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International Shipping

4 Aug

The question of what to move in suitcases and what to ship later has risen several times on the FB page for my new Teaching Abroad friends.  But I also remember it coming up when I was studying abroad as well, especially for students living abroad for more than a couple of weeks.  

This is what I have gathered about shipping with USPS:

USPS will allow you to send the Large and Medium Flat Rate boxes up to 20 lbs and Flat Rate Envelopes and Small Flat Rate boxes up to 4 lbs (weight is the maximum; some countries have weight restrictions limiting you to a smaller allowance).   More information is available at the USPS website for International Shipping.

Services include shipment to over 180 countries.  

Flat Rate costs (to anywhere outside of Canada:

  • Envelope ~ $24.75
  • Small Box ~ $24.75
  • Medium Box ~ $61.75
  • Large Box ~ $80.50

Random Tips:

  • More information about individual countries’ restrictions are available here.
  • It’s cheaper to send 2 small boxes than 1 medium. 
  • Pack it as full as you can possibly get it (within the weight limit)
  • You can find the boxes online or at the post office.  
  • Pricing Guide available here.

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Hitchhiking in Italy: The Worst Travel Decision I Ever Made

3 Aug

Hitchhiking in Italy: The Worst Travel Decision I Ever Made

by Glynnis MacNicol via “Yahoo News“

There I was, age 19, exactly 24 hours after setting out on a three-month tour of Europe, walking along the narrow shoulder of a busy freeway on the outskirts of Naples — then considered the most dangerous major city in Western Europe — bent under the weight of my backpack and the near-paralyzing fear that I would not live to see the sunrise. It was the middle of the night. My friend Angie and I had just been unceremoniously dumped from the cab of a transport truck onto the side of a busy exit ramp and left to fend for ourselves.

From the start, it had been one of those episodes that, if it had gone another way, would have been the sort of headline-making story fellow travelers shake their heads at in an “obviously, this is what happens when you’re an idiot” way and parents brandish as a dire warning to children setting out to travel for the first time.

Hitchhiking in Italy: The Worst Travel Decision I've Ever Made (Shocker, I Know!)

(Photo: Thinkstock)

In my own defense, the one good thing I can say about the worst travel day of my life is that I got all of my stupid out in 24 hours.

It was May 1994, and after living and working in England for six months on a working holiday visa, my friend Angie and I decided to spend the summer backpacking around Western Europe. We had in our possession overly stuffed backpacks, one tent, and a copy of Lonely Planet’s guide to Western Europe (the first edition having just been released a few months earlier).

image

A dog-eared copy of the author’s Lonely Planet guide. (Photo: Glynnis MacNicol)

We planned to give new meaning to its “on a shoestring” tagline with about $1,500 in traveler’s checks between us, plus one emergency credit card each with an individual spending limit of $1,000. Instead of planning out a route, we opted to meet at Gatwick airport, find the cheapest flight, and buy a one-way ticket, which, after 36 hours of hanging out in the terminal, is exactly what we did — to Corfu, Greece.

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20 Reasons Why You Should Visit India

2 Aug

deceptivelyblonde's avatarStudent Ramblings

“20 Reasons Why You Should Visit India”

by Katie C via “Lost Girls“

When I first informed people that I would spend a semester studying abroad in Kolkata, they usually didn’t understand why I would want to go to India. They would have that polite yet bemused expression, suggesting India was not a reasonable place to visit for an extended period of time.

As I explained why I wanted to go–the challenge of experiencing a completely different culture– many people still didn’t comprehend why I would want to go to an overcrowded, impoverished, hot, polluted, and culturally confusing country. I can see their point. That version of India certainly does exist, but so does another: cosmopolitan cities, a rich and fascinating history, delectable cuisine, impressively beautiful arts and monuments, and so much more.

Since arriving in India, I have fallen in love with this complex country for…

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Studying Abroad: A Résumé Builder

5 May
One of our Professors in Japan

One of the Professors in Japan

If you are interested in Studying Abroad or if you have Studied Abroad in the past, now might be a good time to look at how it can help expand your Résumé.   

