How to camp when you have to rent *everything*

Last weekend, Ben and I went to Devil's Lake. We live in Chicago and don't own either a car or a tent, and only have a sleeping bag, but we both really wanted to go camping.

Camping is the perfect cheap vacation - no hotels, no meals out, and all your entertainment is found by visiting the local state parks - plus, it's a super head clearing way to really get away from it all. This was necessary given my lay-off in May and the 62-hours I worked the previous week at my temp job, which I was convinced was ending the day before we left.

So about a month before the trip, when I got that feeling of "I need to leave town before I go crazy," I did some research. One of the benefits of belonging to a gym attached to a university is that my gym just happens to rent outdoor equipment. For $34, we rented a two-person tent, two sleeping mats, a sleeping bag, and a lantern for up to four nights. Not having a car, I brought one of my giant wheeled suitcases - large enough to get me through ten weeks and then some on the other side of the world - and loaded everything in. It wasn't that difficult to get the suitcase onto the L at rush hour on a Friday. I had to transfer everything into the GIANT suitcase I've only used before for moving once I added the second sleeping bag and two pillows (yes, I brought pillows camping).

We had checked various travel options - taking a train or bus to Milwaukee or Madison before renting a car, for example - but the most time and cost-efficient way was to rent a car from O'Hare, even when factoring in the hour plus train-bus-train ride there. For three days, our Mazda 2 hatch-back (super fun to drive!) cost about $90, plus gas, and the car was the perfect size for everything. The GIANT suitcase fit nicely under the hatch, and everything else (a cooler and two backpacks) went on the back seat.

I didn't get a picture of our tuff in the car, but here it is on the train

One thing to remember: you probably have rental car insurance through your auto insurance or your credit card. Ben confirmed this by calling Visa Signature - the policy is even on the first page of website! This saved us $30 for the weekend - a third of the price of the car!

Ben negotiating with the rental car representative about car insurance

We purchased all our groceries up in Barraboo, WI (including a delicious case of Spotted Cow beer, not available outside of Wisconsin), and we had to purchase firewood within 25 miles of the state park we were staying in. Add in the $5/day vehicle permit to bring the car in and some tolls (note: way cheaper just to pay the tolls, even if they're more expensive, than to pay $7/day on the rental car's ipass. We didn't spend $7 a day on tolls), and there you have it!

The worst part of the train-bus-train-car, car-train-bus-train part was construction we faced Monday on I-90 that seemed to go on forever. It actually was about 25 miles, but in 90-degree weather in slightly pre-rush hour traffic, this kind of sucked, especially knowing that we had to drag all of the stuff back to the gym via the train in rush hour.

Review of the rental system: not a bad way to go. We spent approximately $400 between us, which was a little more than I'd hoped (damn you, gas prices!) but we also made stops in Milwaukee and Madison for breakfast Saturday and lunch Monday. I'm hoping that when we go camping next year, we'll have a tent (either one we buy or one used from family). As far as the car, I decided that I'll wait until I have a job that needs one before purchasing, so maybe next year we'll still be making that trek out to O'Hare.

Until next time, cheers!

A brief trip to Spain, and the benefits of getting lost...

About two months ago, I got an email that said something like "round trip ticket to Barcelona, $280 incl. tax and fees." Two hours after receiving this email, I had a week long trip to Spain booked over spring break, leaving just over a month from that day. This was my first time traveling by myself, which was kind of scary, but also very exciting.

When I was in Spain, I had a lot of time to think. Law school isn't exactly the easiest thing, and when you spend all your waking hours talking to / studying with / sitting next to in class / drinking with the SAME group of people, you get sick of it pretty quickly. Add in some boy drama, and there you go. And so I went to Barcelona.

I did the usual tourist things. I saw the Sagrada Familia. I went to the beach. I had sangria and tapas and delicious Mediterranean pizza, and went out all night with other people in my hostel. I read four books while I was gone - more non-law school books than I've read since last summer.

