Earning Money While you Travel

Hypothetical situation.  You saved up that $2600 for a 15-day trip through SE Asia.  While backpacking in Indonesia, you realize you'd like to extend your trip...or maybe quit your 9-5 and relocate to SE Asia permanently (it's been known to happen!).  Either way, you're going to need more dough, and pronto.

How to earn money while you travel?

Turns out you don't need a degree in astrophysics to land a job overseas. (On the flip side, you may not need to shovel manure, milk cows, or peel potatoes, either.)

Lucky for us, English is the international language of commerce.  People all over the world are clambering to learn English and would welcome you as their instructor.  Support yourself while you travel by teaching English.

Some terminology:  

1.)  ESL :  English as a second language.

2.)  EFL :  English as a foreign language.

3.)  TEFL :  Teaching English as a Foreign Language.  

4.)  TESOL :  Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.  

In many places, you can teach English without any certifications.  (A girl I met in Istanbul was teaching English for $25/hour to several clients she met over Craigslist.  She did not have any TEFL/TESOL certifications but was a recent college grad.)  However, English-teaching certifications may help you get your foot in the door, especially if you want to teach at a school.

Examples of TEFL and/or TESOL certifications:

1.)  CELTA (Certificate in English Language Training to Adults).  This certificate is affiliated with the University of Cambridge and is internationally recognized.

2.)  TEFL.  If you google "TEFL" you will get millions of results.  Some TEFL courses are offered online. Others require classroom time.  I would look for the latter.  Diploma mill certifications are generally a waste of time and money, IMHO.

If I've piqued your curiousity, then Dave's ESL Cafe is a great source to help you get started teaching English overseas.

Saving for Travel: Seven Days to SE Asia

How to save money for that trip to an exotic locale?  Turns out you may not have to take a second job, sell your car and first-born child, or refinance the house after all.  Little things lead to big savings (big enough savings to afford to travel to places like SE Asia, that is).

The following is a hypothetical scenario.  I have tried to be conservative in my cost savings estimations and/or include a reputable source so you don't think I'm blowing smoke up your ass.

Seven Days to SE Asia

Monday:  Cancel the Cable

Come on now.  Most of the stuff on cable is crap anyway.  And if you really must watch that latest episode of America's Next Top Model you can do it for free online at sites like:

http://www.cwtv.com/ 
http://www.hulu.com/
http://www.casttv.com/
http://espn.go.com/

Average weekly savings:  $6.90
Average yearly savings:  $360

Source:  Comcast website  http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Learn/DigitalCable/digitalcable.html
(Comcast advertises cable package of $29.99 per month for one year.)

Tuesday:  Quit Buying Extraneous Beverages

Banish Starbucks, bottled water, sports drinks and soda from your diet and you could save a bundle.  Instead of wasting precious travel money on extraneous beverages, invest in a water bottle and fill it up with the healthiest beverage of them all:  TAP WATER.  (Self-brewed coffee is pretty cheap, too).  I know, I know, it's a revolutionary concept...

Average weekly savings:  $10.50* 
Average yearly savings:  $546 

* Assuming you buy one Starbucks coffee (or other extraneous beverage) for $3.50, three times per week. (This is hypothetical.)

Nifty source for calculating self-brew vs. Starbucks coffee costs:  http://www.hughchou.org/calc/coffee.cgi

Wednesday:  Declare One Day Per Week a Car-Free Day

At least one day per week ditch the car.  Instead, use public transit, bike, or walk.  Your wallet will thank you, and so will the planet.

Average weekly savings:  $12.10
Average yearly savings: $629.10

Source:  CNNMoney article
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/05/news/economy/gas_prices_income_spending/index.htm
(According to CNNMoney, the average American household spent $368.09 per month on retail gas in April 2011).

Thursday:  Be Energy Efficient

Turn down the thermostat 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 hours per day (when you're at work, perhaps?).  According to the US Department of Energy, you can save 10% on your annual heating and cooling bill by doing this one, simple thing.

Average weekly savings:  $1.10
Average yearly savings:  $57.20 

Sources:
US Department of Energy
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12720
US Energy Information Administration
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_b.html

Friday:  Drink at Home

It's Friday night.  Everyone is going out to get shit-faced at the local bar.  Why not buy a bottle of vino or a six-pack of beer and do the same...AT HOME.  And just to ensure that your social life doesn't come to a crashing halt, why not invite friends over?  There is a thing called potluck and BYOB, is there not?

