You Pay to Volunteer?!

When I tell people I left my job, animals, family and life to travel the world for a year they are usually astonished, excited, and then the questions come. What are you doing? How did you find the program? What about your job, life, stuff?  How much do you get paid? Paid? Bahahaha. When I tell people I'm paying my way through it all then the second set of questions come. Why? How much is it? How do you afford that?

So let's talk.

What are you doing?

- Teaching English, art, PE, and health. Volunteering, tutoring, sewing quilts, painting orphanages, feeding stray animals, the works.

Who are you doing it with?

- I went to Fiji through HELP International. They are a program that sends you for certain waves of time (6-18 weeks) and you create your own projects based on your interests and motivations. You can literally do whatever you want but they focus in three areas: education, health, and business. They also focus on sustainability. 

- I went to Lithuania through ILP: International Language Programs. They are a program that teaches English through a method unique to them. I will also be going with them to China in January for 5 months as a Head Teacher. 

- Before all this I went to Ecuador with a program called Orphanage Support Services Organization. OSSO. This program sends you to volunteer with orphans. You work all day most days in orphanages. It is a lot of volunteer work but incredibly rewarding. This program has the most volunteer work as you will easily put in 40+ hours a week. 

How did I find the programs?

- Word of mouth and internet research. I wanted to do volunteer programs that had high standards for the volunteers and upheld morals so I look for ones related to my church or any church for that matter. None of these programs are through my church, none of them are missions, they are all non profit independent organizations but these three happen to uphold our standards and are run by LDS people. I love that, makes me feel safe and secure no matter where I go in the world.

What about my job? Animals? My stuff? 

- My animals are living at my moms. Thank goodness for my parents and the fact they would take care of them. Let me tell you that I would never have given them away to travel but it worked out nicely! That being said I miss them like crazy everyday! Okay my stuff, apartment, etc. I put it all in storage. It's boxed and stored. Moving is not the most fun thing ever but it's doable. You can sell your contract and fine cheap storage. Make it work. My job? I was prepared to quit. That was an insanely hard decision but what it comes down to is living life and some things you just need to do. Luckily in the end my principal found a way for me to take leave and that was a huge blessing. But like my mom said a job is a job and you can find a new one.

People are most surprised when I tell them I am paying to be here. 

So why did I choose to pay instead of taking a paid teaching job? 

1. I wanted the volunteer experience. It wasn't just about the travel but I wanted the experience of helping people.

2. I wanted to visit as many places as possible and with paid jobs they are usually a year contract in one set location. 

3. I needed to go with a group that held high standards. Seeing as how I don't drink, party, or do any of these crazy things I wanted to be with people who would do the same and be at church on Sunday and who follow the same things I do. 

4. I feel more comfortable going with a group than alone. Knowing I will always have friends and a group of people around me for support is a huge sigh of relief. 

These were my big things that had me choose volunteer work instead of a paid position. 

So you are paying for this!?

Yes. Help International was about 3k for two months + airfare + personal travel. The airfare was about $1,000 plus I paid an additional $350 to change my flight because I had to come home early. I spent an additional $1,500 on travel and personal things like the fact that they didn't provide internet or food on weekends. But I also got to travel to the most famous and attractive islands, the Yasawas for a week! That money also paid for weekend travel and we went somewhere every single weekend. 

When you go with a company you know you are paying them a fee and then in turn they provide housing, food, the projcect funds, transportation, etc. But you are also paying for the company: the people who helped organize it, your country directors, their advertising, their location, etc. So I knew going in that travel alone of course would be cheaper but like I said I wanted all the benefits that the non profit provided. 

So next: ILP is only $2500 for five months. Say what how is that possible? That's including airfare, housing, food, everything. The way it is so much cheaper is because it is subsidized through the school. This also makes for a huge difference in your experience. Later I will write reviews on each company and my experience. For now I struggle a little with feeling like a true volunteer because the kids are paying. It's just a different feeling than working with third world kids who literally don't have food or clothing.  Anyway, I'm also spending an additional $2,500 on travel while here. This is way more than most groups but most groups don't travel to 12 countries. Really though, our group is travel crazy.

