My year in Germany as an Au Pair from Peru

My name is Abigail, I am currently 19 years old and I am from Lima, Perú. When I turned 18, I made the decision to work as an Au Pair in Germany for one year. I wanted to improve my language skills, as I only acquired the language level A1 in Peru and also needed time to decide on a profession. On the one hand, I liked children from a very early age and on the other hand I was interested in other cultures and languages for a long time.

In April 2019 I was already looking for a Host Family, although I was still at university at the same time. My mother was happy with the idea, but unfortunately my father wasn't, but they allowed me and helped me.

We continued our communication on WhatsApp and made two video calls. Afterwards I realized that I had found the right family. We asked ourselves many questions and within 4 weeks we signed the contract.

I lived in a village called Niederzier near Cologne. The two-year-old child came on the first day and welcomed me. I had a big and very nice room. We drove with my Host Family to a riding stable, where my host mother showed me her horse and I was allowed to ride on it. Already on the first day my Host Family and I had fun together. Later in our year we experienced a lot of things, such as: We went to the beach in Holland on holiday, we went to a safari park in Hannover and we also visited the Cologne Zoo.

Before I arrived, my host mother contacted a woman from my home country. I thought that was very nice. I quickly made contact and was always on the road on weekends. At the beginning I was surprised because Germany is very different from my home country. I needed time to get used to the differences. Especially the punctuality was a problem for me. In my free time I met friends, often went to restaurants and danced.

When I came back from the language school, the child was also back from kindergarten. While he took his nap, I did the household for two hours. When he woke up, I played with him until dinner.

I attended a German intensive course and learned an incredible amount there. After four months I finished the B1 course in March 2020 and currently I am studying B2. My language level has improved a lot, because in our house only German was spoken.

The phase of getting to know each other was very difficult at first, because the child cried a lot at the beginning. In the first three months I gained his trust. Fortunately, we got along very well afterwards and built up a loving relationship. The relationship with my Host Family was good and I felt supported. With my Host Parents I had a respectful relationship. What I especially liked was that my host granny gave me suggestions and I could laugh a lot with her.

The last 12 months were an unforgettable life experience for me. Not only did I enjoy it, but I was able to develop both professionally and personally during this time. I was especially able to work on my discipline and my punctuality and I became independent.