GoCambio – A Guest speaking

Amy Woodward is 19 from Bracknell, near London. She studies Graphic Communication and Design at the University of Leeds. She decided to go to Spain, in a town near Seville, and she did it with GoCambio. She told us about her experience with this new way of travelling and exchanging knowledge.

How did you find out about GoCambio?  

I study at the University of Leeds and I have a scholarship therefore I have connections with Alumni (previous Leeds students).

The scholarship network informed me about an Alumni who had just set up a new exchange company and they wanted help and opinions from students through a questionnaire and a focus group about the concept of GoCambio and the website.

After the focus group we were asked whether we wanted to pilot (try out for the first time) GoCambio and then I chose a host and from there I started to plan my trip to Spain.

Can you describe the passages one has to do before setting off? Would you describe it as easy?

It is fairly easy, definitely if you’ve planned trips before. Even though I hadn’t before, I planned what I needed to sort out and I just arranged everything accordingly.

I started with contacting my host through Facebook and talked to her so we could get to know each other and make it clear what we both wanted out of the cambio.

We arranged when it was best to plan my flights and what the week would consist of.

 So, you were a Guest, which means that you were hosted for free and in exchange you had to help your host with learning and improving a language, your language. What did you do, precisely? Can you describe your day while on “cambio”?

 My host wanted to learn more English, but I was mainly there to talk with her 14 year old daughter to help her with English at school.

After getting ready, I was free to do whatever I pleased during the day. I usually explored the area – I went to markets, travelled to Seville, met up with old friends or spent the day with my host as we got on really well.

I would eat lunch with my host family and then spent time with María (my host’s daughter) as she had finished with school for the day.

I didn’t tutor her or teach her English in a formal way, we usually just talked in a relaxed environment such as in a bar, walking around town or with some of her friends.

A minimum of 2 hours of contact time is required for the cambio per day. Personally, I spent quite a lot of time with my host family as we bonded really well and I become “part of the family”, therefore it doesn’t feel like you are working at all.

 Did you like your host?

I loved her! We still talk over Facebook! She calls me her “English daughter”.

Would you say that you had time enough to enjoy the city and your trip? Is the “cambio” way demanding in any way or not?

I had plenty of time to do I wanted to. I planned in advance most of the days. You can choose what you want to do and usually you can arrange things with your host, for example the time of dinner to suit you better for your day out.

Is there a moment that you especially enjoyed and would like to share with us? Anything nice or particular that happened with your host?

 On one of the days, my host took me to Seville and we had a lovely day together in the city. I felt like a local and not a generic tourist at all – it was great to experience it from the native side of things. Despite her poor English, she really tried explaining things, which was great (with the help of a translator app) as she was like my own personal tour guide.