Unusual Choices

A few months ago I made the decision to do something a little unusual.  For those of you who know me (when I'm not struggling aimlessly to make up my mind and flip flopping like a landed fish) making the usual choice is not an uncommon path for me. In June, when I realized that I would not be able to afford the college of my dreams, I was faced with some difficult decisions.  Did I hang out, living in my parents loft and working at an Unnamed Chain Seafood Restaurant, and hope to save up enough money to make some sort of dent on some unreachable goal for college tuition? Or did I reapply to colleges a little more in my budget and do something else with my life for a while.  Well, as much as I loved being a waitress, and as much as I loved working my butt off to achieve a financial stability I would never realize working at said Unnamed Chain Seafood Restaurant, I decided to do something different with my life for the next year. But what? Was the big question.

This is where I make an unusual decision, which was to become an Au Pair.  For those of you who don't know (which is most of you, and I can't really blame you because it is unusual), and Au Pair is basically a nanny. Except unlike a nanny, and Au Pair is normal a younger person from a foreign country who lives with you, does house work, spends time with the children, and teaches them foreign language. While a lot of Europeans choose Au Pairs from Asian countries (for various reasons you can figure out for yourself, I don't feel like getting into), many Europeans want to have someone who can teach their children English, but also become a part of the family as well. So for my time off from college I decided to spend a year cleaning someone else's house and watching after their children, in exchange for room, board, a little measly pocket money (yes, I my income took an enormous blow), and...oh yeah...the chance to live and experience life in an other country, learn a new language, meet amazing people, and see the world.

Long story short. Two weeks ago I got on a plane and ended up in Denmark.  For those of you who don't know (which is A LOT of people I've discovered, and I can blame you this time, because you chose to sleep through geography) Denmark is a country in northern Europe and part of Scandinavia.  Its actually mostly a collection of islands and one larger area connected to Germany.  It's kind of a peninsula between the southern parts of Norway and Sweden.

See, DENMARK. It is real!....reeaaal small...but don't tell them, they don't  realize it.

In only two weeks I've met amazing people and plunged myself right away into a beautiful and complex culture full of rich heritage and minimalist taste. They eat canned fish that looks like cat food, design chairs you can't sit in, are obsessed with being cosy, and are completely fascinating and unpredictable.

So to sum it all up, this blog is for my family and friends to see how I'm spending my year, and to maybe understand a little better why I'm doing this (yes mom, its also for you so when I forget to email you every two hours, you can check here and see I'm still alive).  I hope its enjoyable, I hope its educational, and I hope that maybe its a little unusual.