How I Afford my Travels and Overall Thoughts
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2007
1
179
180
Trip End
Dec 29, 2009
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
How do I afford it?
This is the number one thing people ask me. I simply can never give them an answer. It's complicated and basically comes down to one word: sacrifice. That's about the only answer I can give you. Working and saving. I didn't win the lottery or anything.
Right now I have $160 in the bank, $1,000 in credit card debt and $20,000 in student loan debt from recently attending college.
Why so much debt?
I did my first two years of college while still in high school, for free. The only way I could have avoided debt was not traveled, worked to save up, and then attended college. Or I could have transferred and applied for scholarships. I like the way I've lived my life in though. Well, kinda. I'm still learning from it. You know, I'm just doing the best I can.
I took 18 credit hours (six classes) at the University of Utah in my final semester. I've gone the least amount of semesters possible here to graduate with a Bachelor's degree: three semesters (one year). This is the cheapest I could possibly have attended college right now. I crammed the most classes into the least semesters possible. University of Utah is one of the cheapest Universities in the nation as far as a place where I can still get a great quality of education with a well-recognized institution. It's no Ivy-League Harvard or Yale, it's not even USC or Brown, but instead of paying $15,000-$30,000 a semester for tuition, I pay about $3,000. I'm not going to go that much debt for a more reputable college. I'm not sure it would pay off for a journalism degree.
What about financial aid?
My family isn't wealthy enough to help me out much, but not poor enough for me to qualify for any money from the government.
If I had money, I would have gone to university in Australia. That would have been my first choice. Other considerations were UC Santa Barbara, Brooks Institute of Photography, at least doing study abroad, a semester at sea, all that good stuff. This country makes it impossible to attend out-of-state universities without paying a ridiculous amount.
The real cost breakdown---
Jan-April 2007
Four months in Australia, including plane tickets: $5,500 TOTAL. I was able to afford this by saving every penny from my $7.50/hour photography studio job in my hometown and by selling my beloved 1996 green Toyota Rav4 with mountain bike and kayak roof raft. It was the best and I had so many great memories with it. I cried. Hardest thing I've ever done.
April-May 2007
When I moved back to Utah I was totally broke, not to mention 19 and still lost in life only moving back for my lame-o boyfriend. My mom bought my Hyundai for about $3,000 and I work a couple retail sales jobs to earn money.
June 2007
A week in Puerto Rico: $500 TOTAL. Yep. Went with the family of an ex-boyfriend, so basically just paid for the plane ticket.
July-November 2007
When I moved to California I had $180 in my account. I got my job as a personal trainer and I was able to save up about $4000 by the time I moved back to Utah again in Nov 2007.
November-December 2007
Worked at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah as a photographer to earn money. Was later fired for "not yelling loud enough at people." I know, makes for a good story!
February 2008
One week in Mexico: $500 TOTAL, including plane ticket ($300), excursion to Chichen Itza ($40), snorkeling in the cenotes, transportation to/from Tulum from Cancun and $40 fee to club Coco Bongo.
March/April 2008
Three weeks backpacking Costa Rica/Panama: $700 TOTAL.
May-July 2008
Europe: $2500 for the month and a half or so I was on my own, about $2600 for the 10-day Greece tour with my mom, although that included round-trip airfare. I paid for the time on my own and my mom was so kind as to pay for my trip with her, which was so nice! Also toward the end of my own time in Europe my parents had to help me out a couple hundred dollars, because I started to run out of money! The amount I budgeted with definitely not enough for two months in Europe, even with living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Poor planning on my part.
August-December 2008
Five months in Hawaii, including cost of attendance to the university BYUH: $6500 TOTAL. My dad always told me that he would help me out with tuition when I decided I wanted to go back to school. He gave me $5,000 and I took out a loan for an extra $1500, so $6500 total. Tuition at this college I think must be the cheapest in the entire country for it being a four-year university, only $1800, which is an incredible deal for this good of a college. So that for tuition, and I bought a car for $1500 that ended up breaking down a week later, monthly rent of $375, airfare $370 one-way, bus pass $40/month, got sick so had to pay a bunch of $25 co-pays to like 8 different doctors and another $100 to one who wasn't covered by my insurance, once felt so shopping-deprived since I hadn't bought anything for so long I went on a $300 shopping spree for clothes in Haleiwa. Honestly I'm still not sure how I ended up spending a total of $6500. Awful though, I had a really hard time, especially with the car situation. Another one of my bad decisions, which I seem to make a lot. Learning the hard way is kinda the way I roll. I also worked part-time, didn't seem to help much. That school is so strict and awful, they have rules on how much students can work and how much they can make. $7.50/hour, 19 hours a week. I went from great pay as a personal trainer to that? What was I thinking? Oh yeah, going back to school is HARD.
