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| Enjoying the view with some new friends |
I'm Blair, a 24 year old guy from Australia currently au pairing in Barcelona. I never expected to become an au pair, it was only teetering in my mind once I met some Spanish au pairs living in Glasgow. After having them tell me about their experiences I went on au pair world and made myself a profile to connect with families from various cities around Europe. I decided to return to Barcelona, I had lived there previously so had already connections in the city. However I did want a new experience, something a little different from my last time living in Barcelona. The first time I was living in a shared flat in the city centre, so I decided to go with a family living in a small village about an hour outside of the city. After a successful first 6 weeks with this family, they asked me to stay 6 more, which I happily accepted, and then after another successful 6 weeks my au pair experience has turned into 14 months.
I am currently with my second host family, back in the city centre but for a more temporary period of time - 2 and a half months. Now it has been 16 months, and I have made so many great memories and experiences with great friends. Personally I did not find myself hanging out with too many other au pairs, but I was coming back to city I had lived before therefore I already had a good group of friends, but when you are heading to live in a big city other expats are usually easy to spot and keen to make new friends, and locals as well are always curious about foreigners living in their city. Having the free time that you do being an au pair makes it much easier to spend time with friends and really enjoy the city, and country as well. Most of my time au pairing has been spent exploring Catalunya with friends during the mornings and on the weekends. The downfall is that of course working few hours and having the free accommodation and food is a low wage, but if you plan it out just right it can go a long way.
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| making my special croquetas on a beach where i like to go camping |
If I could do something differently with my au pair experience, I would definetly not stay in one place for over a year - au pairing is a great way to see the world but it is only something that I could do for 18 months maximum - maybe 6 months in three cities would have been a better plan for me but as I have other commitments in Barcelona now I have stayed here for much longer than intended. I didn't really get into this expecting to get a lot, I just wanted to get away from the cold of Glasgow, improve my spanish and spend a few more nights with a girl I had met my last time in the city. I'm currently writing this while in Barcelona, I dont feel uncomfortable communicating with locals in either spanish or catalan and i'm now dating the girl, so I guess I achieved all that I came for.
One thing I have really enjoyed about this experience is the window it gives you to see the world. I like to people watch and could be seen as a bit of an anthropologist, so to be able to enter into a new family, and the social environments that I have been able to while au pairing has been quite interesting for me. People don't really expect a young guy to be au pairing and having fun running around a city with two kids, but when they see it and talk to me or hear about what i'm doing, I am often welcomed into situations I wouldn't typically be involved in and for me that has made my (second) time in Barcelona even more exciting.
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