Fitness

Who would have guessed that a fitness craze -- a la fitbit and Apple watch, etc. -- would entangle the digital generation. I'm from a completely different, much older generation -- I'm a Baby Boomer. What a terrible term, compared to the melliflousness of Millenial. For different reasons, mostly age-related, I also am becoming a fitness geek. Finally the generations have something in common. And that common theme extends to a desire to protect the environment, which is a global concern. The global concern is manifested most easily in transportation, i.e. against the internal combustion engine which contributes to the degradation of the air people breathe all over the world. Hold it, didn't America invent the manufacturing of automobiles. Did American cause the automobile to be worldwide. There are many ways to become a globalister. You can be afraid that the world will homogenize over the next era, and the world needs to be seen in all its glory and diversity now. That's the Robert Ripley story. He was a syndicated columnist for Hearst who eventually founded Ripley's Believe It or Not. He loved the uniqueness of China. But during World War II he couldn't visit the enemy. After the war he visited again and was so disappointed in the communist changes that he died of a heart attack. The world will not stay the same as it is. Not for anyone. So meet it halfway; go now. Another way to become a globalister is to know that all world cultures are unique whether that is India or China or Madagascar or Kenya. And all world cultures deserve to be appreciated by someone; why not you? Another way to become a globalister is to know that a world culture can only be imbibed by being there. Another way is to believe that America's technology and innovativeness is only important in America, not other places. Another way is to know that the answer to the crumbling American era lies in some other country. Another way to become a globalister is to know that democracy is not right for everyone in the world. That individualism is not right for every country. Another way is to visit http://www.worldometers.info/ and satisfy or pique your own curiosity. House exchangers are world citizens. Not globalists, who believe that the world is one. House exchangers -- globalisters -- are very conscious of the whole world. For instance, what is the largest city in the U.S.? Easy. Right? New York. But what is the largest city in the world? And where does New York come in? By some counts New York is way down the list, number 21 on Wikipedia which uses something called "City Proper" to determine that New York has about 8.55 million citizens, whereas Shanghai in China has 24.2 million people and Karachi, Pakistan, has 23.5 million. But China comes in again at third with Beijing that has 21.5 million people. "World Urbanization Prospects", a United Nations publication, defines population of a city proper as "the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city or controlled directly from the city by a single authority." It's worth noting that Lagos, Nigeria, which tops some lists, comes in fifth on Wikipedia with 16 million people just behind Delhi, India, with 16.7 million. Where will we be in 2050. There will be many huge metropolises, because they are all growing. As is the world population. How will we feed them all? Maybe computers will have taken over all work by then, and the world's hunger may have dissipated. Right. Who knows?

World cell phone use

For house exchangers, cell phone usage is very important. We couldn't travel without our cell phones and the gps that comes with it.All thanks to wifi. We have to work on the carriers who, for some reason, charge us extra when we are out of the oountry. Yet the world is uptodate on this issue. 97 percent of the world's population has a cell phone, according to Wikipedia. In America 3 percent have more than one cellphone it seems because 103 percent of the population has cell phones, according to Wikipedia. What is wifi? Satellites carry our data and our voices. Pictures take a lot of data. Movies even more. But written text and voice do not take much data. That's why we can get instant messaging and, in some cases, phone calls for free. The heavy use of data otherwise subsidizes it.

Universal income

In Switzerland, of all places, there was a vote recently -- negative -- for a bill that would have promised every man, woman, and child money. That's called universal income, a reaction to the eventuality that robots will replace all manual or intellectual labor by people. Why is house exchanger interested? Because he has never visited Switzerland and wants to? No, although that is true. It's because he experiences the sharing economy every day. In house exchange. It will become the new economy. And he is always amazed how big it is; how many people every day join. Yes. And universal income is the ultimate example of the sharing economy. Er, the new economy. It used to be called socialism or communism. Hated terms. But now: sharing with robots. Letting them do what they do best: work. And let people do what they do best: creatively entertain each other.

Our style

A house exchanger must stay conscious of the world by asking fellow exchangers questions. We are potentially going to Australia in January and February and we want to go to the 2017 Australian Open tennis tournament, definitely a world-class event. If you google tickets the Open looks like it costs upwards of $1,000 dollars a ticket. A one-way technology answer. But our Aussi friends tell us, who have been to the Open several times, that day tickets are available for as little as $35 a piece, more like our style. With a day ticket you can walk around and watch games at various courts. Definitely hot. Celsius sounds better: 40-50 degrees. Than Fahrenheit: 104-122 degrees.

