from the desert, we drove 2 hours to a snow-covered, beautiful mountain landscape near June Lake. We bathed in hot springs there, which was definitely a highlight.

To be honest, I'm really glad that I'm no longer an au pair, as it was very exhausting and a lot of work. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it for 1.5 years, especially a whole year with Covid and long quarantine. My host children now have a new au pair, whom I trained in my last week of work. Of course, right after I left, on their first day of work, the school of my older host child started again, after 11 months.

Overall, I really enjoyed the au pair life, I learned a lot and made a lot of experiences and lifelong friends. I'm grateful for being able to experience so much here. I will never forget my time here.

What's next for me? I have my travel month first, and then I'll return home at the end of March. Back home, I will apply for teaching assistant positions and start my elementary school teaching studies for the next semester.