Strangers Abroad

If you loved episodes one and two of my new audio adventure A Race Around the World: Based on the True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, then head over to these feeds linked below.  New episodes are out and you can listen to the full series at these links.  Listen here -----> Apple Podcasts  Listen here -----> Spotify  Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you all are inspired to do your own race around the world once you listen to the full season ( eleven episodes and counting!)  Please rate and review and spread the word!

Please go to A Race Around the World feed for the remaining nine episodes.  ___________________________________________________________________________ Nellie Bly isn't the only woman to leave New York on November 14th to race around the world. On the same day, the editor of the Cosmopolitan magazine, John Brisben Walker, recognized the potential for a sensational story. He dispatched ( aka bribed, badgered, and threatened) his literary writer Elizabeth Bisland to jump into the race as well. But, instead of following the same path, Elizabeth took a westward route. She packs her items and jumps onto a train headed to San Francisco. While many know about the historical race from Nellie's perspective, Elizabeth Bislands story is often left in the shadows and will provide an alternative perspective to going around the world. This episode sheds light on Elizabeth Bislands upbringing, her ambitions and talents, and how she got roped into this wild goose chase of a race.

Please go to A Race Around the World feed for the remaining nine episodes.  _______________________________________________________________________________ On November 14th, 1889, Nellie Bly left Manhattan to go on a race around the world in under 80 days. In this episode, host Adrien Behn will delve into the background of this extraordinary woman. She will explore Nellie Bly's upbringing and aspirations, the obstacles she summersaulted over to become a female investigative journalist, her groundbreaking reporting, and what drove her to embark on a journey that defied the norms of her time. By the end of the episode, Nellie's bags are pack, and she is headed to London on a steamship.

NEW SHOW ALERT    Hi Strangers! I have been working on a new podcast series and wanted to share the trailer here. Take a listen! ________________________________________________________________________________ On November 14th, 1889, two female writers entered a race to go around the world in under 80 days. Nellie Bly went east, and Elizabeth Bisland headed west. Nellie couldn't be more excited. While Elizabeth was annoyed because she had to reschedule a tea party.  This eleven part series will unpack their whirlwind of an adventure, how these two women ended up in the race, and what it was like to travel the world alone as a women.  Storyteller and travel writer Adrien Behn brings Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bislands' experiences, emotions, and adventures to life.  This serialized podcast works to bring the incredible accomplishments of these two bold solo female travelers to life, go through every country, every feeling they experience while braving the world on their own. 

Adrien and Sam hear avalanches. Adrien reflects on her trip and the last year of stillness as her and Sam make their way back home. 

Adrien describes a day in Bryce Canyon with her partner Sam that tests their relationship. She then interviews Sam about their time on the road and how well they faired as travel companions. 

Adrien and Sam head out west. Adrien talks to managers of Indy Hostel in Indianapolis and Food of the Mountain Motel in Boulder to see how COVID has effected their business and how they have learned to roll with every changing mandate. We discuss post-covid travel predictions, roadside attractions, and never ending stretches of desert. 

This episode kicks of Strangers Abroad Road Trip mini-series. Listen to why Adrien had a sudden urge to go into the desert and how she started planning her trip across the country with her intrepid partner Sam. 

Although our American passports give us all equal access to the world, we don't come back with the same experiences. In light of the Black Lives Matter protests and shifts, we talk to travelers of color who share their stories about being a person of color abroad. We discuss common frustrations and how to be a good ally at home and onboard.  Featured Guests: On She Goes Podcast 

We talk to travelers to reexamine their relationships with themselves and their home as they wait through quarantine. Adrien get's used to seeing more of her family and long walks through the woods. Featured Guests: Ticket to Anywhere Podcast

Adrien escapes to upstate, and we speak to travelers who had there plans canceled due to the pandemic   Featured Guests: Full Time Travel and Delux Life Media

Thank you to all of my listeners and guests for an incredible second season! I hope you all enjoyed it and I would love to hear your thoughts and desires for the next season.  Email me at strangersabroadpodcast@gmail.com  PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW THE SHOW You can do it by going to Strangers Abroad under Apple Podcasts LASTLY, if you love what we do here and would love to support the penniless podcaster who produces this show, check out our Patreon under Strangers Abroad. 

