This is a great question.
I’ve known for about the past year that I wanted to graduate from Northwestern one quarter early. Things were lining up for me to finish my required credits a bit early, and I didn’t want to drag things out just so I could take random filler classes. After coming back from study abroad in Denmark in Fall 2022, I knew I wanted to take advantage of any large periods of free time I had in the future to travel. Living in Denmark for 4 months gave me a deep perspective on non-American living I had never had to such an extent before.
While 1-2 week vacations are fun, they’re just vacations. As a tourist, you visit essentially the same places, just in different locations. All of the touristy locations I’ve been to have the same shops lining the streets with the same basic goods: chocolate, jewelry, tchotchkes and the like. While abroad in Denmark, other students would spend every weekend in a different country. I spent a few weekends abroad, but in the 48 hours I would have in each city, I would only get to see the places I had already visited in a previous city. River, check. Big church, check. Overpriced food, check. Yes, this is an oversimplification, and yes, it was still worth it to visit these cities. However, these short, superficial visits made me realize that I was missing out on so much in each city. I couldn’t experience the culture of any country or city in just 2 days. While I feel like I’ve learned so much about the history and culture of Denmark (see: Janteloven and Hygge), I can’t say the same for any of the other places I visited while studying abroad. I also enjoyed biking to the more remote corners of Denmark, just taking in the peaceful countryside and funny town names. All of these small moments added up to a holistic experience I’ll look back fondly on for years to come.
So moving forward, I knew I wanted to spend my spring quarter visiting just one country abroad. My initial research led me to Costa Rica, a country I have long wanted to visit for its biodiversity, laid-back culture, and Spanish language. However, while researching for volunteer opportunities, I found that most places were built for tourists, requiring $500+ weekly fees and providing work that wouldn’t have a real impact on local communities or ecosystems. While I’m sure there are impactful opportunities out there in Costa Rica, I switched my research from place first, activity second, to activity first, place second. I wanted to find what the best international volunteering opportunities were, then find the locations that were the best spots that offered that opportunity. I also knew at this point that I would be traveling alone, none of my friends were able to have their schedules line up with mine, so I knew whatever activity I found would have to be good for solo travelers. This line of research led me to come across wwoofing. See what is wwoofing for a description.
Wwoofing struck me as great because it combines many positive aspects. It’s a great opportunity to pick up a new skill (farming) while also interacting with locals on a deeper level. The workdays are shorter (end at 2pm-ish and have weekends off), allowing me to visit smaller cities across the country in my free time. Wwoofing also comes at a minimal cost (with room & board and food covered) and allows one to make a tangible impact on the community you farm in. All of these attributes excited me to go wwoofing.
Now to figure out where to wwoof (yes, this is the verb form). While there are many countries with national wwoof organizations, unfortunately Costa Rica is not one of them. While the wwoofing website will show Costa Rica and many other countries as having wwoofing opportunities, they are listed under wwoof independent organizations. All this means is that all of the countries without a national organization fall into the independent umbrella – all being managed by one body. In real terms, this meant that many of the independent opportunities are not vetted as well, and that there are far fewer opportunities available in independent countries. The few wwoofing farms in Costa Rica just didn’t excite me with the little information available about them.
I then continued on to see which countries had an abundance of wwoof farms. Unsurprisingly, most European countries fit the bill. The Netherlands then immediately stood out to me, as it was one of the top places I wanted to visit, but never got to on one of my short weekend trips while abroad. Similar to Denmark in many ways, the Netherlands places an emphasis on strong urban planning and sustainability, ideas that I value. The Netherlands’ great network of trains and bike paths would also allow me to make the most of my time off from farming on evenings and weekends, having a real chance to visit the entire country.
So, there it was: I decided to wwoof in the Netherlands this spring.