EL ABC DEL INTERCAMBIO DE CASAS

Capítulo 5

¡La vuelta al mundo gracias al intercambio de casas!

Chine Lanzmann, periodista pionera de Canal+, autora de varias novelas de éxito, ejerce hoy como Coach en Comunicación, especialidad que imparte en la Escuela Central de París. Laurent Edel, empresario, vende su primera empresa, Republic Alley, a los 31 años. Monta una nueva empresa, Good Futur, y se lanza al descubrimiento de nuevas ideas de negocios en Francia y Europa. Con su bebé, Edmond, han dado la vuelta al mundo durante un año. Tienen un piso en París. Lograron concluir un intercambio de casa en cinco de sus etapas. Utilizaron HomeExchange durante la preparación de su viaje y, en su libro, rinden homenaje a nuestro sitio web.

Para ellos, sólo hay dos sitios web eficientes en el mundo para el intercambio de casas. Nos sentimos orgullosos de que HomeExchange sea uno de ellos. Dicen, a propósito de él:

La página web más sencilla para empezar. Punto fuerte, la "búsqueda invertida" para saber "qué personas en el país al que queremos ir están interesadas en venir a nuestra casa". Cuesta 50 euros para poner un anuncio durante un año, y el año siguiente es gratuito si no ha habido éxito el primer año: www.homeexchange.com

Su libro "El mundo nos pertenece", publicado por la Editorial Jean-Claude Lattès, cuenta las peripecias de una familia que ve el lado positivo de la vida, cumple su sueño y vuelve transformada. Un cuaderno de notas explica cómo prepararon su viaje e intercambiaron su piso. Encontrará a continuación algunos fragmentos de su libro:

El sueño fundacional

Esta vuelta al mundo, soñamos con ella por primera vez en el verano de 2002, durante una cena de enamorados en un restaurante cerca de Saint-Émilion, en la región de Burdeos. ¿Por qué no ir a otros lugares para ver lo que ocurre? Tenemos tiempo por delante y nada nos ata realmente en Francia. Podría ser la ocasión para el uno y el otro de buscar ideas y montar una nueva sociedad. ¿Pero se puede viajar con un niño de un año? Por supuesto, basta con organizarse. ¡Manos a la obra! Laurent saca el cuaderno de notas que siempre lleva consigo. Nos damos tres meses para preparar el viaje. Nuestros ojos brillan a la luz de las velas…

Más tarde, cuando volvemos a hablar de ello, tenemos muchas dudas. ¿Quedarse? ¿Marcharse? ¿Dónde? ¿Cuánto tiempo? Para ayudarnos a tomar la decisión, hacemos una lista de los puntos positivos y negativos. La lista de los puntos positivos siempre es la más larga. Descubrir el mundo, visitar países desconocidos, crear vínculos internacionales. Al final, construimos este proyecto de viaje tal y como lo habíamos imaginado la primera vez. Es verdad que se daban todas las condiciones…

Una primera experiencia de los viajes

La idea de dar la vuelta al mundo no nos asusta: ya tenemos cierta experiencia de la vida en el extranjero y cada viaje ha sido una experiencia fabulosa. Laurent ya se ha expatriado dos veces. Después de sus estudios, ha pasado dos años en Vietnam, en el marco de un VSN (servicio militar en la empresa). Más tarde, descubre la Silicon Valley norteamericana en la que hace vigilancia tecnológica durante un año para el banco Paribas. Por su parte, Chine, tras haber publicado tres novelas y empezado una carrera en la informática, se exilia a Los Angeles para retomar un año de estudios de cine. A su vuelta, la contratan en Canal+ donde se queda nueve años.
Una pasión común: la creación de empresas. Ambos hemos dimitido de nuestras grandes empresas para crear cada uno nuestra propia sociedad Internet. Y nos hemos conocido en ese momento. Entre 1999 y 2001, hemos trabajado como condenados. Luego Laurent ha vendido su sociedad, y Chine ha publicado su aventura novelada: El año de los millones. Edmond ha nacido al mismo tiempo que la nueva empresa de Laurent: "Good Futur". Una estructura con un nombre decididamente optimista, que propone conferencias y seminarios. Compartíamos el mismo gusto por la creatividad y la empresa... ¡Queríamos que se sepa!

Marcharnos para cambiar de aire…

El clima económico y político de Francia no responde realmente a nuestro optimismo. La economía está muy parada, tras la "explosión de la burbuja Internet" y, con Le Pen en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales en abril de 2002, ya no nos sentimos muy bien en nuestro país. Por primera vez en nuestra vida, ¡pensamos que tal vez nuestro futuro ya no esté en Francia! Puesto que a ambos nos gusta buscar tendencias nuevas y conocer a los que hacen cosas, y puesto que de alguna forma tenemos que coger nuevo impulso para seguir... ¿por qué no marcharnos unos meses al extranjero? ¡A la vuelta, nos alegraremos de volver!

Es el momento ideal para nosotros

Es un buen momento para ello. Disponemos de dinero gracias a la venta de la empresa de Laurent. ¡También tenemos tiempo y ganas de disfrutar! No hay ningún proyecto interesante a la vista... Una vez más, vamos a tener que crear nuestro propio empleo. Además, Edmond tiene una edad muy buena: con un año, ya no es un bebé. Duerme doce horas por noche y empezamos a recuperarnos del cansancio de los primeros meses... Aún no va al colegio y ¡no hay un segundo bebé de camino por el momento!

La organización: un viaje posible gracias a los intercambios de casas

Para poder pagarnos este viaje, decidimos intercambiar nuestro piso siempre que sea posible. Es más barato que el hotel, hay mucho más sitio y Edmond tendrá juguetes en cada país. Pensamos quedarnos un mes como media en cada ciudad, excepto en Estados Unidos donde queremos pasar tres meses, estancia máxima para un visado de turista. Esto nos dejará tiempo para instalarnos, conocer a gente y hacer descubrimientos, y luego preparar el resto del viaje... Durante tres meses, Chine se dedica a la organización de nuestros cinco intercambios, y todo por Internet.