Jan-Dec 2009
This is the biggie. This is where most of the debt comes from. Spring semester at the University of Utah: $7500 TOTAL. $430 a month for rent, about $500 in books, $3,000 for tuition, $300 for new laptop since mine broke, gas money, food, all those other little randoms. Instead of working I opted to live as a snowboard bum, and drove to Park City about three times a week to snowboard.
Summer semester: $5000 TOTAL. This is where my mom has helped me. So it might actually cost me more than that, because she helped me with a parent loan, which I will prob have to pay back. This is when I moved into the $190 a month apartment. Helped a ton.
Fall semester: $5500 TOTAL. Tuition increased 10% so tuition was around $3,400, about $300 for books, $190 a month rent, hardly eat, cheap as possible. Also finally found a job but barely have time for it. I only make about $200 every two weeks, but it helps.
Two weeks backpacking Canada in August: $800 TOTAL $300 for two-week Greyhound pass (greyhound is so ghetto), hostels were about $30/$40 a night, food.
Toronto/NYC/DC for a week: $600 TOTAL $350 round-trip airfare, $40 extra for checked baggage (so annoying, I had no idea.) $50 a night for two nights hotel, $85 bus to NYC.
When I look back, I think I made some bad financial decisions. Instead of doing separate trips to Mexico, then Costa Rica, then Europe, why didn't I just do one big six-month trip in Central America or Asia for about the same cost? Europe is expensive and so are plane tickets. It's hard to look back at many of the things I've done and reconsider. Why didn't I work when I was in Australia? I had a work visa. Why did I even go in all this debt to go back to school? Was it worth it? No regrets though, just things to consider, learn from and move forward.
Why I went back to college
Why did I put myself through this debt, through all this trouble to finish college? More opportunities. I don't care about how much I make, but I want to do something I love and don't want to limit myself with what I can do in life.
So...what are my favorite places?
I have a difficult time with the concept of favorites. I find that things are just different, not better or worse than the other. I'll bring myself to choose for the sake of anyone deciding where to go, but I think perceptions and experiences play a big role in the view of a place.
Overall thoughts/memorable places:
Greece was probably #1 on my list as far as the country I wanted to visit in my life, I'm am so thankful that I had that experience to tour Greece with my mom. All the historical sites, the ruins, the islands, running on the track at Olympica...just amazing. Greece is the foundation and the influence of so many things present day. Not to mention it's hot and always sunny, which I love! Beautiful seas of deep blue, desert climate and plants that remind me of home in Utah, yet with such a depth, knowing that the history of Greece goes thousands of years back. Oh, just, totally in love with the place. I had high expectations for Greece and it exceeded those expectations. Well, except for Athens, which except for the Acropolis was a bit disappointing.
I know, technically it's a territory of the United States, but I loved Puerto Rico. I didn't have the best experience in Puerto Rico. I was with the family of my then-boyfriend (we've been broken up for more than two years now). Too much road rage and complaining in that family for me to handle. Why did I like it so much then? The culture, the different ethnicity's, the food, the music, the cities, the rainforest and the beautiful beaches. I'd say this a where my appreciation of the place outweighed my experience.
As far as cities, Cairns, Australia will always be close to my heart, because I was 18 when I moved there and just had the best experience, I loved it. Sydney is a great city, close to some beautiful beaches.
My all-time favorite city is probably Edinburgh, Scotland, just the depth of history and the charm it had. Loved it.
Spain: Everyone I met while traveling told they liked Barcelona most and Madrid least. I was opposite, however. I liked Madrid best and Barcelona least, although I didn't dislike it, don't get me wrong. The architecture in Granada was what I liked, with its Moorish and Catholic styles The cemetery in Barcelona is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.
The most disappointing cities I've ever been to were Athens, Greece and New York City. I had high hopes for them and they didn't impress me.