The cool thing about ILP is that when I go a second time to China I'm going as the head teacher who is in charge of the volunteers and they will pay for me to go. Sweet deal right? 

 So all in all a year of volunteer work traveling the world when all is said and done will cost about: $13,000

Where do you get $13,000? Savings. That's it. Some people fundraise. I'm against asking people for money but that's just my personal thing. I did use my photoshoot money as donations which I saved about $1,000 from that and the rest I paid on my own. 

I think everyone should go on a volunteer or travel abroad at some point in their life and you can all make it happen. Fundraise if you need to use one of those money sites and beg for money lol. Work. Save. Travel. I don't believe in going into debt. Some do but that is against everything I believe and have been taught. This experience though is worth whatever you need to do, my friend even sold her car to go to Ecuador with OSSO and she said it was worth it. Nothing, nothing will have as big as an impact as living in another country and devoting your life to service. Go. 

So yes. I left my family, dogs, boyfriend at the time, house, stuff to come here. Yes, I quit my job but in the end was able to keep it. Yes, I am paying for the entire thing. And YES it is worth it!

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The Beauty and Beast of Homemade

Ever make things by hand? It gives you a whole new appreciation doesn't it!? 

So we know I have an issue with food waste. It has consumed me since Fiji. I hate wasting food and seeing food go to waste. 

Hannah's host family is now the sole beneficiary of our massive amounts of leftover soup and weird concoctions the school makes us that none of us can stomach.... Lucky them?

Now remember the apple trees? How they are all over and hundreds of apples just litter the ground. Rotting away. I'm not sure why the lithuanias don't pick them but I am not letting them go to waste. After a quilt tying session at the Swiss apartment we brought bags and filled them with apples. Rosie got in the tree this time and shook it like crazy and we also sorted through the ones on the floor. Okay so last time we made apple Betty and sent one to Hannah's host mom and this time we decided apple sauce would be rockin. 

So Rosie and I set to work peeling and cutting apples. A LOT of apples. Do you know what it is like to peel and cut this many apples? It takes awhile. Here is where I am at now.

After peeling and cutting we started to steam them and then mash them up. Dude. Best apple sauce ever. It is so delicious! Even with the ginger bread seasoning that I thought was cinnamon. It still rocks! Now I am on batch number two. I'm doing it solo this time so it's taking muh longer but it's going to be worth it. I've also chopped and sliced dozens and put them in  the freezer so we can make apple pie for thanksgiving. It probably won't last that long, let's be real but it will make a good apple crumble in October lol. 

So anyway handmade is awesome. Especially when you are saving the apples off the streets of Lithuania. I live knowing exactly what is in my food and also knowing I saved the waste. Woohoo! 

Now back to my mountains of apples. 

Oh and PS I also used the tomatoes we would have trashed to make tomato sauce for the nasty noodles we got. Heck yes! Now it's your turn. Go make something!

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Sweden Day 2

I was out cold by 8:30 last night. All this walking all day long and little sleep and water makes for some tired travelers. Anyway after awaking around 7 I got ready and dilly dallied around until my roommates awoke. Once we were all ready we departed and of course it was still raining.

We decided to start with the sky view which is a giant spherical building and on the outside of the building are these spheres that you get in and they go on the building like a ride. Anyway we head to the Tube and after a 15 minute conversation with the ticket lady, while ticking off eveyone in line we finally get the cheapest way which is buy a card and then load it with youth prices. I'm 18 at heart right? 

Get on the tube and get off. It is SO windy! Like walking into a wind tunnel wind. By the way never put on lip gloss if you are going to walk I to a wind tunnel.