Tenemos la suerte de vivir en Francia: ¡todo el mundo quiere venir a pasar sus vacaciones aquí! Nuestros contactos son todos distintos. En China, se trata de franceses expatriados que quieren volver un mes, pero no vivir con su familia. En Australia, una mujer soltera que quiere descubrir la cultura europea. En Canadá, son jubilados que deciden llevar a sus nietos a París para las vacaciones. En Estados Unidos, una joven familia francófila también sueña con que sus hijos descubran nuestra hermosa capital: entusiastas, ¡incluso hablarán francés entre ellos durante un mes mientras comen "baguette" con Nocilla!

Cuestión de confianza

Algunos de nuestros amigos piensan que nos hemos vuelto locos: ¿Van a dormir en vuestras sábanas? Sí, ¿y qué? Para nosotros, es como ir al hotel. ¿Y si lo rompen todo, si os roban cosas? Nos sentimos confiados. Y además, ¡también estaremos en su casa! Todos tenemos interés en que las cosas salgan bien. ¡Compartir el manual de uso de la lavadora crea vínculos! Hemos redactado un pequeño contrato para fijar las fechas, determinar quién paga qué y lo que se hace en caso de rotura o problema. No quita que pueda surgir un caso de fuerza mayor en el último momento pero el poner las cosas sobre papel siempre tranquiliza.

El presupuesto

Dar la vuelta al mundo es posible. Depende de la forma de vivir de cada uno. Hoy, los precios de los vuelos "vuelta al mundo" son accesibles. Con el intercambio de casas, se ahorra el hotel y el alquiler de coche. El resultado es que hemos gastado lo mismo que en París.

Cien kilos de equipaje

¡Todo un récord de ligereza! piensa Chine. ¡Es demasiado! piensa Laurent. Normal, es él quien lleva los cien kilos de maletas, repartidos en tres bolsas rojas con ruedas. Vamos a pasar del invierno al verano. Los únicos accesorios de bebé que nos llevamos son un carrito y una cama de viaje para que el pequeño universo de Edmond sea siempre el mismo durante la  noche.

Es como si viviéramos aquí

Uno de nuestros sueños para este viaje era hacer como si viviéramos en el país. Nos hemos acercado a veces a esta meta, mediante el deporte, la comida, los encuentros y las actividades de Edmond, pero siempre tardábamos unas semanas en adaptarnos. Lo que nos gusta realmente es marcharnos a la aventura pero, una vez allí, cansa y es estresante vivir cosas nuevas en cada momento. Al mismo tiempo, ¡es lo que nos hace progresar!

Un billete de avión "vuelta al mundo"

Una amiga viajera nos había dicho: "Disfrutad todo el tiempo que podáis. Lo más difícil, es organizarse para lograr marcharse. Luego, todo va sobre ruedas". Cuando Laurent empieza a estudiar los vuelos, encuentra rápidamente la pista de los "billetes vuelta al mundo", más económicos y prácticos que una sucesión de idas y vueltas o de idas sencillas.

¿Dónde hacer escala? ¡El mundo es tan grande!

El objetivo es complejo: queremos a la vez intercambiar nuestro piso, vivir en el centro con nuestro bebé, encontrar posibilidades de negocio, todo ello en países donde la vida sea fácil y donde estemos cubiertos por nuestro billete vuelta al mundo a precio reducido... ¡Tendremos que elegir! Queremos ir a Perú pero nuestro billete no lo permite. También queremos ir a Suecia, a Lituania y a Islandia pero es imposible planificar intercambios con tanto tiempo de antelación en estos tres países.

Al final, nuestro programa de viaje está listo un mes antes de la fecha de salida: enero en China, en Pekín y Shanghai; febrero en Japón, en Tokyo; marzo en Australia, en Sydney; de abril a junio en California, en Berkeley y Palo Alto; y julio en Canadá, en Vancouver .

Pekín, enero de 2003

En el aeropuerto, nos esperan el amigo y el chófer chinos de la familia con la que intercambiamos nuestro piso. Como todos los chinos que trabajan con occidentales, el amigo ha elegido un segundo nombre fácil de pronunciar: ¡Adonis! Sentada en el asiento trasero del coche, lucho por mantenerme despierta, mientras Edmond duerme en mis brazos. Me siento emocionada. Busco posibles símbolos del Imperio del Medio, pero esta autopista que nos lleva a la ciudad se parece a todas las demás. ¡Ah! Una casa con un techo parecido a una pagoda y un cartel de publicidad en chino. ¡Sí! ¡Estoy en China! ¡Por primera vez en mi vida! Laurent nos sigue con un taxi y las maletas. Nada más llegar a Pekín, el coche queda atrapado en un atasco. Me lo habián advertido: Pekín es inmenso. Nuestro piso está cerca de la... ¡cuarta carretera de circunvalación! Temo estar en la periferia pero nuestros amigos nos dicen que no, que estamos en el centro. El portal del edificio es impresionante, del mismo tamaño que este país en construcción. Una señorita saca brillo al suelo de mármol. Los porteros están vestidos como grooms y han sido formados para sonreir y decir "Hello". ¡No esperaba tanto lujo en China! Nuestro piso de 200 metros cuadrados domina desde la planta veinte. Piscina, fontanero, conserje, restaurantes, el edificio está dotado de todos los servicios (véase N.I.B. página 61). Ya no lamento no haber logrado hacer el intercambio con una casa antigua en el centro de la ciudad. Unos días después, unos amigos nos invitarán a visitar su casa: fría, húmeda y llena de corriente. Por la mañana, tienen que bombear el fuel en el patio helado. ¡En cambio, en nuestra casa, hace calor y se está tan bien!

