Love – When all is said and done, all that you’ll really remember are the amazing people you’ve connected with and helped along the way. Love your friends. Love your family. Love your spouse. Love is all that matters. Love more.
What are you waiting for?
Go. Start. Now. Because it’s never too late to be amazing.
– Nelson Wang (via Thought Catalog)
Please read this post with Taylor Swift’s 22 playing in the background, a true masterpiece.
How anyone is going to top this birthday next year I have no idea. I was awoken with a round of happy birthday, birthday cake and presents from my host family, and ended the day eating dinner with a sloth-like mother after 7.5 months apart. Her jetlag was very apparent, as she’d arrived at 7am that morning and had to wait until 9pm to even leave the house for dinner. Nevertheless she put on a good show and even managed to get through her half of the bottle of bubbles without falling asleep at the table. I am now rolling in Tim Tams, and received an impressive number of gifts considering I’m on the other side of the world.
I love Paris. It feels very cliche but honestly, you can’t help but feel content in Paris (even with the miserable rain on our first day). Despite the tragedies of the week before, the city felt calm and comfortable. We walked a lot, ate bread, cheese and cured meats, and drank red wine. We drank champagne on the Eiffel Tower. Mum cried in an art gallery and stopped in the middle of the street to fully savour her first Parisian croissant. My french held up surprisingly well, and I even managed a full conversation over a credit card charge.
So many spectacular memories made with Mum (love you xxx). We will definitely have to come back for longer next time though – some sunshine would be really nice.
It’s like those old castles. We build very thick solid walls and think they’re going to last forever, that no onslaught will ever change them. But that’s a delusion. Even if we try to hold on to the river that is our life, it will flow away anyway.
– Into the Heart of Life, Tenzin Palm
But that’s the joy of it really, isn’t it? That life is constantly changing and moving. There’s always something more to see, to experience, to do. There is always a better thing.
If nothing else, this trip is teaching me a lot about being happy. About doing what you want, about small pleasures, about taking care of yourself. I’ve never had this much free time on my hands, and obviously it gives you a lot of time to think and plan and also just to do nothing. It’s harder than I’d realised, just to sit and do nothing. I often feel like there’s something more important, more valuable I should be doing. A lot of us seem to have this need to be busy, to always be productive and doing something constructive. But down time is so important! It gives your brain and body a chance to recharge. Clearly there are limits – if you spend your whole life doing nothing then it’s not constructive. But it’s okay to just sit and appreciate the moments when you have nothing to do. In fact it’s more than okay – it’s good for your health.
Constructive things you can do in your down time that don’t feel like jobs:
I understand that this is coming from a place of privilege. I am lucky enough to be able to travel and work relatively short hours in exchange for my living expenses at this point, and most other people don’t have the luxury of hours of free time. But I think I’m learning a lot about how important that down time is. Schedule it in if you have to. Let people around you know that you’re taking 10 or 30 or 60 minutes for yourself. There are always other things that need doing, but taking time for yourself is just as important as the washing or cleaning.
We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lie alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.
– Marina Keegan, The Opposite of Loneliness
There’s something really satisfying about physically putting pen to paper. I’ve never been good at consistently keeping a diary, but every time I go back to do it I remember just how enjoyable it is. To-do lists, planning, brainstorming, even just incoherent streams of thoughts are so satisfying when they’re scribbled out in front of you. Plus ticking those to do items off a list is even better.
As much as blogging is like that, it never quite fills the gap like writing it down does. Sometimes there are things you don’t want to include in a blog post, like just how much chocolate I’ve eaten in the past week. Or that I want to join a gym again and lose 10kg by November. Or that I’m trying to look after myself a bit more by actually brushing my teeth and washing my face twice a day. It seems a bit silly to blurt some things out on the internet, when nobody is really interested in that stuff except me and Tim. Okay so Tim isn’t actually interested in it but he has to listen to it anyway (thanks bby).
I can’t say I’m a very skilled writer. I wish I was better at it. I spend a lot of time reading various blog posts and articles and Thought Catalog lists, and have definitely attempted the fluid, easy to read prose that seems to pop up in various corners of the web. But I’ve never quite mastered the art of it, of writing inspiring long sentences punctuated by short sharp jabs of reality. The only way to improve is to practice though, and I think until I’m feeling a bit more confident about the whole process I’ll probably post on here a little less often. Of course when I do anything fabulous I’ll make sure to post some pictures and a neat little summary for you all to read, but I feel like I can probably contain my ramblings within my diary and my own head for now.
