Are you a filmmaker? Greenheart Travel is holding a video contest so that we can see your adventures! Videos will be judged based on their ability to tell a visual story and demonstrate our mission, “Travel for a Change.”
This contest is only open to those who are currently on or have completed a Greenheart Travel program.
Prizes:
Besides bragging rights, we will be giving cash prizes to the top 3 finalists:
Third Place: $50
Second Place: $100
First Place: $200 and $200 off any future Greenheart Travel program
Guidelines:
Videos that do not adhere to the following will be disqualified.
2-6 minutes in length
The focus must be on your program, a cultural aspect of your country, travel tips, or something the fits with Greenheart Travel’s mission, “Travel for a Change.”
No copyrighted materials including sounds, certain fonts, and overlays. If you are using music, make sure it is copyright free.
Do not add the Greenheart logo
Do not film people without their consent
Only one video submission per person
Quality Requirements
You do not need to use professional equipment, but the video does need to meet a certain standard of quality. Here are some tips to make your video the best it can be.
Shoot horizontally to meet a 16:9 (widescreen) video format
Make sure video is 1920 x 1080 pixels (HD)
Some iPhones shoot in 4K, which creates higher-quality footage if you are choosing to shoot with a smartphone:
Go to Settings
Scroll to Camera
Tap Record Video
Select 4K
How to Enter
When you are ready to submit your video, send via WeTransfer to atazioli@greenheart.org. Make sure to include your full name in the message along with the title of your video and any attribution.
SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY SEPTEMBER 1st 2019 at 11:59pm CST.
By submitting a video, you are agreeing that Greenheart is permitted to post the content across all platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Greenheart is allowed to make alternations such as shortening the video to optimize it for specific platforms.
We know that there are many ways to go abroad and program providers to choose from. So you might be thinking, “Why should I pick you?” First of all, good for you for doing your research. It’s important to thoroughly look into any organization you commit to working with.
You won’t hear us call a country “paradise” or try to sell you a fantasy. That’s not fair to you or the destination. Instead, we pride ourselves on being real with you. There will be great days while living abroad, but there will also be challenges, and we’re not doing our job if we don’t prepare you for them. We’re transparent about workload, accommodation, and costs because no one wants to feel mislead, especially halfway around the world. It serves no one to set travelers up for disappointment, our business would crumble!
As a nonprofit, we keep program fees as low as possible without skimping on safety or comfort. We want everyone to be able to afford to travel, but there are some areas where you get what you pay for. For example, you want your program to include travel insurance.
But hey, you don’t have to take our word for it. Here’s why Greenheart Travelers chose us:
Work and Travel Abroad in Argentina
“Greenheart Travel appealed to me because the program offers so much, especially to first time travelers. As someone who has no idea what it’s like to travel internationally, I love that Greenheart Travel helps you find a job, housing, set up a bank account, cell phone, etc. The list goes on, which makes me feel a lot less stressed and a lot more safe in my travels. I also loved that they had so many options of places and programs depending on your age and what you’re looking for. It was nice to know that I hadn’t missed my opportunity to travel abroad because I’m out of school and that others are looking to do the same.”
-Sammi Alexander, Work Abroad New Zealand
“I chose Greenheart Travel because they seemed to be the most efficient study abroad program. When I first spoke with Jessica over the phone, she was incredible and made me so comfortable in order to make this big decision. I am so glad I have decided to go abroad with Greenheart Travel!”
-Jolie-Anne Brosseau, High School in Spain
“I chose Greenheart travel because of the excellent reviews, reasonable prices, and very helpful staff.”
-Madison Schuler, Teen Summer Language Camp Japan
“It was pure luck that initially brought me to Greenheart Travel. The more I looked into their programs and blogs from past participants, I realized how much they cared for and supported their travelers. I believe in Greenheart’s philosophy on travel, that it is a way of life and not just a mere activity. Their mission to change people’s global perspectives through travel really resonated with me, and I knew I would get much more out of the experience than just a stamp in my passport.”
