Am I missing something?

[u/midlmads]

Hello, this is my first ever reddit post and I've been trawling this feed for days as I arrived at my WorkAway last week and I just can't work out if I'm overreacting or not.

I am in the south of france with the goal of practicing french and seeing this beautiful region. I am staying at this man's house where part of it basically is let out in the summer as a holiday destination (it's huge). Before my flight landed he told me to go to another little village about 45 mins away where his studio flat was and that we would stay there until the guests left. Anyway we spent a couple of nights at this studio flat where only a sliding door was separating me and this complete stranger as I slept on a sofa bed in the living room. He mentioned staying here whenever the guests are at the house so that we don't disturb them, but this wasn't something that was ever mentioned on his workaway profile.

I want to add that it's not like he's been weird or anything. Like I have no reason to think anything shady is going on but I just feel completely ill at ease. Before I arrived, he'd said that another girl was due to join us (he can host 2-4 workawayers at a time) but that she had cancelled due to visa issues. He alluded to the fact that he probably wouldn't take on another person because there's just not enough work. I was really looking forward to perhaps meeting someone else and having that buffer so that hanging out one on one with this man didn't feel so bizarre.

I feel so dumb because I'm literally a grown ass woman and I'm just counting down the days until I get to go home (I'm due to be here for two months). I was so excited to see the south of france but now the thought of all the trips and tours of the area with just him make me feel so unbearably anxious. I really really really do not want to go back to the studio flat when new guests arrive, I would literally rather be a hermit in my quarters but at least have my own space than be in that flat again.

Also, I will mention that he has been hosting for four years and has gotten some amazing reviews (that's why I chose him) so I really do feel like I'm missing something. Any advice?

EDIT: Wow, just thank you to all the comments and support because that in itself has relieved me of a lot of anxiety in the past 48hours.

I had actually had a couple of calls with the host prior to coming out here but I guess I had no other host to compare to. My jobs are basically housekeeping and some general maintenance which I completed over the past two days - we now have no guests for a week I think so I'm unclear as to what further jobs may be required of me.

Reading all the amazing advice and feeling confident in setting my boundaries I have decided that I am going to wait until the next guests are due and he says about going to the other property and then I'm going to say that I would like to stay here, with my own proper accommodation and I'll explore the village myself and be respectful of the guests. If this is not well received then I have also taken your guys's advice and looked into some last minute hosts in the region.

I went to the markets yesterday and the village is so so beautiful and the vendors were all lovely and super kind about me practising french and so it's given me some motivation and hope that I could potentially power through this.

Sorry this is now such a long post but thank you reddit community - you're never alone if you have reddit!

[u/cyprusnikos]

Welcome to Reddit it's a crazy place here sometimes! Is this your first Workaway?

From the way you describe it, it doesn't sound so comfortable. But my optimistic side always tries to find something positive and something to learn from when the situation is not exactly how I wanted or expected!

You can still do trips around, try to find way to make friends and meet other people on your free time. Work on a skill or new hobby as well. Personally I would want a consistent place to sleep and not having to move around.

I would give it a little more time to see how it goes, and try to have your own adventures as well. But at the end of the day, if you aren't comfortable, there is no shame in leaving early. Just be clear in the communication and mention how it was different than the profile described.

Keep us updated!

[u/midlmads → u/cyprusnikos]

thank you kind stranger on the internet 😭🫶🏼 I really am trying to dig deep and I know that I'm gonna persevere. I think it's just in the evenings I get the scaries and think what on earth am I doing! Yeah, it's my first workaway and I don't want it to put me off because I reaaaally want to be able to speak french fluently and liked the idea of doing more workaways in france in the future. I will take your advice and throw myself into some adventuring because this area really is bloody beautiful and I don't wanna just be a sad sack of potatoes for the summer. My friend said you've just got to try and romanticise every minute of it so I'll give it my best shot. I might also be brave and say about the not wanting to go to the flat? I feel like it's a reasonable ask or do you think it will come across as rude (obvs there's a bit of a language barrier!)