Saskia

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Hey, my name is Saskia Gautier :)
I'm currently working in a middle school in France but I would like to travel in 2026. I've studied history in political science for three years and decided to take a gap year for 2025-2026. I really wanna travel and discover new ways of living. I grew up in the French countryside surrounded by nature and animals and I've worked a bit in agriculture during the summer but I would like to know more about it especially vegetable farming (but I do love taking care of animals of course !). I also want to discover the joys of working together to build and nurture a place where we can live as a community.
In my day to day life I love drawing, creating weird and glittery stuff. I'm really crafty and I love experiencing with different artistic practices. I also love to read, I like fiction as much as more scientific reading (which I did a lot during my bachelor in France).
Idiomas

Idiomas
Inglês: Fluente
Francês: Fluente
Holandês: Fluente
Alemão: Iniciante

Mais detalhes sobre meu interesse em idiomas
I'm able to teach French if someone is interested ;) I would really like to learn Italian (I've lived in Bologna for six months in 2024 but didn't learn enough in my opinion !).

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Habilidades e conhecimento para compartilhar ou aprender

Tenho interesse em:

Jardinagem geral

Trabalho beneficente

Projetos ambientais

Cuidar de animais

Vida na fazenda

Manutenção geral

Conhecimento de:

Projetos artísticos

Projetos DIY criativos

Cuidar de crianças/atividades criativas

Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

Ajuda a cuidar da casa
Quais são suas habilidades?

I have a bachelor in history and political science so I'm really good with researching informations in a methodological way to write essays or reports on any kind of situations. I'm also quite good with administrative work.
For my practical skill I have to be honest I don't have any formation in gardening, farming or anything. But I've always worked in my grandma's and mother's garden. I've also worked a bit in a vegetable farm for a few summers. My childhood best friends' parent have a biological farm, I grew up with them surrounded by their animals and helping them sometimes to pick up their vegetables.
I also want to travel to learn the most skills I can regarding practical work and I'm a fast learner ! :)
Idade

22
Algo mais...

I'm working with children since September in a middle school. My job is to watch them outside of class hours, care for them and handle every day to day problem that can exist in a school. I love working with children, my mother is a child therapist so it's really important for me to be aware of children's development and their specific needs.
Mais algumas informações
- Fumante
- Carteira de motorista
- Alergias
  no
- Dietas especiais
  no

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Comentário

7 abr. 2026

Deixado pelo anfitrião (Become a part of our family ...) para o Workawayer ()

Saskia stayed with us for 16 days, of which she worked 10 days with an average of 2-4 hours per work day. Her tasks included taking care of the kitchen, incl. cooking, cleaning after the cooking and a few odd jobs around the apartment such as planting two flower boxes. We had been transparent in the first messages and the online interview that it … read more would be necessary for the workaway to work independently and self-driven after the first days of onboarding as we are both working during the day. This did not really work out for us and we were rather unhappy with this workaway experience.

The cooking was simple and often cold dishes (salads, wraps, chick peas soup, oven veggies). Once we suggested dishes such as a a Risotto (the recipes were there), she said this was too complicated for her. When a casserole did not work out, she left us the raw / burned casserole. When I found out the dish needed stirring occasionally as the veggies otherwise got dry and burned, she was not interested. Some tasks we showed and told her, she ignored (e.g. creating a shopping list for the groceries needed for cooking). Some of the tasks she did, we needed to do again (e.g sanding and oiling two wood chairs which she said she would not need instructions for as she had done it before but were sticky afterwards). Of course, things are sometimes not successful and can go wrong. For us, it was Saskia's attitude that turned out to be really difficult: we did not see any willingness to learn or to take over responsibility when things did not work out. Our observation was that she wanted to do everything as quickly and easily as possible, giving up quickly when things did not work out. She often asked what to do next when we would have wished for the tasks that were there to be done more properly.

Cultural exchange as well as communication with Saskia' were really difficult for us, too, as we hardly never saw her in the evening hours (when we were around). Almost every day she was out (partying, meeting friends, fashion shows), returning between 1am and 4am in the night to the apartment we shared. Often we woke up from the noises, sometimes she used the kitchen in the night. Our impression, that her priority was going out and that working was a mere obligation to her, was confirmed in the feedback talk we had. When we finally got a chance to talk to her, expressing our uncomfortableness with the situation, she said this conversation would be a waste of time to her, as she found her work and its quality perfectly alright. She pointed out, she had not come to work here, but to explore the city and have fun.
After two weeks, when she forgot to switch off the stove after cooking (and me discovering it three hours later), we asked her to stop working and said we would like to end the workaway a couple of days earlier than the agreed minimum of 3 weeks. We offered her to stay for another couple of days until she found a place she could stay. She accepted and stayed for another 3 days before she left, not returning us the change money she owed us from the shopping payments.

(Negativo )

6 abr. 2026

Deixado pelo Workawayer () para o anfitrião (Become a part of our family ...)

My work there was supposed to be cooking for dinner, helping with cleaning and help with they five year old daughter Lily on some evenings.
We had a video call before my arrival regarding their expectations and mine, so I thought we were clear on how the workaway was going to be organised.
The main problem I had with Nadine and Marcel were their … read more expectations, I think we didn't have the same definition of what a "workaway" is. In my experience, workaway is work but doesn't fall under the definition of a job, it's an exchange of services between humans, without the hierarchy or the rigidity we find in the professional world.
At Marcel and Nadines, I felt like I was supposed to be a professional maid (without being paid) that not only helped them with daily task but overtook the mental charge of organising a family life (groceries, decoration, knowing everybody's taste in food...). It was also not really accepted that I would go out, meet friends like a young person would to enjoy Berlin, even if it didn't interfere with the completion of my tasks. Every tiny mistake I made, made me feel like I was disappointing Nadine like she was my boss, which with time made me feel really insecure and anxious for the work I was supposed to do.
Only after two weeks of working there, Nadine and Marcel decided, without trying to simply talk first about the little things that bothered them, that it really wasn't gonna work. After receiving by text message (even though we lived together) that they had mixed feelings about my stay, I proposed to have a real conversation together.
This conversation didn't go well, I felt criticised not only regarding my work but also on what type of person I was. I felt like there was no way to find compromise, their critics -a bit absurd and exaggerated if I can say- just showed me that we didn't have the same perception of what a workaway is. I feel like Nadine and Marcel expect an investment in the work that I would only give for a paid job. Their way of communicating that they weren't satisfied was firstly making me feel anxious, not really talking to me as if they were mad at their employee and allowing themselves an attitude that I only experienced in a paid job with entitled bosses.
Also, I feel like it's a bit contradictory to expect from me to be so invested in their family life and then be shocked that I would go out when Marcel didn't engage conversation with me, talked mostly to me through Nadine (she would translate from German to English, although she told me he could speak well English) and that overall the family wasn't really interested by who I was or what I was doing in Berlin. It's okay if people don't have time for the cultural exchange that much because of their own job ect... but then it doesn't make sense to expect from me something I don't receive from them.
I would not recommend this experience to someone who isn't ready for the emotional work. I do have to precise that the amount of 4 to 5 hours were never exceeded, it was the human relationship and the lack of secure communication that was a big problem for me.
Also, I feel like asking a 21 years old to leave their place, in a city that isn't even in my country, without really knowing if I have savings or a decent place to stay is highly irresponsible. Again, I would not recommend this experience to someone who doesn't have a back-up plan, savings or great friends in Berlin.

(Negativo )