By Mehdy Ghannad

Something I am continuing to learn in this industry is that when you think you are done waiting, you still have to wait some more.  As we await responses from the production company as well as the William Morris Agency, we have shifted our focus back to redesigning our website and creating partnerships with like-minded companies.

Having graphically laid out the new homepage, we started the redesign of the website this week. Despite redevelopment, however, all articles will be front and center on the site, highlighting the work of our talented base of writers. In order to continue providing you with top notch and up-to-date travel information we increasing the number of writers contributing to The Hostel Life as well as expanding our range of categories. As of today have two new team members on-board who will help extend our reach and we have started to integrate articles featuring hostels, products, and services that The Hostel Life recommends. With this in mind, if you are interested in writing for us or contributing a piece, please send us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -we would love to work with you! Also, following our redesign you'll find a new section on our website: "Travel Tweet Tips"; in this section, we will ask our viewers to tweet their travel tips to the audience. Then you'll have several ways to interact with us: through our shows, articles, and soon more interactively through Twitter.

In furthering our search for partners, we have discovered some amazing, eco-friendly, and sustainable brands and companies interested in supporting our cause. One of these companies, WeWood, makes watches that are made of 100% natural wood. In addition to being fashionable, they are completely absent of artificial and toxic materials that are currently used to make many of the other watch brands that we tend to love. On top of that, WeWood has teamed up with Trees for the Future, and for every watch purchased a tree is planted. It's good for you and good for the environment; talk about supporting a great cause!

Another conscious company that we are building a relationship with is LSTN headphones.  Like WeWood, LSTN uses wood to make their headphones; yes, wooden headphones! Sounds kind of weird right? But think about it, a guitar and a violin are made of wood, so why not headphones?  Actually, similar to a guitar, the resonance of the sound is much better in wood than plastic or even metal, which makes for a higher quality listening experience. And even better, LSTN produces these headphones using the leftover scraps of furniture companies that would have otherwise been thrown into landfills.  How great is that?

We are in heated discussion with a few more potential sponsors who, like WeWood and LSTN, take an innovative approach to sustainability. These companies will add to the many product giveaways via our social media channels and the website that will be offered in the upcoming months.   So stay tuned for more great things from The Hostel Life and maybe you can score some early trendy and environmentally friendly holiday gifts!

I will leave you all with one of my favorite quotes that actually continues to keep me focused on this path that I chose a few years back - " Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson