Travel the World from Your Couch
A lot of people love to travel, seeing the world and discovering new places. For some people traveling is their lifelong dream, to leave everything behind and see what adventures they can find. While some people are lucky enough to set off into the sunset, some others for whatever reasons can only hope that one day they too can travel.
But before you go forgetting about travelling the world and sailing the seven seas, why not do a warm up so to speak. Just because you can’t leave your house, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun adventures or experience some of the different things from other countries.
Go Camping in the Back Yard
Such a simple thing to do yet can be so different and fun. Being used to sleeping in our warm comfy house and bed is something we generally take for granted. Why not pitch a tent, blow up the air mattress and head outside. Granted in most back yards you can’t just light a fire, but you can have a barbeque or even use a controlled fire such as a barrel to keep it safe. Grab some chairs, prepare your food and sit back and relax in the outdoors. During the day you may not feel like your camping but once night time hits and the sun goes down, you will be sitting around a warm fire telling stories. Your dog will love the company and think Christmas has arrived.
Watch Movies about Places You Want to Go
One of the best ways to see places that you aren’t able to visit is via the internet, movies and Television. Why not go and hire some videos about the countries you would like to visit. If you would rather not spend the money, jump on the internet and Google away. You Tube will have thousands of videos will all different things from every country. You might be surprised at some of the things you learn. After the first video you will totally forget you are sitting in your lounge room, so pull up a chair and get the popcorn ready!
Have An Exotic Meal Night
One of the biggest things I always see is, “this exotic meal from here”, and “that meal from there”. You could do some research a couple of days prior to your exotic meal night, to ensure you know what you want and give yourself enough time to get the ingredients. Depending on what meals you decide on, some ingredients may be a little harder to find than others. You could invite your friends over and make it a big night. Giving them enough notice, so if they wish to contribute they also can bring a meal from a different country. Just imagine sitting there with a Roast cooked in a Hangi, (New Zealand) Turkey with Bread Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce (Canada) and a Chicken a la Maryland. (France) Yummy!
Read a Book
A lot of people choose to read books simply for the fact they can get lost in the story. Books are a great way to find information and feel like the author is personally telling you their story. Not only do the words tell a story but so do the pictures, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. This way you can put it down and come back to it later on, picking it up where you left off.
You could go to your library and hire out books for free on lots of different countries and their cultures. Libraries are a great source of information as they are free and you can usually hire around 8 books for 2 weeks depending on your libraries rules.
Theme Nights
This is a great idea to kick off a great night. Invite some friends over in advance giving them the heads of th e theme. Everyone can come in costume in a country of their choice, and you can organise games from all around the world. Get right into it, and go all out with decorations. Put streamers and banners up, buy a special plant, set the table in a special manner, and that’s if you even sit at a table. Some countries eat on the ground, others have special table settings. With everyone in costume, the house decorated and everyone bringing a meal from different sides of the world, throw in some games and you have a full night of fun and entertainment.
Learn Another Language
This one is something I have wanted to do myself; I want to learn to speak French. Some people don’t see the point in learning to speak another language unless you plan to travel to that country. Others want to do it for their own reasons such as knowledge, experience, work, research, culture, religion or simply whatever they choose.
Learning another language can be difficult and will not be done in one afternoon. However, after all your hard work, being able to speak another language might be very beneficial to you. Although in some cases it may not and it may be more just for fun, what’s the harm in having extra credentials up your sleeve?
Host a Foreign Exchange Student
A lot of students like to be a part of a foreign exchange program while they are in school. They are welcomed into another family for a certain period of time and go to school in that country. This helps them in many ways. They make new friends, they get to see another country, enrich their studies, learn other cultures and the list goes on depending on the particular person.
Hosting a foreign exchange student is a great way to basically swap sides of the world. While they are learning from you, you are also learning from them. When they arrive they bring stories of how things are back in their own country, what they eat, things they like to do and so on. This program is great and gives students the opportunity of a lifetime whilst you also do the same for your family by bringing a different culture into your home.
So if travelling is something you would like to do, but simply are not able to yet. Don’t despair; they are plenty of ways to get around it until the day you travel abroad.
