Peace Out Y’all!

Oh shoot, I think I forgot you tell you, I am going to take August off! I am pretending that I am European and taking most of the month off to travel. And I am using my time wisely! First, I am off to Le Big Island of Hawaii with my family to celebrate my (gulp) big birthday this weekend for a few days. Then I have approximately 10 days to prep myself for 2 weeks in Peru! I’ll be back Labor Day weekend and posts will start up again the following week fo’ shiz. Maybe earlier if I get my shit together, but don’t count on it.

To tie y’all over, here is a picture I took while driving (not safe, I know, but once you get out on the open roads of Oahu, seriously, NO CARS!) through the middle of Oahu a few years back.

Isn't it pretty?!

See y’all in September!

7 Links

Since I am all about jumping on bandwagons, I was so happy to be included into the latest craze that is My 7 Links sponsored by Tripbase. And of course, thanks to my buds over at Vagabond3 for recognizing my awesomeness! (or were they just out of other bloggers to recommend? I’ll never know! Kidding guys:-))

This idea actually comes at a good time for me as well, as I just celebrated my blogs one year anniversary! I have been nearly constantly posting 2-3 posts a week for the entire time and don’t intend to stop anytime soon! My list of potential posts is still really long and I have some trips in the pipe this summer, which I will be posting about soon after, so no shortage of content anytime soon. In celebration of my one year(-ish) anniversary, I will be doing a contest soon too, probably sometime in September, when I am back from my trips, so keep a look out!

And without further adieu, here are some posts that might have gotten lost in the shuffle over the last 13 months:

MOST BEAUTIFUL
Out my window in Auckland

Picture posts are really the best. This one got a ton (for me) of comments and just goes to show that even in New Zealand’s largest town (I still can’t call it a city. A million people?! LAUGH!), The Big Smoke as the locals call Auckland, is still more beautiful then 99% of the world.

MOST POPULAR
Hawaii Activities

Up until now, I never knew what post had the most views on my website. I don’t really keep track of stuff like that. Color me surprised when I found out that this post has the most views! Guess y’all love Hawaii. For someone who is not a beach or sun person I love Hawaii too! I have been to Oahu twice and will be finally making it to The Big Island in less then 3 weeks to celebrate my (big) birthday. Keep a look out for more on that in August.

MOST HELPFUL POST
Working Holiday Visa – Americans Only!

Seriously, why do more people not know about this? Why doesn’t everyone take advantage? ‘Nuff said.

MOST CONTROVERSIAL POST
ACB Hostel

While the post is not controversial, the subject is. People freakin’ hate this place! Granted I stayed here over 4 years ago (seems like yesterday, kill me now how fast time is flying!) things might have changed. Yes, it looks like an office building and is huge, impersonal and a machine, but it has everything the backpacker who just landed needs. I just have fond memories of this place if only for when someone from customs asked me where I was staying and when I said something along the lines of Central Backpackers Auckland, he said “ACB” and I said yes. Even the locals know about this place. Can’t say locals in any American city know about their cities biggest hostel.

MOST SURPRISING SUCCESS
2008 Elecion

Car In Syndey, Australia, 2008

Like the election itself, people were passionate about this post too. Since I was overseas for the entire election, I didn’t get to experience the craziness in the US, but got a different perspective in New Zealand and Australia. Which is why this post surprised me!

DESERVED MORE ATTENTION
Off the Beaten Path – Sydney

Besides pretty much everything my first year? Kidding.
Everyone does all the basics when they come to Sydney. What they miss are the small treasures while still never leaving the CBD. Places like this are my favorite parts of the city. I don’t want to know everyone’s favorite pizza place when it’s 40 miles away. I like my tourism to be walking distance.

MOST PROUD OF
Foot Issues

Besides everything? Of course, all the posts hold special places in my heart, but oddly, this one effected me almost for a majority of my time overseas. I am proud on how well I managed a minor medical emergency while overseas and then got compensated for it after I got home.

I think everyone else I know has been tagged, except for some smaller blogs that I love that will never read this, so the chain letter will end with me. Who knows what kind of bad luck this will bring me. Oh well!

Packing

I mentioned this briefly in my 4 Years Since Setting Off post is my packing habits. Of which I kind of have none. I can’t relate to people that actually have to limit what they take. I have a weird fasination with people’s packing posts, mainly since I can’t relate to them at all. How is this a big deal in anyway?

