Students (or anyone) traveling abroad

I’ve just finished writing an article on things parents and students need to do before the student goes abroad for an extended period of time (insurance, bills, medicines, stuff like that).  It really brought home how much technology has made the world smaller.

 When I took my first trip abroad in 1982, it was the first time anyone in my direct family had been to Europe since our ancestors came over on the boat about 150 years ago.  (Not counting my Dad’s sojourn in North Africa and the Middle East during WW II.)  I can still feel the huge grin my face wore the entire flight from Atlanta to NYC.  

My program, through The Experiment in International Living program involved:

 *a few days of orientation outside Zurich (Where for the first time I encountered nude bathing at a lake.  And where my American co-travelers laughed at my Southern accent.),

 *then 2 weeks of homestay with families in the Bern area (I was with a sweet Mom and Dad in Muensingen.  The son chose to leave home on an extended vacation while I was there, so I went with the mom to buy groceries and had a lot of time to myself.),

*then 2 weeks of travel around Switzerland with our group (you can pretty much see all of Switzerland in 2 weeks!),

*then back to the families for another 2 weeks.

This trip changed my life.  I would never have moved out of my home town.  I would never have learned another language.  I would never have gone to graduate school.  I would never have met my husband.  I would not be the person I am today without this trip.

It wasn’t so much Switzerland, or the people in my group, or my homestay family — I think any trip abroad would have opened my eyes to the wide world beyond Hixson, Tennessee.  I think the changes came because I was totally away from home for that time period and I wonder if it’s the same for students today.

For instance, in 1982 I made phone calls home no more than twice in the 6 weeks — it cost about $3 a minute and only certain phones could call overseas.  I wrote letters instead.  Actual, pen on thin blue airmail paper letters.  They took 7 to 10 days to cross the Atlantic.  

If I’d been emailing and IM’ing and phoning daily, I’d have still been tied into whatever was going on at home day in and day out.  Instead I truly was away from home.  It was just me and a few clothes in a suitcase.  I had no physical clutter and no mental clutter.  No to-do lists and few people to talk to.  I had lots of time to think.  Who was I and what did I want out of life?  Pretty soon I knew I was headed down the wrong path in my life at home — not a bad path, but also not the path that was right for me.  When I came home I broke off an engagement, started learning German, and applied to graduate school.  Never once did I waver on my new course.  I’d had time to think it out and it was right.

I think it’s important to be fully present wherever you are physically.  It’s not easy to do.  And it’s not easy if Mom and Dad don’t help you cut those ties.  “Wherever you go, there you are,” as my Switzerland-trip group leader told us.  So for anyone who’s traveling, expecially in a foreign culture, I say — Be where you are.  Don’t let technology pull you between two worlds.

San Francisco Part 3

Tips for exploring San Francisco:

Take a sweater even if the sky is blue and it’s 80 degrees.  If the fog rolls in, it only takes minutes for the temperature to drop as much as 20 degrees.

Don’t drive in the city.  Public transportation — from the old-fashioned cable cars to the sleek underground trains to the surface street buses – is inexpensive, safe, and convenient.  I’ve never met more helpful bus drivers anywhere in the world!

Restaurants will cost more than you think.  (Can you say $40 breakfast for three?)  Portion sizes will be large enough for two in most cases.  Spend your food dollars wisely.  Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores can provide reasonably-priced snacks, drinks, fruit, and breakfast rolls.  Ask at your hotel where the nearest grocery store is.

If you’re taking the Powell-Hyde streetcar line, you have no choice but to stand in the long line of tourists at the terminal at either end.  In between the car will be too full to hop on.  For the Powell-Mason line, it’s a bit less crowded.  We successfully hopped off and on a lot.

The City Pass gives you entrance to a bunch of attractions, but, best of all, it’s a 7-day transportation pass, including the $5-a-ride cable cars.  http://www.citypass.com/city/sanfrancisco.html

Hotels are expensive.   Search the guidebooks and online reviews before making your choice.  Beware of Priceline (and probably other discounters).  They call the edge of the Tenderloin district “Cathedral Hill”.  (This is the down-and-out part of SF).  It was weird to walk my kids past drug addicts and prostitutes in the early evening when we would head out to a restaurant.  (We took the bus back.)

