Adventures in the Water and on Two Feet
Adventure, Here We Come
The Hanoi Outdoor & Adventure Group made the very best of harvest season by visiting the villages around Hanoi, enjoying tea under big trees and sharing a traditional lunch. Exploring this beautiful city is a passion for the Consuls Iris Tram Dinh and Long Dinh, as is sharing their adventures with people from around the world.
Tell us about this specific activity! What made it special?
We were such a special, diverse, international group, and on the trip, we were joined by our family members from France, Korea, England, Germany, and Vietnam. We visited the Vietnamese traditional handicraft and ancient villages and met the villagers, including a Catholic family and their traditional antique wooden house, an ancient church with the bell made from France, one of the oldest Buddhist temples of Vietnam. We had traditional village cuisine cooked by the villagers and we even learned making traditional Vietnamese candy at the antique near-500-years-old wooden house. We listened to the families’ stories of villagers, of mystery, fairytale, and the history of the ancient villages...
What do you love about the group/community? Tell us about the best experience you’ve had with them!
We love that the members are from various countries sharing multiple diverse cultures and stories and hang out together as open minded friends. It is amazing to learn that as kids from all over the world, we played many similar traditional games.
How has organizing activities changed your life abroad?
Organizing activities has changed our lives in a great way. We organize outdoor and adventurous activities, sharing our time with international friends and learning about the country again after living abroad for about a decade.
Move Your Body
A 7.5K Night Run was the goal of the Mexico City Running Group. Activity host Dul Garcia has a pretty busy life and loves to fit exercise into her day this way. As part of a larger Quiero Run event, the group explored the Mexico City’s touristic streets with their running shoes.
Tell us about this specific activity! What made it special?
This was a special activity because more people attended and were interested in it. I think that the way I worded the post contributed to the success of the activity. I wrote an “emphatic” post saying, “As you might have noticed I enjoy posting night runs. Why not get the body moving at night before going to bed?”
Living in Mexico City is an amazing daily journey. People need to learn to develop leadership skills such as balancing personal life and work time, in addition to traffic jams. Long working and commuting hours are a great excuse to take us away from a healthy lifestyle. The challenge is to learn how to deal with all the variables we have in Mexico City while also making some personal time to take care of our bodies. The night run is a great opportunity to do this before going back home. As I said in another post, there are no excuses for not doing any physical activity.
Additionally, this activity was special because we ran to a new attraction within the city, Monumento a la Revolución. At the monument, we met people from InterNations as well as other Mexico City locals.
What do you love about the group/community? Tell us about the best experience you’ve had with them!
As an interculturalist, I appreciate the diversity and meeting people from a wide range of cultures. I have also developed greater cultural awareness in order to understand and include people, not only in the activities but also in Mexican culture.
The most rewarding experience with the running group was feedback from a Mexico City Running Group member after a couple of months of the training activity with Benjamin Paredes on January 2019. The member wrote, “Dulce, I was really uncommitted about running and usually just used it as an occasional outlet to stay in shape. Thanks to that training and the introduction to some running techniques and ideas, I became quite excited about running and my overall physical fitness. Thank you, Dulce, for a wonderful job of inclusion with the group and your efforts to make sure that everyone was involved that day were tremendously appreciated.”
How has organizing activities changed your life abroad?
The activities have helped me to continue developing my leadership skills in an intercultural and an athletic setting. Organizing each activity takes me out of my comfort zone and even when I am sometimes very tired, I bring energy and enthusiasm to the activity. The reward I receive after each activity is the thank-yous for organizing it and seeing big smiles on people’s faces. The running group is one of the few groups where English is obviously the second language. Organizing activities for the Mexico City Running Group has forced me to practice my translation skills, Spanish to English and vice versa. This group has been a great benefit in helping expats enjoy their Mexico City experience.
Splash Around
Activity Host Shalini Jaggi invited the members of the New Delhi Luxury Experience Group to a Beat the Heat Pool Party. The group gathered at the LaLiT Hotel to escape the heat wave and take a plunge into the cool water.
Tell us about this specific activity! What made it special?
Taking the group to a 90% expat party made it special, as well as the fact that members who love to swim enjoyed the massive pool and the games in the pool.
What do you love about the group/community? Tell us about the best experience you’ve had with them!
The best experience was last year’s pool parties. They were a good mix and I enjoyed organizing them as much as the members enjoyed attending them.
I have varied interests which I want to share with other like-minded members. I would love to go more pool parties if only they were happening at more places but one more is certainly on its way.
How has organizing activities changed your life abroad?
Well, it’s fun to meet new people with the same interests and I now have company at the events I want to go to. Life has just gotten more interesting. Thanks for the appreciation from your end.