Study Abroad

One of the simplest ways that you can use your Study Abroad experience in your Résumé is simply by listing it as part of your education.  There are multiple ways you can benefit from this.  First, if you are new to the career field, then your Résumé might be running a little thin on information; use the “Studying Abroad” experience as a filler/lengthener.  Sounds silly/cheap, but everything counts in the job search.  More importantly, if you list the foreign college that you studied under, it adds to the depth of your educational experience. It shows that you have studied under Professors coming from different backgrounds or ways of thought.  It adds to the fact that you might bring in unique or different ideas to their work. For example, I have studied the Law in Civil Law nations and Common Law nations. That means that simply by stating that I studied in China and the United States, my interviewers can tell that I understand ways different people view the law and how it can be applied in alternative ways.   It strengthens the fact that I stand out from the rest of their applicants.

Skills

One of the things you are going to need on both your Résumé and your Cover Letter are key terms, skills, and/or character traits.  You will frequently be asked to name your strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.  Or perhaps you just need to show them what you can offer their team.  If you Study Abroad, there are many helpful terms that can now be applied to you.  Some of those you might use include: Continue reading →

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Getting a Chinese Tourism Visa (for US Natural Citizens)

14 May

Passport

US Passport

For someone who wants to work in China after graduation, I have to admit, I’m none to desperate to run through the whole getting a Visa thing again any time soon.  I mean, oh my word, that was a total disaster from start to finish.  Since the process outlined on their website is a heck of a confusing mess, I failed to realize that it would end up taking me weeks to get my Passport and Visa back. I literally only got it the day before my flight; and that was after calling my senator who called higher-ups who called higher-ups to track it down and then stopping the postal services to grab ahold of it. What a mess! In the hopes of helping clarify the process for some other poor soul Continue reading →

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Traveler’s Lodestone

13 Apr

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Hello one and all! I am proud to announce that I have officially co-authored a series of three books.

We drew on the idea that people frequently working with different foreign languages (whether talking to ESL speakers at home or when traveling abroad) need some kind of universal guide.

Since I work with a lot of people who don’t necessary speak English (or at least not terribly well), I have frequently found myself needing a quick translator. While I’ve spent time studying Spanish, Arabic, etc., I’m not fluent in every language that’s out there.  And no one else is either.  So these books are meant to carry you through those times.  The times when you are headed to France (where you can know the language), but you have to buy batteries in Germany on the way.  Or where you meet up with that nice Vietnamese mother at the office and you want to ask her for her phone number.  Or where you know some basic elements of the language, but it isn’t enough to spend an entire summer living there on.

Since you don’t have the words available, these books allow you to use the power of the picture! If you need the train station, just go to the picture and point to the train. Or, if your son is allergic to pork, but they are offering you Hotdogs, go to that section of th,e book.  Perhaps you need a car seat for your baby in that rental car?–go to the picture.

So as to keep the book manageable, we ended up splitting it into 3 sections.  Volume 1: Go, See, Do covers the things you need to get you where you want to go: Travel Documentation, Means of Transportation, Hotel words, Restaurant words, Bathroom words, etc.  Volume 2: Needs Must covers the things you will have to have for critical information: Emergency terms (hospital, police station, blood), General Commonalities (colors, weather, numbers), Medical Information, People (baby, student, etc.).  Volume 3: Finishing Touches offers the things that you need to make your trip perfect: Recreation, Shopping (grocery, jewelry, clothing, office store), etc.

You can find out more on the book’s Facebook page here. Please pass it on! We’d really appreciate the encouragement!

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Travel Abroad with a Language Scholarship!

3 Jan

Tap, tap, tap. . .

That is the impatient tapping of my foot as I sit here checking my email every 15 minutes (literally–I’m just that sad) to hear back on a scholarship I applied for.  They say we’ll hear by email in January, and last year the results came out the first Friday of the month.  Ergo, my tap, tap, tapping.  Wait, I need to check my email again. . .

Okay, I’m back!  Since I am stuck here waiting until at least tomorrow, maybe another week, I thought I’d share the news about this awesome opportunity for students interested in studying abroad.

Continue reading →

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