Your Happy Hour - Making Friends Around The World

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Welcome back to Your Happy Hour with Friday Feels!This week, thank you to HomeExchange.com, we had the immense pleasure of connecting with avid traveler and judge-by-day, Kim Colwell, who has experienced many beautiful travel encounters through this home-connected-community and shared with us her unexpectedly formed friendships, stories from the courtroom and the importance of compassion in building stronger communities, cultures, cities and countries. Would you open yourself, and your home, to an experience-exchange?Friday Feels is all about having those honest conversations, the power of community for personal growth and taking those actionable steps towards being our authentic selves.Thanks for tuning in! Keep it raw and real out there xYHH is produced byswartkat.co - captured viariverside.fm & shared via rss.com.

It's the Friday feels and we're back with your first sip of the weekend. You're now tuned in to this week's episode of your happy hour. I'm your host Nicole Carmine and it's amazing to have you here joining me this week as we uncover the truths about being a human and a working professional. What are you up to this Friday? Well whatever it is, this moment is just for you. So we're knee deep in your adventures of this February and I wonder where you are traveling to. We have your travels led you so far in 2025. Are you finding the way to your heart?

Are you climbing some exotic mountain? Are you planning the group trip that you and your friends have been dying to do? So we hope that whatever you're doing, it's full of the feels. And we've also covered some ground talking about the traveling tribe vibes. We talked about nature connected community with a founder of Be Wild, Alex. We talked a little bit about culture and cuisine connected community with Anita, my beautiful mom. And today we want to delve into something around home connected community as we understand a little bit more about what is this energy exchange of swapping homes. Now for those of you who have been following along the Friday fields podcast for a while,

you know I've often spoken about the fact that our home exchange and it's this platform that I've been using for quite a few years now and I just had a look this morning I see I've done 92 exchanges since I signed up in November 2020 so it's been quite a wild ride and it's literally changed my life in so many ways. It's made it possible to pay my mortgage and still travel, being able to live in the United States of America and in France for traveling for two years, living in home exchanges,

and it's just made it possible to meet the most incredible friends and be part of a global community that's really honestly filled with kindness, care and love. So Friday Feels has now partnered with Home Exchange to talk about this this week and we have a very special guest to showcase one of the top travelers out there to chat about this theme of traveling tribe vibes. I've honestly been so excited about this talk. I want to welcome Kim Colwell to this podcast and to unpack this topic a little bit further. A fellow home exchange member

and you've done an exorbitant amount of exchanges in quite a short space of time and for those of you thinking out there that Kim must just be a traveler by day to get all of this done, no, no, Kim is actually an incredible community leader in the legal field serving as a judge and doing so in the criminal justice space, I believe. And so there's a lot to unpack in our topic today. We've decided it's called Making Friends Around the World. I'm really excited to hear more about all your adventures Kim as a traveler but also of course in your career. So a very big

welcome to your happy hour. It's it's an honor to have you here. Well thank you I'm delighted to be here. So tell us a little bit about how Home Exchange started for you. What does this topic mean to you kind of making friends around the world and having a tribe while you're traveling, having those feelings and vibes? So it started for me with a friend who did a Home Exchange from San Francisco to Amsterdam. And it was just so amazing. I was like, wait a minute, you did that trip and you stayed in that really beautiful house and had a, an experience that was really local and really satisfying and

really inexpensive. How is that possible? And so I, from his experience, I looked up home exchange and I started exploring the site and looking through it and thinking hey, this is something that that we could do and we were just finishing up some work on our house. And so when it was done, I thought let's try this. I wonder if people will want to come because I'm in Berkeley, California. I wondered if people would really want to come here. I thought, well, maybe because it's close to San Francisco, they'll want to come here. So I took pictures and completed my profile and put it up and bam, we started right in.

