Nomad Life
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In your 30’s, 50’s or 70’s: there isn’t a right age to follow your dreams
Some days ago, we were driving down a gravel road in what seemed to be rural Australia (thanks, Google!) when we realized how surreal that moment was. We were literally on the other side of the ocean on our way to one of the most famous beaches in the land of kangaroos—something hard to believe if you’re someone who took more than 10 years to see the ocean for the first time. As kids, our families didn’t use to travel much. We just traveled out of Rio Grande do Sul, the state we lived in Brazil, when we were already in our late teens. Our first experience abroad came as…
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Life doesn’t have to be difficult: what we’ve learned about abundance after one year on the road
When we talk to people about our first year on the road, they often ask us, with the tone of someone who intends to show how impressed they are: ‘But tell me: It wasn’t easy, was it? You guys must have had moments you wanted to give up because of how difficult things were, didn’t you?’ At these moments, we usually answer a bit shy: ‘Actually, it was really easy. There were only good things on our way ’. This dialogue illustrates one of the most valuable lessons we learned on this trip, and that will surely change the way we live our lives forever: Abundance is simple to get.…
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Backpacking: what we learned from traveling throughout six countries in a year
The time to say goodbye has arrived! We’ve been home for a week now, trying to adjust to the time zone while meeting our families and friends. Our year of traveling has come to an end and we declare our mission accomplished (what doesn’t mean that there isn’t more to come!) We still remember clearly the time we spent planning our project. There were nine months of researching, studying, and getting emotionally ready for a long and uncertain journey. The truth is, we didn’t know if things would work out. We were constantly asking ourselves questions like: and if they don’t let us in the country? Will we end up…
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Nomad life: what traveling for one year taught us about dreams
A mix of anxiety, lots of expectations, and chills going down our spines. Exactly one year ago, we were closing our suitcase and getting ready to start this journey. On paper, a crazy and unconventional dream. In our minds, a huge doubt about what was to come. And in our hearts the wish to make a dream come true. Words aren’t enough to say how we felt during those first months: the butterflies in our stomachs when passing through the first border control (and getting our first yes of our journey), the first night we spent on a bus while going to a new destination, the first time we volunteered…
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Australia: how we spent 40 days in Adelaide
One month and eight days. That’s the time we spent in Adelaide. It’s longer than our previous exchange program to study English in Canada. It’s longer than our visit to Brazil last September. It’s a long time even for the standard of those traveling around the world. We arranged this experience back in August when we were in California. After traveling for more than 20 cities in our first months in North America, we felt we should slow our pace in Australia. Moving around frequently is good, but it also sums our lives into a mix of packing and sleeping in buses. And that’s how we’ve ended up living for…
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House-sitting: our relationship with hosts
Our relationship with hosts always begins with an almost professional formality, after all, until that first contact, we are strangers ‘born and raised’ in very different sides of the world. However, it takes only the first video call, the first e-mails, the first hug on arrival, the first chat in person, for a new friendship to begin. We usually end up getting along so well that it seems that this whole trip is nothing more than a great visit to old friends. We soon are sharing stories, telling jokes, and (why not?) dancing together at a music festival. Our time at the house-sitting may finish, but our friendship continues. We…
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Thanksgiving Day: gratitude is about abundance not only about giving thanks
Today is Thanksgiving Day and our list of things to be thankful for is endless. We could mention the incredible places we’ve been to, the sunsets we’ve seen, the people we were lucky to meet, the lessons we learned, and our family and friends, who despite any distance on the map are always with us. The funny thing is that when we started planning our project, we asked ourselves: ‘We have amazing people around us, we have careers that we love, we have all the comforts of our homes, in addition to countless opportunities. Isn’t that good enough? Do we really have to drop everything to roam around the world?…
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Nomad life: All the money in this world couldn’t make us this rich
On the same day, we got an email from hosts on Vancouver Island and another one from Portland. On WhatsApp, the alert that there are new messages in the groups we created with a friend from Windsor, and with a friend from Boston. There is also a message from Melbourne. Notifications appear on Facebook, and hosts from San Francisco and London commented on our photo. We went through the Instagram feed and liked the photos of New Zealander friends who went to visit Italy, and of Canadian friends who went to Morocco. We went for a walk with a friend from California, English as a language, and halfway through, we…
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A surprise ride in Kingston
The magic happens when you are on a corner, waiting for the bus that will take you to the bus station, where you will take a second bus. Suddenly, a person stops near you: “Hi girls! I saw you two looking at your phones and carrying these bags. Do you need help finding a direction? Are you going to the bus station? I have a truck. My two dogs are in the car, but I can take you there.” After some seconds of hesitation (after all, we were taught not to enter strangers’ cars.. hehe) and, impressed by the generosity that keeps crossing our path, we accepted the offer. Our…
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Organizing our gap year: the first time someone told us ‘no’
A year ago, we were starting to plan our gap year. We didn’t know exactly what we would do then, but we spent our days reading about how we could travel on a low budget and still visit many different cities. After lots of research, we came up with a plan and chose our destination! What was our first step? Get new passports since ours were about to expire. Normally, that’s something easy to do, right? Well… just to add to our list of “with extra doses of adrenaline”, there was a strike in Brazil and they weren’t renewing passports during a period of time. We checked the dates and…