Hola! Que tal? My journey to Lleida, Spain, started only around one and half week ago. I have had a profile on AupairWorld which is a website for people to inform themselves as an Au Pairs. I thougth to make a blog post about my leaving before I leave but the time was small-scaled. In reality, I got a positive request (for starting to exchange messages) on Friday. And one week later I was having my last overnight stay. On 22nd day was my flight to Barcelona.
The same day I got the request, I also had a Skype conversation and for two hours! The conversation was with the oldest chid (10-year-old) and her mother, but she was doing something else in the background. At the end we both seemed very sure that I could come. Somehow we were kindred. On the next day we talked more and the decision was made. I would move to Lleida.
I had finished my Upper secondary School in Finland and after that tried few kinds of jobs. In Spring, when the last application period was, I tried to enroll into University, but to be honest, I wasn't motivated to study for entrance exams. Also to get enrolled to some programs in Finland is hard. Or that's what I believe. Nevertheless, I still wasn't sure what to do with my future and what I would want to study.
Sooo... I had one week time to get all the things ready. From the start - when I was creating the profile - I wasn't even sure which country I was going to. As a criteria I put a few countries like France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain.... a vast range of opportunities existed. And then this family from Lleida appeared to be interested about my profile. Their profile were in Spanish. The mother wasn't speaking English. Three children and a city of 130.000 inhabitants. Nice.
1ª: I didn''t speak or read OR understand any Spanish (Castilian). Maybe some vague words you hear from songs by Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Ricky Martin etc.
2ª: I'm a person who likes to talk and especially if with somebody I'm going to use a lot of time. And still 'No hablo Español'.
3ª: For someones 130.000 is much, enough or too few. For me this was unsure; do I get bored quickly because if I get to known with the city and all the people. Will I know the city like the back of your hand?
4ª : Three children. Hehe, do I even have to tell more?
5ª: This is a addition to last paragraph for a reason. I attached a great importance to have a place where I could meet new people and get a lot of possibilities for a mass of experiences. To examine for these possibilities I opened the incredible world of Internet and started to search anything related to this certain city: Services, history, schools, communities, leisure time, people living there, living/working/study experience, Au pairs, groups.... Fairly almost nothing which made me scared about becoming to feel hermit there,
What have I done?
Now when I'm writing this, it is the fourth day. And I have been authentically busy. And I couldn't be more happy. As a consequence, I will continue in the next post.
Benvinguda a Lleida!
Bienvenido a Lleida!