The more we travel, the more we find that home becomes more illusive. Home is a place we crave in our most harrowing moments and forget in the spontaneous bliss.  But, the farther we travel from it, the more foreign it seems. It slowly becomes but a dream to us. Our lives consist of backpacks and tickets instead of a bed and a mortgage.  Many of us left because home doesn’t provide all that it could for us.  Others find gratitude in the homes they were raised in.   Travelers begin to define home differently. It may no longer be a physical place, but a person, a landmass, a journal.  We have to leave in order to find what needs to be discovered about ourselves or the world.  Some of us don’t return. Others do. For those to choose to come back, they reinvest in their communities differently. They bring new ideas to old places. They teach those who don’t have as easy access to alternative ideas or traveling. And if we do choose to return, it won’t feel the same as when we left. We are more sensitive now to the pain, the triggers, the traumas of a past life. But those who have truly grown in their travels know how to overcome, to throw away the snake skin of their metamorphosis and begin to make home better.  Because they know home has been within them all along. Featured Guests: Jeffery Enns, Georgia Clark, Cassandra Bianco, Laura Bronner

Home is  hopefully a wonderful place to grow. But it can keep us stagnant. Never challenge us for bigger things in life.  Travel has ways of challenging us and forcing us to grow in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. We see what we are good at and where we can improve and reveal to us what our full potential is.  But growth is not a singular moment- it is a series of moments, that build up over time- a gradual slope- like the ever wearing of wrinkles on a face, like the singular gray hair- like the singular leaf that turns orange before the rest. This episode will explore the theme of change in a new place. Who were you before and how did travel transform you? Featured Guests: Travelprenur , Bryan Berlin, Jon Barr, Traveling Vagabond

When we travel, many of us come back with more photos on our phones and souvenirs in our bags. We may feel a deeper shift within us. We have experienced things that we cannot unsee. We have to do better; we know we can. This could be as simple as giving more compliments to people, being kinder.   Or it could be enough to evoke a humanitarian career.  But ultimately, how can we make sure that we are helping, and not falling into the lens of white saviorism. How can we construct true conversations around areas that are in need without tokenizing them. In this episode, we will talk to travelers who were inspired to make the world a better place.  Featured Guests: Ray Blakney- Creator of Live Lingua, Anne Davis-Creator of Venture with Impact, Kat Najera- Creator of Manos Con Amore, Evita Robinson- Creator of Nomadness

Sometimes we don’t know we are sick until we have left our homes. New environments have ways of challenging us.  We can push our strengths to a new limit. We can see how adaptable our bodies are in new territories.  We get over the limitations our bodies and minds put on us. We see what we can and cannot do without sacrificing our joy and need to travel. Travel can help us see what pieces need to be put back together.  Guests: Obligatory Traveler, Find Your Shine, The Deaf Traveler, Tiny Globetrotter

Travel invites us to climb mountains, internal or external. And once we leave the small backyards we were raised in and are exposed to the great landscapes of the world, something shifts within us.  Our egos crack.  Our  minds quiet. Our true selves show up.  Today on the episode, we are humbled. We talk to people who begin the transformational process that happens when we leave our comforts and discover who we are on our own.  Featured Guests: Richard Cardillo, She Explores Podcast, Lisa Morales Photography 

“What are the chances?”  is how it always starts. We bump into a middle school friend in Prague, book the same hotel as a high school friend in Argentina, or end up sitting next to someone from home on a bus in Ireland.  When we travel, we sometimes find ourselves running into people we already know but didn’t expect to see.   Your brain is shocked because it is breaking your expectations.  For a moment, in a time where you have volunteered to be uncomfortable and out of your element, you have a moment of familiarity.  Or maybe the same thing keeps happening to you, you see the same person over and over again, hear the same topic come up in conversations, or keep being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But what do these coincidences really mean?  Featured Guests: Yann Iunga, Sandi Marx, Sam Dingman   Are they just a sign from the universe or us just flipping the least unlikely coin? 