At one point, I was trying to find the Olympic Stadium, wandering around Mountjeuc. I got lost because my map and the road signs weren't very clear. Plus I was on this huge stupid mountain, and it was starting to get a little dark, and I had wanted to hit up a museum or two, so I was irritated. The museums didn't happen, since by the time I even found them I was exhausted and irritated and sweaty, but I've found that getting lost is always one of the best experiences I have when I travel.

When I was in Athens, one morning I decided to wander up to the top of Mount Lykavitos. Somehow I ended up on the exact opposite side of the hill from where I needed to be, and had to wander around some small winding streets finding my way back. It was kind of fun, realizing that getting lost isn't the worst thing in the world. Later that semester, I was about 45 minutes south of Thessaloniki, visiting Philip of Macedonia's tomb. It was easy to GET there from the train station, but not so easy to get back. I ended up wandering back towards the train station with the two girls I was traveling with, hoping that we made the right turns walking the couple miles back to the train. Eventually a cab picked us up, and on the way to the train station, we stopped at some random army base for ten minutes, waiting to pick up a Greek soldier, who was also heading our way.

My first week in China, the first time I saw the sun was after this ridiculous downpour, while we were wandering around the Summer Palace. The rain cleared, and we sat out for an hour on the grass by the lake, just enjoying the sunshine. Then, we ended up by some back entrance, where people go to exercise after work and to fish and row boats and stuff, and when we left, on some deserted dirt road about half a mile away from the main street. So we just sort of wandered that way until we found some cabs to take us across the city, back to our hotel.

I'm not sure what the point of these stories are. But they're fun - just me, or me and a couple friends, wandering around roads, enjoying the views. There's nowhere to go, but to follow the map, hoping I remember how to get back to where I'm supposed to be. Maybe there's some extended metaphor here about how to live... one wrong turn, and you have to figure out how to get where you're going. Seeing the Olympic Stadium was cool - there was some sort of event going on in the building next to it, and they were playing a fun song loudly. The sun was setting, and it was just pretty. That wasn't the last thing I did that day, or even necessarily the coolest thing that happened in Spain. It was just good to get lost, and then found again. I watched the sun set over Spain, and that was enough.

Cavafy has a poem, "Ithaka," that talks about journeys and destinations:

When you set sail for Ithaca,

wish for the road to be long,

full of adventures, full of knowledge.

The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,

an angry Poseidon -- do not fear.

You will never find such on your path,

if your thoughts remain lofty, and your spirit

and body are touched by a fine emotion.

The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,

a savage Poseidon you will not encounter,

if you do not carry them within your spirit,

if your spirit does not place them before you.

Wish for the road to be long.

Many the summer mornings to be which with

pleasure, with joy

you will enter ports seen for the first time;

stop at Phoenician markets,

and purchase the fine goods,

nacre and coral, amber and ebony,

and exquisite perfumes of all sorts,

the most delicate fragances you can find,

to many Egyptian cities you must go,

to learn and learn from the cultivated.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.

To arrive there is your final destination.

But do not hurry the voyage at all.

It is better for it to last many years,

and when old to rest in the island,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaca to offer you wealth.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful journey.

Without her you would not have set out on the road.

Nothing more has she got to give you.

And if you find her threadbare, Ithaca has not deceived you.

Wise as you have become, with so much experience,

you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

So I really suck at updating blogs....

My deepest apologies for not publishing more about my summer travels last year. Over the next couple days I'll ad some fun stories about my trips around the world and back, and hopefully I'll be better about adding stories about the fun travels I do.

May 17

First day of class! Woke up early to take a walk, and found a cute river and a park.