The city I most despise is definitely San Jose, Costa Rica. Dirty, disgusting, creepy, I was ripped off by a taxi driver, harassed, ahh...just awful.
In Central America my favorite places were Tulum, Mexico, Montezuma, Costa Rica and La Fortuna/Arenal Costa Rica. The strangest place to me were the islands of Bocas del Toro.
Road trips have been my best memories. Road-tripping The Big Island of Hawaii and Western Norway were the best. I often feel nostalgia for that time on the Big Island. Total freedom, just going wherever we decided to go that day. It was incredible. On a road trip you have more flexibility, more randomness, camp on the beach or the lake, it's just nice to be close to nature and away from everything else, and to have no cares or worries about anything. I've stayed in nice hotels and had those luxury experiences (few, but I have), but you don't need any of that to have an incredible experience.
I think the most underrated country I have been to is Portugal. It's one of my favorites. The Algarve region is beautiful. The entire country is cheaper than the rest of Western Europe, and tourists are few. Lagos is the best beach town I've been to so far.
The place I have been most content is Dover, United Kingdom. The castle there is even better than Edinburgh's, in my opinion.
From what I've seen of Canada, my favorite place was definitely Vancouver.
Over the course of this blog I have lived in Australia, California, Hawaii and Utah. Life is Australia is great, no qualms there.
Life in Orange County, California is overrated, but I still love California! I just found the OC to be extremely crowded and the people to be overtly materialistic. I also remember swimming around in the ocean at Seal Beach with plastic bags and other garbage in the freezing water. Los Angeles is another one of those cities hyped up by the media and Hollywood that I don't find to be that great. That isn't my opinion of all of California though. It's a huge, diverse state and one of my favorite U.S. states for sure. It's definitely one of my favorite states. If I were to live there again it would likely be in Central or Northern California.
Life in Hawaii is amazing. Click here to read about my overall thoughts.
Utah is underrated as a tourist destination, and it isn't until I've traveled so much that I appreciated the quality of life in Salt Lake City. The problem with Utah is it's difficult to see the good stuff, unless you know someone who lives there and can tell you more about it. And it's necessary to have a car and all that. I guess the problem is that it's not very accessible and also people say it lacks culture, it's no India, but it does have some history with Native Americans and such...I guess, still not as deep! Native Americans and Mormons. That's about it, really, but it can still be interesting and there are Native American pictographs, petroglyphs and ruins to be found.
Utah essential experiences:
-Climbing Mount Timpanogos
-Hiking to Fifth Water Hot Springs
-Participating in the Krishna color festival
-Summer concerts at the Gallivan center
-Boating/camping Lake Powell
-Four wheeling sand dunes at the Little Sahara
-Canyoneering a slot canyon
-Exploring Goblin Valley
-Watching the sunset from Antelope Island
-Swimming in the Great Salt Lake
-Mountain Biking Sundance in the fall
-Skiing/snowboarding at one of the smaller, lesser-know resorts
-Shopping in Park City
-Seeing the lights at Temple square at Christmas
-Camping in the Uintas
-Mountain biking or jeeping slickrock in Moab
-Driving fast as you can on the Bonneville Salt Flats
-Whitewater rafting Westwater Canyon, Gates of Lodore, or Cataract Canyon
Hawaii essential experiences (from the little I know):
-Night hiking the Stairway to Heaven to see the sunrise
-Finding Secret Beach
-Cliff jumping at Waimea Beach
-Experiencing North Shore of Oahu
-Ted's Bakery
-Matsumoto's shaved ice
-Volcanoes National Park
-Kayaking Kailua Bay
-Portlock
-The Japanese Temple
-Kona
-Hilo waterfalls
What I've Learned
-As Mark Twain put it: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Indeed it is. I can't tell the number of times people have asked me "why?" Or have criticized me, or said "haven't you seen the movie 'Hostel'?" My grandpa doesn't understand why I like to travel at all. When I told my uncle and cousins I was moving to Taiwan their first reaction was "ugh" and then, "it's scary over there." Really? Have you been? I didn't think so. That's typical though, especially in this country, and especially in this part of this country.
-It's not so much about the place you are, but your experience in that place.