-Amanda Voyles, Marketing Internship in Thailand
“I chose Greeheart Travel because they offer a lot of opportunities for youth to travel and also watching past travelers explain their experience, they seemed to appreciate it a lot.”
-Jovany Schulable, Volunteer in Puerto Rico
I chose Greenheart Travel because I really liked the idea of taking language classes while immersed in the country. This will allow me to ask questions and learn the rules of the language while experiencing it first-hand. I think Greenheart is a program that will work well to further develop and improve my skills.
-Eli Harold, Teen Summer Language Camp Spain
I chose Greenheart Travel because of the reviews I had read online, as well as the information I found on their website. I resonated with their mission and the tone everything was written in. The site is very informative, but the tone is casual and comforting, which stuck out to me as a nervous first time solo traveler. It made Greenheart seem more approachable. Point blank, I got good vibes.
-Lin Nguyen, Teach in a Homestay France
High School in Sweden Students visiting France
Greenheart Travel was the perfect marriage of everything I was looking for in a travel program. The timeline of my adventure is catered to what I’m interested in and what works for my schedule. Also, every team member I’ve been in contact with has been nothing but friendly and helpful.
-Emmie Dohse, Teach in a Homestay France
“I chose Greenheart Travel because I love that this organization brings people together. Moving to a new country to live and work by yourself is extremely exciting, but it can also be a bit scary, and I appreciate that Greenheart eases some of those worries immediately when you arrive in the country and meet the other travelers in your orientation! It sounds like an amazing program and first week to meet new people before you make the big transition to fully being on your own. I also believe in their mission of traveling for new perspectives and challenges, and I am really looking forward to being a part of the Greenheart family and traveling for change!”
February 14th is one of our favorite days here at Greenheart Travel, mostly because of our annual Valentine’s Day blog post! Since 2014, we’ve featured couples who have either met on one of our programs or decided to travel together. There have been life-changing moments, marriages, and even babies! In their own words, read about these travelers’ inspirational stories that will leave you thinking #couplegoals.
Andrea & Tanner
“Far doth roam”
Tanner and I live a life of constant adventure that we built together from scratch. We’ve lived abroad for over five years and visited over 50 countries in that time. Our life is anything but typical, but we come from a comfortable rural background where the world was small and predictable like a classic coming-of-age movie.
We were high school sweethearts in the same little rural Wisconsin town. We fell in love at Friday night football games and danced together at prom. Our lives were a quintessential American small town story. The rest of the world was unreal and unreachable to us; places learned about in textbooks, but never visited. After graduation I decided to flee Midwestern life and attend college in Washington, DC. But my sweetheart needed to stay in Wisconsin. I’ll never forget our first tear-stained goodbye at the airport. Tanner and I became a long-distance couple.
Four years later, with freshly-printed degrees, we vowed to never be apart again. Having both studied language, we wanted to apply to teach English in Korea. To our dismay, they only guaranteed couples be placed together if those couples are married. With the pain of separation still fresh in our hearts, we reverted back to our small town ways: Tanner and I married young. But it could hardly be called settling down.
We cried together when our joint-application was accepted and we were placed together in Jeju. Clean passports in hand we left our cozy small town life for a new country, only our third after our honeymoon in Canada.
Korea will always remind me of our early marriage. We learned so much about this new country, the world, and each other.
In March we will celebrate six years of marriage. We’ve since moved from Korea to Poland where Tanner will soon graduate from medical school and I continue to teach English. Tanner and I have built an amazing life together centered around love, travel, and each other. Our world has gotten a whole lot bigger since high school. But it was a small town decision that led to this worldwide adventure.