World view

House exchangers are world citizens. Not globalists, who believe that the world is one. House exchangers are just conscious of the world. For instance, what is the largest city in the U.S.? Easy. Right? New York. But what is the largest city in the world? And where does New York come in? By some counts New York is way down the list, number 21 on Wikipedia which uses something called "City Proper" to determine that New York has about 8.55 million citizens, whereas Shanghai in China has 24.2 million people and Karachi, Pakistan, has 23.5 million. But China comes in again at third with Beijing that has 21.5 million people. "World Urbanization Prospects", a United Nations publication, defines population of a city proper as "the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city or controlled directly from the city by a single authority." It's worth noting that Lagos, Nigeria, which tops some lists, comes in fifth on Wikipedia with 16 million people just behind Delhi, India, with 16.7 million. Where will we be in 2050. There will be many huge metropolises, because they are all growing. As is the world population. How will we feed them all? Maybe computers will have taken over all work by then, and the world's hunger may have dissipated. Right. Who knows?

Freedom

House exchanging is about freedom. The freedom to be yourself. For decades I had wanted to go to France and just sit for a month in a small town, drink espresso and play boules (sometimes called petanque. . . or bocci). That was my dream. My field of dreams. My individuation. But I couldn’t figure out a way to pay for this. My wife Jan did. House exchange. The cost for the house: $0. Many exchanges later. I am hooked. Where should you go? Exactly where you want to go whether that is a small village in Europe or a busy city in the East. Fontenay-Le-Fleury, France, like myself, or Hanoi, Vietnam? Or domestically, say, Peoria, Ill,. or , Maine. Africa or Russia? Antanarivo, Madagascar, or Buenos Aires, Argentina? My first exchanges (Silverthorne (CO), Fontenay-le-Fleury, (France), Los Angeles (CA), Atlanta (Ga.), Sullivan’s Island (S.C.), Ogunquit (Me.), Laval (Canada), South Salem exchanges are typical of first-timers and my experiences will help you get started. Over the course of the exchanges, my wife Jan and I got to know a retired pilot and his wife in Colorado, a car sales executive and his retired, school teacher wife in France, a retired social worker and her photographer boyfriend in Los Angeles, a Realtor and his family in Atlanta, a retired IBM executive and his retired, school teacher wife in New York, an M & A attorney and his wife in South Carolina, a Harvard IT manager and her Harvard professor husband in Maine, an investment broker and his wife in Canada, and a Yale IT manager and his nurse oncologist wife in Connecticut. Among others. My mantra now: House exchange with the world, making friends around the globe. So many people want to get to know America. You should live the future of travel. Enjoy the fun and freedom of other cultures. Become a global-lister. A global-lister. List your home on a global exchange. And go. Live like a local, not a tourist. Stay for free, as long as you like.

Second step

For any house exchanger the second step(after the first step of joining a house exchange site) should probably be an exchange in the U.S. for 2 weeks at the most. That is called putting your big toe in the water. To see if you like the experience. With such a short duration, there are no insurance questions, probably, to consider. Although it is always recommended to call your home insurance provider to make sure the provider is covering someone staying in your house for 2 weeks. Most likely the answer is yes. I would also recommend calling your car insurance provider and telling the provider that a new friend may or may not be driving your car for 2 weeks. The response you will probably get from your car insurance provider is a big yawn: "Why tell us, as we insure your car, not you. We don't care who is driving, unless it's a semi-permanent activity." We started to house exchange, almost unintentionally, in Silverthorne, CO, in 2013. We had gone up there and home exchanged with a retired pilot and his wife in order to see the big mountains and lakes and other away-from-it-all nature. We visited a lake outside of town whose expanse was so exciting you wanted to dive in. But once in Silverthorne. once ensconced in the wonderful neighborhood of the home exchange we got equally "native" and decided to go to the local July 4th parade. Now we could have done that if we were staying at the five-star dude ranch nearby, but we wouldn't have felt so native. After all we were cooking our own bar-b-que that July 4th after a wonderful brunch fixed by our friends, the house exchangers, the first morning we were there. You make friends with the people you exchange houses with, and involvement with the culture gives you the feeling of a native, even as you might also have your leisurely, private meal, like a tourist.

