HELLO
We hope you're having a lovely day, and if not, there's a ton of stuff in this newsletter to help you make your life better - today, tomorrow and beyond! We've got some info from Raleigh on being a volunteeer manager, free stuff, useful info, plus the usual round up of videos, pictures and blog posts to inspire and inform.
So sit back, read on and enjoy!
SPONSORED FEATURE - RALEIGH INTERNATIONAL
Use more than a rucksack on your career break: your passion, skills and experience can drive positive change in vulnerable environments and poor rural communities.
Raleigh International is a sustainable development charity. By joining the Raleigh volunteer manager team you’ll support young people to work with communities in Borneo, Costa Rica & Nicaragua and Tanzania. There are eleven different roles available for 8 and 13 week programmes, so whatever your background and interests there is bound to be an opportunity that suits you.
Career breaker Sarah says: “I chose to volunteer with Raleigh because it is a well-established organisation, which has a big impact on the communities they work with, as well as the young volunteers and volunteer managers, who come from all over the world.”
Life’s too short to say 'maybe next year'. Your time is now. Find out more on Raleigh’s website.
FREE STUFF ROUND-UP
Free photography ebook from one of our favourite people on Twitter, The Planet D.
Loads of free Kindle books from Amazon.
Free mobile wifi from O2 (you don't have to be an O2 customer)
Free personalised city map from KLM.
We put these freebies and offers in the newsletter as a service to you, our lovely readers. We don't get paid for putting them in. (We wish we did though!)
NEW AND UPDATED CAREER BREAKS
Here are all our new and updated career breaks.
PHOTO CORNER - YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF INSPIRATION
The Sony World Photography Award winners have been announced. You can see them here (there are a few different categories).
VIDEO CORNER
The beak-cam of a rescued pelican learning to fly again. Cute doesn't even begin to cover this.
ON THE BLOG
It's a guest post frenzy this month!
First off, we were sent a searingly honest account of how mental illness affects this bipolar traveller. It will hopefully help some of our readers who struggle with depression while travelling.
If you're planning to work abroad, knowing a bit about the way to do things could help you land a job (or at least keep you out of hot water). This guide to business etiquette abroad was written for us by Julia Watters at Career FAQs.
The fun post of the month comes from a guest writer who lists 13 USB devices your boss wishes were never invented.
Driving safely in Europe is a funny vintage-style video guide from the Foreign and Commonwealth office. Useful too!
We nicked an infographic off Cheap Flights on...er... how to get a cheap flight.
Finally, we did write our own post, although admittedly most of the tips are from other people. It's top tips to combat fatigue while travelling and features contributions from more experienced travellers than us!
All these, and the rest of our blog posts, can be found here: http://www.thecareerbreaksite.com/blog. If you'd like to be interviewed for the blog, or you're itching to show off your journalistic skills by writing a guest post, email info@thecareerbreaksite.com.
NEW SECTION: ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERWEB
Our guide to long-term travel on Travel Blog Source - the benefits, the drawbacks and how to do it.
Our site founder wrote about how she's changed since her career break - and how you could too. The post is on Travel Gumbo.
We didn't write this but it was too useful not to feature: Why I took 2 gap years (it's a post on Project Abroad's blog, who are one of our partners).
How to find a great volunteering placement is a guide we wrote for Moojle.
And from the archive: 10 top tips for more dangerous travel.
If you'd like a post about career breaks, long term travel, volunteering or anything else to do with sabbaticals, email info@thecareerbreaksite.com.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Don't carry anything in your back pocket, especially if in a city. It'll only get nicked.
If you have a tip for us, email info@thecareerbreaksite.com - we will credit you unless you want to stay anonymous.
USEFUL THING OF THE MONTH
If you want someone to travel with but all your mates are too busy working / watching box sets / stalking their ex on Facebook, Adventure Friend is for you. It lets you hook up with like-minded travellers, whether it's for a day trip, a week or your whole RTW trip. Find out more about Adventure Friend here.
JOKE
Why do travel agents never ask you if you've got any nice haircuts planned?
FINALLY
You probably already know we're on Twitter and Facebook, but we're pondering adding another social network string to our communications bow. Which one do you think we should go for? Just reply to this email to give us your opinion (it goes to a real person who will actually read it).
Enjoy the sunshine (if it's popped out where you are) and we'll see you next month.
Love,
The Career Break Site
xxx