Nannying take two: Week one as an au pair in Luxembourg

View from Grund

So I'm back in Luxembourg and back to the whole stroller and early morning and wiping other people's asses thing, looking after Pepijn (3 1/2) and Olivier (1 1/2). I got here early Sunday evening, Pepijn spent the whole car ride back from the station chirping "hello Claire" repetitively, very cute! We had pizza for dinner, I took a stab at unpacking, and then had a chat with Rogier and Jacqueline. In theory I work Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and a couple of nights of babysitting, but for the next two weeks creche is closed so I am working a lot more, which is a good chance to really get used to the kids and vice versa, but also really draining when I'm still just settling in.

So the week has been a little bit of a blur! Monday started out fine, Pepi was originally great with me, but then when it was just me and him, he did something, I can't even remember what now, and after the usual drawn-out game of asking nicely and final warnings, I put him in the corner. Turns out the previous au pair had never had boundaries or punished him though, so it was a bit of a shock to his system and has made me his mortal enemy!

Home

Ollie is adorable, he's at a really cute age and while he's really a mama's boy, he doesn't mind me. He has a dozen words across all three languages, like he says 'shoe' in english, 'coco' (from 'encore') in french, and some weird ones like 'ice' or 'ijs' in dutch, when he actually means food'. Pepijn's english is mostly ok, usually really clear, but often he will talk to me in dutch (mostly when he's in a bad mood with me) and then I don't understand what he wants and he gets frustrated. I think I've heard more dutch this week than I heard in three months in Belgium!

Main road through Strassen

So most of the week has been spent playing around the house or in the backyard when it's sunny, the weather has been really terrible, often overcast and with patchy rain, but we did make it to the park one morning. I've worked six days this week and I'm still getting used to the early-to-bed early-to-rise thing again so I'm pretty shattered. I've spent a lot of that time trying to engage with Pepi, with limited success - I keep saying "two steps forward, one step back", as we will have half an hour of great time, like when we built a tent house or went digging for worms, and even just curling up on the couch together or playing with his toys, but the next half hour will see him push me away again. The whole 'no' thing is kind of new to me, I never really had to deal with it babysitting, and Arin would either do something happily, do something but in an angry manner, or just throw a full on tantrum from the beginning, there was none of this 'no, no, no, no, no' business, although after the first couple of days he has been giving in and doing what I wanted after the 'no' game, rather than ending it in screams and tears like he was at first.

Grund

And I have to keep reminding myself, three year olds are totally new to me, I've only babysat children who were Arin's age or older, so I have to give myself time to get used to his ways and learn as much as he has to get used to me, I'm still sure that after a couple more weeks things I will have won him over. It should also be easier once creche opens again, so that he is back to his normal routine and I have more free time to plan for some fun things to do. It's also a new experience being here more to help their mother instead of doing most of the child-raising myself like I was in Antwerp, its strange to just do as I'm asked and fetch things and keep the kids company, rather than be the one worrying about remembering everything we need for an outing, keeping track of how often kids have eaten and pooped, and juggling the kids with the cleaning and cooking. I feel quite lazy here!

The cat - I forgot her name :-S

I've been sending a lot of emails about joining various sports and clubs and voluntary things, but most won't start until September or are on during times when I am working. I got dropped off in the centre of the city on Tuesday and managed to find some information about the bus network before I had a coffee and walked around the park a little. I managed to bus back home ok, Strassen is technically its own town, but it only takes just over ten minutes to bus there from the centre, I guess it's like Belfast in Christchurch only Luxembourg Ville is a lot smaller than Christchurch! I could walk in, it's only 3km, but I will wait until I've got more spare time. I've gone for a lot of runs since arriving, and have learnt not to rely on GoogleMaps to plan a route that will be the right distance and not see me killing myself - after the flatness of Belgium and Germany, I forgot that GoogleMaps doesn't show hills, although the inclines in my neighbourhood still don't compare to running around Wellington!

Lights down in Grund

I had dinner with an au pair from Sweden on Thursday, she's been here for four months so she showed me around a little, and it was perfect timing because Thursday was my worst day here, just when I reached that point where being in a new country and a new job without my normal support network was too hard, and I got stressed because I got held up by dinner and cleaning up and was running late and I got to the bus stop and needed a hug and wanted to cry. By the time I got off the bus I was fine, but still, it was good timing to be around someone of a similar age who is doing the same thing. We went down to Grund, a quarter of Luxembourg that sits in the valley below the city centre. You can take an elevator down to it, quite cool, and its full of old buildings and bars and a couple of churches and plazas and all, it was quite nice at dusk with the lights on.

Luxembourg Ville in the sun

On Saturday I met another girl from Spain, we did some shopping and had a drink. She is really cool, really spanish, we were both talking a mile a minute the whole time. It's great for me to be able to practice my spanish, but man, my poor head is getting so confused! In the last fortnight I've dealt with French, Italian, English, Dutch, German and Luxembourgish, so throwing Spanish into the mix again was tricky! Like I've said before, here in Luxembourg the official languages are French, German and Luxembourgish. I'm going to start German lessons in September, but I think my (currently almost non-existent) French will improve a lot here too, because they use it in shops and bars etc.

View from Grund

So far, everyone I have dealt with here has spoken some level of English, and done so with a really good sense of humour, I really like their happy joking manner. Luxembourg is totally different in the sun, you can really notice what I green city it is and it's now full of people sitting outside under umbrellas and tourists wandering around. I love how it's such an international city, at the park we could hear so many different languages being spoken, but there isn't the anti-immigrant feeling that was so obvious in Antwerp, everyone is a lot more open here. So, one week down and a few issues aside, I'm already feeling a lot happier here than I ever was in Antwerp, being so close to the city means I can actually get out and about, make friends and join stuff, and hopefully settle down into a routine for the next year!