entry 04
Now that it keeps getting closer and closer to June, it’s starting to sink in to me that — barring any crazy and frustrating circumstances — I am actually going to graduate. I don’t actually even trust the thought yet, so it’s not even happy-making, so much as just … unreal. And maybe a little scary, because oh my god, what comes next?
So I’ve been thinking a lot about that this week. Careerwise, well. I’m not qualified to go on into academia and graduate school. Publishing, whether books or comics, is really cutthroat, and I don’t have any internships or editing experience coming out of college. Library science is still a definite possibility, though: the program I’ve been looking at in New York offers a specialization in Rare Books and Special Collections, which is exactly where I’m most interested.
The thing is, though, before I do any of that, what I really want to do is go to Europe. If I don’t do it now, I probably never will, and it is something I want, almost desperately, and have for a long time.
Of course, I’m far from alone on this. There’s a long and storied history of poor desperate American kids with nothing to their names but a BA heading off to the continent. From what I can gather from research, there seem to be two main ways most of them achieve it: the first is teaching English, and the second is as an au pair.
I’m pretty sure teaching English is not the solution for me, though. There’s any number of problematic elements:
a) There’s not that many jobs in Europe, compared to other markets, like east Asia
b) Employers in Europe are way more likely to hire applicants who are already from the EU
c) TEFL is one of those things that’s gotten so huge it’s really incredibly hard to tell what is legit and what is a scam or just crappy
d) Most decent jobs require some sort of training, and courses are well over a thousand bucks
e) I’m not actually interested in teaching.
Being an au pair, on the other hand, sounds really appealling. You live with a foreign family, and in exchange for about 30 hours a week of helping with childcare and light housework, you get free room and board and some decent pocket money. (In the some of the programs I’ve looked up, they might even help pay towards your language classes, which, hey.)
The only real problem I see with this scenario is I don’t think I have enough childcare experience. I have some, at least. The entire fall of 2003, in between leaving Simon’s Rock and starting Evergreen, I spent at home babysitting for the 2-year-old and 4-year-old foster children while my parents were at work. Still, I don’t have any actual references. I guess that leaves the problem on what I can do within the next six months or so to make myself that much more qualified.
(Puck suggested that, since I still have a hole in my schedule for next term, I should consider taking a child development course, or something along those lines. This is a brilliant idea and I would totally take their suggestion, if it were not for the fact that I cannot find UO offering anything even vaguely similar.)
So, yes. So far my plans are to try and get more experience with babies and preschoolers, and to continue researching any other likely ways to get myself overseas. Advice is always welcome.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
actually, the way I did it was to apply for a bunac visa.
http://www.bunac.org/
I had originally thought about getting a visa for New Zealand and living on the South Island for a year, because I really enjoyed NZ the last time I was there and thought I could swing it for a whole year. But a friend in one of my last-term classes pointed out that the combined visa for Ireland and Britain was only available to undergraduate students who had just completed (or were taking time off from) their schooling. And since visas for work to both countries are f’n hard to acquire for Americans, I figured what the hell and applied.
It’s uphill at first, because you really have to pay out for the visa, and the plane ticket, and getting yourself set up wherever you decide to live. But every time I moved I found places to live, jobs, and friends within a week. Granted, they’re English-speaking countries, and NSM on the continent, but flights are really easy and cheap, and as attractive as living in, say, Switzerland and working is, it is about a thousand times harder when you don’t speak the language fluently. Using IRL/UK as a base for travelling is an excellent way to go about things.
Anyway, that’s how I did it, and when my visa finished I enrolled in graduate school at York, which is where I am now. I wouldn’t change my gap year for the world, I needed it so badly.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
That is actually *incredibly* helpful, thank you! It’s kind of relieving to know somebody who’s had such a good experience. I might email you more on this in the future, if you don’t mind.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
There’s always getting a nanny job. The summer is coming and they will be plentiful. This is part of the reason I’m working as a nanny now, for future au pair possibilities.
Except that, you know, I hate my job so much that it is making au pairing look so much less appealing.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:11 am
let’s go bunac in britain.
i mean, seriously. ultimately i’d like to land in the netherlands, but the uk is good too.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Susie: but wouldn’t I be even, like, less qualified for a nanny job? That’s a little scary. *ponders*
Puck: fun adventures are even more fun with a familiar face close by?