My only hard and fast rule when it comes to packing is that if you can carry it all in one trip, you are fine. If you need a cart to load your bags on, you’ve packed too much. If you need a stranger or even anyone to “watch your stuff” while you pee, you’ve packed too much. (This happened to me at the Melbourne bus station. A stranger asked me to watch their stuff and they took forever and my bus came. I left it. What else could I do? I would never ask anyone I didn’t know to do that!) If you need help lifting a bag anywhere, you’ve packed too much. Of course, with new airline rules, this has made people way better packers, which I think is the best thing about these new rules. Yes, you can live with less stuff, it’s fine. Just because you have the space doesn’t mean you should bring it! (Which is how people were with the “old rules”).

Another thing that makes me a good packer is I am not your typically girly girl. I don’t need to bring three outfits because I am not sure what I am going to feel like wearing 4 days from now. Pending the situation and weather, I can tell you right now what I’ll want to be wearing a year from now. Exactly what I am wearing now as I type this post. Jeans (or PJ bottoms, ideally, since I am at home and it’s like 7pm), slippers, whatever tshirt I have lying around and whatever sweatshirt that isn’t in the wash. And since I don’t have to dress up for travel, I could wear the same thing (though I am a stickler for CLEAN clothes) every single day. Which is why when I am just heading off for a weekend, or even a week or two vacation, I just pack the same thing for the amount of days I’ll be gone and be done with it. It also helps that I absoultly hate shopping and my closet and drawer are bare compared to the normal girls closet. Esentially I bring everything I own, if I am leaving for more then 2 weeks, so picking and choosing certain things isn’t even a big issue.

(How much do I hate shopping? One of my New Years resolutions to myself this year was to buy 1 (ONE!) item of clothing a month for 12 months. When my sister was in town at the start of February, we went shopping and I bought 4 things. My favorite part? Knowing I wasn’t going to have to force myself to do this again until MAY!!!)

But for my big trip, I had to put slightly more thought into it. I walked around in my everyday life for two weeks prior with a pen and paper in hand, just in case I remembered something else to pack. I didn’t reread my list every time, for fear when I would get to the end, I would have forgotten what I wanted to add so I ended up with a lot of doubles, which was fine. Better then forgetting something! I also starred next to certain items that were not must haves and only pack these items if there was space. I knew which bags I wanted to take, so the morning I was leaving (my plane didn’t leave until 9pm, so I had all day to pack, plus since I have such a small amount of stuff, I was using most of everything up till and including the day I left, so I actually couldn’t pack until that day), I did my laundry, dragged my bags out (1 large duffle, 1 small duffle and 1 backpack) and started throwing things in. Okay, rolling and bagging up most of it. I packed all my must haves and then started throwing in my bonus items such as my robe (what the hell?!) and my down blanket (double what the hell?!?!?). And oddly enough, EVERYTHING FIT!!!! I was in shock by this. I swore that something was missing, that I was going to get to New Zealand and be missing something vitial (well, not so vital that I couldn’t buy it, but still).

And surprise! I forgot nothing! I used everything I brought, threw some stuff away that fell apart, bought new stuff and tossed most of it before I even came home. I tossed my blanket before I came home. I tossed some jeans that were falling apart. I gave away all my books (kept my guide books) and shampoo and soaps. I had so much space in my suitcase when I was coming home, that I filled about 3/4 of my small duffle back full of TimTams and Lamingtons. I came home with about 40 packages of TimTams.

What helps is a big item that I don’t travel with. I don’t bring a computer and all it’s various attachment devices that I can’t afford to loose. All I bought was a camera, jump drive and ipod and all the wires involved with that and even that annoyed me enough! I bought my phone in New Zealand and sold it in Australia so that was a non-issue. I also don’t bring shampoo or conditionar when I travel and just buy it when I arrive. I love browsing shelves at local pharmacies and trying out the local brands, just makes you get out there and join the locals faster. You never know what you are going to discover with local brands! Seriously, take them out of your starting luggage and see how much weight you loose. I understand this is hard for the constantly moving travelers, but it helps when you are starting out.

