Name: Annegret Schmitt
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Heimatland: Deutschland
Au pair in: New Orleans / Lousiana
Au pair Jahr: 2000 / 2001
Au pair Kids: Will (7) und John (4)

Über Annegrets Au pair Jahr: Will und John sind beide behindert (Hunter-Syndrom)

Annegret's Au pair Jahr

I have always wanted to spend a year abroad and as going over to the U.S. in high school didn’t work out, my next option was to become an au pair. Once I had decided to participate in such a program everything went on really quickly.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS?

THE INTERVIEW

I had sent in my application form in winter 1999 and was invited to my interview in early February 2000. I remember being really nervous about it, but looking back now I have to admit that it wasn’t worth it.

What all of you future au pairs out there have to realize is that this interview is not a matter of pass and fail. They are going to ask you questions, such as why you want to be an au pair, what you plan on doing with the children and there is also going to be a little psychological test - i.e. some 50 or more questions, which you have to answer with yes or no. Not a big deal at all!!

When the interview was over I was told that the first families were probably going to call me in March or April.

MARCH 2000

And then it just happened. On one fine day in March a family from New Jersey called me. Unfortunately I wasn’t at home at that time, but they had promised to call again the next day. That’s when I was told they needed an au pair immediately, which was not possible for me due to my final exams in May…

APRIL 2000

In April I got a lot of calls. The first family was from Chicago. The mother was on the phone and she started asking me questions, such why I think I would be the perfect au pair for her family a.s.o. To be honest, I have never been good at “selling” myself, so needless to say that this family didn’t call me back as they had promised.

Next was a family from Washington, DC. They sounded REALLY nice and I was so happy that other family had not called me again. The parents of this family even wanted to talk to my parents to ask how they feel about my leaving – which was a problem because neither my dad nor my mom are very good at English. French would have been something else, but English?? Oh well, they ended up calling me every other day for about a week and then sent me an e-mail that they had decided in favor of another girl… That was a very sad day, believe me. ?

MAY 2000

At the beginning of my I got four calls on one day:
1. A family from New York with 5 (!) kids – one girl, four boys. (You get the point, right?) ?
2. Berkeley – the city would have been perfect for me, because I simply LOVE San Francisco, but five minutes after I was told they would call me back, I got a phone call from the agency that they had decided to take someone else.
3. Washington (again) – This time I got to talk to the current au pair first, which on the one hand was nice, because I was able to ask questions about how she liked it over there, but I thought it was rather strange that the parents didn’t talk to me at all… Anyway they said they were going to call again.
4. New Orleans – veeeeeeeeryyyyyy nice. Actually when Laura called me it was really late - 10 p.m. or so and was the day before my final exam in history… This call, however, made the big difference. It was the first time that I wasn’t asked questions, such as “Would you ever spank a child?” or “How will being an au pair affect your future life?”. No – Laura just started talking – about the boys, Will and John, that they were special needs but “cute, cute, cute”, about Bob and herself, and about their last au pair Anja. She immediately gave me her e-mail address and told me that she would be back for three weeks in summer and that they would try to schedule her visit so that we could meet. I think Laura was talking for 15 minutes and I didn’t have to say a thing. I was just listening. And just now I thought that this has made a big difference, because it was the first time I had the feeling that the family was putting some effort into that whole “phone call thing”. She also promised to call me again.

The next day I immediately sent an e-mail to Anja to ask questions about the family. I didn’t have to wait a long time till I got an answer: “They are the BEST.” (And, yes, they ARE!!)

Anyway, to make a long story short – I accepted the offer from New Orleans. Some of you might wonder whether I wasn’t afraid to take care of two special needs children. After all I didn’t have any experience. A lot of the au pairs that I met during my year said they could not have done it. And if you are one of those then I strongly recommend not to accept an offer from a family with such kids.

I really wasn’t afraid – I didn’t know what was coming my way either, but I was sure I had made the right decision, because the Cowins were the only ones I had felt comfortable with on the phone. Because they made me feel like they really wanted ME to be their au pair and no one else. Because they made me feel like part of their family even before I was there. I think it just clicked.