We're in a building on the Beijing Foreign Studies University Campus. Our room is on the sixth floor, so there are lots and lots of steps. We learned about Chinese history, and then the Dean of the law school talked to us about the Chinese legal system. Everything is secondary to the Communist party, and you have to be a member in order to be anyone.
Our classroom building, and our classroom on the sixth floor

After class a group of us went to lunch with our professors at a Muslim restaurant. Our professor said that in order to work in Beijing, you have to have a permit because they don't like to have people moving to the city (avoiding outsiders), so there are about five million undocumented people here. If you don't have a permit, you don't have rights (i.e. no police, no schools, no hospital, no right to sue - if you don't get paid, you have no recourse). This is what China means when they talk about "human rights issues," not things like "freedom of speech" (which nobody in China thinks is necessary.

Tonight there was a banquet at the university with Chinese students. We met a girl who's English name is Seven who likes going shopping and going to karaoke. She doesn't like how students here are so serious - she offered to pay for karaoke once and nobody wanted to go.

Chinese telephone booths

"Yes, that's the pollution" May 16

Woke up super early, got breakfast (yellow ball things with deliciousness; white things that were just as yummy). Total price for breakfast was 18 RMB, so less than $3 each – equally cool. 

Took a cab to a flea market, which was also super cool. We got drinks at a little café that caters to westerners. I got watermelon juice for 25 RMB, which is way too much, but so it goes. The juice was freshly squeezed, so I don’t think I’ll get sick from it.

Wandered around the flea market area for a couple hours and got a cute tea set for 100 RMB. There’s Chinese writing on it, but I don’t know what it says. I also played a Chinese flute. People were trying to sell pieces of broken pottery as "antiques" - not sure who they fool or how well that works for them. People were also selling giant statues, but I'm not sure how you'd move them, because they were MASSIVE.

We met a cute baby, who was totally a ploy to get us to go into the shop. Parents here don’t put diapers on their kids, so all the baby clothes are crotchless, since the kids just do their business in the street.

Came back to the hotel, and met up with a bunch of people to get dinner. I fell asleep about 10, so I missed the midnight-one hour of no power.

Goodbye Chicago, Hello Beijing! - May 11-15

After finishing my finals on a Tuesday, finding a subletter on Thursday, and somehow managing to clean my apartment and pack everything for two months, I got my flight at 6am that Friday out of O'Hare.

Clearly, this meant I had to stay up all night to get to the airport, and my friends gave me a ride. I got to the airport somewhere around 2am, but the airport didn't open until 4am, so I hung out for a couple hours until I could check in.

I had to connect through San Francisco, and then was off on a 14-hour flight to Beijing. The kid sitting next to me told me that he was a student in Japan, but that was about all I got out of him, since he slept literally the entire flight and didn't eat, drink, or do anything other than sleep. I was pretty jealous.

The flight landed on time, at 3pm in Beijing. Customs took about an hour, and I had to go through a temperature sensing thing (which I'm not sure how it worked, since it was boiling in the airport). Customs was pretty easy, and the only long part there was waiting for my bag to arrive.

My first view of China, out the window of the plane

Our professor had some Chinese students meet us at the airport, and there were a couple other kids from my program who arrived at the same time, so we got a big van to the hotel where we were staying. The Chinese students helped us check in, and I hopped into the shower as soon as I got to my room.

Our hotel, BFSU

There were five or six guys from our program who had gotten there the day before, and I went with them to dinner around the corner from the hotel. Most meals in China are family-style and served on a lazy susan, so the boys just ordered a bunch of plates and some Chinese beer (which is awful, but so cheap that nobody cares). Dinner was delicious, and came out to 20 RMB each, or just under $3 - I love China!!

After dinner we tried to find a bar, but instead found lots of things that aren't bars, so we called it quits after a good walk.

Google Exists!

Hi all! It's been a while... google doesn't really exist in China, other than gmail, and I wasn't tech-savy enough to jump the wall while I was there. I'm in Tokyo now, then Sydney starting in a few days, and I'll start posting pictures and stories from the last month. Stay tuned!