Overview

Part of our goal at NSJ is to use our experience to guide you on your way to becoming a world traveler. From the ins and outs of bargaining in a local market to hopping on the right train to your next destination, we want to give you tools that will enable you to begin to travel confidently through countries all over the world; to indeed exist beneath the surface.

From the moment you sign up, class will begin and we will start providing you with information in preparation for your trip. While you are on the trip of your choice, not only will we guide you through the country, but also guide you in “hands on” practice of the ideas and methods we’ve talked about; all with the aim that when you begin your trip home, you’ll feel more confident about your abilities as a world traveler.

Origin of Program

“Many people, when traveling, are intimidated by the places they find themselves in. They are nervous about the cultural differences, they are nervous about the food, the water, possible violence, or of being robbed. All of these concerns bring them to a physical state in which they try to locate "safe zones". These are certain towns, certain hotels, and certain restaurants. They are comfortable there. When they leave those zones, they are once again feeling insecure within their surroundings. As long as they maintain that nervousness, they cannot be expected to meld into the culture, the crowd, experiment with food, lodging, transportation, and people. So, if the goal of travel in the first place is to experience what that other place is really like, then there is no way that the nervous person is going to accomplish that.

It should be obvious that the traveler must somehow overcome this behavior, but how?

When you go swimming, you know that you cannot breathe underwater. You know it not because you have tried, but because you fear the consequences of trying. Therefore, when you find yourself underwater, you swim as fast and frantically as possible to get from one point to the other and once you find that other place, you surface into the
‘Breathable’ world and there you are comfortable, there you can breathe, there you have returned to a "safe zone."

But what if someone showed you that you could breathe? That you could calmly stand on the bottom, look around, and breathe just as if you were sitting at home with a cup of tea. Wouldn’t you now look around? Wouldn’t you want to walk all over the river bottom, looking at fish, looking under rocks, watching the light come down from the surface? Wouldn’t you want to walk all the way to the ocean, or all the way to the headwaters and see all the different types of fish that there are, see all the little streams that feed the river? Don’t you suddenly and gloriously feel liberated? And wouldn’t you wish this for all your friends, on the other side of the surface who never tried to breathe underwater? Because they will never know the river, only see the surface.

I think about that often when traveling in difficult places and I stop, breathe slowly, and take my time in walking where there are too many people. I stay an extra week in a town that is too dusty and hot. I eat in places that maybe I shouldn’t, but the locals are. I take that overcrowded, loud, and slow bus to another town that does not fit into the list of towns that are safe, or quiet, or quaint. All of those experiences have given me the view of the river itself, not just the surface.

So, this is what we want to guide our travelers towards. This is the world that lies out there, beneath the surface. This is why I travel, and without this, it is why so many do not.”

- Paul Werenko

Come join us under the surface!