My challenge - Four seasons in Beijing
Ratings
Review
Soon I'll finish my Au Pair Program in Beijing. I started with a 6-month program and along the way I decided to stay 3 more months Chinas capital. China was my first time leaving and living abroad on my own and although it was scaring and different in the beginning, I adjusted pretty fast and well to the country and culture.
Throughout the program there were definitely a lot of ups and downs. Half way through the first part I decided to leave the family because of several issues with the children that weren't solvable. It took some time to get the rematch into motion, but once it happened I got a new family super-fast. After moving, things got much better for me and I started to get the feeling of family, even so much that I decided to extend my program (most people declared me crazy at that point) but I really enjoyed the time with my family. They took me to many places and cities in my 6 months with them and I'm grateful for all their effort.
During my time in China I also got to meet a lot of people and made friends from several countries. We had classes together and spent a lot of our free time visiting places around the city. Hopefully the contact lasts for a long time and opportunities for some trips to each others home countries will occur.
There were times when I was about to lose my head over some things because they are just very different from the western world, but that’s what you should expect when you go to a country like China. Stay open-minded, compromise and be flexible, that makes things a lot easier and if not, take a deep breath and remind yourself that it won’t be forever.
It’s been an exciting time here in China that helped shaping my personality further, as well as my knowledge and understanding. I got to love a lot of things around this country and I will definitely miss it a lot when I return home, but I'm also looking forward to go back to my family again.
1. The communication between the LoPair employees. It happened that I got several different answers regarding one topic or confirmation for something, just do be old a week later that it wouldn’t be possible. The communication between agency and au pair went, at least in my case, mostly well. Sometimes things needed to be asked multiple times, because of lack of response, which could lead to timing problems. For my return flight after my extension, I asked three weeks in advance to get a certain flight booked. I had to asked at least two times, until I got a response and the information one day before the flight to China was supposed to be. Because of some issues I nearly couldn’t leave for China on the planed day.
2. This point concerns the families and requirements they should meet. As you could read, I decided to change families because of bigger issues. Later, I got to know that the problems I experienced already occurred before, which made me wonder a bit why there wouldn’t be information about it, so you’d know what to expect and won’t regret being an au pair. This way, my first few months were not a very pleasant experience, which I think is sad, because there are great things to experience as I got to know in the new family.