Moral: I still make lists like the one I did for my big trip, even when I am going on short ones, but I don’t carry my lists around as long, maybe for a day or so. For me, my reccomendation would be that lists are key. I might not start packing until the day I leave, but I have been “mentally” packing for a week. Also, don’t forget, it’s just stuff. Everything is replaceable. My only must haves are: Passport, credit card and debit card. Everything else, just buy when you arrive. And hell, even those are replaceable, just a pain in the ass to deal with. (My sister and my dream is to one day, just get on a plane with our purses and buy everything when we arrive. One day!!)

(Sorry, I have no pictures of my bags or what I pack.)

Groupons and the Like

If you live in the United States, you are most likely familer with Groupons. These coupon deals are catagorized by town and city (and even neighborhood in larger cities, such as Los Angeles) and the deal a day varies from health and beauty services, to new and classic restaurants in town to even local activites that you might not know about or even frequent yourself. Lots of countries seem to have caught on and GrabOne is the most popular New Zealand version of this.

Why am I mentioning this in a travel blog? I subscribe to the Los Angeles one, of course, but I also subscribe to the New Zealand one out of interest, just to see what they post. And since New Zealand is such a tourist based economy, GrabOne posts TONS of deals on tourist related activies, to boast their economy as well as get New Zealanders out there and doing stuff they might not normally do. I get so jealous and sad when I see the email in my box, as there is always something I want to do nearly every single day! If you are traveling to New Zealand anytime soon, I highly reccomend subscribing to the site as the deals are awesome! And who knows, you may discover something you didn’t think of doing before.

Because of this, I now subscribe to all cities I am about to visit. I am currently subscribing to the Chicago and Hawaii ones as well as I am traveling to these places later this year. I haven’t bought anything yet, but you never know:-).

Which sites in other countriesdso you subscribe to? Have you ever bought anything in your home town that you would have never done without a Groupon?

Moral: I love this website! I have gotten deals on haircuts, which are good if you know you are going to be in a certain town at a certain time as well as new restuarants that I had been wanting to try and this website gave me a push in the right direction. This website is also a good way to get out and do touristy thing in your own town you might have not done otherwise, sort of like the New Zealand version.

Random Weekend

In thinking of ways to post more about travel related items that would help me stand out from the rest of the blogs, in scrolling through my interests two things come to mind, photography and reading. I love taking pictures and every time I read tips on “how to take better travel photos” I realize that I am already doing most of the things on the list already. I also participate in Travel Photo Roulette, which I love. I haven’t won yet, but crossing my fingers I will one day. Besides, lots of people already post like “Friday Photo” or something like that. We all have pictures, I’ll admit right now that mine aren’t any more special then yours, but I still love taking them, so why not share?

Since I am single and do most of my traveling alone, I end up reading lots of books. I read approximately 250 books in the two years I was overseas and I still average about 2-3 books a week since I have been home. You would think my collection would be out of control, but I am a huge fan of libraries and book swaps and minus the Harry Potter book I bought and my library card rental in Auckland (post coming…soon) I probably spent less then US$30 on books during that time overseas. I read everything, including loads of travel books. I always head to that part of the bookstore first to check out the latest titles and my list of book requests (as I call it) is a mile long and I am adding to it all the time. Most of my “reviews” are my opinions and not really recaps, but they vary and depends on the mood I was in or how much I liked/disliked the book or author. It’ll be nice to go back and reread what I wrote years ago! I love doing that. Hopefully I’ll get you reading and picking up some books too!

Anyway, so I am going to call my posts “Random Weekend” and they’ll be posted on Saturday or Sunday and will be truly random, a picture I took and liked or a book post. Either way (or anything else I want to add at a later date) will of course, still be travel related.

Drop me a line with any suggestions or comments! These posts are going to start next weekend.

NSE – National Student Exchange

Used: 2002

There have been a couple of posts floating around lately of peoples regrets in not doing a study abroad while in college. This used to be one of the few ways kids traveled overseas on the cheap (aka: mom and dad) or for the first time. Things have changed a lot in the last 10 or 20 years in the way of traveling and just because you didn’t do a proper study abroad doesn’t mean you are going to be stuck at home for the rest of your life. Nor can “staying home” (not leaving the country) be frowned upon! It took leaving the country for me to realize how lucky we are in the US. We can surf and ski, see fine art, hike in the sun and snow and about a million other things in the same day (depending on where you live in the country) without the need of a passport. There are very few (if any!) countries that you can do all that.

