School and Stress and Au Pairing??

It's December and, for most of us, it means:

Oh, shit. Finals are really soon.

For the past few weeks or so, I've been getting really bad migraines. At first I thought it was just my body being sensitive to the weather changing, but now I'm not so convinced. My grandma has suffered with debilitating migraines all of her life and I really really hope she didn't pass down that gene to me. She ended up going 100% vegan and apparently that has helped a lot but I just don't think I'm in a place where I can go vegan right now. (And I kind of don't want to, either. Shoutout to my homedawgs a.k.a. hamburgers.) The worst part about these headaches is that I can't really do anything besides lay in bed. No Netflix. No Pinterest. No school. Long story short, my classroom attendance has been pretty sporadic lately. 

It's kind of an annoying circle, really. I get stressed because I'm missing class from these stupid headaches. My headaches are (at least somewhat) triggered by stress. 

Sooo at this point I'm just kinda hopin' for the best.

The only thing that is keeping me somewhat sane is that it's practically CHRISTMAS. I've been listening to Christmas music since July. I'm not sure if I can even articulate how excited I am for Christmas. 

And it's almost Hanukkah. And Hanukkah means sufganiyot. And let me tell you something: those damn things are TASTY. 

Another thing that has been on my mind: becoming an au pair.

So, for those of you that don't know, an au pair is, in simplest terms, a mix between a nanny and an exchange student. I did a foreign exchange/youth ambassador deal when I was in high school and that was basically the bees' knees/cats' pajamas/etc. and since then, I've had a total desire to travel the world. Except, you know, there's one littleeee problem: I'm in college. 

Nothing is concrete, but I'm thinking about taking a year off to become an au pair. I think I'd like to be somewhere in Europe, where everything is just a hop skip and a jump away, but Australia seems pretty cool. Hey, I'd even be open to going somewhere like Italy or Germany and learning a new language! The best part about an au pair is that it's free. (Well, except the airfare.)

Right now I'm a nanny part-time while I go to school in the mornings. I really love what I do. The little dude I watch is the absolute cutest thing and I love watching him learn new things and discover the world around him. So, obviously, becoming an au pair isn't as easy as taking a leave of absence from my university and jetting off to a new country. There are so many different factors that go into play. 

In the mean time, I've created an account on a couple of the websites. I'm sort of just testing the waters at the moment, but I guess we'll see if anything comes from it. 

Now stop reading and go study for your finals!