Ayla & Lynn
I went to Australia in March through Greenheart Travel. My goals going into it was to have fun, be happy, and experience lots. And that I did! But the best part about my year was finding a person to share those special moments, and hard times with. 1 month into my trip I met her. Never in a million years did I go into this expecting to come out in a relationship- let alone with a girl. But honestly, the moment I saw her I knew she was the one. I got a feeling like I’ve never felt before. I knew I had to get to know her. We ended up talking, but since I was working an hour away from Melbourne we didn’t get to see each other very often. One of those few nights, I worked up the courage to finally kiss her, and we’ve pretty much been together since! A couple weeks later we flew to a farm where we spent the next 4 months doing everything together- Working, cooking, cleaning, shopping…. anything you could imagine, we did it together. If that isn’t a test of how well you work together I don’t know what is. I flew home a couple days before Christmas while she stayed in Australia. I thought it would be hard, and it is, but not as hard as I imagined. We care for each other too much that we make it work. On the week of Valentine’s Day, she will be flying to Canada so we will be reunited after 8 weeks apart.
Alexia & Nathaniel
We both had a craving to explore the world. Anything other than what we knew. We felt that at the moment, Montreal wasn’t offering what we wanted and there had to be somewhere that did. Australia had always seemed so foreign and so distant for us that it was almost an impossibility to even consider it. Oddly enough, that’s what intrigued us the most. The idea of putting ourselves in an uncomfortable situation and see how we react, both as individuals and as a couple. There is no doubt in our minds that it’s been a rollercoaster so far, the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of living abroad as a young couple. However, we can both honestly say that doing this, taking the step we took and moving abroad for one year to travel foreign territory together has made our bond stronger. Stronger than it’s ever been, and down the line stronger than it could ever be.
We’re both so happy we decided to do this. We know what we’re made of, and we’re doing it together, side by side.
Audrey and Rodrigo at an Ultimate frisbee tournament in Barranquilla
I came to Barranquilla, Colombia in 2017 with Greenheart Travel, full of romantic ideas about what my time here would be like. The experience was indeed sensational, life-changing, and unforgettable, and that is in large part thanks to the person I met 6 months into my 1-year contract. I had recently joined an Ultimate Frisbee team and was playing one weekend on the beach when a couple of guys joined in. One spoke to me in Spanish, and I was so flustered that I couldn’t find the words to respond. Once home, I found him on Facebook, we started talking, and a week later we met up for a surf lesson. I’m currently beginning my third year in this charming city and I live with that frisbee-playing stranger, who also turned out to be a loving boyfriend with a thirst for travel and adventure that rivals my own. Thanks, Greenheart, for all the love!
Alexis & Ashley
I went Thailand for many reasons: become a better teacher, explore more of the world, learn a new culture, discover more about myself, and to help people. However, I did not go to Thailand looking for a girlfriend. I went to Thailand by myself and first went to visit a friend in Bangkok before starting the TESOL course in Chiang Mai. Alexis and I met on September 24th for our first day of orientation, however we barely spoke. She traveled to Thailand with two of her sisters, Phoebe and Tiffany, and I quickly became friends with them.
Three days later, everything changed. On that day of orientation we meditated and went to Doi Suthep where a monk blessed the two of us together. From then on out we were inseparable. By the end of that week I was dubbed the “fourth sister” and after knowing the three of them for exactly a week, we all four got matching Thailand tattoos! We spent roughly 20 hours a day together and stayed awake talking in the lobby until 3 am or later. Our mindset was to spend as much time together as possible because my placement was in Bangkok and hers was in Sukhothai – only an 8-hour bus ride away from each other. Saying goodbye to them was very hard, especially Lex, while I kept my feelings for her swallowed in my throat. It took only five days before I would hop on a plane to go visit her in Sukhothai because we already missed each other so much. After spending five days together just the two of us my feelings grew stronger. Two weeks later she came to visit me in Bangkok with Phoebe. On November 22, 2017 I finally confessed my feelings to her and after two months of knowing each other, we decided to give us a try.
Although we were an 8-hour bus ride away from each other, we saw each other about every other weekend. It was scary at first to be so far away from each other, but we made it work. Each goodbye would get a little harder as my feelings grew, but I knew I would see her again. Together we celebrated our birthdays, overcame culture shock, and enjoyed Christmas night and New Years all in another country. Since I signed a year contract with my school, but she signed one semester we would not get to finish at the same time. Eventually, we would have to face our longest distance yet.
