thehostelwitness

Work and Travel: How to get paid on the road

I hope that in my previous post I did not make it seem like you had to have a large stash of cash available in order to hit the road for an extended travel tour. The fact is, while savings are helpful, plenty of people travel and find

Opportunity knocks

As you all know, the axe fell today at Microsoft. 5,000 employees are to be let go and it doesn't really look good for my HR bretheren when that department was specifically singled out

Hitting the Road

My last weekend in New York was spent packing and selling the majority of my belongings. I was very fortunate to meet up with a church group who were more than willing to take the last of my furniture off of my hands - I had no idea how I was going to move the couch out of the apartment by myself. It took three of them (I supervised, beer in hand) to get the couch down to the basement, past all of the stuff I was throwing out, and out onto the street to their waiting truck. As we passed the boxes of unwanted pillows, footballs, and shoes, they asked if they could take a few things. Sure, I said. When I went back down in the morning, I was surprised to find that EVERYTHING was gone, including the notorious (at least to my friends) Orange Shirt. So if you see a missionary in New York wearing an orange and black embroidered button up, think of me. At the end of everything, I sent back four boxes, 1 picture frame, checked 2 pieces of luggage, and 1 carry on. It felt like I was coming home from college again.

The flight from New York to Seattle was for once, painless. My tired parents picked me up from the airport late Sunday night and I have since spent the last three days at home, shopping and visiting friends when I could. There was an impromptu dinner Monday night up in Seattle, but other than that I spent the time with my parents and grandmother in Lakewood. You would think that turning 30 would make coming home a different experience, but in reality I found that everyone reverts back to the roles they held when you all lived together. Food was thrust upon me, family shopping trips to Costco were arranged, and my mother even got to give me an annoying "tsk tsk" when I refused to watch "Oprah" with her. "Its about the realities of getting married - something you should think about one day."

Yes, one day. But for now, I'm thinking about walking through Tivoli Square in Copenhagen...probably this time Friday.

Travel Health Insurance

I'm a fairly healthy person by nature. My medical bills are usually limited to an annual physical, though this past year a trip to the Appalachian Trail resulted in a tick bite that required a Lyme disease test (no Lyme disease!). Point is, add in all the costs I've paid in insurance costs vs. the actual costs associated with treatment and I would say the insurance companies are coming out on top.

BUT the other day I had this image of me, lying in a ditch somewhere outside of Kaunas, holding onto my knee in the mud and rain...and I thought hmm, well maybe I should look into health insurance options. And so I share with you reader, what you need to know.

1. If you are going to get some kind of insurance, the very least you should have is evacuation insurance. This gets you home if you are in no condition to be home. I'm sure eastern Europe has come a long way, but waking up in a cold war era hospital is too much shades of "28 days later" for me.  Things to look for...the cheaper the insurance, the lower the coverage. Most of the cheapest plans will cover between 24,000 - 50,000 in evacuation costs. The State Department states that getting treatment and transportation abroad can easily top $50,000. That's a government estimate (remember the initial cost of the war??), so think more. A few extra dollars can easily bump up your coverage to a cool mil.

2. the second level, health insurance, covers your out of pocket costs while on the road. Traveling in Europe, one would think that you'd be covered with their socialized health care systems. Not really. The health care system is socialized, not free. If you are not a taxpayer of that country, chances are there will be some fees involved. Travel health insurance works after the fact, so you pay up front and the insurance company pays you back. Obv. this is not the ideal bargaining position. So read up and go with a company you trust - your current insurance company will probably offer something like this. I just called AAA and asked them for a referral. Again, you can go cheaper, but the coverage levels are usually much less. Looking around, I saw programs that covered only up to $2,000. If you need insurance for $2,000...you probably shouldn't be traveling just yet. A little more and you are covered up to 50k. 

3. Bundling. The word is out on travel insurance...lost ticket, baggage, and cancellation insurances are pretty much a racket for insurance firms. As more and more people opt out of this, insurance companies respond by bundling travel together with travel health. Try to get it separate, but realize its going to be a bit harder to do so.

In the end, I went with AAA. My travel insurance covers 50k medical, 50k dental, and 1 million evacuation for a cost of about $4/day. Should you go with just evacuation insurance, expect to pay a little over a dollar a day.