Get in as much exercise as you can before you go to SF.  Walking is the best way to see the city, but the hills are steep.

There are no longer aye-ayes at the zoo.  For most people, all the other lemurs suffice.  But for my daughter, who once did a school report on the endangered aye-aye, it was a huge disappointment.  (According to our out-of-date guidebook, the zoo still featured the aye-ayes.)

Make sure the guidebook you take along is current.  I bought my favorite brand off the shelf at a major bookstore, and it was about 5 years out of date.  This was a problem when we went searching for that exquisite gnocci or hauled ourselves out to the otherwise not-extradordinary zoo looking for aye-ayes.  It was also a problem outside of the city when the exit names on the highways had changed!

If it’s cold and foggy in SF, it might be sunny and warm across the bay in Sausalito.

The hike around Land’s End is spectacular on a sunny day.  You get to see the Golden Gate Bridge from the ocean side, and you can understand why Europeans sailed right past this bay for 200 years!  (see San Francisco Part 1)

If you’re traveling with kids 8 and up, the Exploratorium is worth a whole day.  It’s a science museum with some 650 hands-on experiments.  Unlike most science museums I’ve been in, this one has real experiments, not computerized baby versions.  And every experiment has a complete explanation of the science behind what you’re seeing/doing.  My kids didn’t care so much for the Tactile Dome, though — my daughter got kicked in the eye (luckily she managed to catch her contact before it flipped all the way out).  We could have skipped the Dome’s extra cost.   http://www.exploratorium.edu/

San Francisco Part 2

More history…

As every schoolkid knows, 1848 brought big changes to California. San Francisco was nearly deserted as everyone poured over the mountains to search for gold. By the end of that year more than 8000 miners were digging away near Sutter’s Mill. By 1849, the “Argonauts” had grown to more than 100,000 miners. People returned to San Francisco, selling goods and services to those miners as they passed through. By the 1850 census, 92% of San Francisco’s residents were men. (Some say this is when San Francisco’s lively restaurant scene began!)

Chinatown is fun. Restaurants alternate with touristy shops on every street. We were lucky enough to stumble onto a celebration featuring men in dragon costumes, drummers, and loads of firecrackers. www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/

The years from 1850 – 1900 were turbulent. Fires, gangs of thugs from Australia, “shanghai-ing” of sailors, instant wealth from the Comstock Lode, Chinese immigrants, anti-Chinese legislation (they actually made it illegal for prisoners to wear the traditional Chinese “queue” or braid), lavish homes, clipper ships, and a huge whaling industry all rose and fell in that half-century.

San Francisco’s famous cable cars run today on steel cables that move under the streets – just like they did when they were invented. In 1869, Andrew Hallidie witnessed a terrible accident – a horse-drawn car slid out of control on a rainy day and dragged five horses to their deaths. Four years later, using wire rope invented by his father, Hallidie constructed the first non-horse-powered streetcar. Animal lovers everywhere rejoiced. (And my teenagers enjoyed hanging onto the outside of the cable cars uphill and down and back again.) www.sfcablecar.com/index.html

And then, The Earthquake. Actually the 1906 earthquake only did part of the damage. It was the uncontrolled fires that raged for three days that did the city in. But if any city could survive after all the changes of the previous 50 years, San Francisco could. The citizens rallied and rebuilt.

A few buildings survived the 1906 earthquake. We stayed in one of these old buildings – the San Remo Hotel, in North Beach (2237 Mason St.). After the 1906 earthquake, the San Remo opened its doors to those who had lost their homes, providing free housing. For a visitor today, the hotel’s location can’t be beat – just a few blocks off Fisherman’s Wharf, one block from the end of the Mason-Powell cable car line, and a block from a Trader Joe’s. Dozens of yummy Italian restaurants are within walking distance. The Beat movement developed just up Columbus Avenue. The only drawback – and this is a charming point to lots of travelers – is that the rooms are tiny and bathrooms are shared with the entire floor. The price is great, too. We had a triple room for $90 a night. And on checking out we were treated to one of those nights for $19.06, in honor of the hotel’s 100^th anniversary. www.sanremohotel.com/

By 1915 the city was hosting a world’s fair. In 1937 the Golden Gate bridge was opened. In World War II the city boomed. Ships were built across the bay in Sausalito and the Pacific fleet came and went from the Bay.

