Natalie Stoddart: Life as a Nanny.

It's my 100th day in Switzerland so I thought I'd do a little appreciation blog post for it.

In August, I moved to Switzerland for my job; as a Nanny. I have loved every second so far!

This is Solothurn, the town I live in.

Solothurn is a sweet town, not as big as Nottingham(my home town in the UK) - but it's big enough.

Life as a nanny is not what I expected, I guess you build a picture up of what it will be like. It's not at all like Mary Poppins(I don't wear a trench coat and hat, or have a good singing voice).

It's a lot harder than what it is portrayed to be like in the movies.

First of all, let me give you my typical day:

6:20 - Wake up.

6:45 - Set up the breakfast for the girls.

6:50 - Wake up the eldest two.

7:10 - Wake up the youngest.

8:00 - Oldest two at school, youngest at kindergarten. (All three walk/bike to school theirselves).

I then have a couple of hours to myself aka I go back to sleep for a couple of hours..

11:30 - Prepare lunch.

11:50 - Youngest back from kindergarten.

12:15 - Oldest two back from school.

12:30 - Eat lunch.

The girls school and kindergarten schedules are different everyday, sometimes every child is at school in the afternoon, sometimes all three are off, sometimes two are off etc(you get my gist).

In the afternoon, we bake, do crafts, the girls go to friends/have friends over, we play games, do nails and makeup, make bracelets/necklaces, whatever they feel like doing.

18:00 - Prepare supper.

18:30/18:45 - Parents home.

19:00 - Finished for the day.

Also in the day I have light chores; washing the girls bed sheets, loading/unloading the dishwasher, light laundry,putting the bins out.

The central town, this part has cute bistros and cafés.

My biggest concern whilst considering coming over was if I'd ever have friends, and how I would make friends(I imagined I'd just be sat in my room on weekends crying eating icecream watching Friends re-runs).

I got in touch with my host mum who said Facebook has lots of groups - which they do. I've joined a few that are only for Nannies in Switzerland, this is where I met Jess.

She's now my best friend here, we have sleepovers, shopping trips, mcdonalds feasts,etc and it's nice to have someone to vent to when I need someone - as she understands too.

Me and Jess.

A big part that affected me the most when I first came here was home sickness. I felt homesick for around a week, it's a horrible feeling and I didn't think I'd shake it off, but after getting to know my way around and meeting up with different friends the homesickness is non-existent now.

My mum came to visit for 3 days.

I was SO excited for my mum to visit.Unfortunately, she was only here three days due to work commitments but it was the best three days ever. We visited Bern(the capital), and I took her on a full tour of Solothurn.

Mum and I in Bern.

I've also been able to experience so many new things whilst being here; new places e.g: Zurich,Bern, Grenchen, Biel, Basel.

I've started to bit by bit learn the language, it's difficult to pick up as some people speak Swiss German, some speak High German. I'm due to start my lessons soon where I'll learn High German(nervous or what?!)

(I have learnt that Gloves in German are called 'hand-schuhe' which translates to 'hand shoes'. If this isn't the greatest thing in the world I don't know what is).

I've also tried Cheese fondue, Cerevalas(type of sausage), a lot of different cheese, Nuss Stängerli(type of nut biscuit) and many other Swiss traditions(too tired to remember sorry).

I couldn't possibly write everything I've experienced but I hope I've given you an outlook of what it's like here.