Hi everybody!

I already made an article in Dutch, but as I also have a few foreign friends, I thought of making a translation of the previous article.

As the most of you probably know, have I wanted since a few years to become an au-pair in the United Kingdom, after passing my pre-university education. After a year, becoming an au-pair in the United States also appealed to me, but after more research, it didn't seem that great to me. In the United States, you will be regarded as an adult when you are 21, which means going out etc. isn't allowed for me, as I am only 18. Besides that, I read in travelling stories from other au-pairs in the United States, that most au-pairs there are 21 and that au-pair families prefer an older au-pair.

Last year october (2011) I went to Venray with my dad to attain a info event of the au-pair program of Travel Active, a gapyear agency. We also went to Worthing (South-England) in february this year to experience a bit of the English culture. My dad and I were very enthusiastic about it and from then I was absolutely determined to become an au-pair in the UK. I couldn't wait to live for a few months in England! But before that, I first needed to pass my final year of highschool. The year wasn't easy at all, and after the time passed by, my marks only decreased. Due to that and to the fact that I was totally fed up with school after 7 years of ‘secondary school' (In Holland we only have primary school, secondary school and after that university or college), my motivation only decreased. I had to encourage myself every day again to put enough effort in school without the guarantee that it would pay off in the end. Because even though I did do my best for certain subjects, I couldn't see that in my results. You might think my plans for the year after would be a good trigger to do everything I could for school, but it also made me more nervous. What if I would fail? Another year of secondary school? Hell no! In that case I wouldn't be able to go to England an I could start an 8th year of secondary school. Fortunately I've found a lot of inspiring quotes through the year and I always got the support of my boyfriend, friends en parents.

Before the exams I had one 4 and 2 marks that I easily could bend to a 5 (In Holland we work with ‘rounded' marks, not sure if that's the right translation). Besides that the new rule that we had to achieve an average of 5,5 on all the finals exams together, made me also scared. Needless to say so that I was quite nervous for the exams. I didn't dare to check out the answers of the exams that appeared after every exam on the internet. But to be honest, neither was I convinced that this answer model gives you a good impression of your final mark. History for instance has a short answer model, while a lot of answers are possible, as long as you give the right elaboration. Furthermore, I used for each exam the full time (3 hours), so I didn't have the time to write all answers over.

German and English were the only exams I dared to check on the internet and they were also quite easy to check, as they existed out of multiple choice questions and questions that required a concrete answer. I made German well, English not too well. About the other exams I had a worse feeling, so when I got my results last Thursday, I really held my breath. An hour seemed an eternity, but when I still wasn't get called at 4 o'clock, my mum and I decided to raise the flag. It felt so unreal!

At school there was a lot of delight of course and most of my friends also turned out to be passed. I was quite excited to my marks and what seemed? My only insufficient mark was on Dutch, a 4.6 (everything above 5.5 is regarded as sufficient). I got my first sufficient mark on mathematics in 3 years time on my final exam and my second highest mark was on economics (7.2), while I got a 5.5 on my school results. I expected an insufficient mark on a lot of subjects, but even though I didn't find Dutch an easy exam, I couldn't image to achieve an insufficient mark on that subject, especially because it was my highest mark on the school results. What appeared? I made a mistake in counting the words in the summary (The Dutch exam exists out of an reading exam and summarising an article), so I used way too many words for it. I lost all the point I could achieve for that part of the exam (16 out of 49). Because it's a stupid mistake and because I am convinced I can do better, I will do the retake next Tuesday. I have got nothing to lose, so why shouldn't I just try?

Now I am getting used to the idea of being passed, I can finally arrange my hostfamily. Such a crazy idea, I have been looking forward to this for so long and now it is getting close, I also find it scary. Will I go with a gapyear agency or will I just arrange a family on my own? What if I get homesick? My family and especially my mum isn't too delighted about the idea of me going away for a few months, but in the end I will gather life experience and hopefully I will learn to speak the English language fluently! A lot of people recommend me going with an agency, because I could get exploited by the hostfamily otherwise. I do realise that an agency will arrange a family for me that matches with my personality and will help me when I find out the family isn't what I expected them to be. But I also can search this out on my own and nobody can hold me back to leave, as I wouldn't have a contract. It's something I should research the next weeks, if it would be a wise decision to search for an au-pairfamily on my own around Southampton. Southampton is a university city in the Southern part of England and it has 270.000 inhibitants (also it's bigger than Groningen that has ‘only' 190.000 inhibitants). Why I chose to go to Southampton? Well, the Southcoast appealed to me anyway, as I love the sea and I am not too keen on big cities like London. Besides that I got to know my boyfriend in the beginning of this year and he lives near Southampton. I wouldn't make this story longer than it already is, but most people who are close me already know the story anyway:).

That was a long first story! I hope you enjoyed this and the next stories probably won't be that long. I am planning on publicing all the developments in my au-pair adventure on this blog, so when there are updates, I will definitely let you guys know!

Xxx Harriëtte