We get to the sky view and no one is there. Hint number one that something is up. Then we get inside and the lady says she needs to make a phone call. Hint two. She finally comes to us and says the wind has to be at a level ten to run the ride but it is at a level 18. No sky view today. MAJOR bummer. No sky view and we are now far away from the city and a lot of kroners poorer lol. Okay so we take the tube back to central station and then decide to head to the open air museum. After asking a few people it is apparent we need to take a tram. Tram 7. But how do we get tickets? We jut get on. Of course as soon as it starts moving a guy gets up and starts scanning tickets.

Shoot.

Many options here.

What to do.

I tell Mikele to just hand him the card from the train and okay stupid American and please everyone look cute while doing so. So she hands him the card and we are all expecting a mess but he scans it and moves on. What the heck. Then we all burst out laughing. Don't know how that worked. I decided we best make friends with this guy if we are going to have that work again. So Mikele and I go and talk to him about the museum and ship we want to go to and ask which to go to first. Yada yada. By the way at this point it is pouring rain. Pouring.

And the Skansen. What is it? And outdoor open air museum. They took buildings from many years ago and took them apart and then rebuilt them in this gigantic open air museum so people could come and literally walk through Swedish history. They also have a Sweedish animal exhibit Zoo thing which we know I'm not keen on but hey this place sounded awesomeness. But in the rain?

It's decided that even though it's raining we still need to go. We knew it was going to be bad weather so suck it up. 

We get off the tram and immediately umbrellas and flipping inside out rain is shooting up underneath the flipped umbrella and it's coooold. We thought there should be a great rain discount since it was just us and a school group in the whole place but they didn't agree.

We walk in and then Hannah's umbrella breaks and is a half flap now. She is also in lace toms. Paige doesn't want to be there. Rachel's umbrellas handle falls off and she's left with hand holding up just the top and Mikele and I are laughing so hard we just may pee our pants but it wouldn't show because we are all soaked. 

Paige and Hannah decide to high tail it outta there and get their money back. The rest of us decide this is just going to be an experience to remember. 

So this is how we looked. Half running, half laughing, half crying, holding broken pieces of umbrellas. It was special but we had a great time. Trying to take pictures was funny:

We found this shelter and one would run out and take pictures of the other and we would rotate so no one got any more wet than the others. Thank goodness my mom got me that waterproof case for my birthday.

While here some of the houses were open and we watched glass blowing. Which me armories is all and made us want to take a class.

We ate at a little bakery. Huddled near fires in the house stoves and enjoyed the pure beauty of the park while laughing like crazy because of the mad storm we were in. We found some red traditional Sweedish horses to get pictures on. 

Look how beautiful this. I wish we could have explored more of this place. It is so pretty and in two hours we only saw a tiny part of it.

And the views... Oh how gorgeous of course you can't see it here because the camera can't capture even 1/100th of what we were seeing:( 

At 1:00 we met Paige and Hannah at a cafe across the street and had lunch. While we were in the Skansen they went to this ship museum. So now they went back to old town and we went to the ship museum. It was INCREDIBLE.

We finally were able to take a guides tour and watch a movie which is essential for museums and enhances your experience a million times over.

Here are some notes I took on this tour.

The Vasa Ship Museum

Vasa

700 carvings very detailed and expensive to show the wealth of Sweden 

They built this to replace their flag ship that Poland had captured during the war 

Trying to be very impressive they doubled the size and amount of guns by adding a second gun deck 

Was fourth twin decker ship built and first in Northern Europe and first outside of the Netherlands built in 1625 

Largest and most powerful ship in the world at the time 

Building really fast something they had never built before should have taken 4 years they were given 2 

Took 1,000 oak trees to build it 

55m tall 63 long 

Ship was top heavy because they added the second gun deck 

Invited thousands of people and ambassadors to come and see the launching of this ship 

Huge party. Sets sail. Captain wanted to show fire power of Vasa and show off for the crowds.

