Mirjana

Travel information

I am currently

Activities i am interested in:

helping you (long-term wage) with your tourist accommodation-front desk, service, children animation etc.; teaching languages/helping with kids; garden/ farm (not group volunteering)

Description

Hello!
My name is Mirjana.
Life is all about quality of relations and learning process. Exchanging knowledge, experience and emotions. That's how we evolve. And by changing our lives every now and again we get this new, fresh energy, perspective, and wish to continue positively influence other people's lives. (I'm INFJ according to Myers-Briggs personality test - which explained a lot in my life).
Now I feel keen on continuing this process - volunteering (have been one since 2008) to help and to learn, giving my share in this great exchange!
There are a couple of options that I offer to help you with - working on land - planting, weeding, picking up fruit..., - the goal is to embrace the place and its local people and get to know their culture, see their way of life...
I could, of course, continue helping teaching language at your home (I've been a language teacher, 20 years of experience), help you with your daily tasks, maybe even add babysitting to it (I have experience with smaller children through helping my sister with her kids), then, teaching in language schools to be inspired with different methods of teaching different ages all over again.
And the last alternative but not least, I could help you in your hotel / B&B with tourists, in the kitchen, reception or with cleaning to earn some extra money and to take a break / to move away for good from school stress and teenage students! And to start making my dream come true - moving towards living off-grid and in the nature, far away from mechanism of state...
who knows where this journey takes me...
finally the plan is that there is no plan - just go with the flow and be at one place as long as the smile is on my face.. :-)
Why workaway?
Because, while giving someone a helping hand means establishing a natural, friendly relationship, where you get to see some great human personal traits, which are, unfortunately, in most of us, deeply and securely hidden nowadays - we have this constant fear not to be hurt. And we don't let other people easily in our every day lives. We don't show our true selves.. we don't have the time for that... that's what I want to change, influence... the quality of time and lives..
In helping somebody in this way all I expect to receive for my efforts is the fact that you as a host notice it and appreciate it.... that you see me as an equal, a person who wants to offer their time and energy in exchange for positive emotions. And the rest will follow...
In my volunteer experience (16 years now) I got to see people's true smiles, receive words of thank you and eventually even hugs, got to find some friends along the way... - what more can a person wish at these rushed, way too fast, internet times...
Physical/hard work during my school holidays means recuperating and relaxing, I truly enjoy it!
As every other person (or at least I hope so) I have been doing my best to use up almost all of my holidays to get away from the known / the everyday life. Afterwards I appreciate turning back home even more! Because while missing something you mostly see how good / safe / healthy your environment actually is.
And you continue being satisfied with your life.
The ongoing mission is spreading the horizons, learning something while seeing and exploring new places.
The help that I'm willing to provide doesn't have to be with just teaching languages (not at all!) - the holidays away have mostly been spent in international workcamps (SCI) connected to:
-ecology (rhododendron clearance in Ireland in a National park; picking up different fruit in the area of Devon, England while living in one Camphill community; olive harvest close to Izmir, Turkey),
-renovation and construction (dry-stone wall building in Switzerland, railway station weed clearance and painting of locomotives and platforms in Tokaj region and Budapest, Hungary),
-helping before, during and after music festivals in Italy and Belgium,
-preparing food in a homeless shelter in Hamburg, Germany,
-spending summer holidays as support persons with children with disabilities in the southeast of Sardegna.
The summer 2019, for example, I spent a couple of months in Sicily helping in cleaning and preparing food at B&Bs, helping with cooking, babysitting, gardening at a couple of families' and I loved every single day of being on that marvelous island...
Every single one of these adventures greatly helped me become a person I am now!
I hope there will be one more, if you kindly give me a chance to help you.
I am sure both sides will benefit :)
Update year 2025 - I left my teaching job for good and now combine travelling and seasonal work - mostly hotels and B˛&B for a wage.
I feel free and happy for being able to both work and travel on regular basis.

Interests

Sustainability

Self development

Books

Nature

Farming

Languages

Plant care

Cooking & food

Gardening

Languages

Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Croatian: Fluent
Italian: Intermediate

More details about my language interests
By travelling I normally combine learning languages.... but being a teacher and working in secondary school I get only a month a year for travelling/workawaying - hence the wish to teach/study languages here. Feel free to write. Interests... to live offgrid one day.... big one, hopefully it will come true. Love nature, sensing things, exchange thoughts, and, of course, learn new languages. Definitely prefer writing to phone... I'm an INFJ - a bit introvert, but love learning the way people live elsewhere. Would love to improve my Italian and to learn Spanish. I could teach you English, German or Croatian.

Find a language buddy

Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

I'm interested in:  

Gardening

Eco Projects

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

Being an elderly companion

Life at a Farmstay

Art Projects

House sitting

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Some knowledge of:  

Babysitting and creative play

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Able to teach about:  

Languages

Teaching

More details about your skills

I enjoy working with people - compassionate, hard-working, tolerant

Age

48

What else ...

life is about exchanging positive thoughts, deeds and energy

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  no

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  Special dietary requirements
  no