1.

Welcome here!

I have been thinking about having my own blog for a long time. 

Let me introduce myself and tell you a little bit more why I finally decided to do that. 

My name is Natalia and I am from Poland. I am 22 years old.

2 years ago I decided to take part in a very special program which is a culture exchange program - Au Pair. An au pair is a nanny from a foreign country working for, and living as part of the family. Typically, au pairs share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework and get paid for personal use. 

24 months ago I left my home country and I came here - to the United States. Currently, I live in Texas, which is amazing. Please forgive me for all my grammar mistakes, but I will try my best to write correctly. 

My big inspiration to create this blog was my host mom. I never call her like this because I've never felt like I am taking part in a program or I live with strangers. From the beginning, I felt like I live with my family and we all support each other. One day I told her that  I used to have a blog. I showed it to her and she was amazed. She told me that I should create another one. Obviously, I didn't like this idea at the beginning... but then... I started thinking about this more and more!

I have a lot of fun stories to share with you. I would love to give you some advice if you want to start this journey. Let me know if you have some specific questions about the au pair program and I will try my best to answer and help you. 

My whole life I had a lot of different dreams. One of my biggest dreams was to come to America. After so many years my great dream came true. I came to the USA in July 2018. New York was such an amazing place. I've seen it only in the movies and it looked exactly the same as I imagined it. Times Square, rushing people, and yellow Taxi cars. Then I came to Texas. I was so excited about everything. Everything around me was so new, different, and interesting. After two years I feel like this place is my home. From the very beginning, I had a feeling that Texas is way different than other states. It has its own life and its own energy. 

I learned about American culture, traditions, style of life, just everything. I learn about America every day. Besides learning about America I am also a representative of my country, and represent to people my culture, life, and traditions. I did not make a lot of friends in the USA but not the number is important - the quality is.  I had a lot of great times, a lot of fun, and also I had some challenges. I think there were just a part of my experiences and made me a stronger person.

Before I left, I had so many questions and I could not find any answers.. I was in it all by myself.I did not have any friends who was au pair so I had no idea what to expect and what will happen when I get there.

Before I decided to come here many people asked me "why? "why do you want to do that? "aren't you happy here?" "why do you want to go to a place where you do not know anyone?" 

Honestly, I thought they don't understand me. My feelings were hurt. 

At that moment I felt like no one could understand what I feel.. like they don't care about my dreams and passions. Now I know why they said that. No one never did something like that in my family. Traveling abroad was not a common thing in my family and they were just scared about me going to a big, unknown world. I think people fear what they do not know.