It’s officially been a little over a year now and we’re still head over heels in love with each other. She visited my hometown in April, I visited hers in May, and then we spent 7 months without seeing each other. In that time I finished teaching and traveling abroad while she was in the states, we FaceTimed for Thanksgiving, and she completed Air Force Basic Training in December. I was lucky enough to attend her graduation in Texas after 7 months apart and we’ve been together ever since. We have been staying with her family in New Hampshire, and recently we were able to visit my hometown in Illinois together.
Alexis and I would’ve never met in the states with the 18-hour drive between us, but thanks to Greenheart we met all the way on the other side of the world. This feels a lot like fate!
Here’s to our first Valentine’s Day spent together!
Hugo & Lisa
I came to Colombia in 2016 with the Greenheart Travel program. I requested to be anywhere except Bogota but ended up being placed in Bogota anyway. I guess it was meant to be since I met my now boyfriend co-teaching at the school I was placed at. We became good friends the 10 months I worked there and spent time together outside of work. When my contract finished I actually left Colombia with the intention of traveling and not coming back. After a month of traveling Ecuador, it didn’t feel quite right so I decided to find another job and go back to Colombia. We started officially dated when I came back and have been together 2 years now.
Matthew & Maria
It was 2013 and my wife Maria and I held down 5 part-time jobs to afford a 1-bedroom apartment in Chicago. We weren’t from there and I was anxious to move back home to Columbus, OH where life is a bit cheaper. However, my wife wasn’t ready to settle down in one place yet and wanted an adventure. She researched the best places to teach English overseas and landed on South Korea. I knew practically nothing about South Korea, but my wife knew how to sell it: the program’s benefits and relative closeness would allow us to visit New Zealand, a lifelong dream of mine. With that, we applied to EPIK and accepted positions in Daegu.
We converted our last $1000 to our name into Korean won and flew to South Korea. Once we got there, we realized how lucky we were to be doing this together. Working overseas is a lot to take in! Our apartment was functional but quirky, and we needed to adjust our expectations quickly. Maria had another Native English Teacher at her school, but I did not. I was completely alone.
Through it all, we leaned on each other as we tackled one new adventure after another.
The best part? We made it to New Zealand! If it hadn’t been for Maria’s idea to teach English overseas, it probably would’ve been decades before we could visit. Instead, we visited Hobbiton at the ripe old age of 26. Additionally, Maria had always wanted to teach English overseas and wasn’t sure when or how that would happen. Together, we were helping each other achieve life goals.
Today, we’re entering our 30’s and enjoying the new adventures of parenthood and house ownership. Our two years in South Korea helped cement our communication and reliance on each other. You can read more about our adventure in South Korea in my debut book The Waygook Book: A Foreigner’s Guide to South Korea available on Amazon.
To see the previous years’ collection of couples who put the heart in Greenheart Travel, check out our annual posts:
We are excited to announce the 2018 Travel for a Change Awards! Curious to know what’s popular when it comes to travel? We’ve got the inside scoop. Here are the most popular destinations based on where Greenheart Travelers went in 2018. We’ve also included some special awards highlighting all-star supporters, so be sure to read all the way through the end!
This doesn’t come as a surprise, as Bangkok was also named the most visited city this year. It’s easy for travelers to feel welcome in the “Land of Smiles.”
Most Popular High School Abroad Destination: Spain
Spanish is a common language for high schoolers to learn in English speaking countries. Teens who spend part of high school in Spain get to practice those language skills everyday!
This one’s for the nature lovers, who work short-term jobs that allow for the flexibility to explore all New Zealand has to offer.
Most Popular Teach English in a Homestay Destination: Italy
Who doesn’t want their very own Italian family? Living in a Homestay means you will be tutoring a family in English for fifteen hours a week, allowing for plenty of time to experience Italy. Bonus: Spend time in the Piedmont region, which was named the best region to travel to in 2019.
Above is a picture of Greenheart Travelers, Graham Green and Anna Schrader, with High School Programs Director Hope Pavich at Brevard High School earlier this year.