La pareja con la que hacemos el intercambio, franceses de unos treinta años, vive en China desde la época de sus estudios. Se conocieron hace tres años y tienen una niña pequeña de seis meses. Hablan perfectamente chino y dirigen filiales de empresas internacionales, lo que les ha permitido comprar este piso tan grande. En Francia, no podrían permitirse la misma vida. La "ahi" que es la hermana mayor en chino, es el nombre que se da a las canguros y a las asistentas. Su ahi viene todas las tardes. Utiliza el mismo trapo para limpiar toda la casa. Cuando nos ve con nuestro rollo de papel de cocina, nos hace entender que no está bien. ¡Imagine los cubos de basura de más de mil millones de chinos llenos de papel de cocina! Gana un sueldo de doscientos euros al mes para este trabajo a media jornada. Ocho veces más que algunas ahi explotadas por los nuevos burgueses chinos. Su trabajo le permite pagar los estudios de su hijo. Es una selección sin piedad: sólo uno de cada cien alumnos de instituto entrará en la universidad. Al final de nuestra estancia, quiero darle algún dinero extra pero lo rechaza. Insisto y termina por aceptarlo. Es como el taxi o el restaurante, aquí la propina no es una costumbre. Aún no.

Bienvenidos a Australia

Para venir a Australia, basta con un "visado electrónico" que se puede comprar en Internet. Como siempre, se nos olvidó pedir el de Edmond. El policía lo hace gratuitamente en cinco minutos. En el aeropuerto, nos hacen subir en un "maxi taxi" que incluso dispone de una plataforma automática para las sillas de ruedas y las grandes maletas. Tras la modernidad de Japón, nuestras primeras impresiones de la ciudad de Sydney están divididas: ¡los edificios parecen derrumbarse, los coches buenos para la chatarra y los productos parecen dormir en los escaparates desde hace treinta años! Nuestro piso tiene dos habitaciones y media. Las ventanas dan a una calle de paso del barrio gay, uno de los más visitados del mundo. ¡La señora que vive aquí no nos había dicho que había que dormir con las ventanas cerradas y tapones en los oídos! Llegamos al día siguiente de la "Gay Parade" y las calles están llenas de turistas homosexuales. La próxima vez, ¡elegiré una casa al lado de la playa!

En un mes de estancia, tardamos tres semanas en encontrar nuestras referencias: gente maja, una amiga, la piscina para Laurent, mi curso de gimnasia acuática, áreas infantiles donde Edmond pueda jugar y sitios tranquilos para escribir. Cuando todas estas condiciones están reunidas... ¡sólo nos queda una semana! Vivir en el centro de esta ciudad inmensa tiene sus ventajas: vamos caminando a todas partes, hay un supermercado enfrente de nuestro edificio y varios restaurantes cerca de casa. Una noche, Laurent me lleva a un "Ecolodge" para que respire. Stéphanie se queda con Edmond. El fin de semana siguiente, pasamos los tres una noche en Palm Beach, la playa de los "cottages" de fin de semana, a una hora de camino. El encanto de esta pequeña bahía tan salvaje como Córcega funciona de verdad…
Los australianos cuidan mucho de su salud. Muchos son vegetarianos. Y las granjas están a la última en cuestión de agricultura. Los productos con soja, alternativa a los productos lácteos, invaden los lineales de las tiendas. En nuestro super, todos los productos están disponibles en versión "bio". No ha sido fácil mantener la línea en China pero, aquí, en Australia, ¡es un placer comer frutas y verduras, y pescado! Sobre todo los "sprouts", gérmenes de semillas, una alimentación "viva" y llena de vitaminas. La "nueva cocina australiana" es una mezcla de cocinas mediterránea y asiática. Cada ola de inmigrantes ha traído su influencia y su salsa. Una ¡"world food asian fusion"! ¡Delicious!

California… ¡aquí estamos!

Pude ver las fotos de la casa de Berkeley por internet: ¡parece fantástica! Una casa de madera de haya en las colinas, un lugar protegido, en plena naturaleza y cerca de la universidad. ¡El número de la calle es una placa de cerámica de Provenza! Detrás de la valla, un jardín con un buda y una diosa india. Encontramos la llave escondida debajo de una ventana. El interior de la casa da a la bahía de San Francisco. El salón está abarrotado de artesanía india, como en un puesto para turistas. En el frigorífico, una botella de vino blanco, queso de cabra, pan, uvas y aceitunas... La casa es cómoda, con tres habitaciones y dos baños. En las paredes, fotos de familia. Vemos por primera vez a la pareja de intercambio, Joanna y Robert, rodeada de hijos y nietos. Ella es activista política. Él es informático, apasionado de filosofía. Hay estanterías llenas de libros de filósofos franceses: Descartes, Sartre y Malraux, ¡menudo trio! También hay libros científicos y new age sobre nutrición, salud y energías. ¡Lo único que falla, es la limpieza! Nuestra habitación y nuestro baño no están limpios. ¡No importa! ¡A pesar de ello, nos sentimos enseguida en casa!

Historias de agua

Acostumbrarse a un lugar nuevo requiere tiempo. A veces, son los detalles más nimios los que irritan, por poca cosa... ¡Los aparatos electrodomésticos norteamericanos son muy distintos de los europeos! Hemos tenido que llamar al hijo de Joanna para que nos enseñe cómo poner en marcha la lavadora: ¡hay que tirar del botón de los programas en lugar de presionarlo como hacíamos sin éxito!

Otro "choque cultural": el triturador del fregadero que se queda atascado a los pocos días de llegar. Los fregaderos norteamericanos llevan todos un triturador incluido que se utiliza para deshacerse de los restos de comida, peladuras de frutas y verduras. Así se generan menos residuos. El fontanero nos explica cómo funciona: sólo hay que triturar pequeñas cantidades y dejar correr el agua un minuto. "Pero lo mejor es no utilizarlos, sólo dan problemas".