When it came time for me to decide on where to “study abroad” I wanted to go everything. I wanted to do a semester in London and a year in Australia. So you may think it was an odd choice for me then to choose a whole different program and do a semester at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst through the National Student Exchange . To back the truck up even more, I think I have said this before, but I did not like school. I went to college because it was expected of me (both my parents went to ivy-ish schools (Mom=Barnard, Dad=Berkeley) so I was 2nd generation) and I knew I couldn’t get a job without it. I knew I wasn’t ready for the “real world” so I killed time with college and worked and did internships. I used my summer vacations for travel and spent all the money I earned during the year. I associated LA with “working hard” while everything else was play. Why would I want to spend a whole bunch of money and be stuck in class every day? When I was in the study abroad office, I found out about the NSE and changed my plan. I lived at home, commuted to school and worked. This was not the “typical, Felicity college experience” my year saw and wanted to achieve. I liked where I ended up, but I wanted to experience something different as well. I wanted to live in a dorm. I wanted to have no work commitments. I wanted to see what it was like when school was your world. To not have a car. To live in a small college town. To see snow fall from the sky! UMass fit all those expectations. After 3 years, I knew I didn’t want it forever (and in hindsight, I could have never really gone to a school like that), but what else is a “study abroad” if not to learn and experience a different culture? Sign me up! If you look at the schools who participate, it’s mainly state schools. No ivys, just middle of the road schools for the everyday student. Most schools have a 1:1 exchange which means you have to send people to the same school you accept people. Oddly (or not) U of Hawaii at Manoa (in Honolulu) was the top school in the country. One kid from CSUN went there and all she took was hula and whatnot because it was her last semester! Anyway, I was a little worried about not getting into UMass, but luckily, CSUN is one of the top 10 schools in the program because everyone wants to come to LA and CSULA is not only in a crappy neighborhood, but they only accept kids for the year, while CSUN does semester. I think nearly everyone (if not everyone) my year got “accepted” for their first choice schools. UMass here I come! I also got accepted into the group that got to pay in-state California tuition, which meant I was paying less then kids at UMass paid for the same school. Score! The biggest expense I had that semester was living in a dorm and paying for the food, but for one semester, I think I can afford it. One semester won’t kill me.

The experience was fantastic! There were some kids on the program from Hawaii who had never seen snow before and while I had, I had never seen it fall from the sky. It snowed super early that semester, like the week before Halloween, which apparently is really early, but I loved it, mainly because I knew I was leaving in December and not coming back. I lived in one of the quiet dorms and enjoyed it. I got along with my roommate for the most part. As I said when I left, it could have been worse. I didn’t work for the first time in nearly 3 years. I helped out at the college radio station and read the news on Friday mornings with another Californian who read the sports (though he was a perm student, I thought it was still funny) because while I worked for a huge commercial station back in LA, there was no way I would ever make it on-air or really wanted too. And what else is college for but trying new things you could never do otherwise? I met a guy and “hung out” for a few weeks until I came back to California and it kind of fizzled and I didn’t care too much. I walked around the campus in the snow a lot. I would take the free bus into town and hang out at Wal-Mart and the $4 movie theater. I experienced cold weather I have never felt before and my eyes would start to water and I wasn’t crying. And after finals I came back to California and jumped back into my old life.

Moral: I am really glad I did this “study abroad” instead of one actually overseas. I wouldn’t have wanted to waste my time in a foreign country being stuck in class. The following summer I did my own grand tour of Europe and didn’t have to waste a minute in class. And isn’t experiencing a culture and life outside what you normally experience the point of study abroad? I’d say I achieved that. And I didn’t even need my passport! If your school is part of this program, I would highly recommend it!

*Sorry, I have no pictures. This was 2002 and I still used a film camera at this point. And actually, I didn’t take too many pictures while I was there either*

Concerts Overseas

This sort of goes with my music post. Once I discovered different bands and songs overseas, I put two and two together and realized that there are concert tours overseas as well! When I was really into music in college, I tried to incorporate going to concerts into my travels or vice versa.

