Alina

Germany
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Profile information

Travel information
I am currently
Travelling
My next destination:
Greece
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Description
Hi, my name is Alina and I'm 28 years old. For 8 years I lived in Freiburg, where I initially moved for a volunteer year in a youth circus. After a few weeks I knew I'd stay for longer in that open-minded town beneath the black forest. I studied religious work and education and did a training in outdoor education. During that training I was once again deeply impressed by how cool and diverse nature is and how much responsibility we have taking care of it. Some friends and I founded a sustainability group in uni and campaigned for example for a veggy day in our canteen or less paper waste in the classrooms. After finishing my studies I started working in a forest kindergarten, where I enjoyed working for 4 years.

What else do you need to know? As you probably already deduced, I love being outside. Especially on sunny days it feels almost painful not to enjoy them properly by running, hiking, cycling or downhill-unicycling. Although the rain obviously doesn't stop me from doing that, I also enjoy a quiet rainy afternoon with a hot chocolate and some painting, sewing or playing boardgames inside.

I'd describe myself as a calm, but active and open-minded person who likes to laugh and appreciates a good balance between being sociable and having time for themselves.

I joined workaway because I wanted to have a break from the quite rigid days at work, try and learn new things and be challenged to get out of my comfort zone. What I like about the idea of workaway is (apart from the obvious such as contributing to a cool project, meeting new people etc.) is staying longer in a place and getting to now it instead of just travelling through.

At the moment I live with my girlfriend near London where we're building a wooden house in her garden, exploring England and planning the second half of our trip through Europe which we started last summer. From England to Greece, without motorised transport and with a different mode of transport in each country we're crossing. That's the idea :) So far we did silly bouncing shoes in England, unicycles in France, longboards through Germany and crossed the Swiss Alps on foot. Now we're going to carry on and make our way through Italy on a tandem!

A few of my last projects were helping with building a treehouse in France and a long trip through Panama: Living and working on a sailboat for a while, building wooden lockers for a hostel and experiencing off-grid life while living in a treehouse. All of these projects were super inspiring and I'm looking forward to the next adventures :)
Interests
Vegetarian or vegan
Team sports
Sustainability
Politics / Social justice
Outdoor activities
Nature
Music
Mountain
LGBTQ
Hitchhiking
Hiking
Gardening
Farming
Events & social
Drawing & painting
Dancing
DIY & crafts
Cycling
Cooking & food
Charity work

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Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
French: Beginner
Italian: Beginner
Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn
I'm interested in:
Charity Work
Gardening
Life at a Farmstay
Hospitality/Tourism
Some knowledge of:
Eco Projects
Teaching
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping around the house
General Maintenance
More details about your skills
What I feel comfortable doing: working with kids, cooking, doing general housework or gardening. I
don't mind physical work and have a general knowledge about outdoor stuff like how to make a fire, important knots etc.
Working with wood has always been a passion and I can do basic carpentry work such as repairing things or building with a little help.

What I did so far: a volunteer year in a youth circus, helped with homework, taught maths, studied religious work and education, did a training in outdoor education, worked in a forest kindergarten, did concept work, campaigning or designing flyers. At the moment I'm building a wooden house with my girlfriend in her garden.

I'm usually a fast learner and will understand quickly if you explain something to me. The only things I find very difficult to learn about are cars and computers ;)
Age
29
What else ...
I like playing and listening to music so I'd be very happy to play together or put on music while I'm working. To a possible jam session I can contribute a guitar, violin or (very basic) clarinette, piano or accordion, if these instruments are available :)
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements
  vegetarian

Feedback

21 Jun 2023

Left by Workawayer (Alina) for host (Build a beachfront treehouse ...)