People wanted to come to Berkeley, which surprised me, which is what I tell everybody, don't discount where you live. Because people from all over the world have family and friends all over the world and so they're going to want to go to even tiny little places. It doesn't always have to be, you know, where you are, Paris, which is obviously fantastic. So we started doing that and the first trip we took was with, there were five of us, so we took another couple and another friend and we all went to Guatemala and stayed in

this incredible place near Lake Atitlan and we just explored Guatemala and it just was absolutely fantastic. You know when you call your friends and you say do you want to go to Guatemala all you have to do is get yourself there and the rest is you know on us. It was fabulous and we were just off to the races. Since then, we were talking about this earlier, I think we're getting close to 100 at this point and taking friends and family and we've met people all over the world. You don't meet someone on every home exchange, but many of them, obviously for everyone you

have some kind of connection because you're establishing do you want to go do they want to come to your house what the framework is but we have now what I consider to be dear and lifelong friends in many countries around the world which I you know didn't expect to happen so it's fantastic. It's amazing I love that story and I feel like most people's home exchange experience has been like that, initiated in a way that's so unexpected. And I think for people who are listening who don't know how the platform works, maybe just a quick intro is that you sign up, you pay an annual membership fee, and then the rest

is really like a conversation. You reaching out to people saying, hey, I want to come here from this date to this date and you have some filters like I always choose pet friendly because Gracie is traveling with me. Maybe you want there to be Wi-Fi or whatever that is and then you just reach out to people and communicate. So how have you found that Ben? I mean, it's quite a nice thing that there's this kind of conversational-based,

I know a lot of people use Airbnb or other platforms like that, but Home Exchange is quite different, I think. Yeah, so when you reach out, you really are, because you're staying in someone's home. I mean, some people have their, a place they might Airbnb or a cottage that they have or something like that on.

But a lot of people have, like we have, just our home. We only have one. So you're asking to stay in their space and they come to yours. And I find that unexpected to me is the degree of satisfaction that I get from someone having a fabulous time at my house. So I go out of my way to leave maps and information and try to answer every question, make suggestions if they want them. We put that, I have a house book that I try to make pretty comprehensive. And when somebody has a great time, like we just had some people in last month who were here from Bali, a couple, their two little boys and

the one of their wife's mother. They had the best time and so I vicariously had the best time. So that was unexpected and really a delight. And you come home and the house is fine. Yeah I love that. I love that and I completely resonate with what you're saying. And I remember my very first home exchange as well. I was so kind of nervous to open my space to somebody else. But it's different because other people are also opening their homes and you find that there is that kind of exchange of kindness and people leaving gifts for each other and you know,, it's just, it's really a beautiful space and a very trusting space,

which I think there's very little of in the world and it's something that's quite rare, but hopefully can grow. And so I'm quite curious. So what has been like your most unexpected home exchange experience that you had? Wow. Unexpected.

There, you know what, to be truthful, they're all unexpected in some way. There's something that always happens with everyone that is a surprise. So, for example, we just came from a home exchange last month. We went to Laredo, Mexico, and stayed. The woman there had already stayed in our house, and then we went down at a different time. And she, we went to this community where she lived and we're trying to find the address. We're having a little trouble. We're walking around with our suitcases trying to find where we're supposed to be. And we saw these people up ahead and I said, hey, excuse me, can you tell me where this place is? Oh yeah, it's right here. We got to talk to them.

So weirdly, they had a dog and the dog's name was Berkeley. And I said, oh, really, like the city of Berkeley? And they said, yeah, same spelling. It's actually named after the city of Berkeley because the woman's son lived here. And I was like, wow, we're just arriving from Berkeley. Isn't that weird? So then we kept talking and the two guys said,

oh, come back later. We feed the hummingbirds here. And I don't know what that means, but I said, okay, fine. You know, you're open to new adventures and home exchange for sure. We always are. So we came back at the appointed hour and they were literally feeding hummingbirds

with these tiny little feeders where you hold them and the hummingbirds would land on your hands. These beautiful bright red and green and blue like it was it was amazing. I've never seen any and they're so tiny. So that was really fun and I got to talking to the guys and I said where are you know, regularly, because it was their vacation house, they said, oh, Palm Springs. And my partner has just finished a movie that was playing in the Palm Springs International Film Festival. And I said, wow, you guys should go see her movie when you go back, because I knew they were going back. And one of them said, wait, what's the name of the movie? And I

said, Sally. And so he said, Oh, my God the name of the movie? And I said, Sally. And so he said, oh my God, he turned his phone around and the poster for the movie was on his phone 30 minutes before he had been asked to host a party for My Partner's movie. We didn't know these guys, we've never seen them in our lives. It was, now we're fast friends.

