This past summer, I au paired from June to August in Madrid, Spain. I lived with a host family, which included my host mom and dad and their two daughters, Eva and Ana. Eva is 9 years old, while Ana is 7 years old, but they both enjoy doing arts and crafts (or as the parents first said to me, “handy crafts”), watching TV, playing with their friends, swimming, singing and bugging the crap out of each other.
THE ONE WHERE I FINISHED A UNC ART CLASS IN SPAIN
Last summer, I took a five-week UNC online art class. Not only did I give my all to each project, but most projects had multiple parts. Then, I had to take each one a step further: take multiple shots of each project and edit every photo. The photos were how I had to submit my work.
The last week and a half of the class overlapped with my first week and a half that I was au pairing in Madrid. So, for that week and a half, after my long weekdays of au pairing from 9am-4pm, I was working on art projects in my room.
THE ONE WITH THE CATS
I hope a theme that you’re starting to get from my blog is that while traveling isn’t always easy or perfect, it’s worth it.
This past summer, my friend, who goes to my college and who was also au pairing in Madrid, and I flew to Ibiza, Spain one weekend. We booked an Airbnb to stay in (which is usually the move when you’re trying to find an affordable place to stay).
I’ve stayed in a handful of Airbnbs, but this experience was a first: we had a private room in a woman’s apartment, while she was staying there. I had never had to interact with an Airbnb host before. While this lady was sweet as could be, she had not one, but two cats.
Every cat-lover always gasps and gets defensive when I say that I don’t like cats, but I have two valid reasons:
THE ONE WITH THE CHAPSTICKS
What I am about to share with you is one of my favorite memories from Anita, little Ana, my 7-year-old host sister from last summer. I hope that it makes you smile or laugh.
So, here goes.
THE ONE WITH OREO COOKIES FOR BREAKFAST
It’s not uncommon in Spain for people to have cookies and milk for breakfast, but I understood cookies to be a breakfast cookie, such as Belvita, because I had had something similar to those for breakfast in Sevilla.
One of my responsibilities was to help the girls get breakfast, but a lot of mornings they were up before the sun was and would start helping themselves when they saw me come out of my room.