Consejo de entendido...

Nuestra nueva casa por un mes fue construida en los años treinta. Es un pabellón con tres dormitorios y, en el jardín, hay una glicina cubierta de flores que vale ¡Un millón y medio de euros! Aquí, los alquileres se han disparado con los años Internet y no han vuelto a bajar. Los muebles componen una mezcla de estilos, con falsos Louis-Philippe pesados como en los hoteles. En las estanterías, libros con títulos de tipo "Como educar a un niño superdotado", "Como convertirse en consultor millonario", "Como ordenar su casa", etc. Edmond tiene suerte: ¡los dos niños de la casa le han dejado todos sus juguetes!

La pareja con la que intercambiamos casa busca trabajo desde hace dos años. Ella trabajaba en el Marketing High Tech y no encuentra nada desde la crisis de 2000. Entonces toca el violonchelo, su pasión. Cuando un vecino llama a su puerta para pedirle que le dé clases de música, ella se niega y le contesta "No es mi profesión", aunque su hijo de ocho años insista y le diga "¡Pero mamá, te ofrece dinero a cambio! El padre es Jefe de Proyecto en la seguridad informática y trabaja como autónomo hasta que encuentre un puesto en un empresa. Han dudado en venir a París. ¿Podían permitirse un mes de vacaciones? Al final, han decidido que sí: ¡les gusta tanto Fancia! Nos han invitado a un brunch un domingo mientras aún estábamos en Berkeley. Es interesante verse en la "vida de verdad" después de haber intercambiado e-mails. Tenía la sensación de ver a nuestros dobles en la Silicon Valley. Nos podríamos parecer a ellos si hubiéramos venido a vivir aquí hace diez años... Después de la visita de la casa, la del barrio: el parque, las pistas ciclables, la escuela... Un servicio de limpieza viene todas las semanas, con su equipo de dos o tres personas, durante una hora. Para el jardín, llega otro equipo. La historia eterna del trabajo de los nuevos inmigrantes…

¡Me exalta vivir en el paraíso de la informática!

Para ir a mi curso de Pilates, paso delante de la sede de Google, el motor de búsqueda más famoso del mundo, utilizado por un tercio de los norteamericanos. La palabra Google ha entrado en el vocabulario diario: "Lo he googleizado antes de conocerlo para saber lo que había hecho antes" o "Lo encontrarás en Google" a propósito de todo y nada. Nuestros vecinos trabajan todos en la High Tech, en Apple, Intel, Sisco, Yahoo… "Es como Sochaux para Peugeot y Clermont-Ferrand para Michelin", me dice Laurent, deprimido por el materialismo de la Valley. A mí, vivir aquí me exalta.

En la Ford Explorer que nos han prestado, conduzco durante kilómetros todos los días por "El Camino", la carretera más antigua de California que baja hasta Mexico. Cuando le confieso a una amiga de San Francisco que podría vivir aquí toda la vida, me contesta con una mueca de asco: "¿En la Valley? ¡Pero si no hay cultura, ni arte, ni museos!" Sí, hay un museo: el de la informática…

La guía de intercambio de casas de Chine Lanzmann

Intercambios más o menos fáciles según los países.

Este sistema de viaje empezó a desarrollarse en los países anglosajones. Intercambiar con ellos resulta fácil y habitual.

En Australia, las temporadas son opuestas. ¡Vale la pena marcharse en invierno! En Canadá, es fácil encontrar intercambios porque hay mucho interés por Francia. Con Estados Unidos también es fácil, incluyendo los intercambios más largos. Por ejemplo, los profesores de universidad prevén a menudo pasar seis meses o un año en Francia. En China, los expatriados franceses prefieren volver a Francia y no vivir en casa de su familia: ¡Es bueno saberlo! En Japón, en cambio, imposible encontrar un intercambio porque está prohibido dejar su vivienda cuando el dueño o el inquilino está fuera.

Ventajas evidentes

El intercambio es, antes de nada, disponer de espacio vital: cada uno tiene su habitación, nada que ver con un hotel. Hay de todo en la casa: juguetes, bicicletas, libros, DVDs, Internet… Nos adentramos en la cultura de la familia de intercambio. Y, por supuesto, es económico: ningún gasto de alojamiento o de alquiler de coche. No tenemos coche en París, pero hemos utilizado el de nuestros huéspedes cuando ha sido preciso. En cuanto al seguro, no supone ningún suplemento.

Success stories!

"Exchanging Lives Down Under"
by David Hochman; Los Angeles, California

It all started with a list on a ketchup-stained napkin: "Portugal, Spain, Greece, Australia, Buenos Aires, Tuscany, Provence…" They were the dream trips. The fantasies. The sunny, happy, far-off places where we wanted to be more than just tourists. Of course, we had jobs at the time, but we also a sense that the time was right to do something truly dramatic with our lives. And so we did: we registered at HomeExchange.com.

Almost as soon as we listed our Los Angeles apartment, we started getting offers - and our hearts started pounding: A weekend apartment in the center of New Orleans' French Quarter. A four-bedroom villa on an island in Greece. A 27-acre ranch in Oregon! "Ever thought about South Africa?," one potential exchanger asked. Another began, "Interested in a house on a thermal pool in Iceland?" Iceland!
We held out, though, and I'm glad we did. A few weeks later, we got a note from a couple from Sydney, Australia. They emailed to see if we'd like to exchange our place for their art deco apartment down under. We felt an immediate connection. Malcolm is a journalist; I'm journalist. Wenona loves to cook; my wife, Ruth, is a born foodie. As the emails skipped back and forth across the planet, we found out we're the same ages, have similar backgrounds and like the same books, the same music, the same movies. If Malcolm and Wenona lived in L.A., we'd have a new pair of best friends. Naturally, we wanted to do the exchange.

But we still had those jobs of ours. After lots of talk (and more than a few therapy sessions), Ruth and I decided to take the plunge. As a writer, I could leave my magazine job and focus on my burgeoning travel-writing career. Ruth was only too happy to get back-to-back summers, courtesy of the southern hemisphere; and she also wanted to try her hand at travel photography. Once we made the decision, there was no turning back. We handed in our resignations, rolled over our 401Ks, set up some online bill-paying accounts and booked the flight to Australia.

Originally we thought we'd go for three months. Longer than a vacation, but not so long that we'd feel like Rip Van Winkle when we got back. There was only one little problem. As soon as we got settled in Sydney, we felt like we could stay forever. Yes, it was tough at first. We didn't know anyone, it was hot, we felt far from our friends and family and we saw an enormous spider in our bedroom I was sure was deadly (it wasn't). But Malcolm and Wenona were kind enough to share some of their secrets, and even some of their friends. We did the same for them, emailing lists of our favorite restaurants, hikes and weekend getaways. We weren't just exchanging homes, we were exchanging lives.

Being in another country for a limited time was also doing something wonderful for our social life. It was making us more outgoing. "We're only here for a few months," we kept telling ourselves, "we better make the most of it." So we reached out to people, cold-called strangers, knocked on our neighbors' doors and took any invitation we got for dinner or drinks. We ended up meeting some amazing characters. Our upstairs neighbor, Kambiz, turned out to be the great-grandson of the King of Iran, and though he called himself a recluse, he would astound us with his collection of friends at his Saturday night singalongs.

Our downstairs neighbors, Sue and Paul, were as different as could be, both from Kambiz and from each other. Paul was an artist, an introvert with the calm manner of a zen master. Sue was a lawyer and talked a mile a minute about every subject imaginable - religion, food, Aboriginal culture and, more than anything, fitness. She introduced us to her trainer, a 77-year-old Australian legend named Les Grownow, who allowed us into his invitation-only workout class. Three days a week, we would drive Malcolm and Wenona's little Toyota Corolla to the neighborhood of Woolloomooloo (a name we never got tired of saying) to an old police gym, where Les would teach us his old-fashioned fitness routines, exercises he worked out while living amongst the animals of the Australian bush. They don't make guys like Les in America.

We were really digging in. Even the most mundane excursions were turning into adventures. We'd spend a day looking for some exotic ingredient - kafir lime leaf or laksa paste -- for one of Ruth's new recipes. Or we'd drive around looking for the best view of the Opera House. Or we'd find a picnic spot in one of the nearby beaches or gardens. Sydney was everything we wanted it to be.
Three months came and went and we all decided to keep the magic rolling. Malcolm's career was doing well in the States and I was getting all sorts of assignments in Sydney. We started travelling around the country on assignment and Ruth was taking pictures to accompany my stories. Back in Sydney, she started baking madelaine cookies to bring to parties. Everyone told her they were so good, she eventually began selling them to one of the local cafes. In many ways, we were operating at full capacity and loving every minute of it.

After six months, we'd built ourselves a nice little community of friends. Walking around town, we'd run into people we knew on the streets. We were cooking more, and, thanks to Les, we were in the best shape we'd been in in years. But we knew, sadly, that our time in Australia was coming to an end. The days were getting shorter as the Australian fall turned to Australian winter. Our families started getting a bit impatient with us gallivanting around the world. And there was the little matter of our visas running out shortly. One morning, we got a note from Malcolm saying his newspaper wanted him to come back home. We could see the light at the end of our life exchange.
We're back in Los Angeles now. Our apartment was exactly as we left it and the city looks pretty much the same. Yes, there've been changes over the seven months. A few of our friends are pregnant now and some others bought homes or got promoted, but we feel richer and wiser in many ways for having taken the big leap. Malcolm and Wenona still keep in touch via email, and now we send them suggestions on what to do in their neighborhood. We've even agreed that if we can coordinate our schedules again, we'd happily trade places for a few weeks; as Ruth keeps telling me, "We'll always have Sydney."

And while she's right, and while that sounds perfectly wonderful, I keep reminding her we have a list somewhere, on a diner napkin dabbed with ketchup, of other places we really want to go - "Portugal, Spain, Greece…," remember? - and now, thanks to HomeExchange.com, I know exactly how we can get there. In fact, I wonder what Iceland's like this time of year?

"Long weekend trips close to home."
by Kathryn Hack; Seattle, Washington

I have been a HomeExchange.Com member for almost a year now, and am especially interested in long weekend trips close to my home in Seattle, because the Pacific Northwest is one of the most beautiful places on earth! A short ride by car or train can transport you into rainforests, mountains, charming small towns and beautiful wineries. Ferries will take you in comfort all the way to Alaska, with jaunts to hundreds of islands along the way. Many people take their bikes and kayaks along, for more close-to-nature experiences.
Because I live in Seattle, sometimes it's hard to leave and go anywhere! There is so much to do here, in all seasons of the year.

Downtown Seattle is so very easy to navigate, if you don t mind a few hills. You can walk or hop a free bus or trolley to anyplace you want to go, like the Waterfront and it s wonderful cafes and shopping. Here you can take a dinner cruise around the Harbor or just sit and watch the boats come and go. Pike Place Market is famous for it s flying fish (the fish market guys make a big production out of tossing salmon over everyone s head!) And if you enjoy great coffee, great local wine and beer, this is paradise!

From Seattle, Washington, you re only two hours from the Canadian border, where the many beautiful areas of Vancouver Island make you feel like you're in Europe. Through my listing, I've met other people who share the same idea about short trips -- and who live in precisely the places I want to visit, like Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.