Strangers are an inevitable part of our trip. Their presence is like oxygen: invisible but breathes life into our trips.  These random interactions  Being pointed in the right direction ( or often wrong) by someone sitting next to you on the bus.  Sharing a dessert with someone you met on a tour Having a small laugh with the barista in a cafe  Make a quick conversation with a cab driver who tells you where the best meal is in the city Sometimes even staying in a strangers home for the night Are what tend to define our trips.  We will talk to travelers who have had their trips defined by the random acts of kindness they have experienced from around the world.  Featured Guests: Anita Florez, Juan Pablo Villarino, Casey Fenton

er, it seems that when we travel to new lands, what we are afraid of is more that we don’t know our surroundings. We are unfamiliar with the customs, our surroundings, the cultural mannerisms, the speed of the city, or even how to order. Our discomfort in a new place can prick our brains to believe that mischief looms behind every door.    But that’s not to say that these malevolent moments don’t happen. They do.  We get our passports stolen, Hopelessly lost Pickpocketed  Scammed  Grabbed at  Lied to  These moments are part of the process. Our travels aren’t always filled with Instagram ready pictures, there are plenty of alarming moments in between.  In this episode, we tell the stories we don’t want to share with new travelers.  All of the fears that we have around travel will bubble to the service, and we will do our best to burst the misleading stories on how dangerous the world is. Featured Guests: What the Pho, Punk Dads Abroad, Adam Selbst, Dawn Fletcher 

It isn't about the destination, it’s about the journey is one of the most overused, cliche, eye-roll sayings around travel. But it reminds us to not take for granted what gets us from point A to point B. The buses, the planes, the cars, the trains, the conductors and all of the wonderful and weird people you met along the way.    But it is when we are on the move when we see the things we didn’t expect. The goat trees in morocco, the base of the Italian Alps, or meet you new travel buddy for the next week. There is some kind of magic that happens when we remove ourselves from comforts and willingly throw ourselves out into the abyss.   Featured Guests: Everything Everywhere, Women on the Road, Why Wait to See the World

Travel has a way of redefining our romantic needs and helps us expand more than our horizons.  What can travel tell us about this silent connection. An eye glance or whiff of someone's pheromones can magnetize us to someone we might not normally be attracted to. We will talk to travelers who adjust their romantic needs, desire, chemistry, and commitment. Put some headphones in, this episode is not safe for work.    Featured Guests: Jamie Brickhouse, Authentic Asheville, Brad Lawrence 

The whiff of challah bread or bite into roasted corn can transport you back to journeys you had long ago. Nothing like food can stir a deep hunger within us to trekk thousands of miles to find the perfect spring roll.  It not only motivates our travels but helps us understand where we are and who we are with. Invisible lines portion Moroccan tagine dishes, slurping noodles loudly is a high complement in Japan, while Mexicans are unable to eat anything without salsa on it. When we sit down at someone else's kitchen, we aren’t just enjoying their food we are enjoying their perspective on how to nourish our bodies.  Food is an essential ingredient to having a rich experience abroad. It expands more than our waistlines. It expands how we understand each other and the cosmic soup we are all simmering in.  Featured Guests: Dan Pashman ( The Sporkful), Jonathan Berg ( Master Chef) Daryl and Mindy Hirsch ( Two Food Trippers), Chris Lueke ( Pubcast World Wide), Ubish Yaren ( Cultura Nacional) 

Now comes the time that most travelers anticipate the most: the wandering. The musing through streets for hours, the hidden staircases, the gardens behind bookstores, and random conversations with locals. All of the things we find outside of the guide book make our trip. We enjoyed these surprises more because we had no expectation to find them. And arriving with expectations can only lead you to disappointment.   Featured Guests: Amateur Traveler, Travels of Adam, Far From Home, Jessie Owens

Travel is the truest test of a relationship. It bonds unlikely people together and tests old relationships. It puts it to the test and finds the weak spots in a relationship like a raccoon sitting on a chicken coop, trying to find the weak spots.  But it also bonds you in ways that you couldn’t have imagined. In this podcast episode, we are traveling with others. We will talk to travelers who have had their minds expanded, their relationships shift, and hearts grown because they traveled with others. Featured Guests: 2TravelDads, Strangers Abroad Listeners, Ambitious Trekker, Stranger Abroad Host's Travel Wife 

