Travel Projects
Read about SFSU's Study Abroad program and take note of the DEADLINES!
Buy the Eyewitness Travel Guide for the country you fantasize about. It’s a beautiful, picture-filled and accurate guide to the country, but also to its art, literature, architecture, and culture. If it were a textbook, it would cost seventy dollars-- beautiful graphics! They give you so many pictures of the places you can make up your mind in advance what you’d like to see.
Apply for your passport. It’s good for ten years, so why wait? The process can take much longer than the passport agency admits-- months, in 2007-- and if the time for your departure is approaching, and you suddenly have to ask them to do it on a rush basis, they’ll charge you three times as much. Just getting the application form and pictures takes time. You’ll discover you have to have a certain type of picture taken (Ritz Camera does it and many other places) which can be burned onto the passport. Go online and find specific instructions.
Join a frequent flyer program that offers a credit card. Just for getting their card, they’ll give you a big clump of miles, but also, you’ll get frequent flier miles every time you buy your groceries or pay for gas. It quickly adds up. Perhaps your folks, if they’re supportive of your trip, are willing to use the frequent flier credit card too. I use United myself, but there may be better ones for the country you’re interested in.
Once you get the card, let them send you email updates. Spam like that can be a very good way of reminding yourself what you’ve got to look forward to. That encourages you to keep working. They’ll also send you last-minute bargains on travel for people who can drop everything and go right away. Students are sometimes in a position to take advantage of them.
Now learn the Eurail concept. The European trains are lovely, far better than American trains, and Europe is exactly the right size for them, the way we are the right size for air travel only. Go to eurail.com and look at the great variety of Eurail passes they offer-- but you have to buy them outside of Europe. Raileurope.com has an even larger variety. There’s a similar program in Japan too-- Japan Rail Pass. Usually, these can only be bought in the United States. They save you lots of money, and during the summer, the trains are filled with other students like yourself. It’s like a traveling student dorm. You’ll make lots of friends and get lots of up to the minute advice on the cities people were just in. At night, kids curl up in their sleeping bags and sleep-- it’s cheaper than a hotel room. Once, to cut costs and have fun, I bought a pass from a kid who was going home, and I lived on trains going north from Paris until I reached the edge of the Arctic Circle in Norway.
Learn the hostel concept. Go to hostels.com. You can book online, and they give lots of ratings. It even works in the United States. To check, I chose NYC and clicked on the Broadway Hotel and Hostel, which rents a bunk bed for about 30 dollars a night, four to a room. A safe, decent double room in NYC costs a minimum of 200 a night, even at a show biz insider’s place like the Hotel Edison in the theater district. This hostel is uptown, near Columbia, in a safe, intellectual area comparable to scruffy Berkeley, filled with student apartments during the year; and since it’s near the 96th street subway express stop, you could reach the theater district in about ten minutes. New York for thirty dollars a night! In Europe, they’re even more organized. Hostels are a great concept.
Buy the small conversation book you’ll use in your country. I recommend the Lonely Planet Conversation Guide phrasebook series. At the start of each section, like “Greetings and Civilities,” they give you cultural advice. For instance, in Japan, “the deeper the bow, the deeper the respect for the other person’s age or status... Remember you should normally take off your shoes when you enter someone’s home.” They give you a lot of good slang. “Excuse me” is “Sumi masen,” but a rough “Hey you!” is “Chotto!” In the Japanese and Chinese books, they also give you the characters as well as the pronunciation, so that if you can’t pronounce it right, you can just show the book to someone and point to what you want. There are also extensive explanations of what the restaurant dishes contain.
I’m considering an assignment later in the term to call your attention to the few phrases you want to know. (Like, “How much?” “Sorry,” and “Where is the restroom?) Later in the course, I’ll may give you a quiz in which you’ll have to count from one to twenty, then know the words for twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five and one hundred. If you know even that much, you can buy food and make change.
Once you have set a date, and gotten your tickets, pass on to these last steps:
Get in shape. You’re going to walk more in a day than you do in a week in California. Break in your sneakers or boots before you go.
Tell your doctor what’s up and get the prescription medicine that you may need-- unfortunately. He’ll tell you what you may need to be vaccinated for, in your particular country-- like typhus or cholera, if you’re really travelling in the outback. Having a few Compazine on hand for traveler’s tummy is an excellent idea. Lomotil is a big help. And if you’re going to include any stopovers in the Third World or undeveloped rural areas (of Eastern Europe, for instance), ask your doctor to include Cipro, and a few Compazine suppositories, in case you’re so sick you can’t hold the Compazine tablets down-- no kidding!
If you routinely take some medication, and will be gone longer than your re-fill will last, you can ask your Health Care Provider (like Blue Shield) for a “vacation override.” Once a year, they will give you a double prescription without charging you a double co-pay.
Take a copy of your eyeglass prescription with you, and perhaps an old pair of eyeglasses, as a spare, just in case.
Rent Lost in Translation, which is a great movie about jet lag as well as modern travel in Japan. Scarlet Johansson and Bill Murray are great. Prepare for epic jet lag, if you’re continuously in the air for nine hours or over.
And if you’re going to Italy or China, ask Dr. Leonard for the emails he has assembled with his private tips.
I mentioned on several travel papers that United Mileage offers and even hotel packages are often very competitive. And if you fly a long trip (Asia, Greece, even Rome) just twice, you almost always get so many miles that the third time is free!
They're always running Blue Light Specials and Clearance Sales and Close Outs on their email -- if you can jump on a plane this weekend, 3/4 off! -- which people with kids can never use, but free lancers like yourselves can.
The other thing I like about it is, they're accidentally helping encourage you, reminding you of the rewards that are going to come from your work.
I have come to value the Performance Bicycle email ads, because every week they're reminding you, "Get out there and ride! Look at this great new helmet! Buy yourself these shoes! Here's a discount! Stay psyched!" What would be obnoxious spam from somebody else, is just endless encouragement, week after week.
So get onto United's email list and they'll help you stay psyched for Europe.
Does anybody know any other email spams that accidentally work helpfully this way?
PS No I do NOT get a cut for mentioning United to you! Shame on you. This is an outdated sample from last year, just to illustrate.
------ Forwarded Message
From: United Offers and Announcements
Reply-To: United Replies
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:54:37 -0600
To: George Leonard
Subject: One day only sale on fares to Europe and the Middle East
http://www.united.com
Dear George Leonard,
Enjoy 10% off all published economy fares when you book a transatlantic adventure on united.com during our one-day-only sale today, December 20, 2006. Absorb the ancient wonders of Egypt, muse over the museums of France and Belgium, pound the pavement in Holland and Germany, or delight in the delicacies of Italy and Spain. No matter what your site-seeing agenda is, these are just a few of the United and Lufthansa destinations to choose from. Travel between January 9, 2007 and March 31, 2007 and save while getting a spring on the seasonal tourist rush.
This sale is valid today only, so book now!
http://www.unitedoffers.com
Remember, book your flight online and receive 1,000 bonus miles!
http://www.unitedoffers.com