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Garen Gulmez is a guest contributor to Adrift Anyway from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I met Garen while he was visiting a mutual friend in Los Angeles before heading back to Buenos, Aires and we’ve kept in touch ever since. In the following piece, he shares his experience and the value of traveling. He first came to the US from Argentina in 2008 with a work visa to work at a ski resort in Colorado with his friend Nico. Since then, he returned to work at Powderhorn the following winter and following that, worked a season in New Zealand. It’s an inspirational story for anyone who has doubts about traveling for fear of the unknown or leaving friends and family behind!

It all started as a friend’s joke, but ended up being one of our greatest life experiences. My friend Nico and I were obsessed with the idea of traveling to the US, that’s when we saw an advertisement that offered South Americans an opportunity to work abroad for four months in different parts of the US.

We really wanted to go to California, and work in a ski resort there, but unfortunately there weren’t any vacancies for any jobs there, so we ended up choosing a small ski resort in Colorado called Powderhorn Ski Resort. The truth is that we had no idea where we were going, or what to expect, it was all new and unknown for us; we thought, well, its part of our adventure. On the other hand, we were traveling to another country, we were young, so you can imagine what our families thought about this.

We tried not to focus on any of the negative opinions around us about pursing our dreams. Our minds were set on the trip and there was nothing that could keep us from doing it. But first things first; the crucial step for this trip was to get a temporary work visa, that’s all that mattered.

Our visas were approved in November, and we were ready to fly in December. Our destination was Grand Junction, a small city close to Utah, on the west side of Colorado. We saw some pictures of the ski resort and the city, but we had no idea where we were going. You might think that would have been scary, but for us it was exciting, especially because we needed to get out of Argentina for a while, see something else, meet new people.

We flew into Denver, the closest that we could get to Grand Junction. We knew there was a bus that would take us there, but we didn’t arrange anything, so we were pretty lost after we landed. I remember we that we had just arrived and were walking through the streets of Denver, and those first feelings were unforgettable. It was getting dark and cold and we arranged to travel by bus to Grand Junction. Unfortunately the bus was delayed, so we arrived there at 3 AM. It was freezing, no one walking on the streets, just us with all our gigantic luggage, and no place to stay for the night. At one point we thought of sleeping in the bus station, but after walking for half an hour in temperatures less than 32° F, we found a motel to spend the night in.

That was our first experience in the US. It wasn’t easy to settle down, but as the days went by, we got a permanent housing situation, we started meeting people, and everything got easier. We were the “ski resort strangers,” so everybody wanted to be our friends, talk to us and get to know us. We didn’t even know how to ski or snowboard or had any idea how a ski resort worked, but everyone was very helpful and supportive.

Others might think we were going to be treated differently for not being American, but we never had an issue with that. Our wage was the same as our American coworkers, our boss treated us equally, in fact, he loved us and we became one his best friends during that time.

The feelings you experience for not being American and being in America are incredible. Just the simple fact of going to a Walmart, a normal experience for any regular American, was like being in an amusement park for us. The first time we went there, we probably spent 3 hours just looking at all the different products. Don’t get me wrong, we have supermarkets in Argentina, but everything is different in the US.

After a month of working there, everybody in the mountain knew us. We were also really good at our job, actually I forgot to mention it, but we were lift operators. The whole point of hiring South Americans and bringing them to the US is to assure a certain amount of employees throughout the season. The risk of hiring an American is that they can quit any time of the season, something we can’t do.

If I have to mention a negative point of this experience, it’s having to return to your country. Of course every experience is different, but in our case we got so attached to the place that we were not ready to leave it. That’s why when we returned to Buenos Aires, we immediately decided to do it again next year. And it is until today, that there is not one day that Nico and I don’t think about this experience, because it truly changed our lives. You get another perspective of life. It really opens your mind to get in touch with people from different backgrounds.

I would definitely recommend working in the mountain. You breath fresh air every day, you work outdoors in an incredible landscape, and the best part, you get to snowboard or ski the entire day for free. Of course this was our experience, but these types of exchange programs offer different kinds of jobs in different states all around the US. Even if you are American, there are a variety of visas that you can apply for to work and travel abroad. The only thing you need is the desire to travel and meet new people, the money comes and goes, but you only live once, and these experiences have no price!

Have you ever traveled for seasonal work or have decided to become an expat? If you are looking for other types of work or volunteer suggestions while traveling, head to the Travel Resource page for some tips and ideas.

If you liked this post, show Garen some love by leaving him a comment below!