Out of all the states that we will travel to, traveling alone usually brings up the most trepidation in people. To many, that idea seems as foreign as the places they want to travel to. Why would you do anything alone? Why not just wait for someone? But that underlying fear might be because solitude is often misinterpreted as loneliness. Both mental states are present but we only have to entertain one. When we travel alone, we have conversations with ourselves that we can’t have when others are around.    It offers a clear connection between our inner monologue and the solitude teaches us how to talk back. We could drown in a pool of our own loneliness or feel emboldened by the solitude.   Featured Guests: Andrew McGill  Julia Bainbridge  J. Harvey- My Normal Gay Life  Adventurous Kate

One of the largest plights of traveling is not knowing exactly where you are. It doesn’t matter how many websites you have on a travel board on Pinterest or how long you have stared at Google Maps, once you land it is easy to take a wrong turn.  Your internal GPS glitches out because you have no idea where you are.  Nothing is familiar. Everything is novel. Which makes it easier to get turned around.  And while we are exploring, we are bound to loose a few things along the way. A backpack, hostel keys, or favorite pair of earrings. Pieces of us go missing and found in other people's way.  But it isn’t just a physical location or losing an object that gives us a sense of misdirection, sometimes we feel lost in life. Our compasses can be demagnetized, and we use travel as an escape to figure out where we need to be going.    Today on the episode, we are lost. Travelers will tell us stories about being disoriented in every sense of the word. We will lose important objects, get turned around, be lost in translation, and lose ourselves in the ideas of others. As we try to find our way, we will see what being lost can actually do for us. Have your GPS out, we will need a good sense of direction.   Guests: Castaway with Crystal, Jessie on a Journey, Rhonda Handsome, Jeff Simmermon

Our identities shift when we go abroad. When we leave the familiar surroundings of home, we start to see ourselves from a new light and angle of the sun. What will going abroad show us about ourselves that we couldn't see and help us take control of our own identities? Guest Travelers: Michelle Carlo, Tayo Rockson, Vanessa Valeria, Alexandra Tracy, Eric Trules

This mini episode is the prologue to the second season of Strangers Abroad.    We all experience moments of anxiety during or around the planning of our trip .    The planning.    The packing.    The waiting.    And then the day arrives when our flight is about to take off. Carry us to far off corners of the world. Maybe new adventures or repeating affairs.    But that anxiety doesn’t leave.    Getting to the airport.  Going through check-in,  security,  finding the gate, smooshing yourself onto the plane  and finding your seat.    But then there is the fear of leaving all that you once knew.  Saying goodbye to loved ones. Putting your normal life on pause.  Every familiar sound, smell, and comfort will be thousands of miles away, and you don't know what you are getting yourself into.    This episode explores the stages of anxiety we experience before we take off and how to buckle up for what is coming next.

This is a sample clip of Strangers Abroad by Adrien Behn

Three years ago, I was sitting on an uninspired carpet on my living room floor in Portland,OR and was planning my trip for Latin America. I was living in a sterol apartment with a partner who didn’t understand me, a job that was exhausting my passions, and a parasitic feelings of having no direction, which would leave me crying on that irksome carpet. I had always used travel to run away from my problems and knew I needed to leave. So I as was sitting on my plasticy couch and I started off at the uninterested walls of my apartment, I thought about how could I document what was about to happen, and I had been listening to podcasts non-stop at my baking job and thought “maybe I could start one?” Listen to our season finally to see if we have learned what we set out to find.

I met Doron at the beginning of his journey and in my last days of traveling. Although we were at the opposite ends of travel, we still shared one striking commonality: home. Where he had been walking around just hours earlier, was a place I hadn’t stood on in months and while he was ready to jump out into the big wide world, I was ready to cozy up in a familiar bed. Our conversation happens when we are back in New York and we discuss the relationship between home and the world and how leaving home can helps you discover who you are when it isn’t coddling you. In this episode, we reflect on the benefits of long term backpacking, why he feels connected when he is alone in nature, and why home tastes sweeter when you have been gone for a while.

Blanca, from Spain, and I met at the top of a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu. I know how that sounds. As we walked around the town of Machu Picchu, I was immediately captivated with her storytelling of the ancient man mad feat and with stories from her adventures around the world. At the time, her and her partner, Heiko, from Germany were traveling for a year, dividing their time between Latin America and Asia. She tells us all the areas that surprised her, aspects she has learned about herself and relationship with her partner, and how the world still has lessons to teach her.

