Plan in Advance for Your 2010 Travel and Cultural Experiences!

Planning a holiday get away?  Want to make it a meaningful one?  Share the gift of giving this season WHILE you are traveling abroad!  Join one of our established itineraries or allow Cultural Embrace to customize a GROUP TRIP for you and your family or friends!

We specialize in integrating you into local communities for an authentic experience through educational, humanitarian, and cultural activities.  Sign up today to join one of our Service & Travel Group Trips: Costa Rica Eco-Volunteer Experience, Kenya Service, Safari & Sun Adventure, or Guatemala Service & Cultural Trip. We can also DESIGN A TRIP to meet your group’s schedule, budget, interests, and needs.  We organize all of the logistical details to ensure a safe, healthy and top quality trip.  Our services are tailored to meet the needs of your group, including airport pick-up and transfer, lodging, meals, excursions, as well as cultural, service, educational, and social activities.

Hello fellow adventure seekers!

I'm Jennifer Campbell, your Work and Travel Australia blogger.

A little about me: I'm Dallas, Texas bred, but a definite Austin, TX enthusiast. I love anything outdoors, including deep sea, surf and bay fishing, diving and snorkeling, zip lining, biking, running and hiking, and I'm also a photography and travel fanatic. This past May, I graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in Advertising, and a craving for a life altering next chapter.

A year ago, if you'd asked me what I would be doing after graduation, I wouldn't have said "Um, embarking on one of the greatest adventures of my life in the Land of Oz," like I would today. My original life after graduation plan was to attend law school directly after undergrad, work and save a little money before I set off to travel. Fortunately for me, Cultural Embrace helped me find a loophole. It turns out Australia's government recently widened their doors granting work visas for young adults, like myself- between the ages of 18-30, to work in non-technical fields for up to a year. With this opportunity, I will easily pay off the cost of living abroad while roaming the Australian country. Great news! This brilliant concept allows foreigners to travel with "no worries" about any limits of unearthing the awesome Australian lifestyle, sites, people and culture. So although my dream of law school still exists for down the line, I couldn't be more excited to start this new journey and take advantage of being young, string free, and adventurous at the most convenient time I'll probably have in my life. I've embraced the travel and adventure bug, and I couldn't be more excited for my ‘gap break' and to work and travel in Australia using Cultural Embraces support!

So why Australia? Although I'm not a fan of meat pies (ever so popular in Australia), I do fancy awesome beaches and surfing, a laid-back life style, outdoors, camping, shrimp on the barbie, kangaroos, and the occasional wombat. I even think I'll learn to appreciate cricket! On the more practical side of things, the fact that their infrastructure for tourism is one of the worlds best, helps reassure my (and my parents), with help and safety concerns. The dozens of hostel chain options, campgrounds, transportation options, and about 4 million tourists annually from countries such as the U.S., U.K, New Zealand, and Germany – great for networking - helps too. I haven't found a destination that sets you up to work and travel, and meet other trekkers more excellently than Australia. To top all of these travel Australia perks is the encouraging support I've received through Cultural Embrace with assistance with my questions and concerns, arrival arrangements, and granted access to a national job database with diverse listings across the Australian country (making it that much easier to find casual jobs to off-set my cost of living abroad). It's also comforting to know I have their support and assistance, from their Austin offices, throughout the entirety of my stay abroad. I feel more prepared knowing I have the backing of a company that has such extensive experience arranging (and participating in) travels abroad.

While I'm Down Under I'll be sharing my experience of a lifetime and the broadening of my horizons every step of the way with you. I'm extremely excited to report an insiders work and travel experience through Cultural Embrace, and answer your questions and even inspire you to take a leap into your own explorations (or better yet, join me in Australia!) Check out my weekly blog, videos and photos documenting my quest to achieve the greatest voyage of my life so far!

Everyday is an opportunity for adventure and cultural exploration. Today you may be starting a new job and experiencing the culture of a new work place. Tomorrow you may be meeting friends and exploring the sites, sounds and cultural activities available in your city. Or you may even be traveling to another country and experiencing the customs and traditions of another culture. The world is a very big place and it’s full of opportunities for you!

