Confessions of a Serial Tight-Arse

5 things Aussies take for granted & should take the time to appreciate more;

Sun-dried washing

Backyard swimming pools

Great coffee!

Wide open spaces that stretch for kilometers

I was just reflecting on how I ended up here in Kitzbühel and thought I should share it! It's a good lesson on how valuable networking is, and also to remind you to think creatively to solve problems!

As mentioned, I have a Dutch Work Holiday permit.

Whilst I was in Switzerland in the summer, I kept thinking of how badly I wanted to spend the winter in the mountains somewhere snowboarding. I knew I would need to work in order to afford that, but since I could only had a Dutch visa, and Holland is flat and mostly snow-less, I would have to look at getting a different visa.

Whilst tagging along with some BASE jumper friends through France and Italy, we ended up partying in a mansion in Milan. There was a guy there who was editing some video footage for our host. Since he and I were the only two non-BASE jumpers there, we got talking about everything not related to parachutes, and ended up chatting about snowboarding since he is also a boarder. 

Neil has been living in Austria and boarding for about 8 years, and when I mentioned the visa issues he told me that there are lots of Dutch ski chalets around Austria and since the companies are based in the Netherlands, they should be able to employ me with my visa! I got his contact details so I could follow up on the info.

2 weeks later I emailed Neil to ask for the names of these Dutch companies, he responded very quickly with the name Wens Chalet.

About a month later, I decided to bite the bullet and write to Wens Chalet to ask if they were hiring. I mentioned that I was interested in working in Austria, that I could already speak a bit of German and that I was also trying to learn Dutch.

I received a response from Wens Chalet with an application form to complete and send along with my CV. They asked if I could speak conversational Dutch and said that was important for them since most of the guests and all of the staff are Dutch...I replied and said not yet, but I learn quickly so I will plan to go to Holland or Belgium asap and learn the language! (Ambitious much?!)

After 3 weeks, I finally had a response from Wens. They admitted that they were concerned I could not speak Dutch, but thought my application was really good so they would like me to attend an interview all the same! I wrote back to say that I would leave straight away to Belgium in order to learn Dutch...

After promising to learn the language, I had to figure out a way to actually do so! I looked up workaway.info and wrote to several hosts, explaining that I wanted to learn Dutch and would they be able to help me! 2 days later I received a response from a host in Gent, I could go and work for her for 3 weeks and she could also help a bit with Dutch.

I moved to Gent and set out to learn enough Dutch within 3 weeks to impress the Wens staff at the interview! My workaway host had two young kids, a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old, so I was learning baby Dutch very quickly!

After 3 weeks with An, I set off to Baarn (Holland) for my job interview. I sadly had to inform them that my Dutch was not progressing as quickly as I'd hoped due to my host mostly speaking in English with me, and not having been able to find a Dutch school to enrol in. Regardless, they offered me the job!

An offered for me to stay with her for as long as I wanted, so I continued on in Gent. Since I could not enrol in a language school due to term dates, I came up with other solutions and began contacting people on couchsurfing.org who had 'teacher' and 'dutch' listed on their profiles. After sending out several emails, I had 3 very helpful responses.

Simon is studying to become a language teacher. He had several hours to make up for his courses at school, and so he offered to give me some private Dutch lessons for free since it would actually help him with his University degree as well! He turned out to be an awesome, patient teacher, and while I only had two 1.5 hr long lessons with him, they were very helpful. He still has some hours to make up and has offered to arrange more lessons when I return to Gent.

Edith, a primary school language teacher, did not have time to teach me but offered to invite me along whenever she was out with friends to get some Dutch practice. She turned out to be a fantastic girl who has become a new friend, and is incredibly patient and helpful with my broken Dutch, allowing me to converse only in Dutch with her even though it would be easier and more fluid to speak in English.

The 3rd helpful response was from a girl who could not personally help, but told me about a Dutch 'learning table' that occurs each week in Gent. It's a group of CSers who get together to help non-natives learn the language! I started going every week and my Dutch improved in leaps and bounds due to the very patient and helpful Belgians who run the event. I also made fantastic new friends and got involved with the awesome CS group in Gent who are always organising fun activities each week! 

Me: Can you tell me anything about European history?

Bu: Yes. it goes like this. first there were toga parties everywhere. Plus some Jews. Then a bunch of people got mad and Vikings came and stole their women and soapy fish. "oh shit! Genghis Khan!", yelled somebody. Then archduke Ferdinand was assassinated and Germany stayed angry for a long time. Then Greece defaulted and cost everybody one week of paid vacation. The end.

Check out my new pages over to the right!

You can now stalk me on my page; Where the Bloody Hell am I?

Get some inspiration (or just see how weird I am) in my 100 list,

Ask me a question on my hassle me section...

And if you have some tight-arse tips of your own, submit a guest post!

If you are above the age limit for working holiday visas, or if you just want an interesting, more cultural travel experience then check out workaway.

For a very small fee you can sign up to become a volunteer and work in exchange for a bed and board (read the profiles thoroughly because sometimes this may vary).

I've had 3 experiences as a workaway volunteer, and have also hosted volunteers back home in Sydney. It is an absolutely brilliant organisation that I can not speak highly enough of! The website is neat and well laid out, it is very simple to use and the sign up fee is extremely reasonable. Once you join, you can contact any of the hosts listed all over the world! The work is really varied, everything from farming to computer help, teaching languages and working with children or tourists!

This is the best way to get an insider look at another culture, as you will most often be living with your hosts, eating with them and maybe even conversing with them in a language other than English! For my part, I have learned new skills (including looking after pigs as you see in the photo!), lived in beautiful places no tourist ever sees, eaten delicious local home-cooked meals and made wonderful new life-long friends!

Obviously this is also a great way of saving money when you travel, since you are working for accommodation and food, and as I mentioned, if you are over 30 yrs old and therefore don't qualify for a working holiday permit, then volunteering is a great way of still being able to earn at least a bed and food.

There are other similar organisations such as helpX and WWOOFing. Personally, I find the helpX website a little too messy, and the downside of WWOOFing is that it is only farm work, so if you're not into that it doesn't have much else to offer. But essentially they are all the same concept, volunteer in exchange for bed and board.

Take a look at the workaway website today, you can browse all of the awesome opportunities available and see how amazing it is! Then when you want to contact a host you simply sign up and pay the small fee, then start applying for work. Remember, write to the host as you would to any prospective employer, no matter that it is only volunteer work, you still need to write a good application letter and make yourself stand out from the rest.