Digital Nomads: Sandra - Part 1

If you haven’t read my article about Plumia, a digital country for Netizens, then you should. Once a while, I will interview digitals nomads who visit Istanbul and learn about their stories.

Today we will start with Sandra and more interviews are coming on the way.

Sandra is keen on learning Turkish with her book in hand "Türkiye'ye Hoşgeldiniz!" "Welcome to Turkey!"

Can you introduce yourself to us please? How did your life journey begin?

My name is Sandra and I’m a 27-year old from Santander, in the north of Spain. I’ve been working as a Spanish teacher for more than 7 years, but have been doing it online only since (and thanks to) the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. I majored in Translation and Interpreting (my combination languages being English or German to Spanish) but did my masters in teaching Spanish as a second language. When I was 18 I moved from home to a new province in order to study my degree and I have been since living in different places all over the world. I truly feel like a citizen of the world.

Walking the fine line between past and future...

What influenced you to start a nomadic life? How did you get out of your comfort zone?

The nomadic life came to me and not the other way around. Getting out of my comfort zone for the very first time was very difficult. Despite having grown up in a hometown where I never felt like I fit in, when the moment came to move out to a new province to study my degree (let’s remember I was 18) I couldn’t stop crying and feeling all depressed. Yes, depressed about leaving a place I had always hated, because I was terrified I’d also hate my new home! Luckily, I fell in love with that new home (Vitoria, in the Spanish autonomous region of the Basque Country) since the first day and always felt welcome there. Since my career is related to languages, travelling always seemed like an obvious thing to do for me, so I started taking every opportunity (scholarships, volunteering projects, au-pairing… I don’t come from a wealthy family, more like the opposite!) to live abroad. Now being a nomad is my comfort zone and routine or settling down sound more scary to me than ever.

How was your nomadic journey? Which countries have you been to?

I don’t like counting and I always forget how many countries I’ve been to when people ask me. I’ve just counted them again and I’ve been to 29 sovereign states. I’ve lived in 7 of them: Spain, the UK, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, China and now Turkey.

How do you manage to settle again, like accommodation job education etc after you switch a location?

Since I’m a teacher, I’m lucky to be able to work anywhere in something related to my field. However, sometimes I’ve been abroad doing other things, although it was always things that were meaningful to me and related to my passions and skills. Finding accommodation can sometimes be a pain in the neck, but it’s easier nowadays with the Internet (be aware of scammers though, applying common sense is enough). The same can be said about friendships- joining Facebook groups of people in your new destination will help you a great deal not only with meeting new friends, but also with sorting out the kind of issues that might come up during your first days or weeks in a new place . The good news is that the more times you ‘settle’, the easier it gets!

Click to continue to part 2 of this interview