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Why should I go to Germany?
Germany is in the heart of Europe and stands up for the European
Union in foreign policy and for European interests on all levels.
Besides its economical renommee, Germany does have great cultural reputation.
Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Beethoven have influenced literature and music worldwide.
Other personalities like Einstein and Nietzsche have also emerged from the eventful
German history.
Since the German Reunification in 1990, the most important challange for german
policy and every single German is to bring East and West back together.
The German landscape is beautiful and interesting. You should
use your leisure time to travel through your host country (an au pair who stays
for a year has a 4 weeks holiday). There are a lot of regional differences between
e.g. the northern lowlands with their hanseatic cities, the Bavarian Alps and
its capital Munich, the cultural city of Dresden or the Rhineland, which was
very important during the Roman Empire. Each region has its own traditions and
ceremonies. You should prepare yourself for your stay in Germany with a good
travel guide - so that you can plan beforehands which places to visit and how
to arrange your free time.
As an au pair you will experience Germany in a very special way:
You will be able to participate in daily family life and this enables you to
become part of the german culture and way of living. You will probably learn
that most Germans are very fond of their family life, and their children play
a very important role. Some clichees of the Germans will turn out to be right,
like the Germans' love of order and their punctuality (with exceptions of course...).
Other clichees, like the Germans' comfortableness, hide behind professional
reality. You will experience that people who take an au pair usually work a
lot and do therefore enjoy their leisure weekends extensively with their family,
practice sports or make trips.
From time to time, you will surely have the opportunity to cook
a typical meal of your home country. Germans love to eat good food and are usually
happy and curious to experience something new. Since the 1950s Germany has given
home to many immigrants whose traditional food has quickly conquered the Germans'
kitchens. Besides the regional German food, you will therefore find a lot of
food especially from Italy, Greece and other South European countries. A lot
of families are very conscient of their health and well-being and do appreciate
if you prepare vegetables and fruit for their children.
Germany is often a model for environmental conservation and most families are
actively caring about it. Children already learn from a young age about recycling
and know how to separate the rubbish for instance.
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