Meet Aina Tremoleda, an au pair and teacher from Catalonia with a passion for languages and traveling. We caught up with her at the Marché des Enfants Rouges where she shared how important it is to be patient and to have an open mind when moving to another country, as well as how rewarding it can be to make a new city your home. Aina states, “There’s nothing better than feeling like a citizen of many cities and having stories to tell, and you need to travel and do challenging things to have experiences that will become stories.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Here is the story of Aina Tremoleda.
What is your Paris story?
I come from a town in the north of Catalonia, between Barcelona and the border with France, called Figueres (the town where the artist Dalí was born). It is the capital of the Alt Empordà, a region with very strong wind, beautiful mountains and a breathtaking coast known around Europe called “la Costa Brava” (“the Brave Coast”). It is a fantastic area, especially during the summer, and it’s very close to France, so we are used to having tourists all year long that come to visit the Dalí museum and to spend the holidays on the coast.
I have always loved languages and travelling. My parents are both archaeologists, and they educated me in a way so I appreciate learning about other cultures, visiting cities, enjoy learning history and value the diversity that Europe has to offer. I studied Translation at university in Barcelona and have a Master’s degree in Language teaching. Even if I love the area in Catalonia where I am from, after moving to Barcelona for my studies I stayed there for 2 years, working in a languages academy. If I hadn’t moved abroad I would probably still be in Barcelona, because during the year it has a huge offer of bars, restaurants, street markets, events and activities. It is a great city to live in and I enjoyed every bit of it while I was there. After some months of introspection, I decided to go abroad and do something completely different, because I couldn’t see myself working on a permanent position at the age of 24. I decided to look for a job in France because even if I had studied the language for several years, my level wasn’t good enough and I wanted to do something to improve it once and for all. Moving here was the most effective way to achieve that.
A friend of mine put me in contact with a family that lives in Maisons Laffitte (a town 20 minutes away from the centre of Paris) and I liked the conditions they offered me, so I moved there at the end of October to work as an au pair. This way, I can attend French classes, give Spanish private lessons and I get to talk in French every day, which is exactly what I was looking for. I have also met other people who I speak to in English, so being in France has offered me the possibility to improve both languages.
Tell us about this spot you chose.
What is a typical day like for you here in France?
A typical day involves walking the dog in the big avenue in front of my house, reading, catching up with tv series, enjoying a tea with a friend or by myself in my little house in the garden, cycling to get a baguette and cooking with the girls I take care of.
At weekends I walk around Paris, trying to avoid the metro as much as I can because I want to learn to find my way around the city, despite my terrible orientation skills. I also love to sit down for a hot chocolate or a glass of wine and I am always looking for art expositions and activities to do. It’s amazing how many iconic pieces of art and wonderful museums are gathered in Paris. What is great about not being here on vacation is that this pushes you to discover hidden spots, beautiful cafés and good restaurants, because you have the time to try something new every day.
What do you like most about living abroad?
There are plenty of positive things about living abroad. You are immersed in a different culture and are speaking a different language, so you are learning new things every day. You get to meet very interesting people from all over the world and exchange experiences and points of view about life. Since you are already abroad, it feels easier to take a bus, a train or a plane and travel somewhere for a few days or just do a day trip.
Additionally, living abroad triggers your inspiration. When I was younger I used to write from time to time, but when I grew up I lost touch with it. Here, I have found myself writing again after taking the metro, walking around or bumping into all sorts of people in the city. I also enjoy a lot taking lots of pictures and sharing them or adding them to my personal albums (I am a scrap-booking person). The fact of being in constant move makes me notice plenty of things and I am happy I get to visit so many beautiful buildings and interesting spots in Paris and everywhere I travel.
Last but not least, I don’t just like, but love food, so I am having the time of my life in France. I have to say I miss the olive oil when I order a salad or a sandwich, but the French cuisine, the cheese, the wine and the pastries have a big place in my heart.
What challenges do you face as an expat?
Not being able to express 100% exactly what I want to say is always a bit frustrating, but it pushes me to learn and work on my language skills. Being here as an au pair makes all the practical things (sim card, navigo, not paying for rent) very easy so I haven’t had any problems there. There are of course some cultural differences, but for me being a couple of hours by plane from home, it is easy to feel connected to my people and I think I am not entitled to be homesick or to have a cultural shock of any kind, just because of the similarities we have and how close I am to where I am from.
I can list some differences though regarding the daily life if I compare my current situation to how was my life in Barcelona. There, I worked as a teacher from 3 to 9.30 pm, so that’s a huge difference to start. In France 9.30 is way past my dinner time, and in Barcelona I would get home at 10.20 after a 45′ ride by metro and I still had to cook dinner, so the timetables where completely different. We do everything later down there. Sometimes I call my parents when they come from work and they are starting to have lunch and I am about to have “mon goûter”. We have lunch later and we have dinner later, but we start working at the same time so there’s really a problem in Spain about the daily setup. Everyone in Europe says the people from my area are lazy and that we don’t work a lot but this is not true. I am realizing that French people have a huge amount of holidays and that they finish their working day before us.
Regarding the public transport, I was very disappointed to see that the metro and the RER won’t stay open for longer than 2 am. I was used to having the metro open all night on Saturday and open until 2 am on Friday so that’s a struggle because it makes it very inconvenient to go for a drink because you have to be worrying about this all the time. On the bright side, this assures me that I am quite early in bed if I return by public transport, so the day after I wake up at a reasonable time.
Lastly, risking to sound cliché, I’ll say that this winter, the weather has been a very challenging issue for me. It wasn’t so much about the temperature but not seeing sunshine for some days made me miss the southern weather a lot! In Barcelona I used to have lunch on my little balcony from April until October every sunny day, so I can’t wait for the weather to be better and go for picnics on the weekend.
How do you meet people in Paris?
The first thing I did when I came here was to join Facebook groups “Au pairs Paris 2016/2017” and “Au pairs in Paris”. I met a couple of good friends who also connected me to other people. I also liked a Facebook page called “Que faire à Paris?” where they post cool things to do every week and lots of events that take place in the city. I also made some good friends in my French language course and I am lucky to know people from my hometown that live in Paris. There are plenty of opportunities and platforms to meet people and, even if I haven’t used all of them, I can count on some great people to hang out in Paris, so I’d say it is easy to meet people here.
What advice would you give to others wanting to move abroad?
Even if I had always loved travelling, I hadn’t always felt the need to move somewhere for a long period of time. When you feel the need, you’ll know you have to do it. Nowadays, we have so many ways to connect with other people and to find solutions to daily problems (filling out paperwork, finding out how to cook a vegetable we are using for the first time or getting directions to places) that we shouldn’t be scared at all about not being able to succeed in our adventure. We also need to minimize problems, be patient and have an open mind. We are used to what is familiar to us, but after a few weeks, the reality of our new home will be familiar for us as well. There’s nothing better than feeling like a citizen of many cities and having stories to tell, and you need to travel and do challenging things to have experiences that will become stories. When I had the chance to come to Paris I thought to myself: “In the future, will I regret it if I don’t do it?”. And you know the end to the story.
How can people continue following your story?
If anyone wants to see where life takes me from here, you can check my Instagram account, where I share bits of the places I see and visit that I find interesting for some reason.