Because it was the weirdest thing. These guys, we've never seen them in our lives. It was, now we're fast friends. Because it was the weirdest thing. But, so she went to see their, she went to their house for her movie in Palm Springs afterwards. But they've invited us back to Laredo. They gave us their kayak to use when they left. They were so warm and welcoming. It was just because of home exchange

and it just, you know, random weird coincidence. So that was very unexpected. That's an unexpected story and I love that. And it's highlighting two things I really want to mention. And the one is, I think a lot of people when they think of Home Exchange think, okay, and this is what I thought as well. It's the movie kind of the holiday where you swap homes Reciprocally and what's cool about the platform is that you don't always have to do that So it's like you you can book a place and points

You know a person who's who's a home it is earns the points and you can take those points You can go elsewhere or like you mentioned now you do a non simultaneous reciprocal exchange Which is often the case because sometimes you just can't swap at that exact time. So that makes it interesting too. And then the other point is I don't believe in coincidences. I believe in resonance and energy. And I just think that is such a beautiful story that when you are finding your vibes,

your traveling tribe vibes out there, there's so much more than just the home connection. There's so much more than just that kind of community through home exchange, but there's a world of, it's such a small world even though it's big and exactly like to your point, you're making friends that are in the same kind of vibe as you are and how unexpected. That's beautiful. I really love that. Thank you for sharing that story.

I'm also curious how you obviously do quite a lot of traveling and yet you are working and a lot of people are probably asking this question in their minds. How do you balance the two? I know we've spoken about this a little bit before but you work as a judge so that's really interesting. Friday Fields is all about being human but also being a working professional and how do we kind of balance all of that. So how did you find kind of this balance between your work life and traveling and yeah, how's that look for you? So I get a certain amount of vacation a year.

My partner is a teacher, so we try to coordinate around the times that the school's down. Like I can go whenever, it doesn't matter. It's within the amount of time that I have. And so we've found that there are lots of teachers on Home Exchange or people who have kids or whatever who are bound by that same sort of calendar or can do non-simultaneous or points. And so we've been able to set things up.

I was a trial lawyer for 25 years on fairly substantial cases. So I just had it driven into me to think ahead to plan ahead to look at the endgame and work backwards and so that's what I do like for example right now I already have a whole summer trip all we have six home exchanges back-to-back this summer in Europe in Eastern Europe but I'm already working on next January. So I'm always thinking way ahead, working with vacation times. If I plan and I'm really studious about it,

I can set it up where we have breaks. Then also, you can grab a long weekend here and there. We went on a long weekend recently to Brooklyn in New York to visit family for you know a long weekend that's easy to do so if I if I plan it out other people do it differently than I do other people do last-minute stuff and that works too that's not I can't that doesn't work with my psyche because I'm because it work I need to be there when I'm there and when I'm there it And when I'm there, it is super intense.

It's criminal in Alameda County, including Oakland. So there's a lot going on, but then, you know, I, I, I need a break and this gives me a complete break. I've seen people request now for December this year already, you know, for my home in Cape Town. And I'm also like, I can't think that far ahead. But I can appreciate that. And I've had similar experiences

where I've either planned trips ahead and then you can. And then other times as I was traveling for, on the fly, I wanted people to be able to say, hey, I can accommodate you tomorrow. And that's also there and that's great. And so it's cool that you've been able to find your own groove in terms of traveling. And like I mentioned earlier, I think the beautiful thing about this is that if you

are a traveler at heart, but you're also still paying for your own home or like you say, you're accommodating your career, then you can still travel and it makes it possible for you to do so. I'm more curious right now about your journey as a lawyer and as a judge a little bit as well because as we are a global working professional platform, how did you land in this? Did you always know that you wanted to be in the legal field? What's kind of been your journey up to this point? No, I didn't always know.

