Dienstag, 24. März 2015

Interview

Yesterday I had my interview with a woman from the organization, my counselor. I was quite nervous although people told me that the interview is very easy and that there's nothing to worry about. But, oh well, that's me. Always worrying about everything :p

So I drove to my counselor's house and I was half an hour early. You know, better too early than too late. But I stayed in the car till 5 to 9 which I thought seemed punctual, but not too early. I met my counselor before and my first impression of her was confirmed yesterday: she's a very kind person.
She even gave me slippers and a glass of water.

The interview started with some kind of psychological test. It consisted of 171 questions that I had to answer with A: Right B: ? or C: Not right. Oh, and it was in German, so no potential vocabulary problems. The questions were very easy and my counselor told me that I shouldn't think too long about the answer and just tick what came to my mind first. One of the questions was: "I am interested in cars and planes". Yeah. Right.

The next part of the interview was a conversation between the two of us in English. My counselor's job was to take notes about my answers because she has to write some kind of report about me that the host families will see later. Her first question was: "Who are you?" Quite easy. I thought that the more I say, the more she can write so I just told her everything that came to my mind.
Things she also asked me about:

  • My family
  • My school
  • What I'm doing in my free time
  • If I'm doing sport and if yes, what
  • What I do to help my parents in the household
  • What I want to do after school (apart from becoming an Au pair)
  • Why I want to become an Au pair
  • Why I want to go to the USA
  • Qualities that I think an Au pair should have
  • Why I will be a good Au pair
I think that's it. We talked quite a lot, but I didn't even notice that. Like I said, she was very nice and we also made jokes and I explained the movie "Divergent" to her. The English was no problem, because I'm quite used to speaking or writing in English. When I didn't know a specific word, she helped me, so that was no problem at all.

Then we changed to German again and checked my application. I had to change some things, including my profile pic. HA! So much worry about it and now I'm taking a different one. It has to be one where my face is bigger because the photo will be very small for the families.

Now I'm waiting for my profile to be unlocked. 
Then, the host families can see me.
It's getting interesting.

Sonntag, 22. März 2015

Step by Step

~ I've been dreaming of things yet to come ~

I finally have everything that I need for my application.

Although I am quite sick at the moment, I visited an Au pair meeting yesterday where people from the organization explained a lot of things concerning the application and the family finding process. It was totally worth it! I got to know other Au pairs and so called "returnees" who already spent a year in the US and told us about their experiences.

To cut a long story short, everything is quite complicated (concerning the visa and insurances etc), but the meeting yesterday made me really excited for the whole journey. I realized that I really am going to the USA (given that I find a family) to live there for one year what is very very exciting. And also frightening. But our dreams aren't big enough if they don't scare us, huh?
Some of the things I got yesterday

So my application is done and ready to be examined by the organization. 
Tomorrow I have my interview with a woman from the organization who will go with me through my application and maybe improve some things. She will also test my English skills. Then the organization will also look at my application and it will be sent to the USA and then my profile will be unlocked and families can contact me. Yaayy!

I am quite nervous and excited and looking forward to everything that's coming now.

I will keep you updated! xo