Normally you fire one gun when you leave but they decided to fire every single one of the 64 guns 

Had to open all gun ports and by the time they left the harbor they were still busy firing and they lost the shelter the harbor provided and the wind started to come and tilted the ship so much that within 45 minutes the lower gun ports were below water and water started to rush in. They can't close the doors or move the guns so in twenty minutes it was sunk

250 people on board most survived about thirty died 

One captain went down with the ship one didn't 

Aftermath: the king had already won the war so it wasn't such a big deal that it sunk

The shipbuilders were put on trial and then were freed and even used to build more ships 

They built another one correctly that was wider 

98%original 

No other ship preserved  this size in the world 

For 17 years it had to be foraged with a chemical found in lipstick and lotion to replace all the water in the wood 

This ship is gigantic. GIGANTIC. And the museum was neat too! 

They had interactive tables and walls and I found my house. That was fun. Anyway you should go to this museum and make sure you do the tour. It's worth it if you are ever in Sweden. But the museum is cold so don't get the wrong idea that by going inside you will escape the freezing air. You will however escape the rain :)

At this point we got back on the tram and guess who the ticket checker was. The dude! Thank goodness because he didn't check our ticket Infact when he came to is we just talked to him the whole time. 

By this time we were cold, wet, thirsty and tired so we headed back to our hostel for a refresher. Of course then it stopped raining. Bahahahahaha. We headed out on foot to explore more of old town and just look at the beautiful buildings and alley ways. 

I would blog about that $8 cup of white hot chocolate but it wasn't good. Infact you didn't get many food updates from here because I wasn't impressed with anything.

Well it's 6am on Monday and we are headed to the airport. Need to be ready to teach in a few hours. Goodbye Sweden and Norway. It's been real. 

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Destination: Sweden

Ever been to Sweden?

Well when you are so close you go. Despite pricing. And let me tell you this was no $27 flight. The dumb flight from Sweden was more than our flight I Norway and our flight to Sweden combined. But like I said when you are here, you go. I doubt I will ever be back in this part of Europe and I'm determined to see all the countries while I am here.

So what is Sweden like? 

It's raining! Why! It's raining so much! Today we got off the plane and headed into the center. It is really pretty! 

Such beautiful architecture! We are staying in the middle of old town and this is our view from our window.

Since it's pouring rain we just spent a few hours walking around old town.

We found some cool arches and flowers. Found a chocolate shop, go figure.

We then went and walked some more. Here is our group photo. 

The architecture is beautiful. So pretty. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. 

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Norway. Day 2.

Day 2 and so much better.

Day two started with a trip to the grocery store for a banana and yogurt. I also got some very pricey trail mix but I know my body and I know who I am traveling with and let's say food is not a priority to some. Those that know my inner psycho know that food is a HUGE priority. When my blood sugar crashes it's bad. And by bad I mean so terrible. Anyway. Trail mix. My saving grave especially since we didn't freaking eat again until 10pm. Ok anyway. I got my food.

So we get on this bus and take it to a little peninsula. Here we hop off at the Viking museum. This place is rockin!

It has four of these huge Viking ships that are actually burial tombs! A farmer was digging one day here and struck one. When the dug it up they discovered this huge ship with two women's bodies inside. It's so trippy. The carvings on these were so detailed and beautiful. 

Then we got back on the bus and went to a oh man I forgot the name. Khan tiki or something. He was this Norwegian man who sailed he pacific on a little raft and then did a few more voyages. He has a documentary after him that I need to wth and he is the most famous Norwegian. Can you imagine 101 days on this/

There was another ship museum with the I first ship that went through the artic. The whole ship was in this museum and you could go in the ship and it was a museum too.

Around these museums the nature was so pretty! We walked around and explored.

Of course we took some group photos

Anyway this place was so pretty.

Here is our group.

Ok then onto the bus again. This time to the folk museum. Usually there are people in folk outfits walking around and reinactments but this is off season. Come in summer people. Anyway it was still beautiful! It is a huge open air museum with old buildings and beautiful gardens. Come here and give yourself some time to explore. 

