In a small town in Door County Wisconsin, along Lake Michigan, there is a small store/restaurant that has one of the roofs with grass growing on top. Way up on the roof, they keep goats, who wander around looking at the people below. I love the concept!
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:
Random Tips:
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.
(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).
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.
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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As a frequent traveler, I’m always looking for well-designed, fashionable pieces of luggage. And this new bag from Chicago fashion designer Maria Boustead is absolutely darling. It is apparently intended for gym goers or sports enthusiasts with an expandable side strap to hold a jacket or yoga mat and a separate compartment on the bottom for shoes.
I personally would be more inclined to simply use it as an easy overnight bag when traveling. This would have been so helpful when I was traveling and then instantly on the move in Busan or during my overnight layover at the airport hotel. Having something stylish available to carry a cute set of clothes and shoes and then later your travel clothes when you don’t have time to stop and drop things off at the hotel would be really helpful!
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 