The OurOyster Project consists of the travels and musings of writer Jade Johnston (that’s me!)

Jade Johnston (BA Sociology, Statistics, University of Manitoba) is a freelance writer who prefers to travel slow, and to live and work in countries as apposed to whistle stop tours.

She has extensive experience as a writer. Has worked for a health care NGO writing medical science articles, as well as for the Gap Year Travel specialists, Gap Daemon.

To see a list of my published writings outside of OurOyster, please see here.

Jade in Samoa with the turtles

A Brief History (My Life Story)

I grew up in rural Manitoba, Canada and always dreamed of seeing the world. I came late to the travel game, and the first time I ever left my home province was when I was 17. That was also the first time I had ever seen the ocean.

At that point, the travel bug was not yet caught. But my love for volunteering was strong. At first I was sent for a one week long program in Ottawa, which teaches young people about civic duty. Falling in love with the experience of learning and discovery, I sought out similar programs.

I ended up joining the 7 month, travel (within Canada) and volunteer program, Katimavik. Learning in three small communities, in tiny houses, with 11 other young people certainly taught me a lot about open mindedness, hard work, and group living. Skills which would be invaluable to long term travel.

It wasn’t until 2006, when I decided to do a University exchange in Denmark that I contracted that travel bug. I probably spent more time travelling, than studying, and when my studied finished, I moved to the UK with a working holiday permit.

For the next 3.5 years, I lived all over Europe, travelled through much of it, and loved every second of it. However my love for volunteering was still strong, which suddenly took me half way across the world to live in Costa Rica with another group of young people in close quarters.

My journeys next took me to New Zealand, where I lived and worked, and now to Australia where I have just finished a three month PR trip around the entire country…, overland. Check out my posts here!

Striking a pose at Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Facts About Me

Born – 1986
Ethnicity – British and Chinese (Singaporean)
Home country – Canada
Travelled – 33 countries
Lived – 7 countries (8 if you consider Scotland and England as separate countries)
Largest Country visited – Canada
Smallest Country visited – Vatican City

Where In The World??

Wondering where I have travelled? Looking for advice about any of these destinations? Click on the highlighted country names to see the blog entries I have written about these destinations. Still have questions? Drop me an email at jade@ouroyster.com. Wondering why there are some countries featured on OurOyster.com that are not on this list? We accept guest posts and sponsored posts from other talented writers. Want to submit a piece? Just contact me.

Contact me

You can email me at jade@ouroyster.com if you have any inquiries. For advertising and PR inquiries, please first have a look at my advertising and PR page.