JULY 2000

The day I left was a Wednesday morning, a beautiful summer day. And even though I had been so sure I wanted to make this big step, if someone had asked me to stay at home this morning, I think I would have. But that is only natural, I guess. When you are about to leave your family and friends for a whole year then you’d better have some doubts or something is wrong with you…. ?
I left from Frankfurt and I had to change the plane twice – in Amsterdam and in Detroit. It was in Detroit that I realized that one of my suitcases was missing, but nobody there could help me and I was told to talk to someone in New Orleans about it. Fortunately my host family helped with it or I don’t think I would ever have seen my suitcase again. It took the airport a WEEK to send my bag to me – and that was not the worst thing. I had put all my underwear and cosmetics in this suitcase…. Not very smart. So when you are packing your bag you should try to distribute your clothes more evenly. ?
My first day with my “new family” was more or less a first night, because I got in very late. The drive home took about an hour or so and we had a lot of time to talk. Because we had been writing e-mails ever since I signed the contract they knew about my Abitur, the problem of finding a nice dress for the graduation ceremony, my sister’s wedding and so that was what we talked about it.
Unfortunately I can’t really remember anything about my first impressions of the boys – I do remember them sitting behind me in the van while we were driving home, but other than that – nothing. But let me tell you – they are the cutest kids I have ever seen!!!
Somehow I felt at home right from the beginning. And I don’t remember being homesick except for Christmas. But that is a different story…
This first month I spent getting used to my daily routine. When I first arrived the kids were still on vacation and because summers in Louisiana are very hot and humid the only thing that we could do was spend the days at the neighborhood pool. Most of time the boys and I had it all to ourselves, which was nice.
Once the school had started I only had to work in the afternoons when the boys got home from school, usually from 3.30 to 8 p.m. My day off was Thursday, half off was Friday. I would usually baby-sit the boys on either a Friday or Saturday night, so Bob and Laura could go out. I’d also be with the boys on Sunday mornings when Bob and Laura went to church.
Unlike most of the other au pairs I didn’t have my own car, but that really wasn’t necessary, because I could have to car in the evenings to go out and also on the weekends.
Which leads me to the other au pairs: all of them lived on the south shore (of Lake Pontchartrain that it) and I was the only on the north shore. For all of you out there who do not know what this meant for me, let me explain: I didn’t live to far away from New Orleans, only about 30 miles or so. But the problem was that you have to cross a very long bridge: The Causeway… (Somewhere I read that it is the longest over-water-bridge in the whole world!)
I don’t think any of you can imagine how terrible driving on this bridge is unless you try it yourself. Especially when it’s dark or raining or windy, or all three!! But that (again) is a different story.
Anyway, it would take me 45 minutes of driving to see the other au pairs – but there is nothing you can’t get used to, right?
At the end of the month I met Désirée, a girl from Heidelberg who took part in a high school exchange program in Ponchatoula, a small and really terrible town close to where I lived. We ended up doing A LOT together: I used to drive to Ponchatoula almost every evening to see her and she came over to my house at the weekends. We’re still very close friends, even though we haven’t seen each other in a while. ? (Right, Brain?)

AUGUST 2000 – The Causeway Disaster

Nothing of particular interest happened in August, except for the Causeway story I promised to tell you about. It was a Saturday night I had gone over to the south shore to meet a new au pair from France. The meeting was nice, but on my way back home a BIG (and I mean big) thunderstorm hit New Orleans – of course I was driving on the bridge at that time. I pulled over at one of the crossovers to call home and ask if everything was alright on the north shore and I was told that it was fine to cross the bridge. But then it started to rain to heavily that I could hardly see anything, the wind was blowing so hard that the car (a Chrysler mini van!) was shaking and what frightened me the most were the waves on the lake. Now, you might understand WHY that was so scary: there are NEVER waves on the lake. Never.
So once again I pulled over and called Bob and told him how scared I was and that I didn’t want to go on driving on the bridge during this weather. He offered to come and pick me up, but I thought that if he could drive on the bridge then I probably could too. He also said he could call the Causeway police to come and pick me up. But I didn’t want that either. So I drove back home, very slowly and scared to death. I could really see myself swimming the rest of the way over to the north shore…
When I got back home, Bob, Laura and some of their friends were already waiting for – they all agreed that indeed it must have been terrible on the bridge as all of them had been in comparable situations. But whatever they said it didn’t help to calm me down, so they gave me some Advil and sent me to bed.
It took me about two weeks before I dared to drive on the bridge again.

SEPTEMBER 2000

September was an exciting month. I went to see my first (and only) football match at Desi’s high school. It was really boring and Ponchatoula lost. As I didn’t know anything about the rules I asked Bob to explain it to me and he tried his best. (Hey Bob – 1st&10!) Still I couldn’t really develop a passion for football – but at least it was more interesting than baseball. ?
At the beginning of my stay Laura had signed me up for a volleyball team at Pelican Park, a local health club. The registration form said “for people 18 and older”. I had been looking forward to the start of the volleyball season for along time and so I was really excited when I went there for the first time. BUT: when I got there I was told that my name wasn’t on the list and so I wasn’t on any of the teams either. But the people there were really friendly and one of the teams offered me to play with them. Before I went there I thought that I was going to meet people my age, college kids I could go out with or so. But somehow I think the people at the health club got that “18 and older” thing wrong – it rather seemed to me like “80 and older”. The youngest member of team was at least 20 years older than me… So, even though I went there every week I didn’t really enjoy it. ? (B&L: remember Frank or Fred?)
It was also in September that I met my counselor for the first time – Michelle. In the beginning I thought she was really nice, but she didn’t turn out to be good at her job. Whenever we met her, we went to the movies – and the movies is not a very good place to talk. I mean, I didn’t have any problems, but still, when I’m meeting my counselor I expect her to sit down with me and talk to me, and not to just go to the movies and bring some of her friends, right?
At the end of the month it turned out that Desi had problems with her host family and that she wanted to change the family. Bob and Laura tried everything so Desi could stay with us, but something didn’t work out with the high school in Mandeville and so she had to go to another family in Ponchatoula. Even though this family wasn’t much better than the first she was at least able to stay.
It was around that time that my “Ballroom Dancing” class at Delgado college started. Delgado is on the south shore and I had only been there once with Laura who wanted to show me the way. I was SO sure that I knew the way that I just hit the road (Desi was with me) and after a while I was completely lost in the New Orleans. I ended up driving around town for about three hours… As it was too late to go to the class anyway, I decided to call home. “Where are you?”, was the first question. “I don’t know”, was my answer. You probably can imagine that it took a while longer to get me back on the way home. I cancelled my dancing class the next day.
On the last weekend in September we moved from Mandeville to Covington, to a new and very beautiful house (where I got the biggest room by the way…).