Anissa Joy Gonzalez and Nicole Lang have been documenting their travels on Instagram with stunning pics and captions! Anissa completed our Teach English in a Homestay program in Italy and Nicole is currently Teaching English in Thailand. (If you haven’t already, go follow @greenheart_travel)
Williamston High School in Williamston, MI is full of supportive of guidance counselors, teachers, and available scholarship funds for students going abroad.
Going the Extra Mile: Joyce Ling
Joyce has been a consistent supporter of Greenheart Travel. After working with us to send her daughter to Japan, she has offered to give advice and help to other parents.
If you are interested in one of these programs for 2019, submit your deposit ASAP because spots fill up fast!
It’s no secret that at Greenheart Travel, we travel. A lot. So with 2019 approaching, we’ve decided to reminisce on some of the places we’ve spent New Year’s Eve. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
“For two years, I lived in Zafra, a small town in rural western Spain. In Zafra, like in every small Spanish town, life revolves around town plaza, where bars and restaurants surround a fifteenth-century church. On Nochevieja (New Year’s Eve), the whole town gathers in the plaza a few minutes before midnight holding bags of grapes. As the clock in the church tower strikes midnight, everyone pops a grape in their mouth for each toll of the bell – 12 grapes in about a minute. By the end, everyone’s looking like a chipmunk and laughing hysterically; it’s a great kickoff to a night of celebration in the plaza!”
-Savannah McDermott, Teach & Work Abroad Program Manager
“I spent a new years eve celebrating in downtown London! Everyone gathers around the London Eye and Big Ben and they light off fireworks from the Eye at midnight. I also celebrated a NYE in Seoul, Korea. In Seoul, everyone gathers around a temple that rings a huge bell at midnight. The bell is really old and it’s been a tradition for a really long time.”
-Sara Thacker, Associate Director of Marketing
“While I was in college, I volunteered in Panama during my winter breaks, so I spent several New Year Eve’s there. One of them was spent at a friend’s beach house, where we had lots of room to partake in one of the most exciting traditions – burning a “stuffed man” at midnight. Our hosts made a life-sized stuffed man to light on fire at midnight with the intention of having the bad energy/evil of the previous year removed before the New Year. Other guests also walked around with suitcases in their hands if they wanted to travel in the upcoming year.”
-Allison Yates, High School & Short-Term Programs Manager
“I spent my first New Year’s Eve outside of the US when I was a freshman in college. My family took a trip to visit our extended family in the Dominican Republic and stayed for two weeks in a small town on the coast. I was used to my parents throwing large and fancy parties to ring in the new year – with sparkly dresses, champagne toasts, party hats, and boisterous countdowns. So when we heard the evening plan for a traditional Dominican New Year’s Eve consisting of a large but laid back family meal, a walk on the beach, music, and dancing I wasn’t sure how special the night would feel. No confetti or high heels or shrimp cocktail? Of course, as many new traveler stories go, it ended up being an amazing night spent getting to know my family better, learning how to fry plantains, developing my love for Latin music, and taking a late night stroll on the beach to watch a few distant fireworks shoot off. I came out on the other side with one grainy photo of myself on the beach, but a love for trying new traditions, an appreciation for another culture, and desire to spend more of my time in warm, welcoming countries.”
– Kate Powers, Outreach Coordinator
“I celebrated NY 2017 traveling through Panama with one of my closest friends. We arrived at a beautiful seaside, open air restaurant on December 31, 2016 and left in the early hours of January 1, 2017. There was tasty food, great company, amazing music, and a plethora of fireworks. In the middle of the celebrations, we met this great couple, who we ended up chatting with all night. One of them was from Colombia and the other from Turkey, but they were living in Chicago-same as me! We’ve met up again in Chicago, but I greatly doubt that I would have met them if it wasn’t for our fortuitous NYE in Panama. I wouldn’t say that night was a typical Panamanian New Year, but it was a great example of our small & amazing world.”
– Hope Pavich, Director of High School and Short-Term Programs
How have you spent New Year’s Eve? Tell us in the comments!