-Oftentimes people go somewhere, come back and say, "I appreciate my home so much better now. I think people often feel this way because change is difficult and so is ethnorelativism, which is basically not having bias for places as better or worse, which is practically impossible for anyone to achieve but still possible to a point. I hope that's not confusing. What I'm trying to say is, yeah, it might make you appreciate home better, which is good if it's your home, but it's also good to realize that it can take a long time to get used to change and it doesn't mean home is necessarily better. It's just different.
-The people who you surround yourself with have a huge impact on you life on a daily basis. Took me a long time to realize this. I've sacrificed saving money in a cheap place with strange roommates to travel, but am realizing it's not at all worth it. Have a good quality of life, always.
-I have a real hard time just traveling. As in traveling with no purpose. There needs to be more of a purpose I think when I travel. Like I'm writing a story, taking photos for a book/magazine, volunteering, studying, learning a language, breaking barriers, exploring, challenging something in some way. I am going to try and travel with more purpose, rather than just wander.
-Life is beautiful. I love it. Appreciate the beautiful things in it, every single day. I don't care if it's cheesy. Just do it.
-Regretting is pointless and it's so important to learn from past decisions.
-Don't be too trusting of people in foreign countries. Any person that approaches in an offer to help while traveling is usually just trying to scam you in some way. Sometimes they might actually be trying to help, but I think it's best always to just ignore or say "no."
-Nothing compares to being actually being there.
-A place is always different that what you picture in your mind.
-Don't judge an entire country by just one city/area.
-I've become more aware of the role the media plays in world relations and how it influences culture, as well as the way media portrays a certain place through advertising, television,movies, magazines, etc, has a big influence on how people perceive it and is not always an accurate depiction.
-I've been trying to find happiness in a place. I've learned that it is not a person, place or possession, but comes from within. Happiness isn't just a moment, but a state of being that takes a journey to find. We often try to find happiness by going somewhere or latching onto a person or thing. I find that it takes you and you alone to be happy. I find I'm most happy when I am most free. I had a difficult time growing up in my hometown because I had no choice and could not do anything about it. The religious school I attended in Hawaii was difficult for me as well, too many rules and structure. Now that I've managed to finish my degree, expect to see many more travels from now on! It's not that I'm searching for happiness now, however, it's that I have a real love of travel, a desire to learn and grow and widen my perception of the world.
-Something I've learned about how to deal with is travel friends and vacationships. Travel friends are great. You have great conversations about life and meet the most interesting people. Sometimes you end up traveling with these people for a while. It's weird, but I have such an easier time making friends while traveling than just living in the real world. Living in Salt Lake I've had the hardest time. I think it's easier to make friends traveling because many people are traveling alone, and often you are in easy hang-out type of situations. Also I feel I can relate to many other travelers better as well. Facebook has been a great tool, because it enables people to keep in touch easy, and I've visited/met up with friends that I met traveling and probably wouldn't have kept in touch with without facebook. Then there are the guys that are met while traveling. My friend Grace, who I met in Barcelona, coined the word "vacationship." It's like you are dating or are together for a few days, a week, or even months (I know some who have done this), but people know it will never work out in the end because they live in totally different places or have totally different lives, and then they move on!
-There is a difference between a traveler and a tourist. "Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” - Paul Theroux or "The traveler was active; he went strenously in search of people, of adventure, or experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." - Daniel J. Boorstin. An American tourist, for example, stays in an American hotel chain, eats at American restaurants, and goes on group tours with other American tourists all dressed similarly in baseball caps, cargo shorts, white t-shirts that say "Cozumel," white socks and sneakers. This American tourist is loud and clueless. An American traveler, however, stays in something locally-owned, eats local food, learns basic phrases, respects local customs and probably still stands out but doesn't look a total idiot anyway. I'm trying to be more of the latter, but it's somewhat of a process.
Where I want to go the most:
The question is, where don't I want to go?
If I had to narrow it down, I would say the most exotic places possible. I really haven't been anywhere that exotic...yet. Nothing has really shocked me, besides driving through Mexico when I was a teenager and seeing what it's like outside of the touristy areas. But no huge
culture shock. I want to travel to places that shock me. Southeast Asia, South America, crazy places like Pitcairn Island, the tiny inhabited island farthest away from any land you can get with an incredibly interesting history. Antarctica. All over Africa. Beautiful places you'd imagine only in your dreams, like the Seychelles Islands.
Life is waiting....
