- Sign up for a kibbutz or moshav from over here, and then go to Israel and learn something about labor, dirt, history, the Middle East, and your fellow kibbutzniks from all over the world.
- Get a job in Australia or New Zealand doing any kind of casual work, and then just hang out and absorb the scene.
- Volunteer farm work in New Zealand and Australia is not as difficult as in Israel. You get your room and good food in exchange for four or five hours of labor per day. {Look for Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF.)}
- If you're a full-time student get a work permit through CIEE and find a job in London as a secretary, waiter, or temp, all of which are available.
- Volunteer two-weeks of archaeological work in Turkey through CIEE and Turkey's national student travel organization, Genctur.
- Teach elementary school children in Kenya, providing you have a degree and commitment.
- Study for a semester at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji through the International Student Exchange Program.
- The one backpacker I met who actually stomped grapes in France went back three years in a row to the same vineyard, and had a fabulous time eating, drinking, socializing, and even working.
"Once I get me a housetruck, everything's gonna be all-right..." (Housetrucks are idealized homes for many farm workers in New Zealand.)
Many travelers are doing medical studies for work these days. I know of clinics in the U.S., England, Germany, and Sweden which test drugs for pharmaceutical companies. You stay in their facility around the clock from a few to thirty days. Pay ranges from $100 a day in the U.S., to $150 in Europe.
They may be testing a Japanese nasal spray, a new antibiotic, or even a cholesterol drug. Mainly they need healthy people to see how the drug is absorbed in the blood. Since you are considered a "volunteer," the work is completely legal for foreign nationals. Try calling around hospitals in major cities to find who to contact. Alan, Manchester, England
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Quit your job--the quality of your work has probably slipped so far due to your preoccupation and scheming to get time off, you are about to be fired anyway. Lene M., Århus, Denmark