[Remote Year] Your Second Four Questions
I’ve been getting questions from prospective RY applicants & people accepted to programs, so I thought I’d compile some of the main questions and answer them all together.
In February, I answered the “first four questions about Remote Year”:
- What is Remote Year?
- Why did you say Battuta earlier?
- How do I follow along?
- How has your Remote Year been going?
Now, in this post, I’m addressing the following questions that I’ve been getting more lately:
- What do you think of the group of people that were selected to travel with your RY cohort?
- Have the working conditions allowed you to work reasonably productively?
- How is the housing?
- If you could do it over again, would you join RY or would you simply venture off on your own?
Keep in mind that these responses are my perspective as a member of RY2 Battuta, in month 5 of 12, four days into being in London.
I can’t speak for other members of my group and especially not for other RY groups (currently 3, 4, and 5 are also running, and 1 has finished). And my perspective may change on various fronts as time goes on.
There have been ups and downs of this program, and we’ve had many serious discussions with RY staff about standards and expectations that both have & have not been met at various points. But throughout it all, quitting has not been an option I have seriously considered.
What do you think of the group of people that were selected to travel with your RY cohort?
My group is great, and I think we all generally agree it’s one of the best parts of the program.
Is it sometimes like adult summer camp? Yes.
[follow the link above to read my post about this in month 1]
Normally when I travel, I aim to be a discreet tourist and blend in and have more genuine local experiences, though being a blonde & blue-eyed makes it relatively hard to trick anyone.
So before coming on RY, I accepted that, for this year, I was traveling with 75 obvious tourists who, for all intents and purposes, seem to be a bunch of Americans.
[Our group has 15 nationalities, but the majority are American so, for better or worse, that’s how we’re typically perceived by locals / other people.]
But, other than going to grad school, how often do you have the opportunity in adulthood to have that kind of large scale social dynamic with this kind of group of people?
Overall, I have really enjoyed being with my cohort (and I am maybe biased, but I do think our group is particularly great). I’ve already learned a lot from them, and it’s been nice to have a range of interactions with people across social, personal, and professional aspects of our lives.
I have met some really amazing, funny, smart, talented, passionate, curious, and — above all — adventurous and empathetic people through Remote Year. We’ve all committed to trying new things, to living different lives, and to being open to change and growth. I appreciate that attitude and perspective so, so much, and I’m frequently amazed by how genuinely kind and loving this group is towards each other. To my RY2s: thank you, thank you, thank you.
Being with 75 people can be overwhelming at times, but we tend not be in a massive group except on travel days and in the workspace. I think the big group allows for way more mixing than a smaller group would, so it’s nice to get to vary your company depending on the activity.
My approach (socially) has been to not get buddied up with any one person or small group, and instead float between different groups + people. While at times there are social dynamics or situations in which I feel lonely, I am really happy to be spending time with the majority of the group as well as on my own.
Have the working conditions allowed you to work reasonably productively?
Yes and no.
In some countries, we have great workspaces — sometimes in terms of internet and/or productivity, and sometimes in terms of socializing and meeting locals. In others, it’s more challenging or less than ideal — either because of the specific location RY has chosen or because the infrastructure isn’t in place to support us.
However, we are only the second group, and I do think RY as a company is learning from our experience and making adjustments accordingly. (So far no discounts to us, though, so you’re welcome!) Our worst work + internet situation was, by far, La Paz, and they’re no longer sending programs there as far as I know.
Workspaces thus far have ranged from existing coworking spaces that we joined for the month (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and London) to RY taking over a local cafe for us (La Paz) to RY creating a new workspace (Cusco), all with varying results.
I think we all loved Montevideo’s Sinergia, though we did have some bandwidth + temperature challenges, and Cusco’s RY workspace was my personal favorite due to good internet and quiet conditions. The RY La Paz cafe was okay but not ideal, and the country’s internet just wasn’t reliable on the whole. I didn’t care for Buenos Aires’s La Maquinita much (it’s new and nice, just not my preference). And they, honestly, weren’t that accommodating / friendly to us in our individual interactions, but BA has so many cafes and I like working in that environment, so I was fine that month.
I would imagine by the time that future groups are running, the work space + internet situations should be fairly good. If you go to a “new” country (to the RY itineraries), though, you can expect some adjustment and potential challenges. However, if you purchase a monthly SIM card through RY, they tend to find deals that get us tetherable data, which makes work feasible even in worse circumstances.
Personally, I am freelancing and not working full time, which isn’t ideal — I’m currently looking for more work. But I’ve been doing this gig remotely for 2 years, so my experience and current needs are different than people who may have a full time job, heavier load, or set schedule.
I think the biggest challenge with work, probably, is that there’s always something going on with other people or that you want to do in terms of travel/sightseeing, so it’s sometimes hard to schedule time to work the same way and routine you would at home. But certainly some people are doing it successfully, and it’s just a matter of discipline (not that that’s easy).