OCTOBER 2000

At the beginning of month I participated in a 5K road race “The Race for the Cure” in New Orleans. It was quite an experience. I had originally planned on participating in a 10K – but hey, everybody has to start SOMEwhere, right?
Desi and I made a lot of tours during this month. We went to the New Orleans Arena to see the American Olympic gymnastics team, to Destrahan Plantation (where they made parts of the movie “Interview with the Vampire”) and Oak Alley Plantation a.s.o.
And then I did it again. It was Sunday October 15, 2000. And I like call it: “An I-55 Odyssey”. Laura had once told me that taking the interstate to come back from Ponchatoula would me much faster, so I decided to give it a try. I was driving through the swamp on an elevated highway, the sun was going down and everything looked really beautiful, and I already imagined myself telling Laura: ”Yeah, you know, it was really beautiful, but I don’t think it’s faster.”
The reason for this was simple – it was not faster, because I was going south instead of north. I ended up driving around the whole lake until I finally arrived in New Orleans after about 2 hours or so. But hey – that’s the way to get to know Louisiana…. ?
The 31st of October, Halloween, I spent in the French Quarter. There were SO many crazy people out there and I didn’t think it could get any better. But I didn’t think that for long, only until Mardi Gras…

NOVEMBER 2000

One of the weekends in November I spent in Destin, Florida with the other au pairs. It’s only a four hour drive and so we went there ear y Saturday morning and came back on Sunday night. We had a lot of fun. The water was even warm enough to go swimming! Really nice.
I had asked Bob and Laura for the car, because all of the others only had “small” cars and we had the mini van. Even though I didn’t really want to ask because I thought that it might not be appropriate I did it – and they said yes without hesitating. THAT WAS SO NICE! (B&L: If you were here right now I’d give you a huge hug!!!!)
Bob’s parents came to see us for Thanksgiving and we had a great time. Our turkey was so big that it had to bake for 6 hours!!
The next day Desi and I took the boys to the movies: “The Grinch”. All of us hated it. Whereas it was obvious why we didn’t like it (for obvious reasons, it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen), you could tell the boys didn’t like it because they started kicking the seats in front of them. We ended up taking them on our laps, but they were moving so much that by the time the movie was over, we were sweating like pigs…
The following evening we went to see the Nutcracker at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans. Because there was an important football match at the same time the traffic was so bad that we almost missed to beginning. The police had closed some of streets and we would have had to take a long detour to get to the theater. I was so frustrated that I started to cry because the tickets had been so expensive and everything else – fortunately a very nice police officer saw how miserable I was and let us through one of the closed up streets… (Looking back now I think that was really embarrassing, but at least we got to the theater on time…)

DECEMBER 2000

We had another meeting with Michelle this month. This time she had prepared something really spectacular for us – we went ice-skating in City Park. That was the first and only time I liked meeting Michelle. We really had a lot of fun – and a lot of bruises the next day!
From December 21-28 Bob and Laura took me and Desi up to New York to spend Christmas with their families. That was one of the BEST trips!
Our flight to New York, however, was chaotic. There was not enough gas in the car and we were afraid we weren’t able to make it to the airport, then there was a traffic jam on I-10 and well, in the end we really had to run to our gate, which was really a hard job with all our luggage and the boys. ? But we made it.
Desi and I got to go to New York several times. We saw Rockefeller Center, the big Christmas tree, 5th Avenue, the Statue of Liberty and Radio City Music Hall where we went to see “Christmas Spectacular”.

The 12 days of Christmas
In order to get our presents Desi and I had to sing the song “The 12 days of Christmas” – one verse at a time for each of our presents. After singing one verse we would get a hint to where our present was hidden. ? B&L gave us so many nice things – I really didn’t expect any of this, because they had already flight for our flight o New York and everything else. I don’t think I have ever met people who are so generous. But what can I say?
Dear future au pairs, I do not want to discourage you. I would love to say something like: It can always get better, but NO: in what concerns the host family: I cannot get any better than this. I’m not saying this because I got a lot of presents at Christmas. To say it once again: I felt welcome, love and as a part of the family right from the beginning. And I feel that I can never say thank you often enough. What would I have done without them?? I don’t know. But I guess what I wanted to say was: You might find a nice family, but they can never be as wonderful as mine! (Ha!)