ALINA, 25 YEARS

My name is Alina, I’m 19 years old and I live in Landsberg am Lech which is a beautiful small town near Munich in Germany. I have got one older brother who studies electrical engineering in Regensburg, my mum is a medical doctor and my dad a graduated engineer who studies psychology at the moment. I love spending time with my family. When my brother is in town we often spent time playing card games. This is always a lot of fun. So you have to prepare yourself…when I visit we have to play some games together!
But playing card games isn’t the only thing I love to do in my leisure time.
For a year now I have been enjoying going bouldering with my friends and family. It is similar to climbing in a climbing gym however you are not attached to a rope for safety and that’s why you only climb 3 to 4 meters high. It can be really exhausting but I enjoy the feeling of getting better each time I’m going bouldering.
Another hobby is playing the guitar. I played 8 years in a music school and now I only play for myself or with one of my best friends who is a musician.
I also enjoy cooking. The most things I know about cooking are the ones I have got from my mom. We often cook together and love to try out new recipes. But I have to be honest, I am not a star chef however I love to prepare healthy and fresh food.
Another thing I like to do in my leisure time is to go hiking in the mountains. Landsberg is a town near the Alps so it’s only a one-hour drive away from the mountains.
Sometimes I make weekend trips to the Alps with my family where we then live in a cottage, play games and go on some hiking trips.
I really enjoy doing a lot of different stuff but the one thing I enjoy most is travelling. I love sightseeing, eating different food or only walk through the streets of a beautiful city. Just before going to France I’ll visit Vietnam for about 3 weeks together with my very best friend and I’m already so excited about this experience. When I’ll come to you I can tell you about my trip and could also show you some pictures.
You now know a lot about the things I like to do in my spare time. But I also got some references in taking care of children.
Since I was a small girl I have been an active member in our church. I went to a lot of children camps and I met a lot of my friends there during this time. I loved being there in my childhood and therefore I also participated in a youth leader schooling at our church to be able to look after the children on for example these children camps. We often played games with the kids but also did some creative work like making posters with pictures from some magazines about more serious topics like poverty, dreams, “What makes you happy?”, etc.
It’s always interesting to see how children think about topics like these.
Another thing I did was babysitting a little boy named Constantin. I started babysitting him when he was 4 months old and now he’s already older than 2 years. It’s crazy how the time flies. I loved babysitting this little guy and I’m also good friends with the parents. It’s a little hard for both of us that I’m leaving.
One of my jobs this summer was working as a youth leader for a children holiday program in a climbing gym in our neighbouring town. I was responsible for the afternoon program for children in between the age of 6 and 11. We went to a park, to the cinema or played some games at the playground. This was really one of the best summer jobs I had.
As you can see I did many different things with children and it was always a lot of fun. Also due to my babysitting job I think being an au pair would be the right thing for me.
Living so far away from my family and my home for such a long time will be an exciting experience for me. I’m looking forward to this interesting time and I know my family and friends will give me a lot of support