Purchased: 2 months travel health insurance $198

Spent: $2100

unemployed

well, i guess i'm unemployed now. just a few days until Seattle and then after that, Copenhagen.

Everyone in the office was very gracious with my leaving - i was given a bunch of camping equipment which will come in handy, as well as a "city pass" for use in Copenhagen, giving me free reign of museums and transit for the first three days of my trip. Thanks guys, you have really helped what was a hard process much easier to handle.

my apartment is half filled with boxes and half filled with garbage. its an absolute mess, but slowly i'm gaining headway into paring down my belongings. i've raised a good amount of money by selling the furniture, enough that the ticket to europe and the rail pass are nearly paid for.

just another week and we can get this show on the road.

2 weeks and counting

So it struck me this weekend that I had two weeks left until I flew home to Seattle, which by extention means that I have less than 2.5 weeks until I leave on the trip. The nerves are definately with me now, no doubt about it.

Katie had some really nice things to say about this trip on her blog, which brings me to the point of this post. I've been really awed by the amount of support everyone has been showing me. I just spent a half hour on the phone with a senior VP of Volt, upping the total to three major stakeholders who have personally contacted me wishing me well. Thank you to those that have sent emails and called expressing your encouragement - its been very reassuring.

Tickets for Copenhagen have been bought!

Holy freaking cow. Tickets have been bought.

I fly from Seattle direct to Copenhagen on Oct 4th, where I'll start two weeks of travelling Scandinavia before meeting up with Andrew of Goonfest fame in Amsterdam. From there we go to Lithuania!

The ticket is an "open-jaw" ticket, a cool way of saying that I fly into Copenhagen and return to Seattle by way of London on Dec 4th to get geared up for my trip down to South America.

Purchased:
1 Round trip ticket (via airfare.com): $842

Spent: $1902

The announcement

In my inbox today sat waiting a draft announcement that Patrick had put together to send out concerning my departure.

"This was not an easy email to write," it starts.

I replied back, "This was not an easy email to read!"

For over 8 years I've worked at Volt. All of my managers there - Sheila, Patrick, Rob, Scot - have all become good friends of mine, even with the small barriers I put in place to keep work seperate from my private life. Volt was my first job out of school, was where I met my first "serious" girlfriend (for all of three months, but still), and afforded me the opportunity to buy my first house and first car. Reading his announcement was like reading an obituary.

Patrick called me shortly after I replied, where we sketched out my last four weeks. Towards the end of the call he said, "I was hoping that the email would jar you and have you change your mind - its not too late, you know."

The surprising thing is that after all I've gone through, I thought about it. Strangely enough, that's when I realized that I had to go through with this, if only because its the scariest single thing I've done since leaving for college. That twinge to change my mind - that twinge of doubt essentially is the whole reason I'm doing this. I recognize that as much as I love this company and the people here, its become a huge safety blanket. I haven't done anything with my life in the last 8 years without first thinking about my job.

This is responsibility gone amok and is not something that I like about myself. So I just laughed to cover up that second of doubt and said to Patrick, "You know, the fact that I even thought about changing my mind just means I have to go."

Being scared can be a good thing.

The story thus far...

I'm looking at the calendar and realizing that I only have a few more weeks until I become an unemployed globe-trotter. My palms get a little sweaty just thinking about it.

Turning in my notice to Patrick last week was the capper to a very stressful week which included my luggage being lost and worst of all, my dog passing away. By the time I walked into his office, I was so ready to get my trip over with that I didn't even hesitate or pause. Part of me wonders if he took my fatigue from the week as general burnout. Either way, its done.

One thing I am going to be doing at the end of each post is to update you as to how much I've spent so far. Part of it is a way to keep expenses down - you guys will keep me honest. The main reason though is for those that have never travelled abroad who stumble across this page. Hopefully, you can use this information to help plan your own extended trip.

My trip officially starts with 3 days in Seattle to visit family on October 1st. I was able to use airline miles and will be travelling free. I should have enough remaining for a flight back to New York before connecting to an international flight.

Purchased:
Eurorail pass (15 days in 2 months): $1060

Spent: $1060