I’ll admit it here, Hanson was my favorite band for a long time. In fact, I still go up to SF for their shows, partly because my sister lives there and it’s a good excuse to combine a visit but also since I have been to nearly every show they do in SF, I have loads of “Hanson friends” that live there and the only time I see them is at the shows! But I have also flown to Phoenix (great story there, as the time change happened the weekend of the show and I had to be in class on Monday morning at 8am, I left AZ at 7am and arrived back in Burbank at 7:20am and made it to class on time!) and a few shows in the New York area. I had a (yes, Hanson) friend who was in school at the U of Rochester and I flew there and we drove up to Toronto to see them. I was there for less then 48 hours and most of that was spent in the car. I also “arranged” it on my way to Iceland to “stop” in NJ to see them with the same friend who was back home by then. Yeah, my parents think I am pretty nuts, but hell, I won’t drive to Orange County to see them, so I am not that crazy! (Yeah right).

U2 is my other “local”-ish band. I see them when they play in the LA area and then fly up to SF to see them with my sister for usually one show. And I always get great tickets for SF shows as the demand is usually a lot lower then the LA show(s). Like for this up coming leg that was pushed off a year, I didn’t even bother for LA tickets because the concert is in Orange County (eww) and GA tickets are super hard to comb by but I have no problem flying up to see them in Oakland for which I got GA tickets, no problem! Hell, it’ll take me the same amount of time to fly to Oakland that it would to drive to Orange County. Plus, great, easy tickets!

My first time to London in 2002 (funny enough with said Hanson friend in New York/Jersey, but we went because neither of us had ever been before) I looked up shows that were taking place in London the week that we were going to be there and a favorite of mine, Pete Yorn was playing, so I bought us cheap (like £7!) tickets. I was really excited to see a concert in another country and what happens when we show up? Both of us are under 21, so we can drink (yay!) but the show is FILLED with American college students all on their study abroad. Guess Pete hadn’t translated overseas at that point.

Then, the following summer (2003) I was back, hanging out in London, not really doing much when I found out that Maroon 5 was doing a show. They were sort of starting to blow up in the US and I immediately tried to find out how to buy tickets online. I couldn’t figure it out and freaked out that the show was going to sell out so I got to the venue wicked early for the show. Yeah, the place was dead and when they finally went on at this tiny bar-like club, there couldn’t have been more then 20 people in the room, including this American guy who was doing some research in London all summer who I talked to at the show.

Later that summer, Robbie Williams was doing some huge stadium shows all over Europe and I really wanted to go. My timing didn’t match up for his show in London (which ended up being a good thing, as the show was at Twickenham, this huuuuge pitch outside of town) but when looking at a map, I was going to be in France or The Netherlands when he was doing is show in Belgium. Perfect! So I got off the train in Antwerpen for one night for the show and it was fantastic!! It was held at a Staples Center-like place, all indoors and not too overwhelming. He was promoting his Escapology cdand the show was amazing! I love that cd and have some of his old stuff and I recognized almost every single song, except for maybe 2, which is really good for an artist who most Americans aren’t familiar with. Since he is English most of his audience banter was in English, but he said a few words in Flemish (?) which everyone laughed at but I had no idea what he said. The show was great and even to this day, I love telling people I have seen Robbie Williams in concert, in Belgium! If they even know what I am talking about, snaps!

The south pacific is pretty dead for concerts. Some go to Australia, but up until recently, when Auckland built Vector Arena, very few made it to New Zealand. One thing I do love about concerts in NZ, since very few make it there, when they do, they take over the country and everyone knows about it. Take Justin Timberlake for example. In August 2007, it was announced that he was going to be touring in NZ in October. The country went hog wild. Even though I got GA tickets (! Can’t do that in the US!) the show sold out within 10 minutes and two more shows were added immediately. I nerded it up and bought another GA ticket to the 3rd show. The funny thing was on the Ticketmaster website when the tickets went on sale, in bold letters it said DO NOT BUY PLANE TICKETS FOR THESE DATES! DATES NOT CONFIRMED because I learned with almost every concert in NZ, the dates change. Essentially, these are holding places for future dates. And within 2 weeks, the dates for the shows had changed and were confirmed. And great for me, the shows were rescheduled for Thanksgiving weekend! No longer would I be home-sick, I was going to celebrate with a fellow countryman! Good times:-) The concerts were awesome by the way (duh). And it was funny when people would ask, what am I doing this weekend, I was all like, going to see Justin and EVERYONE knew what I was talking about. Loved it.

My view of JT (closecloseclose up) in AKL

*Sorry about the lack of pictures. I am not really a picture person at concerts as I would much rather experience the show and people around me then take crappy pictures. But we all know what these people look like anyway*

Moral: I love incorporating concerts into travel. You might get a better deal on an artist you love outside the US, plus you get to experience a new place! Win-win for all.