I loved walking around this place. They had an old candy shop and the man said we could have a sample so we asked him about the flavors. He said there was one he didn't know the name but lots of people liked it so I was like sure I'll take it. YUCK! People. Yuck. Black licorice. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Vomit. Okay so spit that out and continue on the journey.

From the folk museum we got back on a bus and headed into town. Problem is there is this HUGE  and I mean HUGE marathon going on. We needed to get to the ferry but the race was blocking all the roads. Mikele and I started to get nervous but we found a way round about way and had to run across the race to get by the boat. But we made it. We got on our ferry and headed away from the city. It rocked! I am so glad that we did this.

Norway got even better the further away we got. The water was pretty and the fjord was stunning. Houses were built into the sides of the hills and then boat houses were along the water. I couldn't capture pictures to do it justice. You will just have to go see for yourself.

We ended at a place called brobak. This is where the Santa Claus house is but of course it was closed. In fact basically the whole town was closed. Things close so early!

We walked to find a bathroom first. Of course I found a bakery but didn't buy anything. Not sure why. Anyway look how cute this place is.

We walked around a little park and down the streets. The houses were so well kept and gorgeous with flower gardens and Ivy. I guess when your house is over a million dollars you take care of it. By the way I want the houses that are white with black shiny roofs. I need that one day. They were stunning.

Near the water we found some docks maybe.

I jut loves walking around this town. The girls said it reminded them of Maine. Why have I never been to Maine? I need to fix that. My mom has always wanted to do tht trip. Maybe next fall we can plan it. 

When we got back to town were were starving as you could imagine but there was this park that I really wanted to see and so did Mikele so we decided to find it. I was worried about going to the park at night so I decided to ask the store man. He looked at me and said you are not in America of course it is safe. There are lamps. And then in the fastest English I have ever heard he told us how to get here and said it would take 6 minutes. Okay let's do it.

It did not take six minutes.

First we had to try and find the subway station. That took awhile but we doesn't it. Then we thought it was going to be so close. Wrong. We ended up in the grocery store buying dinner. Another bad idea because we ended up having to carry our dinner ingredients the rest if the journey which again we thought would be short. 

So we are lost. I ask a man with a dog, assuming if you have a dog you live here. Wrong again. He sent us in the wrong direction. We ask a girl she sends us back the other way. 

Still lost.

I find a bakery of course I do. So I volunteer to ask for directions. Secretly it is because I saw this brownie Oreo thing tht looked heaven made and I was STARVING. So I ask for directions but I really ask her how good that brownie thing is and 40kroners later I have a divine piece of heaven. Now I know that because I was starving this amplified how amazing it was but even if I was full this thing was SPOT on. It was sooo good. Like top things I've eaten good. I want another one. Oh yah so I asked her how to get there and we start again.

Still can't find it. We finally see a park but no statues so we just start asking people if they have seen statues.

FINALLY

Yah that's a bridge with statues but it was dark!

Anyway it really was beautiful except we couldn't see much. It would have been just breath taking if we could have seen it in the day. Make sure if you ever visit you go in the day. And that you get correct directions. It really is close to the tracks if you know where you are going. 

Finally we get home. It's like 9:30pm and we start to cook dinner. Which at this point we are all starving and have maybe had one bottle of water combined between 5 of us which is stupid I know but there are no bathrooms around and most girls can't fit water in their bags. Whatev. Today I vow to keep better care of my body because -

This morning we got up early and I felt like death. Seriously SO exaughsted and dehydrated. So tired and so sick. But we got out the door by 7:45. I used the exact last 18 kroners I had to but a yogurt and banana and off we went. It's raining this morning. We start walking and see a bus coming so we run. But it's bus 11 and we need 13 but 13 doesn't come for 20 minutes so we run like crazy and jump on the 11 even though we don't know where it is going. We start talking all confused and this man, another angle miracle, asks us where we are going and we tell him the train station. He is going there too and tells us he will take us. His name is Timothy. He shows us where to get off, walks us all yhe way to the train statuon. Looks up our train and tells us where it is and when we will get to the airport. Then he walks us 

all the way to the tracks shows us which door to use and as if that is not enough he takes us back into the station to the waking area and shows us where to watch for the train. He was from Zimbabwe and lives here. Anyway. Wow. People are being out in our lives perfectly.