First step: Top 13 sites

No matter whether you are planning to exchange your house with someone in the U.S. or abroad, the first step is always getting yourself listed on a house exchange site. Just putting your house up as available should not cost you anything, but without the dialogue with likely candidates, your effort may be hopeless. To get a house exchange, you will need to join some group. I think there are 13 important sites to visit to make your decision. However there are countless house exchange sites and new ones every day. The top 12 that I would recommend are homeexchange.com; intervac.com; ivhe.com; guesttoguest.com; ihen.com; homelink.org; homeforexchange.com; homeexchange.com; homeexchange50plus.com; seniorsHomeExchange.com; exchangezones.com; homebase-hols.com; and LoveHomeSwap.com. And one especially for singles: singleshomeexchange.com. If you plan eventually to live outside the USA, you should definitely visit first. And the easiest and best way to visit to prepare for living abroad is to exchange your home with someone who lives there already for a period of time of at least a week but, probably, no more than a month. You should be able to make a decision by then. There are hundreds of thousands of homes available worldwide – in nearly 200 countries -- when you combine the offerings of more than one of the home exchange sites. When you become a global-lister. What distinguishes each site? What are the pros and cons of each one? Which one is for you? This book will answer those questions. And there are other sites. New ones all the time. You are sure to find something good, if your goals are realistic.

Getting higher

I can quickly tell who is a candidate for house exchange and who is not. Travel-likely is a good start. But if the traveler says something like "I would never be able to stay in someone else's house" I know this is not a good candidate for house exchange. To be honest, I don't understand. That same person will think that staying at hotel -- the more expensive, and photogenic, and accommodating, the better -- is personal. Yet, is it not true that that room you consider yours at the expensive hotel was used the night before by a complete stranger and will be used tomorrow night by another complete stranger. AirBnB and others have set the bar very high, no doubt. Staying in someone else’s bed, looking through someone else’s windows, eating at someone else’s table today means more than interpreting the world (so says an AirBnB ad) – it means changing the world (future House Exchange ad, I hope). AirBnB asks “are the he’s and she’s of this mankind good or bad? Go see.” House Exchange asks you to get to know people around the world. In so doing you've already changed the world. Personal diplomacy, I call it. With most travel sites, including AirBnB, there is money to pay; not with home exchange – you trade only trust with people around the world. You are globalister. But be safe, my friend.

Returning home

Our next house exchange is in the city where we lived for 9 years, where my children graduated high school, where my career teeth were cut, where my wife was a successful realtor, where I have work friends that will never fade. Every home exchange doesn't have to be in a new place. We are going back to where I was publisher of a magazine for the area: Lake Norman. This is a kind of homecoming with no hassle. We are returning home through a house exchange.

It's time to be at peace

It's time for as many people as possible to exchange houses, travel to a new community, escape the comfort zone, walk in someone else's shoes, and learn to be at peace. My wife and I have house exchanged in Colorado, France, Connecticut, South Carolina, Maine, Florida, and Arizona, to name a few. We have never been disappointed and we've made many friends world wide. A little history. Robert Ripley was a traveler. And he made traveling fascinating in the 1930s with his articles of exotica syndicated in the Hearst Newspapers nationally that became known as Ripley’s “Believe It or Not”. Turns out, he loved China. But during World War II he was prohibited from going there because the Chinese were enemies. But after World War II he went back to China and was so disappointed in the change from sophisticated culture to socialist regime that he had a heart attack and died (once he returned to New York). He is one of the heroes of the concept that the world is at your fingertips. Of course, his life begs the question "will the world become too homogenous before it's time?" Remember the famous Apple ad of 1984. Such an inevitability would break our hearts, as it did Robert Ripley's visavis China. So let's look, right now, at our opportunity. Never better, in fact. Just do it. Look at the history of travel, after Ripley. There was Disney travel in the 1950s, which was epitomized by the Disneyland ride with the accompaniment "It's a small world after all." You could fake travel. You don't have to actually go anywhere. All the cultures of the world come to you. But the cultures are in phoney, childish drag. Then there was Arthur Frommer’s “Europe on a dollar a day" for the 1960s. That book and others, as well as many companies, made travel inexpensive and adventurous through the 1980s, for the Boomers. Fodor’s, for instance. By the 1990s, America's labor and economy were so strong travel to exotic places became a lot easier, due to the increasing number of tour companies and travel writers and travel photographers. And the world seemed safe until it all collapsed with the tech bubble that devastated America’s economy and isolated Americans again. Followed by the merciless killing of thousands in the World Trade Centers in New York on Nov. 11, 2001. Today, internet rising puts the Wi-FI alliance goal in sight: “Connecting everyone and everything, everywhere.” Travel is for all ages.