Discovering New Music While Traveling

Music has always held a place in my heart while traveling. I was just starting to get into radio when we took the cross country trip in 1995. Once we got out of LA, my sister and I became obsessed with the 10 cd’s we owned at the time. We would listen to them all every single day and then that was it. It wasn’t until about 3 weeks into our trip (and we were on our way home) that I realized, duh! There are radio stations outside of LA! And I could have spent my time listening to them instead of our lame cd’s! I felt like such an idiot at that point. 3 weeks down the drain! The upside of it, is that we can’t put on Green Day (Dookie, everyones first cd), Sheryl Crow or Boyz II Men to this day without the two of us thinking of that trip. There is a song on the 2nd Boyz cd that lists a bunch of town and country names and as they would list off the US city names, I would always count the ones that we had been too, thanks to that trip. By the end, it was more then half!

The trip to Italy in 1997 was changing for me, music wise. What is with all this music that they play in Italy that we had never heard in the US?! How does that happen? It was my first dream job to be the person that brings all the European music over and introduce it to the US. That trip can be summed up by the following songs: Bittersweet Symphony (whatevs, I totally heard it a month before any of y’all), I’ll be Missing You (the Puffy version), some Coolio song that they never played in the US and Where’s the Love from Hanson (yay!). That was the beginning of my obsessive radio phase (which lasted nearly 10 years).

Songs of our 1999 trip to Italy included “Vamos a la Playa” (never played in the US, obviously), “Mambo Number 5″ (heard it on LA radio about 2 weeks after returning to the US) and that “Blue” song which made it to the US about 6 months later and I nearly had a heart attack when I heard it on KIIS the following November. It brought me right back to singing it in the car with the whole Villa crew, Italy in mid summer. LOVE IT!

I love that certain music just brings me back to a certain vacation or trip. Things have gotten a lot faster moving, thanks to the internet. But of course, there is still music that is wicked popular overseas and just never makes a dent in the US. There are loads of New Zealand songs that I “discovered” while I was over there and I can sing every word to this day and if it was to play in the US, I wouldn’t even blink for about a minute, till I would realize that, wait a minute! I know this song because I heard it in NZ every day! And even some Aussie stuff. There was this Ricki Lee song that was in the SEX AND THE CITY II commercial earlier this year and I jammed every time it came on the TV and I was like, why do I know this song? Because it was hugely popular when I was in Australia. 2 YEARS AGO!!! And it still shocks me that I would then never hear it on the radio.

Also, theme songs of certain trips. The theme cd for my semester at Umass was some Eminim CD. There wasn’t a car that drove by that wasn’t BLASTING that cd. Apparently, every year on the backpackers bullshit tour, there becomes a CD that you can’t go one day without hearing. The CD for my trip the latter half of 2008 was that last Kings of Leon CD. Thankgod, I was kind of meh on it. The cons were that it was played all the time and it’s only like 30 minutes long, so you hear it a lot. The pros where that it didn’t annoy me too much and every song sounded the same to me, so it was like listening to the same song over and over again, which if the song isn’t too annoying, surprisingly doesn’t annoy me too much. KOL will always remind me of Australia.

Moral: One of the things I look forward to when traveling is flipping on the radio and hitting scan. I think that is one of the reasons why I love to incorporate driving into a lot of my trips, is to turn on the radio and see what’s on. I always look forward to that part! Plus, I always try to buy cd’s of the music I hear and that reminds me of that certain country because besides supporting local artists, it’s my version of a great souvenir!

**I apologize if the YouTube videos aren’t working as I linked them right from the website and copyright laws and therefore links change all the time. Let me know what song you want to hear and I’ll find it for you.**

Traveling as a Kid v. Adult: A Little History of Me

One thing that motivated me to start my travel blog and write about my experiences, even though most of them happened in the past, is reading other people’s blogs. There are kids out there who are my age and have fantastic blogs and then I read that the first time they left the country was like in 2004 and I am shocked it is so recent! If they can do it, so can I!

I guess you could say, in the way of traveling, I had a very lucky childhood. In the late 80′s we took two family caravan trips with another family to both Mammoth and Tahoe. Then we branched out on our own. In 1990 (when I was 8/9), we did our first major driving trip around the southwest. On our swing through Las Vegas we stayed at the Excalibur when it first opened! We went through Utah, Durango, CO, down into New Mexico, through Arizona and back to LA.

