Breaking the Status Quo

I absolutely love the Luann comic. It’s such a great depiction of a typical teenage girl’s life, and it cracks me up at how accurate it can be! Luann, along with her best friends, Delta and Bernice, is continuously trying to balance her academic, extracurricular, and (especially) social lives, and in doing so provides a great character from which to watch and learn.

The other day, the comic struck me as the classic example of what can happen when you limit yourself to solely interacting with similar-minded people. So many times, we close ourselves off to people who are different than us, whether in their actions, speech, or dress. By doing so, we miss out on exciting experiences and opportunities that could be afforded us if we only broke down the walls of familiarity. As Delta wisely observed, when you associate with only people that are exactly like you, you end up having a pretty lame party.

But that is one of the GREAT things about traveling! It forces us to let down our barriers and embrace cultures and environments that are foreign to our own. It challenges us to break the status quo and grow as human beings. It encourages us to learn from those that are different than us, and in doing so, we emerge as well-rounded and worldly individuals. As Mark Twain wisely said, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." By expanding our horizons, we also expand the scope of our “party,” thus making our lives a heck of a lot more interesting! Long live diversity!

Traveling During a Recession

It's official. The National Bureau of Economic Research announced last month that the U.S. is in a recession and has been since December 2007. While this news is pretty disheartening, don't let it stop you from enjoying stellar trips! I have a couple of tips for you to navigate the murky waters of traveling during a recession. With a little bit of ingenuity, "roughing it" could be even more fun than you expected!

1. Try to go to a country with a favorable exchange rate. You want to go to a country where you get the most bang for your buck, and, as hard as it may be to believe, the dollar IS appreciating against certain currencies. I recommend going to www.xe.com where you can find the latest exchange rates for most currencies. For example, the South African rand, the Hungarian forint, and the Chinese yuan are all relatively cheap right now!
   



2. When you're in the mood for food… try not to eat out so much! You’d be surprised how much of your budget is spent on eating, especially when you regularly chow down at restaurants. So, instead of trying to find the nearest restaurant chain, think like a local and hit up the grocery store or farmer's market! You can find some great fresh fruit, ham and turkey to make sandwiches, and much more, all at a low cost! Plus, a little bonus is: it's portable! When I was in Amsterdam this summer, I didn't want to waste any time. So my tour mates and I bought bread, honey, nutella, and peanut butter and ate a delicious meal while standing in line for the Anne Frank house! Fun AND cheap!
   



3. Bottled water = EXPENSIVE. When you're planning your budget, you don't often think about the money you'll be spending on certain items that, over time, can add up. One of those things is bottled water. It is amazing how expensive it can be! So, if you are traveling to a location where drinking tap water is sanitary, bring along a water bottle with you and fill it up at water fountains or taps. You'll be thankful when you can spend that cash on a river cruise or museum tour instead of water!
   



4. Be wary of ATM fees! Most ATMs will charge you a processing fee when you pull your money out from a bank other than your own. These small fees can really accumulate if you're always in need of cash. Instead, try to anticipate how much cash would last you for a couple of weeks and withdraw that amount to cut down on your visits to the ATM. Or, if you would prefer not having a lot of cash on you, see if you can get a credit card that doesn't charge a fee when you use it oversees. Even better, see if you can earn frequent flier miles on your purchases with that card! Let your spending work for you!
   



5. Look around for scholarship, internship, or job opportunities abroad! You can't imagine how many opportunities that are out there concerning travel! Shop around for different scholarships that might be able to fund your adventures! If you are willing to do a little research or writing while on your trip, you may be able to reap monetary benefits! There are also plenty of companies and websites that want to help you set up a job or an internship abroad… just Google different ideas that you have, and let your web surfing go wild!

So as you can see, an economic downturn does not have to limit your traveling dreams! You may have to adapt your plans a little bit or go without certain luxuries, but if that means you get to continue touring, it's totally worth it! If you have any other ideas about how to save money for traveling, let everyone know in the comments section!

A penny saved...