I was an English major in college. So what do you do with that? Right? It's, you got, there's not a lot, and law is a natural extension of that. I mean, a natural jumping point for that. There are lots of English majors who go to law school. So I went to law school and I came to San Francisco. I was in college in Oregon and I went to, I grew up in Los Angeles.

So then I sort of split the distance and I went to law school in San Francisco and stayed and found a job and decided I really liked this area. And so, you know, how you bump around job to job till you find your niche. And I really liked trial work and ended up doing a lot of federal trials. So that was where I got my

forward planning backwards thing and had a team of lawyers working with me and we would work all up and down the state. So it was really fun and we but it was really intense and then someone approached me and said would you consider putting your name in to be a judge and I told them they were crazy. It's actually the same person who got me turned on to home exchange and I said, no, you're crazy. No, I'm not gonna make it as, it never occurred to me. So, but then I thought about it more and I had worked on a couple cases at that point in my career that were, I was hired to be a neutral, to assess a situation and make a determination about what should happen

to the employees or whatever the situation was. And it really appealed to me. It was different than being an advocate, which I had been my whole career. So then I put the application in and Governor Brown at the time here in California decided I would be chosen. And so I went to the court and it's been just fabulous. I love, love, love it. We do all kinds of different things there right now. As you

said I'm doing criminal but I've done civil. I've done you know every a lot of things they have. So it's a really rewarding job. It's I'm working for the people trying to be fair every day and engage people of all, you know, you have to talk to everybody and it's been great. It's been a great ride so I still have a little ways to go but but then you know when I get done with it all then I could do more home exchanges. It sounds like that friend of yours who introduced you is a catalyst in your life. Yeah. Now that we're talking about it.

So that's really interesting. I mean, I think just talking about your job for a second, it's for a lot of people, maybe this is my own perspective, but I think that's quite a tough job to do. I think you seem to kind of talk about it with grace and ease, but I can imagine that's quite hard every day in terms of what you're doing. Do you feel like that is something that's heavy on you, that you've become accustomed to it? You never get accustomed to it. So, for example, yesterday I was sentencing someone who committed a murder and the family of the person who died came to court to speak. That's their

opportunity, their last opportunity before the sentencing, came to court to speak. That's their opportunity, their last opportunity before the sentencing. And to watch a mother stand there who's destroyed. She's destroyed. Her son was gone. It is heart-wrenching, but they have to be heard and I try to be listen to them whatever they say. And it's super heavy, but it's really important. She deserves that opportunity. And then I try also to be respectful to the person I'm sending away for years and years. They usually understand they did, they made a mistake. It's their worst day. And there's a consequence.

And so what I've learned, because that is about as heavy as it gets, is I've learned to compartmentalize. So I just just when I walk out of that office I close that door. I don't I'm not going there right? You have to. I learned that early in my career because you can't take it home. It would it would destroy you. You're taking on so much from people. So much that you just have to find a way to put it in a box or you can't survive. So I do that and hopefully I'm compassionate in the moment and doing all the things that

people want me to do and need me to do but then I have to close that door for the day and there'll be another one tomorrow kind of thing. But then I take vacations. Yeah, yeah, it seems like they probably really need it, I'm sure. It's, you know, as you were talking, I mean, my eyes were welling up here, I think. I don't know if I have the capacity that you do. I think you're very brave to do what you do. But I agree that, you know, having very healthy boundaries and having mechanisms to deal with those things. And things to fill your cup,

to be able to come with a cup of compassion, like you were saying, is really important. And if travel is that, then that's a really beautiful way to fill that because travel gives so much light. I'm sure through travel, you've probably gained so many perspectives of being human in different ways that's given you have given you like a different light to look at your own work with and the people you engage with every day. I don't know if that's the case. Yeah, for sure it is because you know, you you experience different cultures, different people, things are important in different ways, they express themselves in different

ways. And that is in my in my courtroom, certainly every day, people from different walks of life, different backgrounds than I have. So that has helped me to understand they approach it differently sometimes and and there's no one way that's better than another. I need to listen to them in their way and that's or if they have a way that's ended up making them commit a crime and end up in this circumstance I have to explain well you know that may be okay there but it's not here and here's what has to happen but I try to do it with you know as much dignity and respect as I can. Sometimes you get upset you know but you can't show it, you know, so that's interesting.