How is the housing?
The housing varies. Here’s my room in each place so far, which of course is largely dependent on what’s available in the cities we’re in for the month.
Obviously each of our experiences and individual room is different because in some places (Cusco, Buenos Aires, La Paz), we are typically spread across several different housing options that vary in size, quality, layout, etc.
We were pretty displeased with our Montevideo accommodations, but as a result, RY did a better job with cleaning + buying new sheets etc for the hotel in La Paz. We had some security issues in Cusco, but from what I’ve heard, they’ve tried to address that as well.
More than any kind of objective room quality is what each person’s preferences, priorities, and expectations are. That can vary so tremendously that I think it’s hard to ask “how’s housing?” and get an answer that can really speak to whether you’ll be happy with it or not.
I lived abroad for 2 years after college in Morocco and Bulgaria, have been traveling for 2 years now, and only lived 2 years total in my post-college life, in my own space that I really decorated and settled in to (why is everything 2 years? I don’t know!). My dad also remodeled our house for years while we lived in it, so though I do like comfortable living, I also have been trained to be adaptable.
I like natural light, but having nature nearby isn’t critical because I’m used to living in cities. I like a big bed but don’t really need it. Private bathrooms are a plus — and I’ve only had to share once.
To me, cleanliness is really important — partly because I’m squeamish and partly because I’m super allergic to dust (and dogs, sadly). As long as I have my own space and feel clean and comfortable, I’m usually satisfied — especially knowing it’s just for a month.
We are paying $2000 a month, and while RY doesn’t disclose their financial breakdowns to us either, I assume about $600 on average is allocated each month towards housing. I do have a certain standard of expectation based on that amount and the city/country we’re in (knowing from personal experience that $20/night can get a clean, private hotel room with wifi and a/c in SE Asia, for example).
For the most part, I expect that we can have clean private spaces but that it’s not going to be luxurious. Also we’re not going to countries that are typically known for hospitality and western comforts, which I do believe is an important element of our RY itinerary, so my expectation is not that our average monthly housing is likely to be my favorite place to live forever.
If you could do it over again, would you join RY or would you simply venture off on your own?
Yes, I would join RY2 again.
I actually have been a “digital nomad”, to use the annoying but apt buzzword, since June 2014, so being with Remote Year is not my first experience working remotely while traveling.
I quit my job in NYC to travel for the summer when a creative director I knew reached out to have me come on part-time, freelance, and remotely to work as the production arm to her new strategy + design + branding studio for entrepreneurs and small business owners. With that income, I decided to continue to travel until I could no longer afford it or wanted to move back to NYC.
After about a year of doing that, I was starting to get lonely and exhausted from planning everything myself, and coincidentally, that’s when I heard about RY from a friend.
While it’s certainly not the cheapest way to do this lifestyle and you absolutely do make concessions (like control over countries, accommodations, schedule), I thought it sounded worth a year of my life to try this experience.
I also think if you have passion projects, RY makes for a great platform and unique position for reaching out to people and getting contacts + time + PR that you may not otherwise get on your own.
For me, aiming towards writing and working with arts organizations, that’s a primary consideration in why I value being part of this program. I’m already making some small progress that is encouraging, and I certainly attribute that to being part of RY.
Yes, you can absolutely do it on your own, and if you don’t care to be part of the community, you want more control, you have a work schedule you’re more dedicated to, you want to be able to change plans more frequently, etc — then don’t do Remote Year.
Otherwise, I would recommend it and have every intention of finishing my year with the group.
Update
One prospective RY accepted applicant I was emailing with wrote me back with some insights that I thought were accurate and worth including (with their approval):
So far the differences [in Remotes’ attitudes / perspectives on the program] seem to boil down to a couple of things:
> Previous travel experience — people with more seem to be happier.
> Expectations going into the program — people with lower expectations seem to be happier.
> Financial situation — people who aren’t on a tight budget or worried about finding work seem to be happier.
I thought those were valid points that interested parties should consider.
The first two are true for me and likely do contribute to my being happy with the program on the whole. Not that I have low expectations in a negative sense, but I don’t expect RY or the cities we visit to hand me an experience on a silver platter. And I expect that much of my pleasure from the experience comes from my agency, choices, and reactions to situations (isn’t that always true, though?).
I will admit that financial stress is a daily concern for me that makes this experience harder, but I’ve lived on a budget for a decade now. It’s not my favorite and I’m working to change it, but I have always found a way to do what I wanted and needed to do with limited resources.
Let me know if you have other questions, and I’ll happily answer them (a) personally, (b) in my next newsletter, or (c) in an essay here on Medium.
Katherine is a digital nomad, working remotely while she travels the world — on the road since June 2014. She’s a member of Remote Year 2 Battuta, living around the world with 75 other digital nomads from February 2016 to January 2017.
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