Judy Wolf - World Traveler Returns Home for Workshop (printer-friendly version)

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World Traveler Returns Home for Workshop
A Brighton graduate will conduct a session on travel this week

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Judy Wolf takes a stop on her tour around the world to come back home for a travel workshop, "Get Going! Discover and Live Your Travel Dreams" from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 13 at Rochester Info-Courses.

JUDY WOLF
World Traveler

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Wolf, who graduated from Brighton High School in 1987, has traveled to five continents and seventeen countries, including Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, Cambodia, India and Nepal. Her talk is an attempt to motivate people to travel themselves.

"I've heard so many people -- especially women -- say things like 'I've always wanted to travel' but maybe they're waiting for a travel partner to come along or worried about leaving work or family," Wolf said. "The discussions and exercises in the workshop give them tools and strategies for working through these obstacles so they can achieve their dream."

Wolf has been teaching for years and developed this workshop after her last around-the-world solo journey. She wants to be able to share her knowledge and experience with other people.

"I want other people to take advantage of the expertise I've developed over 17 years of world travel," Wolf said. "Giving the workshop in Rochester is especially meaningful to me because it's where I spent most of my growing-up years. I've always appreciated the fact that I grew up in a suburb that was relatively diverse, with a culture that reflects a tradition of education and intelligent inquiry."

Nicole Mahoney, president of the Rochester Info Courses, said travel is a big market and Wolf's speech was unique among other travel talks.

"It's an interesting twist because it is different from any other speech," Mahoney said. "Most people talk about traveling to a particular place, but she is trying to get people motivated to travel."

Wolf recently completed an eight month solo journey around the world, the second time she has taken such a trip. The first trip was a five-month solo bicycle trip around the United States followed by three months traveling and living in Europe. Her most recent journey was a solo circumnavigation of the globe, starting in Central and South America, Southeast Asia (including India and Nepal) and then going to countries around the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Turkey, and Spain.

Some of her world travel highlights include whitewater kayaking in Costa Rica and mountaineering in Ecuador. She has also reached the summit of Cotopaxi in Ecuador, the world's highest active snow-covered volcano, and traveled for 21 days around the Annapurna range in the Himalayas in Nepal. She also felt India was an experience that brought about new things, as she trekked by camel in Jaisalmer and slept out alone on the dunes.

"The colors, spices, smells, crowds, poverty, ingenuity, and personality of India create an experience nothing but an open heart can prepare you for," Wolf said. "It's a country where you'll feel the most extreme and opposite emotions of your life, usually at the same time."

Wolf lists Chile, Cambodia, and Turkey as places she wants to return to. She said she liked the physical beauty of Chile, the smart and resilient people of Cambodia, and the architecture, history, and culture in Turkey.

Wolf has traveled on foot, bus, camel, truck, boat, train, plane and bicycle, and says the best form of travel depends on where you are.

"Forms of travel that are strange to us are smart and normal in the places they're utilized," Wolf said. "For instance, I rode a camel across the desert in Rajasthan, India because there's still no machine that travels better over shifting sands."

Wolf said she has done some adventurous things in her travel, but feels she has never placed herself in any great danger by traveling.

"I have well-developed instincts, and find that the majority of people in this world are kind, trustworthy, and intend me no harm," Wolf said.

Wolf also is accomplished as a freelance writer, workshop facilitator, speaker, and personal coach geared towards helping others break free of their borders and live their dreams. She is currently working on a book-length travel narrative about her most recent activities and a 70-page resource book for her workshop. She has also been writing travel essays that are awaiting publication.

For more information on the course, call Rochester Info-Courses at 256-1960.

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