To say that our workaway at Benni and Al's beautiful home was perfect sounds a bit uninspired for what we experienced there. It's one of the best places we've stayed in so far and if we ever come back to central America, it'll also definitely be the first one we'll visit again. Before we even arrived there, Benni made 100% sure that we would be… read more prepared for our stay and answered all the questions we didn't have to ask 😆 From the first contact/message she was caring and enthusiastic about us coming and ready to give everything to make sure that our time in Cambutal was fun and full of different experiences. Benni and Al's level of hospitality is above and beyond anything you could expect - whenever we entered their house we were cheerily welcomed, had all our problems sorted within seconds and a glass of iced water in our hands 🤗
The accommodation in the treehouse was fantastic and so was the food! We bought and prepared our own meals on days off, as well as all of our breakfasts and suppers on work days, but everything else was prepared by Benni - the queen of colorful veggie dishes 😎 we didn't just get 'bomb ass' lunches - we were also treated to fruits, snacks and sometimes even chocolate in our breaks. Doing the shopping was a bit tricky, but with a bit of planning no problem at all: There was a little shop in the next town and bigger shops an hour's car drive away. Fresh fruits and vegetables were delivered in Benni's order every Friday.
One of the things we appreciated most about Benni and Al was their idea of how the workaway stay works - they always told us their plan for the next day and were very generous about work hours and our time off. They had work to do and we felt helpful, but they weren't desperate for help and we were able to properly enjoy our time off as well.
Our work was a bit of everything - some carpentry, maintenance like changing screws or painting, some gardening and entertaining Zephyr, their 5 year old son.
Zephyr, who could easily be mistaken for little Mogli or Tarzan, was very easy to entertain - in fact, he probably entertained us far more than we entertained him. He's super comfortable with people and in nature, he has the toughest feet in the country and a deep love for animals. On one of our walks together he spent ages watching little tadpoles in the river, making sure that they were okay and moving rock after rock to create a path from one pool to another in order to reunite the tadpole families that had been cut off from one another. He's just as energetic and fun as he is cute.
All three family members are very sociable people, so even though their house is completely off-grid and you can only reach it by driving through two rivers and along the beach, it's never lonely. Benni and Al made sure they invited us to all the events they were hosting or attending, and they introduced us to all their friends. We were always welcome to use their bikes to get into town independently. The town is a very cute place with lots of surfers from all over the world, some just visiting and some living there permanently. There are some hotels (which serve delicious smoothies) and a café (which serves amazing cake).
If you surf, this is the perfect place to be! If you don't surf, this is the perfect place to be.😆 We were in the second category, but tried standing up on a board a few times - our hosts' enthusiasm about the sport was just too much not to see what it was about. Al taught us very patiently and every little step was celebrated like a huge improvement. All three of them are very encouraging and loving.
Before this gets too long for anyone to ever be able to finish reading it, we just want to say that Benni, Al and Zephyr are lovely and very inspiring people and we wouldn't want to miss a second with them.
We wish you guys all the best and really hope that we'll manage to see you again one day! Thank you so much for making our last few weeks in Panama our favourites 🤗

(Excellent )

23 May 2023

Left by host (Build a beachfront treehouse ...) for Workawayer (Alina)

Alina and Hannah gave us such great vibes from the very beginning. I told them that the treehouse was rustic (it was yet to have walls) and they told me that's what they wanted. "Prepare as though you are going camping and you will be pleasantly surprised with the roof and a stove," I said. They needed to meal plan for 10 days, which was easy for… read more

(Excellent )

23 Feb 2023

Left by Workawayer (Alina) for host (Treehouse and woodland ...)

We spent 2.5 weeks with James and Roo on their beautiful land in Brittany. The weather was awful but our time there was totally fabulous! (And the weather got better after a while, too).

From the moment we arrived we felt welcomed and invited to make this place our home for the next few weeks. And we did! Because of the unpredictable weather, we… read more spent the first week mainly working on the ground (instead of up in the treehouse). We got to harvest and build a little fence with bamboo, lay the kitchen floor and fell a tree! With less rain and wind the next week we invested more time in the treehouse and helped with extending the platform, putting up a tree trunk for the staircase and working on our independent project, which was to build a work surface for the little kitchen area inside.

Working with James was great! Just looking at the work he's already done was impressive and very inspiring. Hopefully we didn't overwhelm him with all our questions ;) But he's also a great person to work with - he has lots of ideas and didn't mind explaining them and discussing them with us. Our suggestions and ideas were highly appreciated and from the beginning on it felt like our project rather then just his. Most days we talked either the evening before or in the morning about the work that needed to be done, then he left us to work independently while he worked on something else alongside us or went off to work elsewhere. For us it was a great mixture between independent work and working as a team and it felt good to be trusted with quite a lot of responsibility. James and Roo were very open to discuss what needed to be done the next day and to agree on schedules/days off. However, we did still to be flexible because priorities sometimes changed depending on weather conditions or new ideas/ plans.

We lived in the gite they normally rent out during the summer. It was awesome, huge and a nice private space after a day of socialising. As we stayed in January, it was also rather cold - there is a stove, gas and oil heater but several extra jumpers and a pair of slippers were definitely worth bringing!

The food was incredibly good and full of vegetables. Roo and James are both great cooks and served us a new delicious meal every lunch and supper. We even started a list of new meal ideas inspired by their cooking and we're still missing their food!
Breakfast every day and meals on our days off we bought and cooked independently - there's a shop in the next town 10kms away.

On our days off we mainly stayed in the area - the public transport is terrible (almost non-existent) and there's no easy way to get to places without a car. But they let us use their bikes which were great for exploring and getting into town, and they were open to giving us lifts to the shop/ the next big town or the train station. And the landscape around their land is very inviting for walks (which the two energetic dogs definitely appreciate) plus Le Faouët (which is the closest little town) is definitely worth a visit.

Thank you, James and Roo, for being great hosts, always making sure we had everything we needed and for the great time we had at your place! We're excited to come back at see the treehouse when it's done! Good luck for all your projects!

- Hannah and Alina

(Excellent )

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