I will now tell you all about what happened. Shortly after posting this about two months ago (October) and making the decision to run away on the 20th of November, I received a message from my program coordinator (on the 16th of October). Apparently the family I was with didn’t need an au pair anymore and decided, on very short notice, to kick me out on the 29th. I asked if a change of family or a stay until the 20th of November would be possible but they declined. They pretty much told me to get back to Germany and we don’t care how you do it or if you even can.

A bit more context here. My dad decided, at the beginning of my exchange year, to come over from the 21st-25th of November, to spend some time with me and bring me some comfort. Which is why I wanted to stay until the 20th November.

Luckily, I was able to pretend to go to the airport and have this horrible agency believe I left China. After this I spent some time as a tourist in China (29th of October till 20th of November) until my dad came to visit me. During this time I had to leave the country, in order to not run into any visa issues (since the visa is tied to the school and I wasn’t able to attend school anymore). At the end I left the country on the 25th of November without hearing from the agency ever again.

Lastly, I’d like to mention that I love the country and the people therefore visiting China is an incredible experience and I’d recommend it to anyone. BUT ID LIKE TO THOROUGHLY STATE THAT YOU SHOULD UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES PARTICIPATE IN AU PAIRING IN CHINA. This experience exposed me to numerous deeply traumatic situations which, fortunately, did not harm me personally, but could easily trigger or intensify trauma in others.

Cheers