Vancouver is a very cosmopolitan city, with the most spectacular views of the Northern Cascade Mountains and water, water everywhere! It is also a very international city, with fabulous restaurants of great ethnic variety. Stanley Park is a green belt that winds through the forest and around the water's edge, a favorite place for me and my trusty bicycle!
Victoria, on the other hand, is very old-world, an authentic piece of Victorian England. Gracing its harbor is the magnificent Empress Hotel, built at the height of our extravagant lumber barons. High tea is a favorite here, in oak paneled drawing rooms overlooking formal gardens. The city itself is picture-postcard beautiful, and very accessible on foot or bicycle.

Recently I had a request for an exchange with a couple in Vancouver, BC. Their home overlooks Granville Island, one of the most interesting parts of the city, famous for its open markets and outdoor cafes. Unfortunately their dates did not coincide with mine for a swap, so I put them in touch with a friend who is also a HomeExchanger.

Coincidentally she was taking family to Vancouver for a reunion the weekend in question, and could not find a hotel to house the entire group. It worked out perfectly, for a home exchange was arranged!
The folks from BC brought their bicycles and enjoyed a long weekend exploring Seattle. They biked along the lovely Burke Gillman trail, a well-constructed biking highway that extends hundreds of miles through and around the city. They enjoyed the zoo, several great restaurants and some spectacular sunsets.

My Seattle friends were able to put family members in the peace and quiet of a private home in Vancouver, overlooking all of Granville Island! They also took their bicycles, to explore more intimately the many hidden treasures of Vancouver. There is also the option for leaving bikes at home for guests to rent, and ditto for cars!

The lesson of my story is this: when HomeExchangers link together, even more things are possible! Having a network of like-minded folks who like spur of the moment adventures, simply expands the possibilities!

First Home Exchange NZ and OZ. I'm so glad we did it!
by Jill Bartlett; Kiama, Australia

First Home Exchange NZ and OZ. I'm so glad we did it! It was a huge success in every way. Friends told us we were mad to have people we didn't know live in our home and drive our two-year old car for a month. Our home in Australia is new; our retirement dream home, built only four years ago. It has mostly new modern furniture and a big garden, which is my husband Ted's pride and joy. We wondered if everything would be well looked after if we exchanged. However, we decided to take the plunge and wrote to a couple in Whangarei in the North Island of New Zealand seeking a month's exchange in November 2000. They are a newly retired couple like us and they promptly accepted after a little negotiating concerning dates.
We got to know Berris and Alan very well over the next four months as we regularly emailed each other. We told each other about our grown-up families; our daughter's recent engagement, their son's studies at Melbourne University and the sudden death of Alan's mother. We learnt a little of each other's past jobs and present pastimes. They asked us what we liked to do on holiday and we asked them the same so that we were able to collect brochures about gardening shows on in the spring, and interesting places to go hiking or bike-riding. Berris sent us some brochures about different parts of NZ and we sent them photos and information too with lots of advice about "must see" places of interest. We each decided to compile a dossier of instructions for use of equipment. (Alan was so impressed with our vacuum and leaf "blower" that he bought one himself after returning home.) I have a rather temperamental dishwasher which needed implicit instructions and I grow African violets as house plants so I needed to leave instructions for "feeding" them.

We each compiled a list of friends and family with phone numbers and addresses as well as local doctors, dentists, tradespersons and how to contact them if necessary. One of the most important areas of organization proved to be the exchanging of keys to each other's cars and homes. We decided to leave our respective cars at Sydney and Auckland airports so it was necessary to describe the cars and give the registration numbers and some idea where each vehicle would be parked. We left a set of house and car keys in the glove compartment of each car along with a set of directions on how to get from the airport to each other's home. The owner kept the spare set of keys in order to open the car on the return journey. We also informed our insurance companies that someone else would be driving our car during that period and made sure that our policy covered accident or theft. (The same was done concerning house insurance.) A short guide to a few unusual road rules and speed limits in each country helped both parties too.

A few days before our departures we were still excitedly sending quick emails with titles such as "only three more sleeps" and "from your soon- to- be new home" confirming last minute instructions.
We arranged our flights so that we could meet for coffee at Sydney airport after Berris and Alan had arrived and before we took off. Although this was our first and only meeting "in person" we greeted each other with hugs like long-lost friends and even took photos of each other. We knew then that everything would be fine--they were normal people just like us!

For both of us the picking up of the cars and the following of the instructions to each other's homes went "like clockwork". As we were arriving at their home in NZ in the dark, Berris had arranged for their neighbour to turn on lights and feed their cat in advance. She had also left us a delicious casserole in the fridge ready to be heated up. We had left them sandwiches and fruit for lunch. These neighbours proved to be very friendly and were very willing to feed the cat and collect the mail when we travelled and stayed away for a few nights. Our neighbours too invited them in for a "cuppa" and made them feel very welcome in our area.

Berris and our daughter talked a few times by phone (she lives over an hour away) and their friends Liz and Mike invited us for coffee and then again for dinner one night. We found we had lots in common with them and will keep in touch by email and perhaps see them again if they ever come over to Australia. They were very helpful about places to visit and identified an animal in one of our photos for us. They had a beautiful garden which they showed us and told us all about the New Zealand plants some of which are very different to ours.

We travelled away from their home and stayed overnight in "tourist flats" for a few nights so that we could see Rotorua with its steaming geysers and boiling mud and Berris and Alan stayed a few nights in Sydney and also in Canberra, our national capital. Berris said some of the highlights for she and Alan were "eating ripe mangoes" and seeing kangaroos on Pebbly beach and watching the pelicans near Kiama harbour catch the fish heads as the fisherman cleaned their fish. We enjoyed watching the dolphins as we cruised on the beautiful Bay of Islands, tobogganing down huge sand dunes and driving along the white sand of ninety-mile beach in a bus.