Yeah. I can only imagine. I can only imagine. What do you feel has been like your most, if you can share some of it, like most exciting day in court, like something unexpected or exciting? Well, there's, everybody is always asking me for stories because there's always something that happens. I'll tell you, let's see, last week, because I forget them, there's everybody is always asking me for story because there's always something that happens. I'll tell you. Let's see last week Because I forget them. There's so many but last week a couple of guys were I was sentencing them and they were out of custody and I had to send one of them into custody because they had come from another country and

come from another country and used their opportunity here to lure young girls from their country and then lock them up in houses and basically had a were sex trafficking them. And it was horrible what they did. Just horrible. And one of them didn't want to go in right now because he his lawyer was like, well, his family's coming. Could we have him go to jail later? And I was like, no, this is time. This is the time. This is now. And he said to me, the defendant said to me, but, but it's my birthday. And I said, well, I bet you didn't let the women who you had locked up in the houses out for their birthdays. I mean,

what you did to take advantage of your situation and take advantage of people who are less fortunate and vulnerable. And I didn't plan on doing this. It was completely unexpected and I laid into it. I did because I was like, what are you doing? You can't, this is selfish. This is hideous. You know, happy birthday. You're going to jail. You can't do this is selfish, this is hideous, you know? Happy birthday, you're going to jail. You can't do this to people. And when I finished, my deputy cuffed him up and took him, was taking him out, and the entire courtroom burst into applause.

And I asked my, the deputy, the police that are in my courtroom, if, was that the women who were in the, who was that who was applauding? And he said, Nope, it was just the audience and the people in the back stood up because they felt what I was saying. They felt the injustice of what had happened and that somebody saw those women and felt for those women. And you know, I know it's not just me, I represent something big. I represent government. I represent the man, you know.

But I heard them, I saw them, I cared about them, and it was, it was emotional. For me, it was just from the heart. And they applauded. And that's, excuse me, never happened before. But I was like, okay, well, and then I made my point. I think that's amazing. And you do hold this position of power to change things for people. As you were telling that story, what came to mind for me also just in the theme that we're talking about is often I think those girls who probably thought, hey, let me go travel and find some

interesting tribe out there and some cool vibes in America didn't end up in a good situation. So it's an interesting theme because something like home exchange provides us safety, comfort, a beautiful exchange of kindness in terms of home. And then you can have all these other situations as well, which we hope happens to nobody out there. But it's about finding that compassion and finding that energy exchange that is, I guess, just for people out there, follow your intuition.

If it doesn't feel good, then it probably isn't, you know? But it's really great to see the contrast too. And I'm glad that you could just stand up for that moment because, you know, it is important to say, well, hey, yeah, doesn't matter what day it is of the year for you. It's an important day for these people to have justice. So I think that's awesome. And yeah, that must have been unexpected for you to experience. It was crazy. But, you know, it reminds me and the people that I work with that we're very privileged.

You know, we are very lucky to be able to do home exchange and make friends around the world and experience different cultures and see new things. But there are those who can't. And so I'm glad I can remember them and try to help them if I can. But then I'm always grateful for what I have as well. It makes it even more fun to go places. Yeah, absolutely. And it's great that you see it like that. And you know, obviously as we're talking, everyone can hear that,

you know, what you're doing is heavy and it's obviously really important. And so I'm sure that it hasn't always been easy as you've said. What do you feel has been that kind of base advice that that moment or that person that said something to you or maybe you read something some way that's really changed the way you approach things as a working professional and as a human? It's a good question. I'm not sure. I have an immediate answer. I can say that in my job when people who may be in a very difficult circumstance, very

difficult, respond to me and say thank you. That means a lot to me because sometimes it might be a circumstance where maybe they're getting evicted and I tried to explain it to them and and give them options and whatever and they appreciate being heard or a defendant who's going to do time but they appreciated that I I try to look in their eyes and talk to them kind of thing so when they say thank you I find that to be incredibly rewarding because it's I'm doing I mean let's say they're

going to prison it's strange to have someone say thank you or to to say come out and say how are you when someone's in custody how are you? When someone's in custody, how are you? And I say, fine, how are you? Of course you say that back. And if it was me and I was them incarcerated, I would not be saying fine. But some of them are like, I'm doing really great today. Like, thank you. Like, it's very interesting.

