Want to hear about my experiences as a Demi Pair in Sydney?

Hello to all readers of this blog. My name is Alfonso and I´m going to tell you some details of my Australian adventure. Travelling is always a rich and fruitful experience, so with the purpose of improving my English language communication I decided to embark on this new chapter in my life.
I work as a demi pair in a family formed by a mother and her son, as the father passed away a few months before my arrival. This circumstance, far from scaring me, seemed a challenge and a bigger  reason to live with this family. I wasn’t wrong, I couldn’t have chosen a better family and I am very proud to help this family. They are natural, environmentally and socially aware, they love to travel and have new experiences. To this I might add that their circle of friends is very warm too, so I felt as I was in my own home from the first day: I felt loved, useful and they help me in everything I need.

Working as a demi pair basically consists of:

• feeding the animals (cat, dog and hens)
• walking the dog
• doing the washing up
• taking the child to school and picking him up
• In short helping in everything I can. Normal and routine tasks that I would do in my own house so it does not require a great effort. Of course, it takes work and sacrifice, but when you do things with your heart and because you really want to do them and enjoy it, everything is easier.

My student visa conditions me to attend an English language school (Access Language Centre in my case) from Monday to Friday. It’s not many hours and I enjoy my teachers and people from all over the world , so I quite like going to English classes.

Australians are generally hardworking, supportive, athletic, natural and cheerful people. There are lots of differences that get your attention.

I live in Sydney, which is the most populated city not only in Australia but the oceanic continent. It has many differences with the rest of Australia, we cannot ignore that we are talking about a giant country here! Sydney is a very beautiful city to work and live in, with great leisure opportunities and cultural activities. I consider it a perfect city to work as a demi-pair. I can´t think of any better place not only in Australia but on the planet. Perhaps the only drawback is that it is stupidly expensive in comparison to the rest of the country, although wages also go in proportion. Many people have found the opportunity to live and make money here.

In relation to the places to eat, there is a wide range of food and restaurants specialized in cuisines from all over the world, both in the city center and in the numerous neighborhoods, so it is a personal choice, because you will surely find whatever you want. Lots of vegetarian food, lots of meat, vegetables, seafood, and as I mentioned, typical food from places such as Italy, Thailand, China, Japan, Vietnam or Mexico.

One thing about Sydney is that it’s quite cosmopolitan and lives mainly from tourism, so it´s not necessary to have a great level of English to work here, people are very supportive when it comes to helping someone in any task and as it happens in big cities, you can find people from anywhere on the planet.

I recommend to everyone the experience of travelling to Australia, from newborns to retired people. The demi-pair experience would perhaps be more for students, although it is not strange to find students of thirty years old or more working as a demi-pair, as it is a job in high demand.

Finding a job in Australia is relatively easy, so there are many opportunities to come here, work and start living your own adventure without knowing when you will return. Life is full of surprises, so it´s very usual to stay here longer or much longer than you thought before arriving on  Australian territory

If I had to say what I liked most about working as a demi-pair I would not be sure, because there are many things that you learn about yourself. I had already lived an experience abroad, not as a demi-pair but I taught at a school in New Zealand in 2014 and you are never the same after such an experience. Different ways of feeling, thinking and acting  to those you have always lived and also an endless number of new concepts and customs, in a society that is British and European heritage therefore not very distant from ours (with permission of the Australian Aborigines who are the real inhabitants of this land and are the oldest and longest-lived aborigines in human history, a pity that the white man massacred them mercilessly and now they are less than 5% of the Australian population in New Zealand, for example the Maori, the indigenous people who  inhabit these islands represent a much higher percentage, as they are about 600,000 over a population of 4000000).

What I liked most about working as a demi pair was the personal satisfaction which is the result of having travelled a lot, having seen and done everything and having been lucky enough to be a member of a wonderful family, helping them in everything I could.

Alfonso
Sydney
Access Language Centre