Sophia (19 / female ), Australian, Student living in Australia looking for Au Pair job in France, Greece, Italy, Thailand & Japan for 1-3 months

Hello! My name is Sophia, I am 19 years old and from Queensland, Australia.

After graduating high school in 2017 I took a gap year as an au pair in China. It was an amazing year, I looked after three children, a girl,12, and a boy, 9. My main responsibilities were helping with homework, accompanying them to school and activities, and looking after them while travelling. We had a great time together on trips around China, Hong Kong, and Thailand. We really bonded during this year, and as their parents were often away for work we became like siblings and I still keep in contact with them today.

Because I had such a wonderful year in China, I decided to au pair again in the summer of 2019. This time I went to Italy and lived with two girls, 14 and 16. My responsibilities here were different, mainly teaching English for two hours a day. This summer ended up being one of the most rewarding experiences of my life; I had loved the family, got to travel with them to amazing places, and learned about the Italian way of life.

It is because of these great experiences that I would like to again be an au pair over the summer of 2020 (assuming COVID-19 has somewhat calmed). Please read below for more information about me and my experiences being an au pair.

I am quite interested in almost everything; I love to be active and outside, playing all sports but especially enjoying rock climbing because I can express creativity through the movements and the way I solve problems on the wall. I also trained in gymnastics and ballet for 15 years which are both creative physical outlets I enjoy.

Aside from sports, I like to sculpt, paint, and design houses. I love to read, my favourite book at the moment is The Alchemist. I spend lots of time listening to music, and I'm also interested in film; I love watching good movies and especially like to pay attention to the colour palettes.

When I was younger I lived in China for 10 years because mum was a principal and dad a teacher at an international school there. I am fluent in Chinese and know a lot about the culture. Because my parents are teachers and I have a younger sister, I have been around kids my whole life. I love spending time with them and seeing things from their unique perspectives. I learned to read at a very young age because my parents read at least six books to me everyday. If you have young children who cannot yet read English, I feel confident that I could help as I have had experience in the past assisting a native Chinese speaker who was seven with her reading and pronunciation. Not to mention I love to read books aloud with funny accents to entertain kids.

I decided to take a gap year because I wanted to learn more about the world before I started university. I looked after two Chinese kids who went to an international school; Peter, 9, an incredibly smart and funny 5th grader who excels in sports and loves to read, and Alina, 12, a beautiful girl with the most nurturing soul I have ever come across. Because their parents worked such long hours, I became their primary guardian. We spent so much time together that we really are family now. Our favourite things to do together were climbing trees, inventing things, and creating Rube Goldberg machines.

When I returned to Australia after 14 months in China, I started at the University of Queensland, majoring in anthropology and international relations. I find these areas fascinating and am planning on beginning to study law next year as well.

In the future I would like to work at an embassy overseas. I would like to take what I've learned about different cultures and ways of life from studying anthropology and my through travels, and apply that knowledge to my own life.

A lot of people seem to forget that children are going to become adults and events in their young lives can have profound impacts on them into the future, so I take being an au pair seriously. Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing from you!