SOFIA, 20 ÅR

Hello!! My name is Sofia, I’m 19 and live in a town in northern Italy with my family. I finished high school in June and I am now ready for a new adventure. I can’t wait to leave for my experience and become an au pair, or more accurately, a friend or a big sister to your family and children :) I live in Trento in a family of five. My dad is a director and my mum is a housewife. I have two siblings, they are Riccardo, 13 years old, and Elena, 20. Riccardo is in high school and my sister is studying medicine at university. With my family, we always joke, even about the silliest things. Describing myself is a difficult question to ask. I am easy going. I am that type of person that needs some time to become full myself, but give it to me and I will get comfortable right away. I am a humorous person and love to laugh and joke around with people. I am also extremely positive. An important thing to me is to try to make everyone feel included in every situation. I’m also an active person that loves sport and to always try new challenges and experiences, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m here. I just finished my last year in high school. I have been volunteering a couple of weeks at a summer center, and since September 2021 I have been working once a week at my rhythmic gymnastics club. I teach children ages 4-12 this sport, which I have practised for several years. In Spring 2021, I studied for the teaching licence at the CSI (Italian Sport Centre), which I obtained in September. I also took a first AID course in December 2021. One thing I like to do in my free time is sports, especially rhythmic gymnastics. I think that sport in general is very important because it gives big lessons, such as working in a group, respect for all, and you always learn many new things. In addition to sports, I like to stay home with my family and watch movies. I also really enjoy art, especially doing crafts and drawing; I love drawing abstract things with lots of colors (I love colors!!), it's something that really relaxes me. Naturally, I also enjoy spending time with my friends. I have always been used to looking after children because of my little brother. As I wrote, I am currently teaching rhythmic gymnastics to a group of little girls. I really like to be with them because I have a lot of fun and above all I love to share what I learned during my practice to the younger ones and see their improvements. Working with them, I have learnt many things, for example that each child has a different way of learning, so the teacher must have different attitudes. Last summer I worked as a volunteer at a summer centre in my city. My job was to help the kids with their homework, during lunch and play with them. My absolute favourite thing to do was to play football matches with them. I had so much fun that sometimes I wondered if I was the kid or the entertainer at the centre. My first language is Italian. I started studying English at school, and now I can say that I understand it, although I have yet to improve my speaking skills, and I hope this experience will help me. I also studied German at school, but since I haven’t been using it for some years I do struggle to speak it, but I can still understand some things (better if they are written down, of course😅). My level of German could be probably A1. From my experience with children I realized that I really like being with them, they are so pure and funny and from them we can learn many things. They constantly challenge you, making you learn new skills trying to keep up with their minds. I also have a lot to share with you about my homeland. Another reason that brought me here is the desire to dive into a completely different experience from the ones I’m used to. I want to get away from everything I know to see where I am capable of going. It will be a challenge for me and I can’t wait for it to start. I am hoping to find a family where I can feel part of, who is ready to share their culture and language with me. Family is really important to me and I would love to make a special connection to them.