A lot has changed at Greenheart Travel over the past couple of years. We brought new programs on and phased older programs out. We’ve completely updated our website. We’re releasing a new cultural training curriculum dubbed the Greenheart Travel Atlas. And big things are still to come!
But above all else, we’ve made so many new friends in those that travel abroad with us to teach English, study in high school, volunteer, etc. Amidst all of this we have recently asked ourselves the question:
“Is our mission statement, written as it is today, truly reflective of the work we do and the impact we make on all Greenheart Travelers?”
Up until now our mission has been to change lives, advance careers and create leaders. There’s no doubt what we provide has contributed towards this pursuit in all of you. We’ve been so proud to see the growth that each of our thousands of travelers have accomplished since we started as an organization.
However, we read the above to have a disproportionate slant on professional development, and we realize the growth that comes through travel is something deeper and more profound than professional development alone. So, we set out to rewrite our mission to reflect more accurately why we come to work and why we love supporting your experiences abroad.
If you’ve ever embarked on defining a mission or purpose for an organization, you know it’s no easy task to distill all of the emotion, drive and excitement of what you do day in and day out. Even more complicated is going through that exercise as a group.
We had several weeks of brainstorming sessions where we thoroughly dissected nuances of each particular word or phrase. We wrote our own drafts and pitched them to strangers on airplanes and at coffee shops. We poured our hearts out meeting after meeting, but nothing seemed to stick. Then someone had the bright idea to look at our tagline…
That was it!
“Travel for a Change”.
There was no good reason why we couldn’t adapt that as our mission. It’s all over our website already. We all feel this visceral connection to the idea of meaningful travel. Why do we need to start from scratch when we already have something that means so much to us? So, formally, we’re announcing that we are adopting ‘Travel for a Change’ as our mission statement.
‘Travel for a Change’ succinctly sums up how we feel about what we do. We believe in the power of travel; a power that broadens your perspective and turns strangers into family. It’s this belief that motivates us at Greenheart Travel to provide life-changing adventures for anyone with a case of wanderlust.
We’re your personal cheerleaders as you navigate the unpredictable joys, surprises, and challenges of life abroad. With unrivaled support and guidance, Greenheart Travel gives you the tools to make sure you’re more than a tourist—you’re a world citizen. You don’t just travel for the sights, you travel for a change.
Watch what it means for Greenheart Travel staff and alumni to travel for a change:
Feature Image: Allison and her friends hang out around a fire in Australia. Photo by Ryan Hubbard.
On my early morning walks in Buenos Aires, I loved watching the rising sun crawl over buildings. While working in Melbourne, I watched for ever-changing graffiti. Every day in Spain, I looked forward to my mid-morning snack of café con leche and chorizo sandwich.
These are pieces of my life abroad I wish I could still experience. But beyond missing my new routines, what I miss the most are the human connections I made in those places. There’s nothing like a good laugh over a cup of coffee, or learning about a country’s troubled past through a local’s explanation of a mural that give simple things – like a latte or street art – more meaning.
From chatting with local classmates to making friends through shared interests, meeting locals during your Greenheart Travel program can help you learn the language, culture and history of the country. (Plus, making friends is a lot of fun.)
Allison with friends she met through Couchsurfing.
If it weren’t for locals, I wouldn’t have learned what Australians mean when they say esky, why Argentines walk around sipping tea from a gourd (mate!) or the reason why people say molt be instead of muy bien in some parts of Spain.
So, how do you make connections when you’re in a new country and speaking a new language? At first, putting yourself out there might seem challenging. But, taking the initiative to make local connections has the potential to make any program – whether it’s a few weeks or a few months – more memorable.
Here are a few of our favorite ways to meet people abroad:
Language Exchanges
Language exchanges are a great way to meet locals while improving your skills and helping them hone theirs! A language exchange is an event where language learners typically spend half the allotted time in one language and the other in another. Sounds perfect, right?