Now for the train to the airport. 

Peace out Norway.

On our way to the airport through the words of Mikele:

"We all got up, got ready and packed our things and said goodbye to one of the strangest hostels I have been to in my life. Thankfully they gave us some directions, but just like always we managed to get lost. We all started asking people frantically on the bus where we needed to go. Heaven shined upon us and we met Timothy. Timothy looks exactly like the black vampire off of twilight. He had the piercing eyes, the great dreads and buff yet skinny black man body. He also dressed very posh as well. To make him even cooler, he moved to Norway from Africa. He told us that he didn't mind taking us to the station because he was on his way there as well. When we got to the station, he brought us all the way to the train and made sure all of our tickets were in order before he left. What a nice guy. (I still thought he might have the urge to suck my blood.... Kidding.) We rode the train all the way to the airport."

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Norway

Norway.

Day 1. 

Disappointment. 

I was really worried about you Norway, I was, but you pulled through. 

Day 2.

Beautiful.

Oh let's start with some more miracles. I will tell you that God is definetly watching over our group and putting people exactly where we need them. For example when we got on the bus fr the airport the seats were all full so we had to split up and sit by strangers. Mikele sat but a guy names Tadas who was from Lithuania! He was visiting his brother here and when we got off the bus he walked us through the station and showed us the Main Street of town. He then walked us all the way to the tourist center so we could plan our day. Seriously? I don't believe in coincidence. That was cool. 

So day 1 we were in Oslo the heart of the downtown city. It was a huge let down. It's not pretty and it's just blah. We went to some museums on the Oslo pass. They were okay if that's your cup of tea you would have enjoyed it more. I guess the problem is for how much this place costs I thought it was going to be so neat and it's just so pricey! Anyway let's look at the good.

We went to this castle that was a beautiful view.

Fun to walk around for a few. Oh and that's the other thing everything closes so early! Like 4pm so plan on that if you ever come here come before September 1 when it is summer season and everything is open. 

We went to the museum of resistance and learned about WWII in Norway.

The museum itself was a gorgeous exhibit and so well put together. These are guns.

Then we went to the art museum. 

Seriously this is only the start. So many museums lol. what was neat about the art museum was sitting inside and painting where the kids paint. We only had about 15 minutes and then it closed too but we were able to paint a quick picture.

After this we hurried to the noble peace prize museum. Since this is where it is handed out, although not in the museum. 

It has some great info on social media. Do you know 95% of Norweigans are on the internet? We made some art here too.  People would spell things and leave messages on the democratic wall.

After this, we walked up to the presidential palace or something like that. 

And then found a macaroon shop!!! They cost 16 kroners but dang was it good! I love macaroons so much. 

From here we found the national library and we only had ten minutes inside but it made for some nice pictures.

At this point we were starving because we are going on hardly and food because it is so pricey. Here is where my mom would say just eat. Don't worry mom I bought some protein through trail mix so I didn't kill the other girls. 

I had done some research that said to just buy food at the grocery store so we found one and had made sandwhiches and ate the best apples ever. 

Unfortunately after this we went home. Sometimes when you travel in a group you end early whether you like it or not. 

Our hostel is called Anker Apartments. It is this huge place. Our door has like 14 beds in it. I'm on the top and there are no bars and sides. I spent my night waking up constantly afraid I was going to fall off lol. We also had to pay 50k for our sheets and 20k for a towel. These kroners are non stop adding up. 

So by the end of day 1 I think Oslo had stolen my wallet not my heart.

But never fear day 2 made it all worth it. 

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