Average weekly savings (hypothetical):  $5
Average yearly savings:  $260     

Saturday:  Dine In Not Out

Skip the restaurant and go to the grocery store.  Then whip up some restaurant-quality cuisine in your own kitchen.  Better yet, whip up a MASSIVE QUANTITY of restaurant-quality cuisine in your own kitchen and store the leftovers in the freezer.  You can eat those leftovers all week for lunch and dinner when you are starved for time and energy and Ronald McDonald is beckoning.  (Again, if you are concerned that your social life is going to suffer by eating a dinner or two at home, invite friends over for a potluck/BYOB extravaganza).  

Average weekly savings (hypothetical):  $10
Average yearly savings:  $520

Sunday:  Don't go to the Movies

Instead of going to the movie theatre today (or other money-sucking endeavor), take advantage of cheap DVD rentals through Netflix or Red Box (or engage in free forms of entertainment like cycling, people watching and picking your nose). 

Average weekly savings (hypothetical):  $5 
Average yearly savings:  $260

Travel Money Saved in One Year:

$2,632.30

Cost of Travel to SE Asia (hypothetical):

Round-trip flight:  $1,700 
Daily Budget in SE Asia:  $40
Travel Insurance:  $300
Total Cost for 15-day trip:  $2,600

I hope that my mathematical demonstration has convinced you that international travel is not just for the wealthy.

Now get off your butt and start saving your loot!

The Value of Travel

Travel costs time and money.  What are you getting in return?  Five priceless things, if you ask me...

*Pictures are from Istanbul, Turkey.

1.   Confidence.

Travel has challenged me in a number of ways... 

I've had to become proficient at land navigation:  reading maps, and moving through a new city based on the direction of the sun and the changing elevation (if you are headed toward a river you should probably be walking downhill, right?). 

Another travel challenge has been the communication.  I've had to become a creative linguist, since I don't speak any languages but English (for shame!).  Hand pointing, miming, drawing pictures, wild gesticulations, facial expressions and tone of voice...I've done it all in order to communicate with the locals.

Logistics continue to be a travel challenge.  What mode of transportation to take from Point A to Point B?  When and from where does it depart?  Where do I stay at Point B?  One of my jobs in the Army was a logistician.  I feel like I'm back at work. 

Somehow I've conquered (most of) these travel challenges.  And in doing so, my confidence has grown exponentially. 

2.  S.P.E.R.M Savvy.

I am not going to lie.  Before this trip my world geography was not up to par.  I was apathetic at times.  I lacked curiousity. 

Through travel, I've learned a myriad of Social, Political, Economic, Religious and Military truths.  Five months of travel has been more educational than a year at university (tell that to your parents, undergrads!).

I now have a world map and I look at it almost every day, trying to memorize where every country is located.  If someone tells me something I do not know anything about (for example, a friend in Istanbul threw around the word "byzantine") I don't sweep it under the rug.  I go to a computer and do some research!

As my S.P.E.R.M savvy has grown, so has my desire to become an activist.

3.   Life Experiences. 

Life experiences are the bread and butter of our existence.  At the end of my life am I really going to be thinking about my car?  My house?  How my butt looks in those designer jeans?  If my mascara is running?  No, I will be preoccupied with the people I love and something more intangible:  my cache of life experiences.

Travel has challenged me to reframe my point of view.  When bad things happen, I'm not as inclined to see it as a Woe is Me scenario.  Instead, I consider the fact that this is another life experience under my belt, another lesson learned, another story to tell (or write about).  The experiences (happy, tragic, comical, depressing, exciting, mundance, etc.) make me a more complex, and layered individual.  And, I am convinced, a better human being.

4.    Spirituality.

Life is inherently spiritual.  Travel has made me more aware of my spirituality.  I have asked many a philosophical question on the road.  I've had moments where I felt that I was part of something bigger, something far greater than myself.  I've had moments of great calm and clarity.

Travel has shown me that the truth is right there in front of us, if only we keep our eyes open; travel has convinced me of the power of Quest Physics:

"If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting and set out on a truth-seeking journey and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared - most of all - to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself...then the truth will not be withheld from you."

