When you’re home, you go through life and find interests and hobbies that make you who you are. When you move abroad to become an au pair, sometimes you’re able to take these things with you, and sometimes you lose them. Things like reading and writing, painting, dancing, yoga… they’re not too hard to bring with you or find in your new home.
There are plenty of things I like to do at home that I can easily do while being an au pair in the Netherlands through GeoVisions. The main one is reading (obviously quite easy), and I also have a huge interest in movies and film scores (Netflix and Spotify make that simple). I take time to write, and I’ve especially been able to work on my photography skills - the opportunities to be creative with photography are endless when you move to a new country, especially Europe!
However, back home, I was quite into fashion, hair, and makeup. When my hair was long I would spend time learning intricate braids, and when I got it cut short, I invented ways to curl it or make it perfectly sleek. I would watch YouTube tutorials for a daring cat-eye and hunt for just the right shade of lipstick. I was always on Pinterest, pinning outfits that could be combined from things in my closet or perhaps a new find from a sale rack.
These are the kind of compromises you have to make when you move abroad. Of course, there are also logistical compromises, and compromises you make with your host family. But in some ways you do have to compromise small parts of your self and your lifestyle.
But if it’s really worthwhile, it won’t be so hard putting something on hold. After all, what’s a perfect cat-eye when you have an entire continent at your fingertips for a whole year?'