The doggone days of summer will be coming to an end in the Northern hemisphere soon. I think yesterday was the first day it didn't reach triple digits in Austin in over 3+ months. Autumn brings a lot of changes. The trees begin to change colors, students start a fresh school year with new teachers and courses, the birds migrate south, crops are harvested, the outdoor temperature cools down, and we modify our wardrobe with warmer clothes.

Change in the natural world is subtle but relentless; seasons seem to give way gently to one another, even if the monthly motion is so swift we don’t realize we’re moving.  Like the seasons, Cultural Embrace will be making some changes in 2009. We like to take creative approaches to traveling and learning, and plan to organize more departures for group trips that combine cultural, humanitarian, social, and educational activities abroad.

We work with a large network of local and professional guides, drivers, and suppliers to organize safe, fun, and exciting adventures. All of our English-speaking guides are knowledgeable of the history, sites, and culture, and they are available to ensure safety, lead excursions, inspire thoughts and discussions, and answer any questions. Together, we make sure that you have a smooth journey, while giving you the freedom to explore and discover independently.

We have pre-arranged itineraries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America (many not listed on our website), and we customize trips to fit a group's schedule, budget, and interests. Our group trips average one to three weeks, and we offer a variety of lodging options—from hostels to hotels, flats to family homestays, all with flexible meal plans.

We have several "Short-term Cultural & Service Trips" to Guatemala in January, March, & April, 2010. These are designed to be quick, economical, one-week getaways--perfect for semester and spring breaks, family holidays, or team-building rejuvenators. http://www.culturalembrace.com/4473584_24622.htm. And stay tune for more details about our Service Trip to East Africa in August, 2010.

Unlike the foliage, the changes we make aren’t determined by the flow of the wind.  We stay on top of exciting and innovative travel destinations, activities, and safety issues through research, site visits, and simply—what appeals to us on the road, and more importantly—what would appeal to you!  Thus, your feedback and opinions are an essential part of where we go, what we do, and how we do it.  To learn more about your travel preferences and interests, please feel free to share your comments.

Participant Background: Zoe Pastorfeld-Li has been teaching in Yantai, China since August, 2008 on Cultural Embrace's Teach in China program. She has extended to teach in China for another year, and we would like to share an old blog that she sent during her return back to the States, between her semester break.

I miss you already and still; being home was so good. MD/DC, New York and the Bay Area in Cali were all self-affirming in their own right, and I felt equally at home in each place. I realized what I love so dearly about America besides the obvious- family (by blood or bond).

Namely I love America for the music and diversity. It hit me that I was going back to China when I was boarding my flight from LA to Seoul and everyone was Asian. Don't get me wrong, I love em all, but I realized it would be a long time until someone asked me what's really good? or que onda? It would be a long time before I heard a live MC with something worth saying or a piano player that could wash my brain and soul with his improvisations.

These realizations make me proud to be American, and when I rock my giant Obama pin around Yantai I know people can see it in my eyes.

I miss my family and I miss America, and I now realize they are one and the same. When I first got to New York I felt a bit disoriented. I remember saying, "I am not here for the city, I'm really just here to see people." I knew once I had uttered the words that I was only trying to dupe myself, but it took the unfurling of the trip to realize that New York is the people and the people are New York, and the same for DC and the same for San Fran, ad noseum. The absence I feel in my heart when I am not in these places with you, is a pain that gives me strength and regenerates my confidence in what I am doing, seeing all that you are doing to become more courageous, wiser and kinder people.

Gandhi said we must be the change we wish to see in the world. And Lauryn Hill reminds me that change comes slow or not at all. My Dad echoed this truth by relating a Japanese organizational method for achieving true, but very slowly achieved change. This method was put into practice by a man who wanted to lose weight but simply loved french fries. Rather than try and kick the habit all at once, he began the first day of his diet by throwing away one fry and eating the rest. The next day he threw away two, and the third day three, and so on.