People are really interesting. Yeah, people are. Humans are quite a strange species. But I think it's quite interesting that you mention that because we forget sometimes how human interactions are and can be, you know, beyond the courtroom, like you say. And we are just those simple humans that have gratitude or have different feelings in that moment. And it's amazing that they can still show that. humans that have gratitude or have different feelings in that moment. It's amazing that they can still show that. You'd probably think they upset or from after what happened.

Yeah, I had one where it comes to mind now. Years and years ago, I barely even remembered it, I had a case with a guy who was representing himself. He didn't do well and he didn't win but he was very smart and I told him, look you're really smart, you really should direct this, you should go to school, you should, you know, get, you should be a lawyer. I told him that and I meant it but you know who knows if it happens And about, I don't know, two months ago I got a letter from him saying that he's in law school. He literally took

– he said, I took what you said to heart. I went to college. I'm going to graduate from law school. He's a completely changed person. And then I told him, I said, well, look, when you pass the bar, come find me, because I will swear you in. Personally, I think that would be the perfect circle. And he was so excited. Hopefully, he gets this year, I think, he's going to end. And it would be great to swear him in after all that.

Because you don't realize sometimes, I think this is true of all of us, you don't realize the impact that what you say has on people sometimes. And that literally changed that guy's life. And how cool that he's going to be a lawyer. I would love to swear him in. It would be fantastic. Because I know he was at a big low when I met him.

That's amazing Kim. Like how inspirational. I mean, that's beautiful that you recognize the opportunity to inspire him because someone else could have maybe said something different to him and just said, okay, this is the sentence for the day, goodbye. But you obviously triggered something in this guy as a catalyst, which is incredible. And yeah, I think that would be awesome. Well, do let us know when that happens and we'd love to follow along.

You know, for me, I feel like life is always changing. And I often think about this, you know, we all just the stories that we create for ourselves. You know, today you might be different to what you were yesterday. And I think often people who go to prison, for example, for a certain reason, I think sometimes how could their story have been different? And what is the new story, the new chapter that they want to tell after that? You know, and that we could easily categorize them always and forever by their past. But we wouldn't want that for ourselves either.

So we want to be able to tell new stories. I really love that. And on the topic of thank you, I just want to give a quick shout out to our partner or partners rather, who make this possible. So because we are traveling podcasts and every adventurer does need a co-pilot or two in order to share the experiences. Thank you to Riverside FM and RSS.com for being our podcasting and content creation co-pilots, for inspiring us and for making recording, producing and sharing all of this

wonderful content possible out there. And so if you are someone who's keen to come and also tell your cool stories, you may be a content creator, a podcaster, or a YouTuber, or just someone who's keen to create something for yourself. Do check out these platforms, and they've given us some amazing discounts. So you can DM us at fridayfields.co on Instagram or Facebook to get hold of the discounts. And then I wanted to move into something

we do in Kim called the places, spaces, people, places, and spaces that we've in Kim called the places, spaces, people, places and spaces that we found to have the feels out there. My shout out this week is to a very special friend of mine and it's hot on this topic of traveling tribe vibes and home community. Matt Davison has been running the Cape Co-Living home in Cape Town and it's a home connected community as well for traveling citizens.

So he was on episode 21 and season one of your happy hour. We had him on to chat about his journey. So do check that out. But yeah, thank you Matt for what you're doing for also creating cozy kind of co-living and working spaces around the world. And so for all the digital nomads out there that's wondering where you can go stay,

check out Cape Co-living. And yeah, we hope to have Matt back soon to also talk about his endeavors and what he's doing now. So on that topic, to talk about our shared gems for the week, Kim, I wanted to move into this little space, which we do, we're talking a lot about thank yous today. But the shared gems is really a space where we can communicate what we've learned this