In 1991, we drove up to Crater Lake in Oregon and back down the coast.

In 1992, my parents planned a whole trip up to Wyoming, but at the last minute, when airlines still had fare wars, prices dropped so much on tickets back east that my parents scraped the original trip and we did a whole north east extravaganza. We did NYC to Boston, down to Philly, DC and Williamsburg and then back up to NYC. I remember being so excited to be on an airplane, because while I had been to NYC many times before (my mom is a native) this was the first time in a looong time that I had been on a plane.

In 1993, we drove up to Seattle and Vancouver and back.

In 1994, as gift for my Bat Mitzvah, I got to fly back east by myself and stay with friends for a few extra days but then of course, everyone else flew later (my younger sister even flew by herself as well, so my prize was practically worthless!) and we did a shorter version of the 1992 trip, just NYC, down through Gettysburg to DC and back.

1995 was the trip to end all trips. That was the year we drove across the country. We finally made it to Wyoming and Yellowstone, up across Minnesota (we went to the Mall of America on my birthday!), down to Chicago, over to Detroit, into Canada and down through New England. Originally my parents wanted to fly home, but since we rented a car to do all that, it was cheaper for us all to drive home then pay someone to drive the car back. And this was before cell phones and internet, we were totally cut off from everyone and everything for a whole month. My sister, who is a total social butterfly was miserable on this trip. Imagine a trip like that today! Between cell phones and laptops and wireless everywhere, it would be like we never left. I kind of liked being cut off and still do today.

1996 was a transitional year for my parents (new jobs, etc) so I went to NYC for a week and my sister went to Hawaii (we all ended up going in December 1996 anyway) before hitting the open waters in 1997.

Since at that point we were done with the US, the next stop was Europe. My parents hadn’t been since the 70′s and my sister and I had never been and our first trip was 3.5 weeks in Italy. Cell phones were still a glimmer in most Americans eye at this point and I remember being on a bus in Rome and someones phone rang and I was shocked! How can someone afford a cell phone, but not a car?! Ahh, the good old days.

In 1998, my parents and sister went to France and Spain and I stayed home. I know that sounds weird, but it was a good choice. Some family friends with a daughter who was besties with my sister were also there and my sister hung out with her the whole time and I would have been stuck with my parents. I also (and still) have no interest in Spain.

In 1999 was another family group trip back to Italy. My sister and I only went for a week, hardly saw my parents at all and spent most of our time at the beach with other people in the group we were with who were work mates of my mothers. 9,000 miles from LA and all we did was go to the beach! And that was the end of proper family vacations as we knew them until NZ in 2007/08.

In 2000, I went on a group trip to Czech Republic, Poland and Israel and random trips to the East Coast about 4 times.

In 2001, my sister, my mom and I went to NYC for a wedding.

In 2002 I finally made it to London for the first time in March and then went to UMass for a semester (vacation and traveling in my mind!) in the fall and to Italy in October to visit my sister who was doing a study abroad as well (my parents went of course but during a different week).

In 2003 I went back to Europe alone. I went to The UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy.

In 2004 I did a summer internship in NYC.

In 2005 I did NYC and Iceland.

In 2006 I went back to Hawaii.

And 2007-2009 I finally made it to NZ and Australia and here I am!

It seems like a lot of people’s first time traveling is on their study abroad. I could have never done a proper one (hell, I barely survived UMass!) because I associate being in LA with school and work and hell. Everything else is fun! And why would I want to pay to go somewhere when I would be stuck in a classroom all the time? (I didn’t like school very much as it was.) The math of doing a study abroad just never added up for me. I went to a dirt cheap university (a CSU, which is a fairly respected public school system in California) and instead of study abroad, I just saved the money I would have spent on going somewhere new every summer! I worked, interned and went to school from September to May. June, July and August was my turn to have fun! Plus, everyone was like, if you do study abroad, it’s a good excuse to travel and have your parents pay for it. Yeah, it worked that way in my house. I am not against study abroad, it just wouldn’t have economically viable in my situation. But if it gets kids out there, then what the hell! Just keep on moving.

Moral: In regards to traveling, I had a very lucky childhood. And doing a study abroad isn’t the only way to travel!