On the morning of my father's 58th birthday, I woke up at 4 in the morning on a full bed next to an Austrian boy I had met 16 hours ago in the middle of the Andes. Thomas hopping into the bus within the first few moments of beginning my trek to Machu Picchu. Thomas hoped into the bus and I were the first on a bus from Cusco to Hydroelectric. He was young and present, one of the most mindful people I had met. We kept each other company while enduring a 6 hour whiplash of a ride throughout the Andes. That ride was one of the most diverse of rides I had ever taken as I witnessed how the temperature can so quickly contradict itself, constantly switching between elevation and landscape. At some points, you are surrounded by snow, and then 30 minutes later you could be in a lush forest crossing over a waterfall. Once we got off the bus, we walked for two hours along the train tracks that would bring us to Aguascalientes or the entrance to Machu Picchu. He was someone I quickly felt comfortable walking in silence with, not needing to fill the in the patches of history that happened before we had met, but we allowed ourselves to meditate amongst the wild pyramids sculpted from tectonic shifts, water, and wind. I was relieved once we got to Aguas and wanted nothing more than a place to stretch my sore back and shoulders from my bags digging into my body for the past two hours ( I didn’t pack well). We found a cheap hotel to house us for the night with only a full bed. Our relationship had clearly been established as platonic and neither of us blinked at the idea of sharing a bed with a stranger.

Matt and I met under extreme circumstances on evening when we were trapped inside of the chocolate shop due to aggressive protests in the streets of Arequipa, Peru. We were stuck in the cafe for a few hours, and being the only Americans, it was an opportunity for Matt and I to reflect upon our culture and country. We continued the conversation once it was safe to leave the cafe, and Matt and I found a restaurant still open and our conversation floated between our country, traveling to less developed countries, and why he was in Peru in the first place. He was doing a motorcycle trip around the “Gringo trail”, which is a path in Peru in the shape of a triangle from Arequipa, Cusco, and Lima, which hits all the big tourist attractions of the country but allows him to ride along the often unseen corners of the country. Matt uses motorcycling not as a way to see all of the landscape quickly but to explore the topography of himself. He casually mentioned that he works in Hollywood and has worked on several blockbuster films and TV shows. We discussed how traveling has helped him find a balance and maintain a humbling perspective about the world when he is working with the upper crust of Hollywood.

Cindy was my Spanish tutor whom I met through Thomas ( from the previous episode) who worked with him through HOOP- the non-for-profit that provides lower-income students with opportunities for higher learning. Cindy’s primary job was to teach English to children living in lower socioeconomic areas and provide them with the tools to learn English and other languages.  I needed a teacher who wouldn’t judge me for the eclectic Spanish I had learned over my months of traveling throughout different Spanish speaking countries and inconsistent studying. As my Spanish improved, Cindy’s story became clearer and I she taught me more than just her language- the history and problems of her country, the gender inequality, and the day to day musings of living in Peru, which is what we discuss here in this episode. Forgive the screeching of cars and the shouts of Spanish in the background- you are getting the live action soundtrack to Arequipa Peru. Here is her story.

Thomas, from England, and I met at my first “hangover ceviche” which was always the Sunday morning after a late night of dancing and drinking around Arequipa. He mentioned to the table that a wonderful coworker was teaching him Spanish, and it was refreshing to hear another English speaker find it important to learn the countries language, while so many refuse to put in the effort. Shouting over clinking plates, in between bites of octopus in chimichurri and lime soaked fish, I asked what he was doing in Arequipa and he mentioned that he was working for a non-for profit called HOOP that focused on afterschool programs for underprivileged children in the outskirts of the city. I loved his straight-forward sensibility about social justice, as if it should be a logical default for everyone to practice. Together, we discuss why he chose to leave his corporate job to work for an NGO Abroad, how living in Peru had changed him, and how he had translated his privilege in the world and chooses to use it for the benefit of others.

