World Winder was founded as a travel blog highlighting the journeys shared by a married couple and their educational workshops designed to help “Build Your Future“.
Melissa Ruttanai and Neil Friedman are two teachers/presenters who grew up in the suburbs of New York City. Within weeks of meeting at SUNY Albany, they embarked on their first road trip. At 22 they were teaching EFL in Japan, learning how to teach ages two to eighty, and experiencing the life of expats. After returning to New York they both obtained Master Degrees in Education and embarked on careers as K-12 classroom teachers. Melissa and Neil have also held positions as professional speakers, technology instructors, event marketers, and tour guides. Neil is a Wheel of Fortune game show winner who lives to make music videos. Melissa is a reluctant hiker and social media coordinator at Nyack College.
Who we are
We are Melissa Ruttanai and Neil Friedman two teachers from New York who have explored over 30 countries, 30 US States, and 30 cities in Japan together. We’ve also worked in seven states and seven countries as EFL teachers, professional speakers, and software instructors.
Why we built our blog
After developing our travel blog in May of 2011 we took a 14 month journey though South America and Europe. We somehow managed to develop a thriving website despite the chaos and demands of nomadic travel. Building our blog has helped us to appreciate the places we have been and experiment as artists and self-publishers.
More crucial to our personal mission is to use blogging and social media as a way to encourage communication across cultures and geographical boundaries. We want to motivate people to travel by providing free travel advice, photographs, and videos. In addition, we want to provide a free avenue for musicians and artists to promote their work.
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A Wheel of Fortune winner and former motivational speaker, Neil Friedman is a freelance writer, videographer and certified teacher of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). He has journeyed to over 35 countries and 30 U.S. States and lived in various parts of New York, Japan, and South America. He is currently on a two-year trip to parts of South America, Asia, and Europe. Connect with Neil on 
hi melissa-my 18 year old daughter wants to travel to Cusco,peru to stay at Fairplay for 5 weeks. she will be going alone. I am worry about her staying at Cusco and having to go traveling by bu/walk to school then to volunteer at Waaw by herself til 6 pm and back to Shimoraa’s. can you tell me a bit about where you stay and fairplay? and Waaw?
she does not speak the language well either.
Hi Anne!
Cusco is a beautiful city and has lots to offer. Most travelers study Spanish while they are there so that’s not unusual. During the day, she’ll be fine walking around to school and volunteering. But she will have to use her judgment. Be mindful of her surroundings and make good decisions. I hardly ever walked around at night by myself. As a female, she will attract attention–that’s pretty normal.
I stayed with the family who runs Aldea Yanapay. They were very kind and I think your daughter will find a great social scene at the hostel.
Check out some of our articles: http://www.worldwinder.com/2012/04/27/aldea-yanapay-volunteer-teach-efl/
You can access the AirBnB reservation site from here.
Has your daughter traveled overseas before? Has she every traveled alone?