trip switcher

Sven and I

In June 1998, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona to attend college right after high school. During my second semester in college, I received a sociology homework assignment that I felt was boring, unoriginal, and completely overdone. Little did I know, however, that this assignment was forever going to change my life.

I was not to thrilled about the idea of researching a country and reporting my findings. Seriously, this was more like a middle school assignment to me than a college assignment. I aced reports like these back in high school and I could have easily just revised one of my old reports, put a new date on it, and bang…easy A. Nevertheless, that was not the case. My sociology instructor was of good nature so in the middle of my frustration, I decided to pick a new country to research and impress the hell out of him and my classmates.

The country I picked was Sweden and I decided to step out of the box and do something different that no one else in class would possibly think of doing. I decided to go online and search for a person in Sweden to interview via email to jazz up my report, and bring an authentic feel to my research. Remember, this was 1998; a world without myspace or facebook, and for some of my classmates, the Internet was still a new tool.

I tried looking for a cool website that would allow me to meet someone from Sweden. I looked all over the Internet for some kind of pen-pal service but I was not able to find anything. They only thing I found was love personals and sexual personals, but nothing professional that would allow me to sincerity meet a simple male or female pen-pal friend. I finally ran across some website, that no longer exists, that looked decent enough to post a pen-pal ad. I posted but I only received one response and the guy that responded was from Germany. Close, but not Sweden. My class report was almost due and the most important aspect of it, the interview with a Swedish person, was nowhere to be found. I ended up responding to the guy from Germany, simply to not be rude but I never bothered to tell him about my assignment since he was not the Swedish person I was looking to interview.

The spark I wanted to add to my report turned out to be another “library boring” researched report. I got an A on it but I felt as if I failed miserably at accomplishing the uniqueness and glimmer I wanted to bring to my report by interviewing a real live Swedish person.

So I didn’t find a Swedish person to interview for my report but the German guy turned out to be funny and genuinely sincere. Thinking about it now, I should have just interviewed him in the first place and switched my report from Sweden to Germany. I continued to have correspondence with him long after my class assignment. We wrote each other quite often and we just talked about our normal everyday life. He would tell me about his passion for travel and would detail his European and Asia trips to me via email and would include pictures. I would then tell him about my travel experiences in Arizona, the United States, and Mexico and we really clicked. After months of corresponding with each other, I considered him to be a good friend even though I had never met him in person. We connected very well with each other and found that we shared the same family values, ethics, and loyalty towards friends and family. The amount of devotion, genuineness, and emphases that he and I both put into friendships was equally shared. He was truly a splendid fellow and I could honestly talk to him as if he were my own brother.

In August 1999, after about 9 months of correspondence via email and snail mail, he traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to meet with me to travel Arizona, California, and Nevada. I would literally need about 507 pages to detail all the places we visited throughout his 3-month stay in the USA. I introduced him to my friends and family and he was able to fit right in. He even came along on my family vacation and visited my hometown. Some of the fun places we visited were the beaches in California, Las Vegas, and the Arizona manmade lakes. We had so much fun every single day.

In 2002, it was then my turn to visit him in Germany and we picked up right where we left off in Phoenix, 1999. It was as if time stood still and we never missed a moment. I sincerely cannot name all the places he took me to in Germany and France but it was truly a remarkable experience. I touched castles and museums and famous paintings. It was like having my own personal tour guide. I met all of his friends and family and they were all fantastically welcoming. His family was truly amazing. They took me in as one of their own; they hugged me, they kissed me, and they treated me like royalty and were so warm and compassionate. You would not think that the Mexican and German culture would have similarities but we found that was not true. It is amazing how much my upbringing is fundamentally the same as his.

Though all these years, we still keep in touch via email with the occasionally snail mail now and then. Every Christmas and birthday, we both send each other care packages and we phone each other at least twice a year. His family sends gifts and I do the same. Unfortunately, I missed his wedding and we have not been able to visit each other again but there is talk about a possible visit in 2010. I wrote this personal story to share and inspire anyone that is looking for something similar to my experience. I not only enjoyed Sven’s company here in Phoenix, and then again all over France and Germany, but I also found a friend for life. I feel like I have a second family in Germany and I know that I am welcome to come and stay with them anytime I desire.

I am tickled about being a member of Tripswitcher.com in hopes of meeting new friends and reliving the alluring moments I had with my German family, with a new family somewhere else in the world or even around the corner. Nowadays, there are so many websites out there that are full of scams and are mostly for finding romantic relationships. What I truly like about Tripswitcher is that it introduces you to people are honestly looking to trip switch. Tripswitcher also has a way to get background check information so you can travel with some peace of mind. The way I verified Sven back in 1999 was through pictures and I asked him to send me a letter from Germany to Phoenix to a post office box. I then wrote him at a Germany address and I verified that he received my letter, and I also called him to a landline in Germany. Thinking about it now, that was so generic but it was the best I had to verify him. Now, you need background checks to prove that the person you are talking to is who they say they are. Of course, not every country offers background checks but I recommend that anyone that chooses to visit someone without a background check is cautious and travels with a group or friend or family member.

Nonetheless, I am wound up about my future experiences with Tripswitcher. I also hope to hear from people with similar experiences using Tripswitcher and I wish everyone to have the same or even better experience as I did.