THE WORKING HOLIDAY ROUGH PATCH

The lead up to a working holiday is always filled with excitement, planning, butterflies and hope.

Speak to almost anyone who has returned from a working holiday and you will hear how incredible the experience was, how it changed their life and how much fun they had.

What many travellers forget to mention is the rough times, especially at the beginning. Arriving in a new country can be daunting, the accent or language is different, family and friends are still on the other side of the world, you might not have a job or housing lined up straight away and you become acutely aware of your dwindling funds.

It is in this high pressure, nerve-racking situation that even little things like missing a bus, being scowled at when you accidently bump into someone on a crowded street or eating alone at a restaurant can make you feel completely alone.

Sometimes things can go wrong (hey, you’re travelling, it happens) and this is when you might really need the support of IEP and our partners.

If, for instance, your luggage is MIA thanks to the airline and you aren’t sure if you’ll ever see the bag you so carefully packed again, it can feel like the worst disaster in the world…jetlag can magnify this feeling ten fold. Past IEP member, Linda, found herself in this situation when she landed in the US ready for summer camp. For two weeks she borrowed clothes from new friends and used her insurance to cover her for essentials. When her bag finally arrived it was as though Christmas had come early.

If you find yourself in this situation or in another sticky spot and you’re just not sure what to do or where to turn, our local partner is only a phone call away…it can help just to have someone on your side.

The biggest mistake you can make if you are faced with hard times is to believe the rest of your working holiday will be just as difficult and turn right around and board the next plane back to Oz. You will find it is the people who let homesickness overcome them who will return without any glowing stories of their time overseas.

For many, the months following those initial obstacles prove to be the most satisfying and exciting which is why when you speak to working holiday makers they leave out the part where their I-pod was stolen, they ended up with mild food poisoning, they spent their first week alone in their room with no one to go out with and how for the first three weeks when they hung up from a phone call with their mum they cried for an hour.

This is in no way intended to scare anyone off heading overseas but just to reassure those of you who do get there and find yourselves wondering if you are the only traveller in the world to be unhappy for a good chunk of the first couple of weeks... you are not alone.

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