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Hello my future host family!

My name is Maíra and I´m 25 years old. I´m originally from Belém, Pará. Actually, nearly all my family and relatives are from Pará. My parents are divorced. Dad lives in Rondônia and mom lives in Rio de Janeiro. So, during my whole life, I had to live in two states: Rondônia and Rio de Janeiro. In the years I lived in Rondônia with dad, I used to spend my holidays in Rio de Janeiro with mom, and vice-versa. Therefore, I had to learn from an early age how to deal with people from different backgrounds, and how to make friends in different places everytime I had to move again. Those made me a versatile and flexible person. It also made me value the real friends I have made in both states. The years have passed, and I can still say I have made friends for life.

Consequently, I´ve grown used to missing people I love. It also highlighted their role in my life. For instance, dad has been married to my stepmother for 25 years. So I have known her and her relatives since I was 1 year old. They are all family for me too. Especially because all my real relatives live in Belém and I only go there when I am on holiday. But I’ve always kept them in my heart and we try to keep contact as much as we can. I have a brother from dad´s first wedding. He´s 32 years old, he´s a lawyer and he lives in Pará. I also have a sister, from mom´s wedding after dad. We are closer because she lives in Rio de Janeiro with mom. She´s 12 years old now.

I love studying languages. I dream of studying French and German as soon as possible. One of my dreams is to teach at a university and write books that are relevant to help other fellow teachers and educators like me. I am aware that I will have to take my masters and doctors and that it won´t be easy. But it´s like once said Robert Frost: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” I have a blog in the internet called ELT Professionals. ELT stands for English Language Teaching. It´s a simple blog, but I decided to create it because my “favorites” folder in my browser was too long and messed. So it helped me to categorize my favorite sites and also to share them with fellow teachers.

I do have wanderlust. I love being involved with everything that helps me to improve my world view, my sense and sensibility and my general culture. I can dare to say that I love studying the world and its people. That´s why I love arts in all its forms. That´s how men manifest their feelings! Being an au pair will be an amazing way of getting in real contact 24/7, with a culture and a language I have been studying for so long. Not to mention, that I will have the opportunity to meet people from many other countries in the world, other fellow au pairs too. Thus, I will get thrilled to learn all about the American culture and your language with you and your kids. I will be more than happy to be with them, and take care of them, while sharing my culture and language too. I think this is the perfect cultural exchange program for an English teacher, period.

I have taken care of my sister when she was younger; I have taken care of my neighbors’ and my friends’ kids, and of course, I have helped kids from my step mother´s family too. I have done volunteer work with poor children and I have taught from 5-year-olds to teenagers and adults for nearly 3 years in a private school. All those experiences made me more eager to study about education and methodology to become a better teacher and therefore, a better person. Educators help other human beings to develop themselves, help them become better students and better citizens. Hence, they must work very hard to develop themselves as much. Because they need to be ready to inspire, to motivate, and to extract the best from their pupils.
Some things I have learned from taking care of children are: organization and the ability to extemporize. Children are full of energy, they need variety or they get easily bored. If you are not organized enough, you cannot plan ahead. I mean, we need to predict their acts. Being a better observer and how to be alert all the time is another skill I have learned. I remember when I started teaching, I was inexperienced of course. I had to take care and teach 20 kids at the same time, and that was not an easy task. I would turn my back to them while writing on the board and lose the focus to what they would be doing on my back. I remember the coordinator observing my lessons and telling me that I should be able to pay attention to all those things at the same time. It was hard, but I learned how to multi-task and be more efficient. Whew!

I´m sure we will have an unforgettable year together and that we will become friends for life. I can´t wait to meet you and start this unique experience!

See you soon!

Maíra Matos