Sunday 8 July 2012

Ciao bella! Au pair time

Ciao!


I am in the beautiful Alassio, Italia, this month working as an Au pair for a wonderful family. 


I just wanted to write a quick post as to what au paring is and what you have to do! 


What is an Au pair?
An au pair is usually a domestic assistant from abroad, living and working for a host family. 


What can an au pair do?
1. Help out around the house
2. Clean up toys that the children have left lying around the house
3. Cook basic meals for the children (n my case the mother usually takes care of this every time!)

What au pairs should not have to do:
1. No intense cleaning, such as clearing/sweeping out the garage- you are not being paid for manual labour!
2. No house hold maintenance


The primary responsibility of an au pair is, of course, child care. An au pair can provide up to 45 hours per week of care for the children. If the children are babies/very young, the au pair will help change nappies, give them baths and care for them. If the children are a little older, the au pair should take them to activities, play games with them and in my case, help them to learn English. 
My primary role as an au pair is to help improve on the child's English as he is an Italian boy. This means constant chatting whenever you are around them and playing games that can encourage the use of English at all times. 


Well,  I hope this has been of some use to anyone who is thinking about wanting to get a job over the summer. Being an au pair can be a very rewarding experience and an exciting challenge as well as getting to travel abroad and learn another language!



Here's a snap of the beach where we spend most of the week, it's a hard life being an au pair!


Has anyone 


Arrivederci!


Love,


E-L xo

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Liebster Award!

Thank you Jesslyn for this lovely award, it was very kind of you! If you'd like to visit her blog click here, and I suggest you do! The Liebster award is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers!

The rules:
1) Each Person must post 11 things about themselves.
2) Answer the questions the tagger has set you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer. 
3) Choose 3 people and link them in your post.
4) Go to their page and tell them.
5) Remeber, no tag backs!

Ok, so here goes:

11 things about myself:
1) When I was younger, I wanted to be a caterpillar so I could grow up into a beautiful butterfly. 
2) Nearly everyone over the age of 25 has tried to call me Emily (except my parents)
3) I've fallen into my fish pond more than once 
4) I used to scooter
5) I unplug everything in my room before I leave the house
6) I check I've locked the door more than once
7) I love painting with my fingers
8) I used to talk to my dog
9) I don't have a middle name 
10) I get withdrawal symptoms if I've been away from the beach for too long
11) I ran at the London Olympic Stadium and it was AWESOME

So Jesslyn asked me 11 of her own questions:

1) Who is your inspiration to do make up?
My inspiration came from watchinf YouTube videos of the amazing beauty Guru that is Michelle Phan- simply amazing!
2) What is your favourite make-up brand?
Estée Lauder 
3) Do you have any pets? What animals do you like?
I have lots of fish and I used to have a German Shepherd dog named Trojan. I love all animals but I adore Tigers.
4) What do you think you are best at?
Probably being the calm one in a stressful situation.
5) What hair colour do you think is best?
Brunette of course!
6) What is your everyday clothing?
I love to change my look every day to suit my mood, so I don't really have an everyday clothing, unless you count tights, I ALWAYS wear tights!
7) Which part of your body are you really proud of?
My hands.
8) Wavy or straight hair?
Straight.
9) What pops out in our mind when you see the word 'muffin'? 
Blueberries... I love blueberry muffins!
10) Chocolate muffin or banana muffin dipped in honey?
Banana muffin dipped in honey.
11) What is the last song you heard? Change one word with donkey.
Poem for Donkey (Real title= Poem for Eva by Bill Frisell)

And these are the questions for those I nominate:
1) Why do you write?
2) What is your favourite pass time?
3) Where is your favourite place to be?
4) What piece of make up can you not live without?
5) When did you last write a blog post?
6) Dark, white or milk chocolate?
7) What is your favourite colour?
8) What do you aspire to be, if anything?
9) Do you speak more than one language? If so, which ones?
10) Do you desire to travel?
11) What are you most afraid of?

Here are the 3 people I nominate for the Liebster award:

Thank you again Jesslyn for the nomination, remember you can find her blog by clicking here!




Love,

E-L xo