Valentina

Travel information

I am currently

Activities i am interested in:

photography, travelling, painting, cooking, spending time with animals & strolling through nature

Description

Hey there, welcome! :)

I'm so happy you decided to take the time to get to know me! My name is Valentina, I'm 21 years old, living in Germany, but you can just call me Tini. From pretty early on, I knew I wanted to travel the world once I'd finished high school. So when the time came and I had graduated in 2023, I worked full-time for 5 months, to be able to afford my travels, then packed my backpack and left home to experience this beautiful world, accompanied by my long-term boyfriend Luis.

We had such an amazing time, but we also realized that just looking at this earth's wonders wasn't enough. We started to feel the deep urge to dig deeper, to really connect with and understand the places we visited by living with locals, learning about nature and finding meaning in what we were doing. So this is what led us here, or more precisely, me, as I'll be travelling solo this time. (I'm in the middle of my second gap year now, from 24'-25', before I might start studying ecology and nature conservation in autumn.) And I'd just love to start my workaway journey, learn so much and make amazing memories side by side with you. :)

But let me tell you a bit more about who I am and what, for me, makes life worth living.
So, one thing I - as we'd say in German - truly 'burn' for, is photography. Since my grandma got me a little camera for my 10th birthday, it has become one of my absolute passions and the hours just fly by, especially when capturing wildlife and nature. I've only recently started a 3-months-long videography class to get my self-taught skills to the next level. And in my wildest dreams, filming nature documentaries and doing wildlife photography would even be my profession, with the goal to draw attention to environmental issues and the urgent need to protect our beautiful earth and its inhabitants.
But not only do I love documenting animals with my camera, I also enjoy just spending time with them from the bottom of my heart. You must know, I'm a huge animal lover (therefore also live plant-based), and in my free time, you'll probably find me giving your animal friends some love, cuddles and care (as much as agreed on with you, of course). I can also get highly passionate about animal rights and how it's our responsibility to treat them equally, respectfully and to protect them.

If you'd ask my friends, they'd probably say that I'm a highly empathetic person, pretty creative (I love acrylic painting, crafting, designing, and will always try to find creative solutions to problems), patient, especially with kids, as they've always been an important part of my life, and super honest. And it's true, open communication is key to so many things in life and I value deep connections based on honesty, shared quality time, truly listening, and trying to make people feel loved and special.
So I want to be honest with myself and with you, too, and also tell you about how sometimes, things might slip my often busy mind and I'll have to ask again (even though neatly keeping lists really helps me with not forgetting stuff) and how, as an introvert, I can get exhausted from being with people 24/7 and will withdraw from time to time to have some time to myself and recharge my social batteries. But once my batteries are charged again, I'll love spending time with you and other volunteers, share life stories, experiences, make new ones together, go on adventures and find life-long friends.

Besides photography and animals, I'm also super interested in anything that's got to do with sustainable living and nature - taking walks through the forests and fields, sitting in the garden to read a good book (I dearly enjoy occasional slow-life cozy days, too), growing organic food, you name it - and I'm just so keen to learn so much more about it and would be happy if you could teach me something!
I can be a helping hand wherever help is needed and I'll work hard and motivated. So whether it's gardening, home maintenance, building fences or taking care of the land and its living beings - I'm a quick learner and would love to learn all the new skills, facts, to gain knowledge and apply it, to improve and become a real helping hand for you while broadening my own horizon. Deal? :)

After working and getting fresh air all day long, my perfect end of the day would probably be to cook a healthy meal (I also love to cook from scratch) with a bit of chill music in the background to hum along to, and enjoy it together in a chill atmosphere - for example sitting around a cozy campfire and talking for hours while feeling so tiny underneath the sky full of stars. As mentioned, I live plant-based, but I don't expect you to do so, too. If you want to cook something different, I'm pretty uncomplicated and can always make a little something for myself, so this shouldn't be a problem at all. And, if you're interested, I'd also love to cook something together! :)

Interests

Videography

Sailing / Boating

Mountain

Drawing & painting

Yoga / Wellness

Hiking

Water sports

Vegetarian or vegan

Animals

Dancing

Beach

Languages

Self development

Outdoor activities

Nature

Music

Sustainability

Pets

Van life

Art & design

Cooking & food

DIY & crafts

Plant care

Gardening

Performing arts

Books

Farming

Photography

Camping

Languages spoken

German: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate

Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

I'm interested in:  

Eco Projects

Gardening

Hospitality/Tourism

Life at a Farmstay

General Maintenance

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Some knowledge of:  

Art Projects

Animal Care

Babysitting and creative play

DIY and building projects

Helping around the house

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Able to teach about:  

Creating/ Cooking family meals

More details about your skills

I'll start with my previous working experiences and then move on to what skills I can (and cannot) contribute in the next paragraph - to keep some structure and so you can jump to what's most important to you. :)

So, I've done internships at a veterinarian and in a kindergarten a few years ago, and in July '24, I spent six weeks in a nature reserve in South Africa, volunteering and helping with research about the place's endangered fauna and flora (for example, counting rhino populations, doing vegetation surveys and monitoring bird populations). Doing so together with some of my best friends made the experience even more lovely!
Over the last year, I've worked as a parcel carrier (delivering anything from letters to car tires), as a bakery saleswoman, I'm currently working as a waitress and have organized our world trip (from Dec '23 to Sept '24), so I think I can say that doing intense research as well as planning and coordinating excursions and travels is also a strength of mine.
Something I'm not too familiar with is IT knowledge, like programming, and skills like electrician's work - but I hope this won't be a deal breaker. ;)

My absolute favourite Workaway tasks will always include animals - feeding them, grooming them, cleaning the stable so they feel comfy, walking dogs, playing with cats and making sure they're taken care of. But if there are other kinds of work required, I'll happily do varying tasks, too, to enjoy the full bandwidth of works that make each stay so unique.
Besides cooking, taking care of children and gardening, one other thing I love is doing handcraft projects - whether it's about small ones that need keen precision like painting works, or larger ones like upcycling furniture. In addition to creative tasks, I also enjoy physical work, especially when it can be done outdoors so we can get some fresh air and enjoy the weather (I live by the motto "There's no bad weather, just a wrong choice of clothing").
In South Africa, I also collected some experience with felling trees and simple projects like building benches, but there's always more to learn, so I'd love to gain new skills as well, especially ones that'll help me throughout life, like construction and maintenance, and become better at them while I'm with you. I'd say I definitely work conscientiously and reliably, so I won't leave projects unfinished - the only reason to take a spontaneous 5-minute break would be to watch a breathtakingly beautiful sunset. But no worries, I'll tell you before, so we can watch it together! :)

Some last skills that I could mention (that might be a bit random but who knows when you might need them) would be having knowledge about photography, videography and different photo and video editing programmes, and being able to hand sew and therefore repair - for example - holes in clothes. I'm fluent in German, pretty fluent in English and I can also speak basic to advanced French, even though it might have become a bit rusty over two years of not using it. I love working with paint in almost any context, for some weird reason sincerely enjoy grammar, and I can make something yummy from pretty much any leftovers. ;)

Age

21

What else ...

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this little biography of mine. ;)

If you've got any questions, please feel free to ask!

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  no allergies

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  Special dietary requirements
  I'm vegan, but if the food isn't, I'll just quickly cook something yummy for myself (and, of course, for you as well, if you're interested!), so, if I'm allowed to use the kitchen, this shouldn't be a problem at all :)