Rodrigo was a local Peruvian teen who worked at Chaq Chau. While working together, we would do our own twist on language exchange: he helped me with my spanish slang and I helped him create clever DJ names in english. He was always wonderful to talk to about Peruvian culture, identity, and history. But as much as he loves his home country, working in a community of travelers has fed a growing desire to go out and travel around the world. In this episode, we discuss what it is like to grow up in Peru, how working in an expat community has influenced his identity, perception of his own culture, and future goals to explore the world. We get the chance to talk to someone who is still untouched from the changes of travel, but I admire Rodrigo's ambitions to see what lies beyond his homeland and hope his desire to learn never leaves him.

If you have ever had any hesitations about traveling- I highly suggest you listen to this episode. Michelle is the archetypal advocate for long distance travel and is brimming with enthusiasm over the challenges, uncomfortableness, and struggles one experiences while traveling abroad, which to many may seem bizarre. Michelle is an individual who lives wholeheartedly and embraces the growth that comes with the challenge- discussing alternative opinions, getting sick, eating new foods, or dancing to a new rhythm- Michelle is her truest self when traveling and is in alignment with this podcasts philosophy- you don’t know who you are or what the world has to offer until you go out and find it for yourself.

Despising the complacency that is socialized into Italian youth, Rachel from Milan willingly thrusts herself out of her comfort zone which pushes her to rethink who she wants to be in the world. I vividly remember one time while eating alfajores, having one of the best conversations about how we have used our mothers as an example of what not to do (I love my mother, I come from a line of weird and wild women) and we talked about how our mothers were never challenged to push outside of normalized gender roles the way that we, millennial women are now encouraged. How our mothers were limited in the opportunities and expected to just follow the fold, even though they are both so much more than that. I remember feeling a sense of connection with her when she said, “If I don’t leave, I don’t become a better person and I would be restless.”

We have finally arrived at our final destination, Peru, where I find the people who are so similar to me I was surprised we aren’t blood-related. This episode is with my chocolate soul mate, Jen, whom I shared a room with while working at a chocolate shop in the south of Peru. The friends you meet on the road are a special breed- they see you at your most uncomfortable, your most scrappy and sometimes desperate because of the extremeness of living life abroad. While we were living together, Jen got her backpack stolen and I got painfully sick; we experienced each other at more overwhelming points that not even our own mothers would have known how to handle. When you are abroad, you open yourself up to the curveballs of the world-testing your resourcefulness and perseverance. You don’t even know who you are in these situations or how you will respond. So, when you make friends who witness you at this simultaneously euphoric and tumultuous point in your life- and they still like you afterward- it is a bond like no other. These microwave moments weather your relationship because of experiencing each other in extremes. She understands a part of me that my oldest friends don’t. Jen has cunningly found ways to stay on the road while pursuing her creative career. Find out how she does it in the newest episode of Strangers Abroad!

This is an excerpt of our conversation with Graham Hughes where we both get kind of ranty and I wanted to give it its own space now at a time when our thoughts about the world have been challenged. We recorded this conversation pre Trump and pre Brexit- so neither of us had the knowledge to know the outcomes of those elections but as you can here we do have foresight to feel that something was happening. In this mini episode we discuss the elements that have made the world seem more dangerous than ever and the hysteria people have against traveling due to these skewed perceptions. I hope mine and Graham's’ stories of our global interactions show some proof of how the world isn’t as bad as it seems. You can read all about Graham stories with strangers from all over the globe travels in his new hilarious book “Man of the World” which we will link on the website.

He holds the Guinness World Record for visiting every United Nations recognized country by traveling by land and sea. Like a turtle, Graham carried his home on his back for the better part of four years over every sanctioned United Nations country. Like the Mansa Musa, Marko Polo, or Zheng He, who only had their feet, a boat, or a few camels to further them on their explorations, Graham's trips emulate the wonders and lessons of ancient travelers whose slow journeys had them span thousands of miles away from their homes and forced them to engage in other cultures’ ways of life. Graham has seen a lot for someone his age and for someone who has traveled to ALL of the allegedly dangerous countries in the world, he has come out unscathed and with both of his kidneys intact. In our conversation, Graham and I bypass the superficial aspects of travel and dig right into the deeper questions: is the world as dangerous as it seems, how did it shift his world perspective, and what has travel taught him that stay at home in Liverpool couldn’t? We get a good taste of his historical expertise, political mindfulness, and well honed storytelling skills. If you want to read all about his adventures you can check out his blog but if you want to hold the stories, adventures, and close encounters in your very own hands then you can pre-order his newest book “ Man of the World” through his website. I can’t wait to get mine! Ready to go on the adventure of a lifetime? Hell, SEVERAL life times? Then check out this episode!

