Before I moved to Canada, I wasn’t really aware that bed bugs were real. They were a foreign idea and I never considered that I could get them. My sole experience of bed bugs was that oft used phrase “Goodnight, sleep tight…don’t let the bed bugs bite.” To my mind those little insects were a fairy tale, up there with the tooth fairy and Easter bunny. Continue reading Dealing with Bed Bugs in Vancouver, Canada
Travel ain’t cheap.
Hotels. Restaurants. Buses. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. If you’re going to travel long-term you need to make a strict budget and you need to plan ahead. Otherwise one day you’ll wake up, find your bank account empty and you’ll have to do the last thing you want to do: go home.
Continue reading Fear of Financial Ruin: The Stress of Finding a Job While Traveling
I hate flying. I am the Scrooge of the air. Tell me I’m going to be on a flight and I’ll automatically start to mumble, “BAH HUMBUG!” while shouting nasty things at Kermit the Frog.
Everything about taking a flight is crap. Getting jostled through security, squeezing into a tiny seat with a stranger constantly elbowing you, the looks of smug satisfaction from the first class passengers when you’re forced to walk by them. The whole experience is degrading.
However all of these things pale in comparison to that one horrible thought. Whether the plane is taking off, flying high or coming in to land – it’s always there. What if. What if. WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS!?!
Before traveling alone for the first time I had a lot of pre-trip anxiety. Thousands of situations ran through my head. All the things that might happen or could go wrong. The thought of getting mugged was right up there at the top.
I could picture the scene vividly in my head. A dark night in a foreign city, all alone. I’m lost, wandering down a black, silent alley. Suddenly a faceless figure jumps out, I see a shine of light as a knife flicks towards me. “Gimme your money!” Continue reading The Fear of Getting Mugged While Traveling
