I am an Au Pair

my contract was approved and is due in the mail tomorrow! the good news just keeps rolling in! 

My appointments on Friday so fingers crossed, I still need that passport photo.

Yesterday I sent in EVERYTHING, 

I sent in the contract x3

I sent in my transcript and diploma (painstakingly translated) 

I sent in a doctors note ( which cost me freaking 95$ since i don’t have insurance) 

I sent in a copy of my passport.

and I sent in my pre-inscription letter for french courses…..

Did I forget anything? god, I hope not! 

now phase two begins. I wait. 

for my contract and for my appointment. while I’m waiting, I do have some things to do to get ready for phase 3 (the consulate appointment dun Dun DUN!!!) 

here’s what needs done: 

get new passport photos taken ( i’m getting them done professionally so as to avoid risk of my screwing them up) 

re-fill out the visa de long sejour application 

and make sure everything else i have from the last attempt is still valid! 

oh, I also need to figure out my flight. I guess actually physically getting there is important as well. haha! 

So after about two weeks of searching via internet I’ve found another family, albeit this family lives much farther outside of paris and has two children instead of one. 

After one phone call and one Skype video chat it is all set and I am due back in france at the end of September.  

Here is my list of things to do to start the process:

1. Fill out and sign the DDTE contract in triplicates 

2. Get a physical exam. (should be interesting considering I have no health insurance) 

3. find proof that i’ve taken french courses before (also should be interesting since i took one them independently over the internet in highschool.) 

4. Make an appointment at the French Consulate. 

It doesn’t seem like a lot, but then again, I underestimated before, hopefully I’ve learned my lesson, and things will go a lot smoother this time around. 

While I was in France earlier this year I realized quickly that I would need an au pair job. So I went to a few different au pair agency websites to get a job. and wouldn’t you know it I got one. since I was in France it was easy enough to go and visit the family and see that they were sane and what not. 

Also because I was in france on tourist Visa I knew this meant I needed to get a Visa de Long Sejour. This also meant that I needed to go back to America. 

Now, keep in mind I was born in Northern California, and I lived in Southern California for nearly 5 years. so I think it’s safe to say I’m sort of a resident of both. why we all can’t just get a long I don’t know. 

Anyway, I had made appointment at the consulate française in both LA and SF, I didn’t make it to either of these appointments due to my lack of a DDTE (department de travail et l’Emploi) Contract, saying that I had a family sponsoring me. 

I was scheduled to start working August 1st, the next appointment available was August 5th in LA. I took it. 

I finally had all of my paperwork together, and I flew back down to LA from SF. the next day I went to my appointment and waited in line in the sun for 2 hours only to get to the front desk to be asked “I see on your drivers license that you have a northern California address, do you have proof of residence in Southern California?” no I did not. and therefore, was not in their jurisdiction. I basically wanted to climb onto the roof and jump into the cactus they had out front. 

After that the family decided that they couldn’t wait for me any longer and they hired someone new. 

Now I get to start all over again. 

Also I left one of my suitcases at their house. 

I suppose that it would be appropriate to start with the story behind my decision to become an international nanny, or “Au Pair” if you will. Well, let’s see, I guess we can just start at the beginning. I was born and raised in a small town in Northern California. My mother a French teacher, My Father a 6th grade Art teacher, now a sculptor. I’ve always had a taste for art, culture, and the world, and when I was in high school I had high hopes of become a world renowned fashion designer. (I know what does this have to do with being a nanny?  Nothing.  Just bare with me it’s part of the story.) When it came time to choose a college however I faltered a bit and decided to go in for a communications major at a private christian school in Southern California.  I don’t count this as a mistake at all, because it lead me to find a great friend, who, while working on a student film project (I did costumes she did production design) convinced me to go to fashion school. So then I went. I attended the Fashion institute of design and Merchandising of Los Angeles. and the two years I spent there were the most inspiring and life changing years of my life so far. not necessarily because of the classes, or even that particular school. Those were great, but it was more because of the amazing friends I had in that particular time of my life, when everything was changing. This december I finished school, my lease was up, I didn’t have a real job, and so like any reasonable person I went to Paris. In my imagination I pictured myself showing up on the doorstep of the House of Chanel and instantly landing an internship, gradually working my way up to being Karl Lagerfeld’s first assistant next in line for the crown. but, seeing as this is the real world and not the world inside my head, that didn’t exactly happen. At this point in time I have realized that the only way I can be in France for an extended period of time, is to be a nanny. This is not exactly a fate worse than death. I love kids and even though it may feel like a very winding road to where end up in life, I am actually really looking forward to the experience that awaits me. and thats my schpiel. so now you know where I’m coming from.