thepianosarah

Travel information

We are currently

Activities we are interested in:

At the moment we're cycling and looking for a place to stay during winter. We love to connect with beautiful fellow humans whilst doing all kinds of work and learning new skills!

Description

We are two crazy souls who decided to leave all (well most!) of our material possessions and our apartment in the Netherlands behind in order to travel by bike through Europe and experience ultimate freedom. We love to travel because we feel like we can broaden our horizons and learn about other people's worlds and ways of living. Getting to know other cultures, surrendering to and being part of nature and at the same time meeting new lovely human beings is something we get up for each morning. And Workaway gives us exactly that opportunity, getting in touch with you and learning about your world and the things that matter to you whilst helping you out a hand.

So currently we are travelling from the Netherlands to southern Europe by bike and tent, though it's not only for fun, but more for the purpose of finding a new place to call home. We crave a life where we can live with intention and align our actions with our belief systems. In the current system we struggle to do so, especially in an urban context. That's why we are looking for a small plot of land, exploring permaculture and creating a safe haven for us and fellow (non-)human spirits.

Doing that, we're both very enthusiastic and adventurous and at the same time have a gentle and caring side which pulls us towards deepening connections with others and prioritizing quality over quantity. Exactly because of this vision, we travel slowly with our bikes (Bonnie and Paulchen). We love that way of exploring the world and having spontaneous and unexpected conversations with strangers. That brightens our day and makes us feel crazily grateful. But now enough about travelling and more about who we actually are!

Sarah is German and grew up nearby Hamburg in the North of Germany. She has a strong idealistic side with an urge to contribute to a better 'world', especially conscious about ways to live sustainable, yet in a holistic way with social justice in mind. She is calm and caring, being highly sensitive to the frequencies of human interaction and interested in learning more about non-violent communication and spiritual pathways to enhance human experience

Matthijs is Dutch and has the more rational, analysing part which helps to balance things a bit out and find realistic solutions. He loves being and working in the outdoors as well and enjoys working with his hands, doing wood work, ceramics etc. He has been working in the IT world for many years and now craves to use his hands and create something which he finds meaningful (in a different way than in a commercial job).

So we're both easy-going and once we understand the goal and intention behind a task go for it with tenacity and a lot of motivation. Even if we don't know how to do a certain thing, we're open to extend our horizon and learn and grow, following Pippi Longstocking's vision of life: "I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that." :)

Things we both share are our love for nature, so cycling and hiking a lot. Also we love to cook, mostly plant-based (vegan-orientated) and sometimes some animal protein sources. Since a couple of years we're both busy with meditation, yoga and mindfulness and long to live a life surrounded by and immersed into nature where we can be creative and build up something meaningful and sustainable for the planet and fellow humans. This helps us to stay anchored to our power source. We have a firm ecological mindset, trying to continuously improve our ways of being, e.g., by making our own food from scratch (tofu, kombucha, sourdough, apple cider vinegar), in the past also some cosmetic products, growing some vegetables on the rooftop terrace of our previous apartment etc.

We feel very lucky for all the opportunities we have had so far in life and long to give something back to others who have had or do have less. Or fellow folks who need our help to manage the things they love to do or free time to do something which makes them happy. We love to contribute to someone else's happiness and see somebody smile :) To us the most precious thing life has to offer us (and which we have to offer to others) is TIME. We want to use our time in a way that contributes positively to society / the planet and via Workaway we get the great chance to help YOU a hand out, which we're totally excited about.

Interests

Languages

Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
French: Beginner

More details about my language interests
Bien sûr! French is the language we're aiming for. Sarah has learned French in school, long time ago and a little part of it has survived and hidden in her brains. Matthijs knows a little bit of French, a couple of words and some sentences. We both would love to improved our French, dreaming to become fluent and converse with strangers during our travels!

Find a language buddy

Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn

We're interested in:  

Life at a Farmstay

Hospitality/Tourism

Charity Work

Art Projects

Teaching

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Some knowledge of:  

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Being an elderly companion

General Maintenance

Eco Projects

Animal Care

Languages

Babysitting and creative play

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Able to teach about:  

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Helping around the house

Helping with Computers/ Internet

More details about your skills

We are eager to learn new things. In essence, it doesn’t matter what it is, we're able to learn quickly and love to grow in that way. We like to work with animals, help other people and provide practical solutions to small or big problems. Let's say we're very creative and can think outside of the box! Besides, we can definitely help you with the following: cooking, maintenance of the house and garden, work on the land, teaching languages and a bit of IT.

Matthijs has been busy in his previous job with IT projects and optimizing processes. He is good at keeping priorities in mind and structuring work. At the same time he doesn't like strictly keeping to a rhythm if that doesn't work for him or others, so he's flexible in adapting the workflow. He's super attentive to the needs of others and keeping those in mind when working on projects. One of his core strengths moreover is patience and calmness when approaching work, being followed with discipline and force. He loves to learn more about building things from scratch (for example with wood), gardening, renovating a house etc.

Sarah has been working in shipping / logistics for quite some time before she decided to re-orientate and study Sociology. So she has a good planning brain and developed a strong social side, interested in all kinds of struggles and 'problems' society is being plagued with. She's a polyglot, juggling a few languages she speaks fluently (German as mother tongue, English and Dutch) and aiming to improve her school basic French skills, Spanish and Italian. Her strength thus lies primarily in languages, but also DIY projects, delicious cooking and taking care of animals. She gets crazy about horses and dogs! Besides that she also loves to learn more about permaculture and regenerative agriculture and is flexible when it comes to work! Concretely, she can do all kinds of tasks in and around the house and is good with cooking. She already had a few Workaway experiences:
- 2011 UK: Gardening, grading eggs, animal care
- 2013 Italy: Gardening, house maintenance
- 2018 Argentina: Gardening, planting trees (together with Matthijs)
- 2018 Chile: Renovating furniture, house maintenance, gardening

Age

32 & 37

What else ...

Looking forward to meeting you!

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  None

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  Special dietary requirements
  We're both vegetarian / plant-based