(upbeat music)
- Hello everyone.
My name is Brittany Dion.
I'm from Vermont in the United States
but I lived in Florida
for the past seven years
and now I'm in Barcelona, Spain.
I am an au pair so I live in the home of a family
and I teach English for VIP kid also,
and I do private tutoring.
So I start my weekdays by waking up at 8:00 AM
I get the kids ready for school,
so that's what I'm going to do now
and then I will talk to you guys more
after I dropped them off at nine O'clock.
Hello again,
so I just dropped the girls off at school,
it starts at nine.
So now I have from nine to 4:30 free
from my host family,
that I am,
I can do whatever I want.
So every day usually,
I go on a hike,
which is where I'm headed now
and I also do my VIP kid classes
while the girls are in school
and I am in my last semester of my masters,
so I'll study too.
So my weekdays really aren't that exciting,
but I'll show you some of the streets here
and then a view from the mountain
and send me your questions.
All right, so I've reached my destination of the mountain.
So I'll give you guys a view.
Out of Spain is really mountainous,
which I love there's hikes you can do everywhere,
which being from Vermont is awesome.
And then now I will also answer
a lot of questions
I've been getting in my personal Instagram DMs.
A lot of people are asking about COVID obviously
it's been a huge problem here.
Since lockdown ended in June I think
life has been pretty normal.
Nightclubs have been closed for the majority of the time.
Bars and restaurants have been opened,
but they just have to close at one.
But as of this Friday in Catalonia,
the bars and restaurants are closing again for two weeks
so they say, that's what they said the first time
and it was three months though so we'll see.
You have to wear mask everywhere you go
right now I'm hiking so I don't need to,
but normally you do.
And another big question I usually get
is about the visa that I have to live here.
So I actually came here on a tourist visa,
which is good for three months.
I have been here since January
so obviously that has expired.
I planned on border hopping,
but obviously that is impossible now as well.
So I am illegal here, but there are ways to become legal,
even though you are illegal.
Actually, a lot of people come here,
I'm not recommending you do this,
but you can come here legally
and if you prove that you've been living here
for three years,
you can get a residency visa and you can work here.
Or there's (speaks in foreign language) visa
where if you're lucky enough
to find a relationship here,
you can just say, you're in a relationship
and live with that person and you also can get a visa.
So now I'm trying to decide if I wanna stay here long term
and do one of those things
or if I wanna go back to the U.S
something I need to figure out pr...
Okay, so one thing ITA wanted me to talk a lot about
is my home stay,
because I guess it hasn't really been spoken about
a lot on this,
but so I found my family through a website called
AuPairWorld.com.
I was at my job I worked
for the government of Florida, actually.
So very simple job.
And I was thinking,
"Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life
"just come to an office and work eight hours a day
"and then never live abroad?"
Which I always wanted to do.
So I went on the website, got contacted by this family.
I always knew I wanted to be in Barcelona
I don't know why it just instinct.
So then I moved and everything has been good.
Having the TEFL cert really helped,
I think, 'cause a lot of these host families,
they expect you to teach their children English
so being a certified English teacher
really got me a lot of opportunities.
I got offers over the world to come
and stay with these families
but like I said, I wanna be in Barcelona.
So I came here and so as I said before,
I wake up at eight help the kids get ready for school,
which is really easy.
It's twins they are 11 year old girls.
So they're pretty independent.
I walk them to school. They have to be there by nine.
I have until 4:30 and then I go pick them up.
I bring them a snack to eat on the walk home.
And every day they have afterschool activities.
So I literally just walk them to their activities.
And one day a week,
I teach them English for two hours in the evening
and by 9:00 PM, I'm free to do whatever I want again.
So really it's pretty easy job.
I live with the family for free I eat th...
And they pay me per day.
So I make money and I live for free.
Plus my VIP kid classes
and my private tutoring for another family
I have been able to save money since living here,
which usually without the
at home stay people generally make even
because you don't really get paid too much here.
But with my opportunity
I've still been able to save money, which is great.
So I can travel and still save money for my retirement
'cause I'm old.
Alright, I'm back from my hike now and I'm showered
so now I'll do the apartment tour.
So this is our front entrance
kitchen,
pretty small messa.
Apartments in Spain
especially Barcelona area are pretty small.
Here's the living room slash office type area balcony
from the living room.
Like this way, here's the bathroom
the family shares.
I pretty much get a bathroom to myself.
Parent's room.
Here's the hallway in my bathroom.
It's pretty basic.
Here's the girl's room.
Then their balcony.
There is a extra room.
And then this is my room.
I literally just put my computer on this mini piano
and then this is my background
I have a whiteboard
and I have some tools in that closet, some props,
then my view out here.
And that's the apartment.
Another thing I wanted to talk about is to make friends,
especially during coronavirus is pretty hard.
Thankfully, I met some people in my first week here,
end up staying with a friend actually during quarantine.
So that was nice
but then during quarantine,
my only other one friend left.
So I made friends.
If you moved to a new country,
I highly recommend joining Facebook groups
like International Girls Gone,
whatever city you're at
or meetups, whatever city you're at for guys too
'cause it can be difficult to make friends
in another country, especially
if you're not fluent in that language.
So I highly, highly recommend looking up Facebook groups
before you go
start talking to people, messaging people,
even on the TEFL website,
TEFL Facebook is where I actually met my first friend
and then my second friend who introduced me.
So it's almost 4:30
I'm now on my way to back to the school.
It's like a five minute walk to pick the girls up.
Monday, Wednesday, Fridays,
they have football or soccer as we would call it.
So I literally pick them up from school, go home, change,
walk them to soccer
and then I'm free while they're at soccer.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays, they also have a tutor
and Tuesday, Thursdays,
they also have English class with an Academy.
So really I'm just walking them
to the afterschool activities
and while they're there,
I can do what I want also.
And Thursdays, I teach them for two hours.
And here's some street views,
pretty basic of Spain, small bars, restaurants.
I live in a residential area
so a lot of condos and that's it.
So I just picked up the grounds from school.
One of them is a little shy, so she won't be in the video,
but here's the on the other one.
Her name is Maria. - Hi.
- And they're not so bad.
Hi, hello?
Probably for the last time.
It's almost eight o'clock
I just got done my private tutoring
with the other family I work for.
I was there from six while the girls were at football
or soccer I mean,
and they now have a tutor at the house
while the rest of the time I was teaching.
So now I'm just going to go home.
I really don't have to do anything.
I'll probably just watch TV
and answer the rest of your questions
and if you wanna follow me on Instagram
for my everyday live, I'll leave my handle here.
(upbeat music)