Au Pair of the Year Nominee:
Tian Mei – China
If Mary Poppins had a shorter, Chinese, and flightless cousin, it would be our au pair, Tian-Mei Yang. She is the only one who can make our new baby, Maya (5 months), laugh every time; the only one who takes the baby at 6am so Vivien (aka Mama) can sleep in; and is our 3-yr old daughter Anya’s best friend. Here, we will attempt to convey what she means to us, and how she has changed our lives.
Tian-Mei came to us almost a year ago from a small village in southern China and has been living with us in even-smaller Los Alamos, New Mexico through the CHI Au Pair program. This is her first trip outside China, indeed, her first extended stay away from her close-knit family (parents, brother, sister-in-law, nieces).
As first time au-pair hosts, inviting a “stranger you met online” into your home is a scary experience but if the first few weeks were not easy for us we can only imagine how they were on Tian-Mei! Upon arriving in New Mexico we did our best to make her feel welcome and part of our family, however things did not seem to be going as well as they showed in the brochure! Anya rejected her, Tian-Mei had never eaten American, or even Indian, let alone Mexican, food before, and her English, well it definitely could use some improvement.
Our feisty three year old, Anya, wasn’t ready to accept a new caregiver and often repeated “I don’t like you, Tian-Mei, go away.” Meanwhile her own nieces, whom she had been caring for like daughters, were growing up without her and passing major milestones. But she stuck with it uncomplainingly and now is best friends with Anya. Anya now asks her friends “where is your Tian-Mei?”
In addition to accustoming herself to our family, she had to adapt to a new and strange diet. She had only eaten the local cuisine of her 
province and she told us her brother became upset if he had to travel to the next village since the noodles there were made differently. It is also customary there to peel and cook all food thoroughly. Here she has worked up the courage to try raw vegetables (“shouldn’t you cook those?”), salad dressing (“you can’t taste the vegetables!”), “medium-rare” meat (“it’s still bleeding!”), potatoes with the peels still on (“let me peel those!”), soft-boiled egg (“it’s not done!”) and even sushi (you can imagine)! But she tries everything fearlessly. Her favorite new foods are now Dragon rolls and tacos!
Tian-Mei never spent much time traveling and so she becomes quite dizzy in cars and airplanes. So it has been quite difficult to adapt to our nomadic lifestyle where our work requires frequent travel around the country and we make weekly trips to the nearest big town, Santa Fe, an hour away by car. Now, after visiting Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Colorado Springs with us, she is a seasoned traveler who can handle a full day of cars and planes (with two babies)! This is very important for Mama, who takes the nursing baby with her on business trips and needs another person to accompany her and watch the baby.
Her contributions to our family are innumerable and invaluable. Mature and wise for her 23 years, she is self-sufficient and a hard worker. She gets up every morning at 6am rain or shine. She enjoys playing with Maya more than anything and their interactions are beautiful to watch. She has also established an excellent relationship with Anya, and has taught her some Chinese and Chinese culture. The other day we all laughed as Tian-Mei and Anya chased each other around the house pretending to be dragons. She can actually convince Anya to take a nap, which is no mean feat.
In her spare time she tirelessly studies English to maximize her benefit from the program. Her passion is books, and we love answering questions about the complex subtleties of the English language (“What does ‘shoot yourself in the foot’ mean?”) Her English has improved immensely; she is easy to understand now and enjoys reading books aloud for us all.
Last but not least, she loves cooking fantastic Chinese food, which we all enjoy and is improving our health. She has invented some creative and yummy fusion cuisine like scallion pancakes interleaved with peanut butter and fried rice with spaghetti squash. We couldn’t be happier with our new, cheerful, hardworking and adaptable member of
our family. She even has a carpet bag like Mary Poppins! We whole-heartedly endorse Tian-Mei for IAPA Au Pair of the Year.