The Road So Far

Once upon a time there was a girl named Maggie. She was just about to get started on her final year at college and finish earning her English degree, when it suddenly occurred to her that she was going to have to find something to do after graduation. She wasn’t morally opposed to flipping burgers at a local fast food joint, but if she could help it, she decided that she’d really rather not.

What else was there, though?

Well, Maggie also had a bad case of wanderlust that made the Plague look like a topical rash. Desperate to get her feet wet and get out in the world, she started looking into options for overseas travel—overseas travel that would somehow, miraculously, pay.

And believe it or not, she found something.

(She’s also decided to stop talking in the third person. If anyone hadn’t figured out by now, I’m Maggie. And this is my story.)

So, believe it or not, I found something. How about working as an aupair in Europe? The benefits looked great, the experience phenomenal, I liked kids—and I had already started learning German. It seemed like a great option. So I looked into it.

And—miracle of miracles—it somehow worked out. I found a family in Germany that looked like a good fit. We started emailing back and forth…Then Skyping… And pretty soon, the whole shebang fell together.

As of July 7^th (I just bought my tickets Monday O.O) I will be flying to and staying in Germany, in the Frankfurt city center, for somewhere around a year. I’ll be staying with the Reichmann family (names changed to protect their privacy), working about 6 hours a day, and going to a language school to improve my sketchy-at-best German. (Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, aber ich brauche mehr für mein arbeitenvisa.)

It’s going to be an adventure, to be sure. I’ve been overseas briefly, a year ago, when my choir did a concert tour of the great cathedrals in England. And I’ve flown (*counts on fingers*) six times. But the first two don’t count because I was a tiny baby at the time, and the second four aren’t in the same category because I was with the choir. Following eighty-plus people through an airport is a totally different story than trying to navigate one alone.

Anyway, that’s the gist of how I came to have this adventure. Next time, I’ll tell you a little bit more about myself, and briefly introduce my host family so you know who I’m talking about when I write future entries.

Ciao!

~Maggie