workaway

found this through a friend who worked as a sommelier in italy for a year, and am convinced it is how i will also one day live out my occasional fantasy of raising sheep in the irish countryside. workaway is an online marketplace, much like airbnb, but the currency is hours instead of money. hosts list what they need help with — housesitting, teaching a language, tending to a garden, etc — and you apply to fulfill that work in exchange for free room and board. great for a gap year, eat pray love trip, testing out a place before deciding whether or actually move there, a long vacation where you’re looking to swap tourism traps for deep cultural immersion, or bringing the aforementioned sheep farming dream to fruition.