What would you do if everything you worked for- successful company, healthy body, living in a great city-was suddenly taken away from you? Many survive the setbacks of unpredictable chaos and unpleasant events and are able to return to a normal life. But what about those who not only get back to where they were at, but grow even more? Who see life for the fleeting opportunity that it is and take these setbacks as a challenge to grow? We call those people antifragile. Deano’s story is the quintessential example of being antifragile- living in LA, having a budding tech company, being at physical peak and then all of that was taken away when he got into a horrible accident. After a year of physical therapy, instead of returning to the grind, he packed his bags and took full advantage of his new found strength and the opportunity to do what he was never able to before. Deano bought a one way ticket to Central America, lived abroad, learned spanish, hiked erupting volcanos, jumped over waterfalls and experienced the robustness life has to offer. In this episode, we discuss, How he became an entrepreneur How he got into a motorcycle accident Why he chose to travel to Latin America What it was like to hike volcanoes What he learned from his accident How he perceives his body- post accident Why he wanted to learn spanish What it was like to travel to Latin America What it was like to live in Latin America What his travels taught him Listen to his stories and adventures while traveling through Latin America His perspective on how the universe tests him

I met Gaby while I was volunteering in a hostel in Costa Rica.  Born and raised in San Jose, Gaby thought she was going to go down the traditional path of education right into a career. However, her choice to work in a hostel, just to get some dinero on the side, has unintentionally challenged the way she thinks about her future.  She has formed a new perspective on homeland by seeing it through the eyes of people who are experiencing it for the first time. She has become endlessly inspired by the travelers who wander in and out of her hostel who are far from home and perceive her normal to be vastly different. She strikes up a conversation with everyone, whether it is asking them questions about their explorations or native soil, guiding them to the bus station to their next destination, or cluing them in on where to get the best cup of coffee in San Jose. We would spend hours during the quiet afternoons of the hostel having little music jams while doing the daily chores. She would create a warm and welcoming space for every weary traveler who walked through the doors of Hostel Beku. This seemingly innocuous job choice has forced her to question everything about what she was doing with her life. She has been given a hidden perspective of the ways travelers live and move on a day to day basis and has inspired her to get out of her comfort zone.   And with the help of her American beau, whom she met through pure random and romantic chance, she now has the motivation and ability to go and reach some of the places that once seemed untouchable. Since I last spoke with Gaby she has been living up to her dreams. She quit her job and has been flying to and fro between America, Costa Rica and now parts of Europe where she’s always wanted to experience. I emailed her asking how she has enjoyed it and she says “ Well to me is not traveling just for traveling, this a dream that I have had forever and it's changing me as a person and teaching me so many different things about the world and myself. My expectations are living up to my dreams, especially the smallest and most simple moments give me the feeling I was looking for, walking down the streets of Rome and touching the walls with your fingers and taking it all in. I love it. She currently has no plans for the future and is happy living her life day by day, or whenever the next fly benefits kick in. In this episode, we discuss How she met her American boyfriend How she is able to maintain a long distance relationship The cultural differences between dating someone from America What she went to school for What working at the hostel has taught her Why she wants to travel What it is like to date someone from another country How she gets fly benefits How she learned English What life is like growing up in Costa Rica

Sara and I also met at the hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica where she was working at a program that teaches English to locals. Sara says exactly what's on her mind and has a specific pep about her that is emulated by the bounce in her curly red hair. Although far from Scotland, Costa Rica was not her first rodeo. As a well-traveled woman, she is attuned to the complexities and subtleties of new places and is thrilled by how vastly different locations in the world can share so many similarities, exposing the elegant simplicity of our earth. This love of learning combined with a travel competition she has with her brothers keeps her on the move. She strives for a genuine travel experience and is not interested in seeing a new terrain through a window, she wants to get her feet on the ground, breath the air, and chat up anyone that comes her way. Here is her story.

