About a week ago, I came across a blog written by an adept traveler: ‘How to Travel Young and Middle-Class’ and since then I’ve been wanting to write something similar since I can’t really relate to the middle-class part. First of all, I’m a student with no income (well maybe small income from part-time job and what not); I live on a strict budget determined by my parents; and I sometimes have impulsive shopping behavior so I don’t really save up for long term. Simply put, I’m a broke student with a simple obsession – that is travelling. So how in the hell can I travel?
Well one thing that I’m good at is researching – not the scientific kind; this kind of research, you just need Google and social media. Also bear in mind that my kind of travelling is not just for ‘having fun’ or ‘being a tourist’. I travel for a purpose – educational, professional or philanthropic, whatever that reason is, I’m eager to learn and experience more from the places that I visit.
I guess this would be an excellent choice for anyone who wants to study and being abroad (duh!). The length can vary from 3 months to a complete 4-year program. I saw a lot of my friends have done this and I bet every university have a study abroad program. If you don’t know, Google it.
My favorite! You get money and you’re abroad! I’ve done this twice through AIESEC and it’s amazing. You can work for a company of your choice (if they are in the database and if you’re accepted). There’s a lot of similar program like IASTE and other organization. You could also find a company by yourself via Google (seriously, I Google everything – you’ll hear this more from me).
I only have 10 days during Spring Break and I want to travel, so I choose to volunteer abroad. Global Brigades offers a short term volunteer trip to Panama, Honduras and Ghana – and I think they’re expanding. There are also tons of other fellowship program to Central and South America. Do your research.
THIS MEANS FREE! So yes, it’s one of the best way to travel and learn at the same time. There are tons of conferences abroad that will sponsor students – because we are the future generations (YEAAA!). But these kinds are usually hard to get because they have a pretty tough application process and usually thousands of students (I’m not exaggerating) applied. This kind of thing, you sometimes can’t really Google it but that’s why there’s Twitter and Facebook. For example, there’s a Global Changemaker Conference hosted by British Council in London – all expenses are paid, you just need to get on the plane, I heard about this via Twitter.