We kept in touch by email weekly and reported things like a broken lawnmower, rain entering the garage ceiling during a storm, where certain things were stored and approximately how much mileage we'd done that week. (We tried to keep this similar.) Another advantage of a home exchange proved to be not having to pack items like hair-dryers, umbrellas and picnic gear, as these were available in the exchange home. It was an inexpensive and thoroughly enjoyable way to see another country and experience different weather and a somewhat different culture. The "icing on the cake" for me was returning to a perfectly clean and well cared for home, garden and car and to know that we had made new friends. We will certainly do it again!

"It's a matter of trust," says my exchange partner, Lyn Glanz, of Rotterdam, Holland. And trust each other we did.
By Linda Jo Scott; Bellevue, Michigan

"How can you possibly let a family with school-aged kids move into your house for three weeks?"

"Aren't you afraid they will break things?"

"How will you figure out who pays which bills?"

I suppose I did ponder these questions briefly, but the chance to live in a house and drive a borrowed car in Europe for three weeks far outweighed any fears I might have had concerning my home in Bellevue. "It's a matter of trust," says my exchange partner, Lyn Glanz, of Rotterdam, Holland. And trust each other we did.

Not unexpectedly in the 90s, it was the Internet that brought us together. In October of 1998 I joined an organization called "HomeExchange.com" and paid $30 to advertise my house for one year on their web site. They published a photograph of the house, along with my description of the size and amenities, as well as a brief description of the neighborhood and section of the state and country.

With access to many such files, I started shooting out emails to potential exchange partners all over Europe to arrange a summer swap. Alas, no one seemed to be interested in small-town Michigan. Europeans seem to want to see four major spots: Manhattan, Orlando, New Orleans, and San Francisco, none of which is readily accessible from Bellevue.

By January, I had almost given up hope when an email arrived from Lyn Glanz, a British social worker who, together with her family, was a kind of "permanent expatriate" in Holland. The Glanz family had already seen Florida and New York City and had decided that they wanted to experience a small town in the midwest. They also liked the idea of seeing Chicago and perhaps taking in a Cubs or White Sox game. My coterie of travel friends and I were wildly enthusiastic at being discovered, and by early February we had a match.

Email made all of the preparatory work easy. We would each pay our own utility bills, and our car insurance companies agreed to let us drive each other's cars without extra insurance. We both agreed that we would not spend half the summer getting our houses ready. Use of drawers and closets was simply not necessary; we would just live out of suitcases on top of each others' belongings. In fact, I emailed Lyn requesting that she rough up all closets, even ask the neighbors to bring in their junk, to make me feel less guilty about my own closets.

And it all worked marvelously. We had a two-day "home stay" with the Glanz family before they left, so that we could get acquainted and arrange the nitty-gritty stuff like garbage, fuse boxes, keys, and the like.

A friend of mine picked up the family at the train station in Battle Creek and took them to dinner at Clara's on the River before delivering them to Bellevue. Other friends invited them for a meal or outing. But mostly, as they put it, "We played Americans for three weeks.

"We took in two amateur world series baseball games in Battle Creek--dreadfully dull sport, your American baseball. We went to the Ionia Free Fair and an international festival in East Lansing. We also did a Spartan Speedway race in Mason and actually swam in Lake Michigan at St. Joseph."

As observers of American life, they were amazed to read "Prison Area: Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers," near Jackson Prison, and shocked at the availability of guns. Noting a sign advertising, "New and Used Guns," they found themselves wondering, "*Used on whom?"

"You have so many non-jobs in America," commented economist and Unilever executive Jeff Glanz. "We were amazed to see two conductors in the train car when one would have been sufficient, and it seemed as if every Burger King and McDonalds had "help wanted" ads in the windows and yet were swarming with employees."

"We liked the garden," says 11-year-old Ben Glanz. "It's at least 30 times bigger than ours."

"His sister, 13-year-old Jessica comments, "There were lots of interesting things that we haven't come across before, like fat-free lettuce and the live bait machine at the supermarket."

Our stay in the Glanz house in Hillegersberg, just outside Rotterdam, was at least as successful as their Michigan stay. A four-story house on a canal, their home provided us with a garden on still another canal, which, they assured us, forms a direct route to the Maas, the Rhine, and eventually, the Danube. We could watch BBC and CNN on the television, and had sleeping places for 10.

While there we toured Amsterdam, the Hague, Delft, Gouda, and Friesland, and even ventured into Belgium to see the historically beautiful town of Bruges--all in the Glanz family car, a Czech-made Skoda.

Best of all, we held an almost continuous house party, entertaining friends from Texas, Florida, and Michigan, as well as European friends from Köln, Germany and Kent and East Sussex, England.

"Because we lived with each other's belongings, met each other's neighbors and friends, cooked in each other's kitchens, read each other's books, and tended each other's gardens, we came to feel like old friends, even though we barely knew each other," says Juli Csiszar, a member of the American delegation to Hillegersberg.

Would the Glanz family do it again? "Yes, without question," they reply. "The only problem is that we may be moving to Switzerland in the next year or so and might not have a house to trade by next summer." But by the summer of 2001, Lyn will no doubt again be combing the various possibilities on the HomeExchange.Com web site.

Meanwhile, I've already talked with her about the possibility that her family or friends back in Wales might enjoy a holiday in small-town Michigan.

"Occasionally you have to take a tiny risk"
by Sue Smith; Worcester, UK

Our first experience of a home exchange was a teaching exchange. It came about by accident really - friends invited us to their house for dinner one evening, and also invited another couple who we didn't know so well. The latter couple were off to Australia on exchange with their three children. We hadn't realized a teaching exchange was really an option with children involved too. It got us thinking though - all through that night in fact. Could we afford it? Would it upset the education of our older children? On the Monday morning we were on the phone for application forms and six months later it was all organized.

