Last weekend, I went on a secret mission to Germany. The mission was secret, first of all, because I like surprises (hehe), and secondly because its consequences were life-changing, and if I failed, I would have to tell everybody that I failed my life-changing mission. Happily, I did not turn out to be such a loser and the mission went succesfully: we all had a GREAT encounter ! So now I am "adopted" by the super nice Merkel family, who lives in
Neustadt am Rübenberge, a small town in the district of beautiful Hanover. The family is young, has 2 parents (Friederike and Rainer) who have 3 sons (Gunnar, Malte and Philipp). Gunnar is the youngest one. He is one year old and my job will be to take care of him from 8h-14h every day that his parents go to work. And when he sleeps, I'm supposed to do a little house work. But for the rest I'm free! Malte is a three-year-old who is very playfull and talkative. I think I'll have a lot of fun, as well as learn a lot of german, from him! Philipp is already 13 years old and apparantly plays the trumpet. I hope I'll be able to bring my keyboard, or at least my flute, so we could make some music together maybe! Both parents are in education, so that's interesting for me as well :)
Yes, last saturday the 20th of December, I was very, very happy to meet such nice people and to be able to live with them for a while, while being able to discover Germany ! Something I still have to explain, I guess. Well, I'll try. I admit it's not something you'd expect from a girl, who's in the midst of her final bachelor thesis, ready to get searching for a good job when she'll be finished, and with her great love being France ! Indeed, plunging into Germany as an au-pair is not such a big career move, and it won't really improve my French. Still, it felt like the thing that was perfect for me to do right now. Why? Why doing such a counterintuïtive thing and why so quick? The exact answer is still a mystery to myself, but it has certainly to do with the following things: 1) This year I went to Nantes with FYEG, and I fell in love again.. with saving the world, with being "green". With Europe. I wanted to be a "woman of the world" again. Therefore, I needed to see the world. I felt the need to learn more about other languages and cultures. And I knew from my year in Sablé, that the best way to really get to know a country is to live there. So I wanted to do that again. I wanted to live in every country of Europe, but just one other than the Netherlands would already be fine ! 2) Also, this might have to do with the fact that I'm a real 'Roukens', and the Roukens' appear to get restless after being to long at one place. I have been moving around for almost all my life, and now I felt the 'urge' again. I just had to get moving, get out of sweet Wilnis, experience new things, get myself into new adventures ! 3) Ok, that was clear. But then the question: where to go? First, I dreamed about Ireland. The country is beautiful, the people are the kindest, I needed to improve my English and the Irish accent is the greatest. But it's so far away, and oversea.. and then I bumped into Hanover. Gaëtan, my Sablé-guide, was going there, and Benjamin, our 'Bückeburg correspondant', invited me there. And it was awesome. I liked this city a lot, and it turned out to be so close by Enschede ! Furthermore, I suddenly remembered that the mother of the mother of my father was german. I have german blood !! I now knew, that I had to learn the german language as well. So I had already two options. 5) But then, the even more important question came up: what to do there? Finding a fine job would be difficult in a foreign land, and volunteer work wouldn't pay my rent. Then (also thanks to Fritz) I read something on Facebook about somebody being member of
aupair-world.net. What an idea, work with children is wonderful ! I checked the site, and it turned out to be just like EVS: your rent and food is covered, and you earn some pocket money for the rest! It was perfect. I've always wanted to be an au-pair. Now was my chance ! So I subscribed to au-apair world, and almost immediately I got some mails from families that wanted me, including.. the Merkels :D
Ok, so in February, I'll be living in Neustadt am Rübenberge. Probably you've never heard of this place, nor been there, in your life before. So here's some info about it (thanks, Wikipedia): Neustadt is a community in the state Lower Saxony and is situated between Hanover and Bremen. The community has 45.657 habitants, but the "Kernstadt" Neustadt only 18.000 (in 2006). To compare, Wilnis has 6.683 habitants, and Sablé 12.716 so it's like putting those two cities togheter :)
