I have been reading a lot of other blogs and it really makes me want to blog! The only problem being that I literally have nothing to blog about. In all the other people's blogs they talk about how they have so much more to say but no time to say it in. I am the complete opposite, maybe I could be their personal blogger?
Anyway, I thought that perhaps you (by you I mean, you the person reading my blog at this very moment, because I'm sure someone, somewhere must be- even if it's accidental) may like to know some more about me? I can almost hear you all, in your thousands, screaming how nothing would make you happier.
Well I'm Samantha, I'm not going for anonymity (is that a word?) but am going to leave out my last name at this stage. There is a picture of me though so I'll just have to try not to say anything too controversial. I'm 18 years old and am going to be an au pair at the end of August! I cannot wait! If you are a keen reader of my blog you will have already got that information from my other posts but I don't have a lot more to say.
Why do I want to be an au pair and what am I hoping to get out of it? At the moment, I quite like children. (Ignore the fact that I'm pretty sure I will have been sacked from my babysitting job after yesterday, but that's an entirely different kettle of fish. They're the sort of children that need to be left to cry themselves to sleep after I hear them bitching about me!) I also like the French language, a lot. I would say I'm pretty good already but I will stay in France as along as it takes for me to become fluent. I study it for A level, in fact I have an exam on Tuesday and yes, I know I should be revising but I seriously lack in motivation. The third reason for becoming an au pair is because I want to travel and move out and all that stuff that other people that go to uni do, but I don't want to go to uni. Well, it's not that I don't want to- and YES, I did get some offers! Well two, but who's counting? I might go in the future but I don't know for definite what I want to do (I'm considering being a primary school teacher but after a year with three little boys, this idea may change!) I'm not one of these people that go to university just for the crack. It's 9 grand a year fees for goodness sake! And that's before food and accommodation and all the partying, which is the real reason that people actually go to university! I mean I'm all up for partying, but I'm not going to pretend I want a degree just so I can waste tax payer's money on it. I, as someone who knows very little about politics, believe that the economic state that we find our country in is down to universities. The government encourages everybody to go to university (yes, go if you want to be a doctor or rocket scientist or something of use, but the people that go to study sport and leisure and come out of uni with a job working in a leisure centre along with 16 year olds without GCSEs are the biggest waste of space known to man) and then gives them over £27,000 worth of loans which they don't encourage you to pay back. Perhaps if they gave more of that money to people who needed it, ie. NHS, not just people that scrounge benefits (probably on thin ice right about now but it's ok as no one reads my blog), the country would be a lot happier!
I apologise for my rant especially as I've probably got most of my facts wrong, but that's just how I feel about the whole university situation. Oh and don't even get me started on student protests! They can piss right off, but that's for another day! So to conclude, the reason why I'm going to be an au pair rather than go to uni is because I'm hoping this year away from education (apart from the French lessons which I am struggling an unbelievable amount to sort out, more on that later...) will help me decide what I want to do in the future and whether I would need to go to uni for this to be possible. You never know I may go to uni in France or some other country.
I know that you are now all (I use this term lightly) on the edges of your seats wondering what problem I am having with sorting out my French lessons. Well the wait is over because now seems like a perfect time for me to tell you. (Anything to get out of revision!) A couple of weeks ago I was Skyping my au pair family and we were discussing the French lessons that I will do once I'm in France. (I'm not sure if they're compulsory but I want to do them anyway so I can people people and stuff). The Dad of the family told me to look for lessons from Institut Catholique or Alliance Francaise. Both websites are in French which I can deal with but they also translate so I of course chose this option being as lazy as I am. Anyway, neither give any information about lessons whatsoever. Well they do but nothing that I understand (even when it's translated into English). So I decide that it would be easier if I just emailed them my specific requirements to see what they could do. I easily found an email address for Alliance Francaise and emailed them to say that I was coming at the end of August to be an au pair and all that sort of thing. They replied with information about lessons in July. I emailed in French so maybe I didn't make complete sense but I'm pretty sure le fin d'Aout means end of August! I didn't give up hope and emailed again saying that I was looking lessons that would start in September. I did get a reply but they were chatting about something like 4 weeks of lessons for an extortionate amount of money! I was looking for something a bit longer term and a bit cheaper. I am only earning 80 euros a week and have to go shopping and partying with that as well! I therefore decided against Alliance Francaise and decided to try Institut Catholique. (I'm not Catholic but I don't think this matters- perhaps it does which is why it was being such a pain in the deriere!) There is literally no way of contacting them at all on this website! Well, there wasn't an email address. There may well have been a phone number but I'm not going to phone France. I would make something up about the cost of international phone calls but I live at home so I wouldn't be paying. I'm not going to phone France because although I do speak fairly good French I have the worlds most Bristolian French accent. (I am from Bristol, but have only ever been told I sound Bristolian by people that live in Weston- I'm not sure why; or when speaking French.) So for that reason I will not be phoning them and we'll just have to wait until I get to France to sort out my lessons. Actually if anyone actually is reading this and has had French lessons in France whilst being an au pair before PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment and give me some advice on how to go about it. Thank you.
I think that is just about all I have to say for now which you (the reader, who I'm sure exists...) must be very grateful about as I'm sure I've bored your socks off. If you have actually read this and I have bored your socks off please remember that I am not yet actually in France and that my posts will (should) get more interesting so please keep reading this!!
