As school was coming to an end and my time to join The Pelican of London about to begin, I came to the realization that I needed a position in Sevilla to work for the rest of the summer. After many hours of contacting hostels and other work-away positions only to be denied due to difficulties with my American passport, yet another opportunity came my way. Scrolling through the feeds of our common Auxiliar de Conversación page here in Spain, I came across a girl who mentioned that her host family was looking for a short-term au pair for the summer. After contacting her, she spoke highly of the family and the timing was near perfect. More emails and a few video chats later, I had set up a contract with the Martínez-Ancín González family as a live-in au pair for about 2 months until the end of August. As always, it came together.
Lucía and José were parents of two sweet boys, Josete who was 3-years-old and Jesú who was 16-months-old at the time. Together, they lived in an apartment across the river in the neighborhood of Los Remedios which turned out to be a wonderful place for families just outside the reach of crazed tourists in the center. Their apartment was quite large, but simply decorated. I was lucky enough to have a room and bathroom to myself during my stay -- I often found it the perfect hiding spot at the end of a long day with the kids. Both of the parents spoke a little English, but we preferred to talk to each other in Spanish to allow me to practice and to avoid any miscommunication. José worked remotely from home as an economist and Lucía worked as a civil servant for a company located near the cathedral in the center. At the moment, Lucía was pregnant with their third boy, so I understood how my presence in the house was already a big help.
My role as an au pair within their home was actually quite simple. I worked on the weekdays starting at 11am, but I had a midday break after lunch between 2:30pm and 5pm, before finishing off the night at 9pm. During my hours and within the house, I was to only speak to the boys in English and to keep them entertained with games or books as their parents went about their day. Typically, Lucía worked in the mornings and returned before lunch to cook. When I began in the mornings, José and I would take the boys on a long walk around the neighborhood and sometimes across the river. Once my afternoon break ended at 5pm, Lucía and I took the boys to El Nautico for a day at the pool. Often I helped set the table and clean after meals, and every once and a while Lucía would teach me how to cook a few dishes. I enjoyed getting out of the house with the family and meeting their friends and other family members on our walks and at the pool. Not only did my Spanish get much better, I quickly picked up an Andalusian accent as well -- meaning I got lazy! The days at work were repetitive, but by no means easy. Most of my free time was spent taking siestas or leaving the apartment to go on morning runs to Plaza España. The youngest boy, Jesú, was very sweet and loved to cuddle and read books. However, you always had to keep an eye on him as he had just discovered his love to climb onto high and dangerous objects. Josete was a bit more trying than his brother, but actually loved to learn English. While his younger brother was a bit more “adventurous”, Josete was a bit more rough. Nevertheless, he loved attention and still tried to crawl into my lap for a good book...but only when he decided it was the right one.
During my time with the family, I was also invited to join them on vacations around the area. I spent a beachy weekend with them in Rota and over a week at their family home in Ceclavín. During these times I also got to know their extended family, I learned to cook many traditional meals, and even made a few friends along the way. To this day, I am so lucky to have had this opportunity of living with a family here in Spain in order to experience things and travel to places that I wouldn't even know of without them. Here you can find links to both of these adventures:
Not only did I have the chance to meet and come to know many Sevillianos, but I also met many other au pairs along the way. I had a great group of friends here in Sevilla -- whom have unfortunately moved on and back home since -- and was able to travel with them as well. One of my favorite trips was actually made to Aracena just outside of Sevilla with a few au pairs whom I had only met the day prior. You can read about that by following this link: https://ryannvanderzwiep.wixsite.com/mysite/post/caves-castles-and-cured-cuts-oh-my
Overall, my experience as an au pair was very revealing, but I would not have changed one bit of it. My host family was wonderful and did their best to introduce me to Sevilla and include me in their everyday lives. I say “revealing” as to mean that while I had a great time with my host family, I also learned that I never want to be an au pair again. Taking care of kids -- especially ones that are not my own -- is exhausting. I have decided that while living with a host family has countless benefits, acting as a caretaker for their children is not how I want to spend my youth. I’m not ready to have kids of my own and I don’t see that happening in the near future. So, for now I want to enjoy my time without such great responsibilities and enjoy my freedom. Nevertheless, I am glad that I have had this experience -- including the amazing ups and terrible downs -- and I am very thankful to the Martínez-Ancín González for trusting me in their home and with their children for the summer.
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