week, maybe something that was of gratitude, maybe it was difficult. So I'll start just to give you an idea and then you can share if you want to. So my gem this week was that it happened to be another cycle around the sun for me. So another birthday. And turning 36, being on the more towards 40 side of life, even though in my mind it seemed really daunting, has been incredibly magical. And so I've really been very grateful for this birthday and for all the beautiful people who made it very special for

me. Yeah, just being able to connect with community here and share a very special time. So on the topic of making friends around the world, which has really been my gift to myself in the last two years and now being here, yeah, thank you to all for making a very special birthday and that was really my dream. So what was yours Kim? Well first happy birthday. Thank you. I've had many more trips around the sun than you. I don't know. My dream for the week just was to get through it. Honestly we're having very challenging times here in the US. And everybody I know who has my frame of mind is kind of under the weather trying to find bright spots in something that seems overwhelming.

And so, you know, making connections with people. I think that we we see things alike, talking things out together to get through it together, and then finding in the case of the US, certain judges are stopping some of the what's going on. So I have appreciation for my colleagues and other in other venues for trying to keep things, stop the craziness, I guess. So I was happy to get through the week. And we're having a birthday party actually, and we can have it for you as well tonight for my partner.

So we're having friends over and cooking and having a community together. So that was my week. I think it's such a beautiful reminder to us all that community is everything you know when you're going through tough times it's really the the resonance you find with other people or the being able to talk about things openly that that helps. Sure. And I think and that's yeah I know I know you guys are going through a tough time there so I'm sending virtual hugs and a birthday, happy birthday to your partner too. And then I hope you have a great party.

I also wanna ask the people out there if you're listening, what does this topic mean to you? What are you feeling about where you're finding home? Or can you actually imagine maybe opening up your home to someone else who's keen to experience your culture, your city or your country. We want to hear all the feels about what you're thinking about traveling, about tribe, about home exchange. So do let us know and then I do have one more question for you Kim. This is last section that we're doing. We call it the stack and you and maybe it could be a quote, but it'd be nice if it's

a book that you feel is a good recommendation or maybe it's something you're reading at the moment. So the question to you is what is in your stack? So my stack this week is actually travel guides. I got two in the mail, one for Taipei in Taiwan and one for Bangkok and beyond in Thailand. So I've been reading those actually. And then when I travel, what I do is I read stuff, or read blogs, a lot of blogs, things like that, kind of thinking ahead.

And then I use my Google Map and I, like let's say I read about, okay, this site sounds super interesting or this waterfall or this restaurant. I mark it on the map so that then when I'm there or on Instagram, I might see something, say I'm dying to go to Mexico City again, I'll see something like that, I mark it on my map. So I'm deep into those two books right now, but sort of, I guess, kind of pedestrian based on our conversation.

I don't have anything super exciting to say that I've read besides that. That's just what's on my stack right now. I love it. I love it. And what are the travel guides? Is there a name that we can share? Oh, they're just the, I think one's Lonely Planet and the other one I think is, I think is Moon. I'm not sure. I don't remember.

Okay. Amazing. No, thank you. That's so great. And I think it's very topical to what we're talking about. So that's awesome. So we'll definitely share those arts on the socials and for everyone else, we're wondering what you're reading.

We hope it's something fun that's inspiring you to go travel and experience yourself out in the world. And on that, I just wanna say thank you so much to Home Exchange for connecting me to Kim, for being the platform that they are, giving us a space to be able to energy exchange outside of traditional systems. We hope that there's more of that in the world to come soon.

And thank you to you, Kim. Thank you for coming on here. Thank you for sharing about your travels, about your career, and some stories that I know people are going to lap up at there. Thank you for having an honest and open conversation about that. Of course, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. If you haven't just yet, follow Friday Feels on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. You can

share with us all your feels this week by tagging us at fridayfeels.co and you can also find the website at that handle. And now as you ease into this weekend take a moment celebrate who you've become, what you've overcome and what is yet to come as you do the crazy and cool things that you do as the authentic you. You know the truth about life and work is that it's hard, but the beauty is this global working experience that you're in while we are in it together. So keep connecting, empowering and inspiring this week. And of course, keep it raw and real. Until next time.