Last night I was at a family Christmas party, and now that I am “in my 20s”, I was shunned from the “kids” group and was told by the youngest that “I wasn’t a teenager anymore”, I was “a woman.” Once I got over the hilarity of that statement, I accepted the fact that I was officially a new member at “the adult table,” and as such, missed the whole process of the under-20 crowd getting riled up about the approaching present-giving.

When I finally realized that the chaos in the living room was related to opening gifts, I calmly, albeit excitedly, walked over to the living room to receive my gift from Santa. The ever-so-practical Santa had deemed it appropriate this year to bestow upon me the gift of… an electronic coin counter. While my brother wasn’t too thrilled by his technologically advanced piggy bank (the other boys got iPod gift certificates and fishing poles), I was absolutely delighted!

I’m sure you, like me, have hundreds of random coins lying around the house, car, inside the cracks of the couch, etc. But now, with my new handy-dandy coin counter, not only will I have a place to keep all my extra change, it will count it for me too! What a perfect way to have a visibly growing travel fund… every time I see a coin, I will run to pick it up and put it in my jar, envisioning all the places I might go once it is full (or rather, has been filled and emptied multiple times).

As soon as I ripped open the gift wrapping paper, I knew that I would be decorating my jar with all the places I want to go. I’m going to print off pictures from the internet, paste on old plane ticket stubs, and wait for my coffers to fill. Every little coin I see now gives me so much joy because I know exactly where it’s going: into my travel fund! Being able to see exactly where my extra money is going keeps me on the straight path of saving. If, instead of spending the little extra change I have, I put it right into my jar, it will gradually grow and assist me in my trekking endeavors! After all, a penny saved is a penny that can be spent on a plane ticket!

If you need a last minute Christmas gift, or just want one for yourself, you can find a coin counting jar at Kohls or order it offline at http://www.amazon.com/Summit-ZMJ01-NI-Electronic-Money-Jar/dp/B0001CU1QA. Make sure to decorate it with the places you want to go… it makes your travel dreams that much more real!

Top 20 Travel Quotes

OK, so I know I talked about starting Top Ten lists, but travel quotes are just too good to limit them to 10! So here are 20 of my all-time favorite travel quotes. They have the ability to inspire, comfort, motivate, and invigorate... I hope that at least a few will speak to you!

1. "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home." James Michener
   
   
2. "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Robert Louis Stevenson



3. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson
   
   
4. "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Mark Twain
   
   
5. "To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries." Aldous Huxley
   


6. "When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." Susan Heller
   
   
7. "People don’t take trips – trips take people." John Steinbeck
   


8. "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." St. Augustine
   
   
9. "The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." G.K. Chesterton
   


10. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by." Robert Frost
    


11. "Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken." Frank Herbert
    


12. "I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." Caskie Stinnett
    


13. "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Robert Louis Stevenson
    


14. "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind." Seneca
    


15. "Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." Alan Keightley
    


16. "A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." Moslih Eddin Saadi
    


17. "Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves." Euripides
    


18. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain



19. "The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them." Amelia Barr
    
    And of course, my favorite:
    
    
20. "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." Susan Sontag
    

If you have favorites of your own, please post them in the comments section!

And so it begins...

In my mind, travel and living are synonymous. Ever since I was born, I have been in a constant state of movement, whether it be preparing for a trip, being on a trip, or coming back from one and anticipating the next. While I have always appreciated every opportunity that I've had to travel, it has only been recently that I have realized how deep my passion runs.

Traveling allows you to be in a perpetual state of change, and it is change that I crave. There is no getting bored, no tiring of the "same-old, same-old" when you are voyaging. The insatiable thirst for learning allows us to experience cultures and gain knowledge that can't be learned in a classroom or by reading a book. There is always something to discover, something different to try, and someone new to meet. And it is that freshness, that constant possibility of novelty that is the source of my love of traveling.

I wanted to start this blog to be a source of all things travel! Upcoming features include top ten lists, travel tips, interviews with veteran travelers, and much more! I hope that through this blog, I'll be able to pass my love for traveling on to you and inspire you to begin journeying! If you have any suggestions, comments, or special requests, PLEASE feel free to email me at melissamlandry@hotmail.com.

Happy trails!