If anybody would like to send me a gift for this purpose though I’d love one of Erin Condren’s life planners, which you can find here. Please and thanks. Combine an incessant over-planner with a lover of new stationery and I think you’ve found the target market for these: me.
And Britain and better experiences and lots of other things that are irrelevant to this post.
Despite taking on more hours and more work here with my second family I feel so much better about the whole situation. Obviously I’m only a week in so nothing is really certain, but I feel so much more appreciated and involved here than I ever did in France. I’m genuinely needed here, rather than just being an extra set of hands. The parents are great, the kids are great, and there’s decent coffee in town (hallelujah!). I definitely underestimated the strain of the language barrier in France. I just feel so much more confident here – communication works better from both ends. Also I can open my own bank account, join a gym, register at the local GP and navigate public transport without my host parents in tow.
I spent today exploring the local area and also met up with another girl who lives nearby with her boyfriend. I’m meeting up with another local au pair tomorrow too – thanks to Facebook for making it so much easier to connect. It seems like there are quite a lot of au pairs in the area. It’s a pretty wealthy area so I’m not surprised. It’s just so nice to have people to talk to again.
On a related note it’s only 86 days until Mum arrives, and 99 until I get to see Tim, Josh and Lucy again and I am definitely looking forward to both of those events. At this point I don’t have much else to fill you in on so I’ll leave it at that. Just wanted to let you all know that I’m feeling much better than I was in France. Being an au pair in a country where you already speak the language certainly makes the experience a lot easier.
Whatever you do in this life, it’s not legendary, unless your friends are there to see it.
Except that you can make new friends everywhere, and I found some spectacular ones in the south of France. What started as just somewhere to stay between au pair jobs turned out to be the highlight of my trip so far. This may be because in comparison to the isolation in France it was so social. But also Bex and Steve who run the accommodation place where I was staying have an uncanny ability to chose amazing, like-minded people as their helpers.
I’m sure not every HelpX opportunity is going to be like the one I had, but if you are looking for a cheaper way to travel through Europe and potentially meet some other people while you’re there, you should check it out. There’s such a range of opportunities on there, but most of the people who I meet last week had been a Helper before, and clearly you can find some real gems, especially if you’re willing to get your hands dirty.
There were eight Helpers there at the beginning of the week, and most people stayed somewhere between two weeks and a month. The hosts were super flexible about it (clearly, as I only stayed for one week), and put on a great spread in exchange for a few hours of work each day. We all stayed in the old stables, converted into a full house complete with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, living room and linen room. Work varied from washing sheets to cleaning the gites to knocking down walls. On top of running the self-contained accommodation, the hosts are also in the middle of a renovation so are getting the Helpers to assist with that as well. There’s something really satisfying about knocking down walls.
BUT. Bex and Steve are also really set on making sure the helpers are having a good time – they’re well aware it’s meant to be a holiday for us as well. I feel like I crammed so much into the week, I can’t believe I was only there for seven days. Various markets, fireworks, canoeing, family dinners, wine tastings and a birthday party. I received my first tennis lesson (apologies again Kate), got some solid war wounds from chipping kitchen tiles off the wall and successfully made delicious brownies despite discovering we had no eggs on a day when all the shops were closed. Cheers for that seemingly impromptu public holiday France. After getting in a spot of trouble after a midnight swim we had such a great week, and I can’t thank everybody enough for contributing to the great experience.
English Kate, Canadian Kate, Nicole, Jenny, Dennis, Elise, and Victoria, thank you, and I’ll be seeing you all in Berlin for New Years Eve.
Barcelona was an unexpected addition to my year. I hadn’t really intended on going to Spain at all, and yet there I was, enjoying sunshine and sangria. Living the life. To be honest I wasn’t really caught up in all the hype of Barcelona, which is a shame because it’s such a pretty city. I think I was just in a bit of a weird headspace after leaving the family, which meant everything was less appealing than it normally would be.