We spent 1998 living in Ballarat, Australia, in a 3 bedroomed bungalow. It was a strange experience to exchange home, car ... and life, with a lady we had never met. We know all about her taste in home furnishings, books, music, we cared for her cats for a year and all her friends are now our friends too, but we have still never met her. It was a wonderful year, despite the exchange of a 5 bedroomed cottage for a 3 bedroomed bungalow. However, we never expected everything to be perfect, but all part of the experience, and the year was a fantastic experience.

It didn't upset the education of any of our children - how can a year like that be anything but a very positive experience all round? What they lost in some ways they gained several times over in other directions.

The one disadvantage to the whole year, and all the travelling we did, is that we now feel very unsettled by life - six weeks in France in our caravan drinking the wine and eating the cheese year after year used to be a perfectly satisfactory way to spend our summer holiday. However, we've "been there, done that" now, lots of other places in the world to explore.

Last year we did go back to France. We'd only been back in the UK for six months and there was insufficient time (and money) to start book anything too exotic. We spent three very relaxing weeks in a delightful property in France -drinking the wine and eating the cheese - and it was good; a property exchange arranged through HomeExchange.com. We cared for their tiny kitten (and nicknamed it Cheesy because when we arrived it had runny cheese all over its ears). Last October their son came over to stay with us for a week and got on very well with our own three sons. We are still in e-mail contact with them and hope to meet up again in the future.

This year we were lucky enough to arrange a home exchange to Costa Rica. That is somewhere we probably wouldn't have considered had they not seen our property on the HomeExchange.com web site and contacted us. After lengthy e-mail correspondence commencing in August, the decision was made by Christmas. They subsequently added their own home to the HomeExchange.com web site (and in fact went straight on to another home exchange in France when they left our house). We spent six weeks in Costa Rica in July/August of this year. We experienced earthquakes, monkeys on the beaches, watched turtles laying eggs at midnight (our 5 year old had to help cover the eggs with sand when the mother had finished laying, and he then fell asleep on the long walk back along the beach), and stayed in a magnificent property in the rainforest. What a fantastic holiday we had, and all it really cost us was the price of 5 flights. Max talks at school about the tarantula waiting for us on top of the microwave when we got back from a few days away, the koalas and kangaroos, dolphins, stick insects, red-eyed tree frogs, etc, etc, etc. he has seen in the wild during the course of the last three years, the monkeys swinging in the trees, the volcanoes he has watched erupting and the earthquakes he has (1) slept through and (2) played computer games through, the friends around the world he keeps in touch with by e-mail (dictating to mum who does the typing!). We are putting together a scrap book (when all the most recent batch of photos have come back) which he can take in to school and talk about, but more importantly to jog his own memory in years to come. He still has vivid memories of Australia '98 despite being only 3 at the time, and we do our best to keep it all alive in his young mind - we are helped here by the constant stream of Aussie visitors we have been getting since we returned to the UK. He will certainly remember our adopted dog, Rosie, in Costa Rica who was so loyal to us that she kept climbing on the bus with us; we had to enlist the help of the locals to get her off again. He will also remember the day his brother took his shorts off in the sea to get the sand out (don't ask me why he was wearing his shorts in the sea!) and then got distracted talking to a girl - the shorts were washed out of his hands and were last seen heading for Australia! Only 15 minutes earlier Alastair had shown me how big they were on him and I'd remarked that they'd still fit him when he was dad's age. We'd love them back if you find them - beige with adjustable straps at either side. Not cheap either.

I hope Max will also remember watching the bananas come in to the packaging plant and be prepared for shipping, the coffee beans growing on trees, the sloth climbing v - e - r - y s - l - o - w - l - y out of the tree to have a look at us. He won't remember the thunderstorm on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica that hit the hotel next to ours and burnt out its laundry - he was fast asleep with his hands over his ears throughout. Mum remembers that night very well though!

Laurie was the one who found a live mouse secured to a sticky pad underneath the Costa Rican kitchen cupboard and very heroically prised it off before returning it to freedom in the rainforest. He was also the one who learnt how to make pancakes - and lived on them for most of the 6 weeks we were away. We never quite worked out which were the best lemons to go on them - limon mandarin or limon verde, or the grapefruit-sized ones the local lads picked off the trees on the Caribbean coast and handed to us.

Alastair and Laurie probably remember most vividly the day I found the keys to a brand new BMW in a National Park. At the end of the day we finally located the owner (no one has ever seemed so pleased to see me - or was it the keys he was pleased to see?) before joining a queue in the pouring rain to catch the battered local bus back to our hotel. What a missed opportunity!

I do wonder what effect our travels will have upon our three sons in the coming years; I suspect they will think nothing of throwing on a backpack and heading off. That's good, there's nothing like travel to broaden the mind (so long as they exercise caution where necessary, don't go for too long, and keep in touch frequently).

Property exchange is certainly the way to have a wonderful holiday at a very reasonable cost. I realize it's a bit of a gamble handing your house and car keys over to someone you have never met. However, when you are in each other's properties you do take great care of their possessions, and hope that they are doing the same with yours. We have not experienced any problems at all, and are now hoping to arrange something good for next year too. One thing I have discovered is that the kids want to keep coming on holiday with us when we go to such great places as Costa Rica, so it's not getting any cheaper yet. Also, we really need to book flights before Christmas to get the dates we want the following summer.

If you have any qualms about exchanging, then you shouldn't. Occasionally you have to take a tiny risk in life and friends can always keep an eye on your home and guests for you whilst you're away. The biggest drawback is the tidying up you have to do before you depart! A long list is also useful - one you can use year after year - best places to shop, park, eat out, local places worth a visit, where the fuse box is, what day the dust man comes, who to ring in case of an emergency. A visit to your own local tourist office before you leave is a good idea too - stock up on local maps and info to help your visitors along.

Where shall we go next? Nothing fixed yet - all offers considered!

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Anexos