Travel free-k
Jeff Schroeder is doing what we'd all die for
Around the world With no dollars
The man has a face that belongs in GQ, is in a job that allows him to travel the world, and what clinches it is that he gets to see the world for free! Jeff Schroeder is living the “goodlife”. Jeff is now a name and face that is synonymous with reality television and has garnered quite the fan following, which has now reached Bangalore. After sharing space on “Big Brother, America” and “The Amazing Race”, he is now the main man on “Around The World For Free”.
So how does this work? Jeff travels around the world with nothing but the bare essentials, his camera man, Zsolt Luka and Saint Christopher (Saint of travel) for company. The men have no itinerary, no agenda and no money, yet they have spanned the globe starting from New York and fanned their way through Japan, Korea, Cambodia, and other countries and have now found themselves in India.
Through their eyes
“The audience pays for everything, but it's a two way thing, they help us and we help them in return. We want to open the eyes of peopleacross the globe through the show,” says Jeff about the show. The show is a popular topic on networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Jeff and Zsolt are living with radio jock Kenny Jones from Radio Indigo and his wife, Erica, here in Bangalore and were on air with him on his show. Within minutes the two who had no place to go from Bangalore had offers pouring in from across the city, inviting them to places acrossthe country. It was Erica's mother who told her that Jeff was on his way to India and before Erica knew it one thing had lead to another and she was playing host.
Fourteen hours in the country and Jeff and Zsolt had already mastered the art of eating with their fingers. “We went to Gandh iBazaar and ate naan and the ‘dip', and I think I did a pretty good job of eating with my fingers,” says Jeff.
Jeff's beginning in television with “Big Brother” was a complete fluke. “I knew nothing about the show, but ‘Big Brother' was good time,” he says. ‘“Amazing Race' was awesome, because I always wanted to travel, and when people ask me if I want to become a movie star, I say no, I just want to travel.”
Jeff has also done a couple of commercials and a little birdie on the Internet also tells us that Jeff has made a special appearance on the eternal “The Bold And The Beautiful”. The decision to do “Around The World For Free” was immediate for Jeff, “I said yes right away, as soon as I knew it was legit and not a crank call.”
“We came to India in Season One as well, but we did not have the right papers and were deported from your country. It did make for a fun story though,” says Zsolt. With his camera and his laptop, Zsolt has his entire production unit in his backpack, which makes the show possible.
“In all the countries people have been so kind to us, without exception,” says Jeff. The two were stuck in Bangkok airport with nowhere to go but within hours, with the help of social networking and a little bit of kindness they had a place to stay.
“The show has been tag-lined the ‘Ultimate trip in humanity',” says Zsolt and you suddenly realise that it couldn't have gotten more precise. People are willing to open their homes to a set of strangers in the name of goodwill, feed them, and make them a part of their life for a while. Visit cbs.com and be a part of Jeff's journey.
CATHERINE RHEA ROY
Comments