I had a good time anyway. Lots of walking, lots of eating, and lots of sunshine. I was certainly glad the hostel had air conditioning that’s for sure. 23 degree night make sleep pretty difficult. The photos themselves are pretty self explanatory in terms of what I did and saw. A particular highlight was the chip shop down on Barceloneta beach – paper cones of fresh hot chips with all i oli, which is basically garlic aioli without the lemon juice. So, pureed garlic. Thankfully nobody was sharing a bed with me that night because the garlic was intense. They were delicious though. There’s something pretty satisfying about eating chips from a shop that only sells chips. I also stumbled across the botanic gardens in Barcelona, with it’s very own Australia section. It’s funny how much it smelt like home.
After two months of not drinking I made the mistake of joining a couple of fellow backpackers in some drinking games one night, which I seriously regretted when I woke up the next day. It was nice to hang out with some new people though, after feeling pretty isolated in Lyon. The day after was made more bearable by the hostel’s beach day, which meant we all got to go lie in the sun and swim for the day. One of the best cures for a hangover, without a doubt.
From Barcelona I headed to Bordeaux. The first of my three trains was delayed by 20 minutes, which meant I only just managed to make my connecting one, which was thankfully also delayed by 10 minutes. I finally arrived in Bordeaux just two hours after I was supposed to, cheers SNCF. Good to know that trains are unreliable everywhere, not just in Sydney.
I didn’t spend much time exploring Bordeaux. Instead a took a train out to Sainte-Foy-La-Grande to meet a UK family for a potential au pair position. They actually live 30 minutes out of London but have a holiday house in France, which is conveniently not far from Bordeaux. Due to an unfortunate drama with the public transport I missed my first train, and had to wait two hours for the next one. Thankfully the family where really lovely and flexible about it, so no issues. And all going well, I should spend the rest of the year with them, so it was definitely worth the trip. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes with them, but I’m flying to London on Sunday so jumping right back into it!
Since Bordeaux I’ve spent the week in a place called Bouillatou, a great little accommodation place in the South of France, with six self-contained houses, a pool, a tennis court and more pets than you can count. The owners use HelpX to take on backpackers as helpers, who work for a couple of hours each day in exchange for food and board. This has without a doubt been one of the best parts of my trip. Again, I have photos to sort out from this so I’ll give you some more details shortly. I’ll definitely be disappointed when I leave on Sunday. I’d really love another week or two here before I start with the UK family, but sadly it was not meant to be.
Speak soon.
I know I’ve done a terrible job of updating so far this month, but I’ve had a busy and thoroughly enjoyable two weeks, which can only be a good thing really.
Seeing as I was farewelling the food capital of France, Mum insisted I go out with a bang (and by bang I mean solid French meal). I visited one of Paul Bocuse’s brasseries in Lyon for lunch on the Sunday (2nd) for a proper Sunday brunch, and it was delicious. I highly recommend Brasserie le Nord if you ever make your way to Lyon. It’s not really a backpacker friendly restaurant, but during the week you can get a proper three course menu for around 28€. The Sunday brunch is bit more expensive, but superb. Salmon tartare, crispy fish fillet in white wine and strawberry tart. I basically rolled out of the restaurant to get back to the train station, but it was totally worth it.
Slight drama in my last week there: French postal customs. After waiting nearly a month to get my parcel from Tim, it finally arrived with a 120€ price tag from the lovely staff at French customs. Apparently they add a 20% value tax to everything that gets imported, so on top of the $160 I already paid in postage, I got to add an extra $180 AUD equivalent in taxes. Cheers for that guys. In the end though I finally got my camera and an excellent stash of chocolate, so it’s really not the end of the world.
There’s not really much worth saying on the actual farewell of the family. It is what it is. It wasn’t an emotional farewell, and the attitude I got really hit home as to why I was leaving, I am really relieved, and since leaving I’ve had a fantastic time and have found a brilliant family in the UK who I’ll be starting with next week. Thankfully I got a chance to meet them all last week, which was really nice. They seem really glad that they’ve found me, and really value their au pairs by the sounds of it.
I’ll fill you in on Barcelona, Bordeaux and Bouillatou very shortly. Brief summary though: if you haven’t heard of HelpX before and you want a cheaper way of travelling, you should absolutely do it.
Travel and au pair adventures 