Sarah and I met in Costa Rica while I was working at hostel Beku. From the moment we met, we immediately broke into a long conversation, as if it was unfinished from years ago. Like a hummingbird, flying from one flower to the next Sarah gave a scattered synopsis of what brought her to Costa Rica and how she was leaving in a few weeks. Keeping my feelings to myself, I selfishly got upset at that news because we had just met and there was already too much to talk about. Since we parted in Costa Rica she has continued to bounce around the world, going from teaching in New Zealand to being a Divemaster on a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, where she was residing when we had this conversation. It reminds me of the planet the Little Prince lives on, taking only 15 minutes to walk around the entire floating piece of land, gently bobbing in the middle of the sea. She has become enamored with the discoveries of the underwater world, one that mirrors the great depth she finding within herself. Here’s her story.

Karyn and I bumped paths while still working in a hostel in Costa Rica. She is hard to miss between her immeasurable height, voice, and personality to match. As boisterous as her presence is, she is attracted to the relaxed, Caribbean sway that is hard to come by in frigid Minnesota. I bring her on initially to tell a regional American joke that I had never heard before. This is a little snapshot of the energy and playfulness that is bouncing out of her and I will let it speak for itself. In this podcast episode we discuss -What it is like to live in Minnesota -Why she travels to Costa Rica -What the Pura Vida life provides her -Her favorite food in Costa Rica -What are Lina and Oli jokes? -Where did Lina and Oli jokes originate? -Why are these jokes so damn weird? Lena and Ole jokes became popularized around the 1940’s in the Northern Midwestern states of America. They are born from the Norwegian and Swedish immigrants who landed in the US, playfully making fun of their cultural misunderstandings in their new homes and cooling tensions between the immigrants and locals. I loved that I had to go all the way to Costa Rica to discover these jokes that are coveted by an entire group of people who share my nationality. By meeting Caryn you can understand how these innocuous, teetering between ranchy and wholesome jokes have molded her springy light on life, I didn’t get to spend too much time with her, yet her laugh is still vibrates within me.

Tina, from Finland, needed to find a place that was a 180 from her 9 months of snow, before becoming complacent with her beautifully simplistic life above the arctic circle. She decided to go and explore a climate and people on the other end of the world away from her reindeer eating folksmen. Flying in with a come what may attitude, Tina has not been disappointed with the challenges she has faced and exposure to new perspectives that have blossomed within her in a warmer world without snow. This trip has generated great reflection and better understanding about who she is fundamentally, and how she wants to construct the scaffolding of her future. Here’s her story.

Do you resist office jobs the way cats resist pools of water? Do you need a life that keeps you moving, questioning, and searching for yourself outside of the bounds of the conventional path? David had those same questions and drives. In this episode, he opens up about the struggles and exhaustion of not fitting in or knowing what to do, which resulted into a lifestyle that harmed his body and mind. He realized that all of that was a way to escape something larger within himself, a way to distract the discontentedness of ordinary life. The drinking, the late nights, the lack of sleep, and rough lifestyle was wearing on his body/mind and he realized he needed to reconnect and take care of it, which led him to a more nurturing activity: yoga. At the time of this recording, David has been able to unite his passion for yoga and travel and was a yoga teacher at a hostel I stayed at in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. In this episode, he discusses the rewards he has found by stepping off the trail and walking down an unpaved route. Here is his story.

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala Are you about to finish university and have a future that is unsettlingly open? Are you afraid you don’t have a clear direction and are nervous about leaving the structure of school? Are you uncertain on whether you should take a little time to go find yourself and journey to someplace new? These were all questions that were plaguing Lisa from Germany, who I met on a tiny boat late at night in Lake Atitlan Guatemala. We talk about her research, her decision to travel and be out of her comfort zone. Hear her story and reflection about choosing to travel a distance corner of the world instead of jumping right into a career- and the rewards she would have never received had she stayed in her homeland. Hear her story on Strangers Abroad! Download and subscribe to Strangers Abroad on iTunes! This episode was edited by Jay Dixit, sound engineered by Sean Sullivan, and music was provided by Josh Brechner.