The buzz on global warming has been louder louder for the past years. With different environmental issues connected to it, people now are more concerned to go green. Air pollution is one of the major factors for global warming. The emission of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere is a serious threat to our health and Mother Nature’s. So what could we do to help lessen the pollution?

We should go green! Fellow home exchangers, why not try riding a bike while on vacation in the city or countryside you are about to have an exchange instead of renting a car? Wouldn’t that be a good idea? This way, you could save on car rentals and petrol. We all know that there’s a financial crunch going on, so cutting on the rental expenses would be a big help. Biking is also good for your health, you could burn as much as 550 calories for an hour of riding a bike. (That’s equivalent to an hour of freestyle swimming laps!)  Not only that, taking a bike ride around the city is a fun and cheap way of enjoying your stay on a new place. Cities such as Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris are very friendly places to go on bike riding.

Now there are available bike rentals for taking tours around the city. Yes, it does cost some damage to your wallets… so how can you have it for free? It’s pretty simple. Ask your home exchange  partner if you could borrow their bike (if they have one) for the time being. Asking permission to borrow wouldn’t hurt. You might want to ask your home exchange partner in advance if they have a bike you could use so that you don’t have to bring your own bike or even rent. Just remember to take good care of your home exchange partner’s stuff to continue good relationships with them. You might want to leave a little surprise, like a bike accessory, to your home exchange partner to thank him/her for letting you use their bike. Enjoy your ride!

If you are that on-the go person who loves to go around places, here’s one tip that will be a big help for you: have a sling bag with you wherever you go.

Having a sling bag helps you keep your must-haves and valuables handy all the time. This way you could avoid losing things. Who would want to look for his/her passport in the middle of a big city? No one. Get your things organized in a single bag and you won’t have any problems with your stuff. Also, this will be your “survival pack” in case you get lost in the middle of nowhere or whatever circumstance you come across with. Hey, you never know what might happen, so better be prepared at least. So what are those things that you have to have in that bag? Good question. Here’s a list of what to put in there:

•    Money- Keep at least an extra on your bag in case you need to take a cab or train to somewhere. Remember that some stores might not accept credit cards too.
•    Passport/ IDs- Have them with you all the time. In case you need identity verification, it’s easy to pull out your passport for confirmation.
•    Notepad and Pen- You might need to write down something, whether it’s an address or a phone number of a friend.
•    Medicine- This one’s important especially if you have an ailment or under medication. Bringing your medicine with you all the time helps keep you from those undesirable circumstances.
•    Map/ Travel Guide- Bringing a map especially if you are not familiar with the place you are about to go will be a big help.
•    Phrase-book- This will help if you are not familiar with the native language.
•    Toiletries- Neat-freaks agree. Bring at least a pack of tissue and floss with you.
•    A bottle of water- In case there isn’t a store to buy water nearby.
•    Keys- Of course you have to go home. Make sure you don’t lose the keys to your home exchange partner’s place.

These are just suggestions; it depends on what you need to have with you on a trip. Remember to keep an eye on your belongings all the time. It’s hard to lose important things in a foreign place.

So stress.

What is it? The adrenaline that our bodies produce when we`re in taxing situations? The rush of blood to the head, the dilation of the pupils, sudden ability to hear tinkles and scratches happening a mile away?

Stress and anxiety, in fair measures, are some of the things that have stopped us from winding up like all the rest of the animals. (Subordinated, no tools, no things like medicine and trains and culture etc.)

But as we`re no longer hunter-gatherers, sometimes the stress builds up inside of us when we`re in the supermarket, in the bank, in the office, at the doctors… And we just don´t have the life-style any more where we can go racing after, for example, a buffalo, and have all the physical exhileration that releases those pumping endorphins and gives us that natural euphoric relief.

So the stress spreads…. and we carry it around. In our bellies, mounting with little globules of fat from all of the nervously eaten packaged crap that comes out of the vending machine. We carry it around… In our heads. In our skin. In all the parts of our body that don´t get that rejuvenating surge of blood pumping furiously around, recharging the organs, vessels and layers of flesh that make us.

So we have developed a buzz word “stress”. It´s a catch all term really. But then again, there`s an awful lot to catch. Everything is “stressed out”, or “because of stress”, or “getting stressed”, or “stress related”. There`s a good reason for this. We don`t have very effective outlets for the physiological strain that plagues our bodies and causes us so much damage.

So how do we deal with this modern concept of “stress”?

With another modern concept. “Home exchange!” Yes that`s right. It`s a widely known fact that holidays are a proven and sure way of eliminating stress. And we have to make time for, and in this weirdly stunted matrix of an economy that we`re planted in this days, money is something we have to fight against. So just like we`ve conceptualised “stress”, we`ve made exchange into the perfect way to combat the minetraps set out in modern life to riddle us with cortesol. (Cortesol = stress hormone ;-))

Home exchange is to the modern human what hunting and gathering was to the hunter-gatherer. Fight the health hazards of the modern life by giving yourself the option of plenty of relaxing holidays. All made possible with home swap