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Aug. 30th, 2012 02:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lesmisloonyHey, so can you please give me some feedback on this?
After my second trial day at the host family I felt a little better than I had the day before, but then by the time I got back to the house I'm staying in I fell apart. The kids are cute but they're awful awful brats: they fight all the time but refuse to play separately, they insult each other, they scream, they hurt each other, they whine, and they don't listen at all. I could probably handle that but... the mother is SUPER picky and obsessive about things and had me convinced that her kids were strictly-raised angels. The weird thing is, when they turn into little monsters she doesn't even notice, she just brushes it off and talks over their shrieks. She has a million rules and if everything isn't done *just right* she gets antsy and redoes it herself.
I like the mom, the kids love me, but iajdajfklsaf I don't want to.
I thought things would be okay because I won't work much more than 20 hours a week, they'll give me my own studio that's far from their family apartment, and they were offering €450 a month. WELL then I found out that that sum includes phone, navigo pass, laundry, and... there is no internet in the studio. They said I'd need to get a 3G thingy to stick in my USB port, meaning no streaming videos and being essentially charged by the hour. HELLO, I SPEND ALL MY WAKING TIME NEAR A LAPTOP. And once all that, plus the price of my French classes, come out of the €450, don't forget that ALL my food is my own responsibility as well. It's starting to not look like that much money at all.
The mom and dad are really cool, but... I can't. I just can't. I can't figure out wifi on top of all this horrible visa stress (mine expires in ten days, so I have TEN DAYS to go make my appointment to renew the thing) and I can't be so underpaid for such bratty kids and I can't work six days a week. I talked to my mom on skype, and she agreed that if I'm this freaked out after two four-hour days, I shouldn't sign the contract with them and get involved for a full year. They keep telling me they had tons of applications, and instead of feeling honored I got picked I guess I should feel relieved that they have backup.
But if I tell this family no too (afjdksajfsdfj i don't want to let them down!) that means I have ten days of valid French legality before I figure something out. I checked around and with a little bit of lying from my boyfriend claiming I live with him, I should be able to BS my way into renewing my current "au pair" visa as a student visa, giving me the right to legally work 30 hours a week. If that works, I've got to find housing (this seems kinda easy since I'm very willing to room with someone at this point) and, the hard part, a job to pay for that housing.
If none of it works out, I guess I just have to give up and go on home now. Cue a year of me living with my parents and trying to find part-time work in the small town I came from until I can apply to NYU. I do want to go home, but I'd like to stay in France at least until December, especially after conning poor Phoebe into being an au pair here to have a friend. She arrives the day my visa expires.
Honestly, once the visa expires it's not like they're going to send someone to my house to evict me, so I could do a lot of under-the-table stuff if necessary. I just want to stay until I see 1789 and have a chance to say goodbye to Flo. If I can't see Vienna and Neuschwanstein and even London and Cardiff I'll live. Just don't make me leave without seeing 1789 and Flo again.
So yeah, sometime tomorrow this host family is going to call me about paperwork, and I have to tell them I've changed my mind. Even thinking about saying that makes me want to cry because I'm such a wuss and a pushover but I can't imagine a full year of listening to those little boys scream at each other while the mom frets around at the way I folded their towels after the shower. Honestly. The five-year-old can't brush his teeth by himself and the seven-year-old can't dry himself off after his bath.
I'm so nervous right now. I need people to tell me I'm doing the right thing by turning this down.
After my second trial day at the host family I felt a little better than I had the day before, but then by the time I got back to the house I'm staying in I fell apart. The kids are cute but they're awful awful brats: they fight all the time but refuse to play separately, they insult each other, they scream, they hurt each other, they whine, and they don't listen at all. I could probably handle that but... the mother is SUPER picky and obsessive about things and had me convinced that her kids were strictly-raised angels. The weird thing is, when they turn into little monsters she doesn't even notice, she just brushes it off and talks over their shrieks. She has a million rules and if everything isn't done *just right* she gets antsy and redoes it herself.
I like the mom, the kids love me, but iajdajfklsaf I don't want to.
I thought things would be okay because I won't work much more than 20 hours a week, they'll give me my own studio that's far from their family apartment, and they were offering €450 a month. WELL then I found out that that sum includes phone, navigo pass, laundry, and... there is no internet in the studio. They said I'd need to get a 3G thingy to stick in my USB port, meaning no streaming videos and being essentially charged by the hour. HELLO, I SPEND ALL MY WAKING TIME NEAR A LAPTOP. And once all that, plus the price of my French classes, come out of the €450, don't forget that ALL my food is my own responsibility as well. It's starting to not look like that much money at all.
The mom and dad are really cool, but... I can't. I just can't. I can't figure out wifi on top of all this horrible visa stress (mine expires in ten days, so I have TEN DAYS to go make my appointment to renew the thing) and I can't be so underpaid for such bratty kids and I can't work six days a week. I talked to my mom on skype, and she agreed that if I'm this freaked out after two four-hour days, I shouldn't sign the contract with them and get involved for a full year. They keep telling me they had tons of applications, and instead of feeling honored I got picked I guess I should feel relieved that they have backup.
But if I tell this family no too (afjdksajfsdfj i don't want to let them down!) that means I have ten days of valid French legality before I figure something out. I checked around and with a little bit of lying from my boyfriend claiming I live with him, I should be able to BS my way into renewing my current "au pair" visa as a student visa, giving me the right to legally work 30 hours a week. If that works, I've got to find housing (this seems kinda easy since I'm very willing to room with someone at this point) and, the hard part, a job to pay for that housing.
If none of it works out, I guess I just have to give up and go on home now. Cue a year of me living with my parents and trying to find part-time work in the small town I came from until I can apply to NYU. I do want to go home, but I'd like to stay in France at least until December, especially after conning poor Phoebe into being an au pair here to have a friend. She arrives the day my visa expires.
Honestly, once the visa expires it's not like they're going to send someone to my house to evict me, so I could do a lot of under-the-table stuff if necessary. I just want to stay until I see 1789 and have a chance to say goodbye to Flo. If I can't see Vienna and Neuschwanstein and even London and Cardiff I'll live. Just don't make me leave without seeing 1789 and Flo again.
So yeah, sometime tomorrow this host family is going to call me about paperwork, and I have to tell them I've changed my mind. Even thinking about saying that makes me want to cry because I'm such a wuss and a pushover but I can't imagine a full year of listening to those little boys scream at each other while the mom frets around at the way I folded their towels after the shower. Honestly. The five-year-old can't brush his teeth by himself and the seven-year-old can't dry himself off after his bath.
I'm so nervous right now. I need people to tell me I'm doing the right thing by turning this down.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-30 01:46 am (UTC)To me, the mom sounds like she might eventually turn into someone you resent. I mean, think about it. Could you really get along with someone who is so anal that she'll probably undermine your job the entire time you are trying to do it? It doesn't sound like it will be a good situation for you, especially with what you dealt with last year... I think the problem with taking care of other people's kids and houses is that you may need to discipline the kids, or take care of some household thing, but it's really awkward to do so when the parent/homeowner is going to be there to babysit you. I would be afraid to do anything, because the other adult in the situation might not agree with or like what you are doing.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-30 02:01 am (UTC)So basically, don't do it if you don't want to.