Saturday, March 28, 2015

March Challenge #28 Travel

Today's challenge is to travel.  Not only does travel allow you to expand your horizons--experiencing new customs and cultures, learning new languages, etc--but you can learn quite a few things that can be useful in the event of an emergency.  Here's what to do:

  • Get a passport which is required to visit nearly all foreign countries.
  • Decide where you want to go (Europe?  Asia?  Africa? South America?).
  • Decide how long you will be gone (from days to weeks to months).
  • Determine if you need to do anything else to go to your chosen country (do you need a visa or special vaccinations?  If so, start these processes as soon as possible).
  • Determine what you want to do while you travel (museums? intensive language course? humanitarian work? diving?).
  • Get time off work.
  • Buy your tickets (air/sea, hotel, train, etc).
  • Set up everything at home (house sitter, pet sitter, bill payment, etc).
  • Do some research on your destination (basic language skills, learn about the culture and appropriate behavior, tourism highlights, etc).
  • Save up a reasonable amount of money.
  • Pack a (small) bag of stuff.
  • Go.
To do when you are traveling: try various types of transportation (bus, tuk tuk, train, jeepney, etc), try a range of foreign food, attempt to communicate with people in a foreign language (or just pointing and smiling), observe how people do things differently in other countries, practice situational awareness, try not to stand out too much, keep your cool at all times, avoid problems with the locals (and local law enforcement), try local activities, make new friends.  Enjoy your trip!

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