The Golden Gate Bridge (www.goldengate.org/) is still a marvel of engineering. One of the best ways to experience it is by bike. Rentals are available at several shops near Ghirardelli Square www.blazingsaddles.com  www.baycitybike.com

Post-war brought the Beats and then the Hippies. In recent years it’s led the way in gay rights, organic and sustainable agriculture, and tourism. In San Francisco, there’s always something going on.

My teenage daughter wanted to see where the hippie movement began, so we took a streetcar out to Haight-Ashbury. The corner now boasts a busy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop. But along Haight Street there are lots of funky little resale shops, coffee houses, and interesting people. Some hippies appear never to have moved on with their lives, and so are still on the street corner, playing guitar for a few coins. Only now they’re balding with grey ponytails. www.sanfranciscobay.com/haightashbury/

(Thanks to Historic San Francisco, by Rand Richards, 1997, and other guidebooks for the historical information)

San Francisco Part 1

Our big family trip this summer was to California.  The kids (teens) and I had 5 days in San Francisco, then my husband joined us for the rest of our 2 weeks.  We saw much of SF then traveled down the coast as far as Big Sur, then up the coast to Point Reyes and over to Napa. 

 It’s one of the best family trips we’ve ever had — and I think a lot of the reason is that the kids are old enough to do, understand, and enjoy the same things we adults do.  Whether it was trying gourmet foods at Julia’s Restaurant at Copia (in Napa) or kayaking on Elkhorn Slough (near Monterey), or poking around the tidepools (several places), we had fun together. 

For me, the first thing I want to know about a city is its history.  So here’s my report:  Part 1, San Francisco’s history:

San Francisco has packed a lot of drama into its short history. First, it hid for nearly 200 years while European ships sailed right past the bay without noticing it. (Lucky for the Coast Miwoks and Ohlone, who got those extra years to live in nature’s abundance.)

For an idea of how the landscape looked to early explorers, hike Land’s End. When it’s clear, the views of the Golden Gate bridge and the Bay are stunning. When it’s foggy, all you see is fog. It’s easy to understand how the bay stayed hidden for those 200 years!

With the founding of Mission Dolores in 1776, the area became part of Mexico. Ships from all over the world began to find their way into San Francisco Bay, but it was just one of many ports along the Pacific coast. Yerba Buena sprung up as a port town.

Mission Dolores is still around, but, I have to admit, we never got out there to see it. Built in 1776, it’s the oldest intact building in San Francisco. www.missiondolores.org/mission/mission.html

In 1846 the village of Yerba Buena was seized by US troops without a shot being fired. With a population of about 500, Yerba Buena became San Francisco a year later. After another year Mexico ceded all of California to the United States.

The Maritime Museum is part of the National Park Service. The visitor’s center/museum has interesting films about the five historic ships that are docked just across the street. It reminds you how San Francisco was not readily reachable by land until the 1930s! The visitor’s center hourly shows an old film about a ship crossing the Atlantic and Cape Horn in raging storms with waves higher than the masts. I found myself thinking of the thousands of young men with gold fever who left everything behind and braved that journey by ship. www.maritime.org/index.htm

Hot August = summer’s end

Summer officially ends at my house at 6:30 am August 13.  That’s when I’ll drag my sleepy-headed kids out of bed to go back to school.  Sigh.  Back in my day I had all those hot August days to hide out under the hickory tree with a book.  Now?  Well, at least their schools offer better academics than I had at my schools.

 Since we returned from our summer trip to San Francisco at the end of July, I’ve been busy fitting band uniforms and lazing in the hammock.  But I want this blog to be about more than just me, so I promise to begin posting about California soon.

 In the meantime, here’s what I’m working on, travel-wise:

How to prepare your teenager to go overseas

Ten books every toddler needs

Multiple trips to Omaha, Nebraska — for a set of 3 workshops over the next 14 months.