Bridget abroad: volunteering at a hostel.

This summer working abroad was going to be my true Mamma Mia moment. 'I will be donna just minus the baby', was the exact line of thinking I had been channeling for months. In this period of day dreaming I forgot to factor in that donna never actually worked and got by through island hopping, performing open mic nights in bars and receiving a house after she managed to restrain a horse. Sadly I don’t have bottomless pockets nor a rich Portuguese sugar daddy who is willing to gift me a villa of my own.

When working abroad as a ahem ‘volunteer’, be sure to manage expectations and understand what you are truly letting yourself in for. Yes, when you’re not working it is amazing spending time at the beach and great scenery. Free activities such as SUP, hiking, surf, BBQ's and breakfasts are great … when you have the time and aren't too tired. Amongst all the excitement I think I thought it was going to be a part time job with easy work, compared to the reality of working 29 full on hours for no pay. I also expected myself to do lots of things in my free time. In reality I should treat it as a 9-5 job five days a week and chill around that, then the other two days embrace doing new things and trying different bits and bobs.

Changing mindset can be a very powerful thing and lets hope this helps. I think imbalance comes from where expectation does not meet reality and you can certainly say that again - I did not envisage it being a full time unpaid job. I think mindset might be easier if I was on an internship or doing less hours to justify the time off. The expectation does not marry up. And you know what that’s okay because it’s all a learning curve and you figure things out as you go. You won’t always know what comes next and its how you deal with them and handle yourself that counts.

To take away from this experience expect this is a full time job, rest on days off and embrace new things on your two free days.

Note to self : in future do not take on unpaid work. Being paid gives you more motivation and an incentive to keep working hard. My TED talk is over.