Check social media sites like Facebook or ask your host family if they know of one near you. Linda Correll, a teach in Colombia alum, says she went twice a week to an exchange in her area called “Let’s Talk Pereira”. This event had an informal, conversational atmosphere and “ended up being a large part of my social life during my two years there,” she says.
Even if you can’t find a language exchange in your area, try asking a coworker or neighbor for language help. For example, Kirt Smith, a teach in Thailand alum, says after he learned basic Thai he asked co-teachers for help reading and writing. “It’s a great ice-breaker and I gained a lot of Thai friends doing this,” he continues, “I found out that taking the time to learn more about the language is a fast-track method to earning a lot of respect among Thai people.”
Use a Networking Application or Website
Besides traditional social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, there are many networking sites to help meet locals. For example, while living in Melbourne, I attended an event through the Welcome Dinner Project, an organization that connects establish Australians with newcomers. I met people of all social backgrounds and tried homemade dishes from each part of the world represented at the dinner.
If you’re not in Australia, check for similar organizations in your destination and try the following websites:
Couchsurfing is best known for connecting travelers with free places to stay around the world, but many people don’t realize it’s also a great social tool. Just as some use the site to find locals to stay with, you can reach out to locals that you have common interests with. Many “hosts” (locals) often plan social events for locals and travelers to meet. I connected with a Japanese man in Tokyo, and we spent an afternoon exploring the Akihabara area.
Meetup.com is a site that connects people based on shared interests. Around the world, people host “meet ups” to practice capoeira, learn to cook, discuss literature with a book club – or anything else you could think of! This is a great way to continue a hobby while you’re abroad, or even start a new one.
Allison participated in a cooking class while in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
For foodies, there are two sites – Eatwith.com and Bonappetour.com – that give you the opportunity to have chefs cook for you – right from their home! Because other people join the events, you’ll meet lots of folks as interested in trying new cuisines as you.
Join Sports Teams
No matter where you are in the world, sports are an important part of life. They may differ – though soccer seems to have a stronghold throughout the globe – but people love to be active. Marissa Ruxin, a teach in Colombia alum, joined ultimate Frisbee teams in both places she taught in Colombia. She had a blast, and made friends!
Marissa Ruxin and her frisbee team in Colombia.
Besides practicing his Thai, Smith also learned the game of takraw (ตะกร้อ) by asking local men in the park to teach him. “The men were extremely welcoming and thought it was cool having a foreigner want to learn how to play. It quickly became a regular activity and we would often end up eating dinner together at the night market afterwards,” he says.
Ask Co-workers, Teachers and Host Families for Recommendations
One of the best ways to meet people is through your established networks. With Greenheart Travel programs, you’ll be with host families (and in some cases also have networks at schools) to ask for recommendations.
They will have a much more in-depth knowledge of the city and its surroundings, so whatever activity you might be interested in doing use them as a resource.
Some of Allison’s friends at Buenos Aires’s Gay Pride parade.
While I was studying in Buenos Aires, I asked my classmates if they knew anything about a conference I had heard about – the Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres, an annual women’s rights conference. As it turned out, one of my classmate’s sisters was going, and he connected me with her. Two weeks later I was on a 30-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Posadas, Misiones with 40 other woman. As I’m sure you can guess, I learned a lot of new Spanish and made many lasting friendships.
It never hurts to ask for connections – you never know where it might lead.
Lastly, Remember to Get out of Your Comfort Zone
Speaking with locals can be intimidating. You might be nervous about your shaky French or suddenly blank on the Japanese word for restaurant when you’re asking a classmate for a recommendation. Maybe you’d rather sleep in on a Saturday than go on a rigorous morning hike, or perhaps you’re not in the mood to try the local delicacy in your town in Myanmar with your co-teacher.
Allison traveled through the Australia outback with new friends.
Remember that starting a conversation or going to a new place for the first time might seem like a lot of effort, but the payoff of great experiences and good friends makes it worth it. I’ve had some of biggest laughs and greatest memories at events I almost didn’t attend.
Ready to put your fears aside and see what happens when you get out of your comfort zone? Contact us!