5.    Open-mindedness.

I was in the Army on 9/11.  As I watched New York City burn from the Hudson River Valley, my dislike and suspicion of Muslims grew.  When I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2007, I saw schools burned to the ground by Islamic extremists who didn't want women to learn how to read.  This fueled my dislike and suspicion of Muslims further. 

Travel challenged my worldview by introducing me to some kickass Muslim friends.  These Muslim friends have taught me loads of things about their religion.  For example, The Koran says that women are equal to men.  The Koran preaches tolerance and peacefulness.  Through my friends, I've learned that Islam is a beautiful religion that has been scewed by a handful of fanatics.  Fanatics that are not representative of the whole.

This is but one way (I could tick of dozens) that travel has made me a more open-minded person. 

Hendaye, France

And then I was in France, a country I`ve long revered.

Hendaye, France, to be exact.

As you can see, Hendaye is just a few kilometers outside of Spain.

The Eurorail pass is a strange beast.  All of the countries in Europe have their own, distinct national train company.  So if you are at a train station in Country X, you can not book a follow-on train ticket that originates in Country Y until you are physically at a train station in Country Y (because then you`d be booking with a different train company).  Hence, when I was at the train station in Madrid (Spain) on April 15th, I could not book my train ticket from Hendaye to Paris until I arrived in Hendaye (France).  The reason this sucks is because reservations are compulsory for many trains in Europe, and sometimes if you do not make a reservation a couple of days in advance the train is full. 

Hence, upon arriving in Hendaye at 13:53 on April 16th, I was told that the train to Paris departing at 17:00 that same day was already full and that I would need to take the overnight train arriving at 7:13 on April 17th.  This ate up another "travel day" for me, and my particular Eurorail pass only allotes me 15 travel days in a two month period.  But at least I saved money on a hostel and arrived in Paris all bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I need to add this to my Tips page:  take overnight transportation whenever possible.

   My Eurorail pass.

There isn`t a great deal to do in Hendaye.  I`d only gone to Hendaye because it was cheaper to travel from Madrid to Hendaye and then from Hendaye to Paris than it was to travel directly from Madrid to Paris...  That`s another thing about the Eurorail pass.  Even though you pay for the entire Eurorail pass upfront, there are still small supplementary fees you pay (something in the ballpark of maybe 2 to 20 Euro) when purchasing a train ticket at a train station.

The Eurorail pass comes with a map and handy dandy guidebook.

My first stop in Hendaye was the grocery store.  As I alluded to in a previous post, I`ve morphed into a huge cheapskate in Europe.  So now I`ve officially sworn off restaurants and buy all of my meals at grocery stores and markets.  At this grocery store, I purchased all of my food for lunch, dinner and breakfast for only six Euros!

French grocery store.



I then hightailed it to the nearest park...I mean parc.  It was picnic time.

Parc in Hendaye.

My "kitchen table."  My three favorite men:  cheese, chocolate and bread.

After a most sumptous, 2 Euro meal, I decided to explore Hendaye.

It`s an industrial city...

But it's also a port city (score!)....

There's also some sick Southern Californiaesque architecture going on here...

For the SoCal obsessed like me, does this not remind you of Coronado Island?

Hendaye was significant for me in that I finally felt that the Army was behind me.  It been about seven months since I ETSed (Army lingo for "got out") and I realized that the book has closed, that the slate is clean, that I`m ready (and so very excited) to start my MFA writing program in Roanoke, Virginia this August. 

I realized that there had been a shift in how I labeled myself.  For the first two months of this trip I would inevitably introduce myself as the "girl who'd been in the Active Army for the last five years."  Suddenly, in Hendaye, I realized that I was introducing myself as "the girl who was travelling the world for five months and going to graduate school afterwards."  This was quite a shift for me.  It's why I now see the value in a "Gap Year."   It's why if I ever have kids, I'm going to recommend that they take a "Gap Year" after highschool, college, graduate school, or another major life transition. 

There's this line from Forrest Gump that I was thinking about in Hendaye.  It's the line Forrest uses to justify his three year run across the country after Jenny leaves him:  "My mama always said you have to put the past behind you before you can move on."  The Army had been so much a part of my life and my identity for the past nine years that I think I needed this "Gap Year" to find myself again and to figure out who I really was without the Army.

Seven months later, I know who Armyless me really is. 

I guess you could say I found myself again on the other side of the world...