Author: Octavia Szkutnik

“Oh, but my family goes there every year! It’s tradition!”

Going to the same place annually has a fun aspect of nostalgia and familiality, that’s undeniable. I don’t know who I’d be or what my childhood would look like had I not gone to Poland every summer to visit family. However, there’s proven psychological benefits to going somewhere new and exploring the Earth.

People love to go to the same beach house every year out of familiarity and comfort; it’s easy and they know they’ll love it. Travel should, however, be used to attain the opposite of familiarity— to obliterate your comfort zone, to subject yourself to unpredictability, and bask in the boundless chances for exploration and learning. Thus, the result of this uncertainty is personal growth: greater emotional maturity, agility, and creativity. 

Travelling to a place you’ve never been to grants you the ability to not immediately react to emotions, but instead observe them and analyze any probable causes; then you can intentionally decide how to handle them, rather than act out of rashness. In a study led by Kerri Crowne on about 500 Americans, traveling abroad was connected to a greater ability to direct attention and energy. This ability to redirect helps humans function successfully in a multitude of situations from skills such as recognizing and displaying verbal and nonverbal emotional cues. Visiting more unfamiliar countries coupled with greater assimilation into the local culture amplified the beneficial emotional effects, and the participants maintained the increased emotional maturity long after they returned home. As you spend longer periods of time in a foreign town, you grow to understand and accept your feelings of discomfort and use them to your advantage, increasing your confidence and capability to navigate bizarre or vague situations. Asking a local where the nearest café shop is no longer becomes a dreadful, embarrassing task, but rather an interaction to enjoy.

Going to more non-traditional locations also spikes your creativity, as I mentioned. A study of about 50 Dutch workers found that after going on an international vacation for around two weeks, the employees generated not just more ideas, but also more innovative ideas for alternative ways to use mundane objects, like spoons or pencils. This could be due to the fact that greater exposure to other cultures, creation of borderless friendships, immersion in a new language, and consumption of foreign is linked to unorthodox problem solving, or simply just from the relaxation of a mental break that the vacation provided. Either way, travelling clearly has its benefits.

I can attest to both of these claims based on my own experiences. My time in Italy broke down my introverted shell and I was able to speak to strangers with no issue. I was not confident in my conversational skills, but I learned to disregard my own insecurities and push forward because I knew it would benefit me in the long run (which it did- I can still speak to strangers like it’s nothing to this day!). In Prague, my creativity felt boundless. I was returning home to an entire AP Art portfolio that needed to be dreamed up, and the proximity of the local culture combined with the beautiful architecture inspired my entire concentration. 

Travelling to new places, no matter how far or near, is good for the heart and soul; I don’t think anyone could argue that. 

Everyone dreams of travelling like a local. Oh, how it must feel to wisp down the small corridors of Paris like you know where you’re going and what little cafes are the best for a morning croissant. That’s why it’s essential to know when to travel, not just where to travel.

Especially during the summer, most major cities are taken over by tourists; even smaller cities are crowded if it has a port for cruise ships. You should expect these types of cities to be more global rather than immersive in local culture, as they will be packed with non-locals during the peak season of June to August. Palma de Mallorca, Dubrovnik, Venice, Bruges, and many other popular European cities have implemented, or consider implementing, restrictions on cruise ships due to the immense influx of tourists (these cities can receive up to 2 million visitors annually from cruise ships alone). So, if your ideal travel experience is consumed by images of you being surrounded by locals, do your research in order to avoid being engulfed by 3,000 tourists who are all trying to get the same photo in front of the Eiffel Tower.

If your schedule allows for it, the months directly before and after peak season (AKA April to May and September to November) are the most optimal for travelling without the crowds.

The weather is still nice and most people are at work or home rather than trying to travel abroad. Without all the tourists, lines to museums and attractions will be shorter, which lets you maximize your amount of time. You will also feel like you’ve had a more authentic experience; you’ll hear the native tongue more often than English and the friends you make will more likely be locals rather than foreigners. Like I’ve mentioned in another blog post, aside from the lack of tourists, prices during the off-season will also be cheaper. Car rentals, hotel and airplane prices… benefits during the off-season are boundless.

Choosing between going before peak season or after peak season should really rely on your availability, but if you have the flexibility, also consider some nuances of your trip: the cities you plan to visit, the events you want to see, the adventures you wish to have… you can only have particular experiences during particular seasons. For example, take the Tulip Festival in Amsterdam- this event only takes place during the spring, so if it’s a must see for you, be conscious of the timing. 

Basically, if you can, try to avoid the summer. The weather sounds great and it’s the easiest to fit into a schedule, but the weather in the spring is also pretty and your photos and interactions with locals will be so much better.

“What do you want to get for dinner? There’s a McDonald’s somewhere in Nové Město…”

Everybody has a different reason behind their travel, be it a  business trip, a culture/language immersion, or a simple vacation. Wherever your intentions lie, everyone has one simple task in common: eating.

One of the many benefits of traveling outside of the United States is to try the many other dishes foreign countries have to offer. Going abroad expands your perception of flavor profiles; raw, authentic flavors that you could have never even imagined can become one of your new favorite meals. Limiting yourself to your own country’s food while you’re somewhere new restricts you from enlightening yourself on the culture around you and tasting something possibly delicious. 

A country’s food tells you a lot about their culture; for example, you might ask yourself why a cultural group only eats a certain food during a certain season. While I was in Iceland, I had the most delicious fresh Atlantic salmon salad. In Iceland, the salmon runs upriver from May to October, most frequently during the middle of this period; furthermore, since the country is entirely surrounded by water, fish is an integral part of an Icelander’s diet. The food within a culture also cues you into their history- going back to Iceland, Icelanders maintain a basic diet that reflects the bitter natural conditions in which they historically struggled to survive in. 

Most importantly, though, the local dishes wherever you are will never be better anywhere else. Why would ovocne knedliky made with locally grown Czech plums be as good in the United States? The fruit is sourced in their own country! Sure, you can Google a recipe and make it for yourself… I think we can agree that, however, it cannot get any better than chefs in restaurants who have been preparing the same dishes for years from the same recipes that have been used for centuries. All you have to do is enjoy it- eating local dishes is really the easiest way to connect with the culture you’re around.

Discovering new foods while you’re already at your destination can be exciting, but I’d also recommend finding a few cultural dishes you definitely want to try and explore the area trying to locate a place you can try it! It can lead you down unknown corners of a city or help you practice your language skills when asking for directions. Just have fun with it :).

 

We think a lot about money and how to save up, but why don’t we ever really think about the earth and how to save it? 

I’ve discussed travelling affordably a lot in this blog, but now I’d like to address a different aspect of going abroad: travelling sustainably.

Sustainable travel means finding forms of tourism without harming natural and cultural environments. Ideally, tourism should be beneficial to the area in which it takes place. This, unfortunately, is often not the case; have you ever heard of elephant rides in Thailand? Most people have, and put it on their bucket list because it seems beautiful or simply fun. However, their illegal capture for use in the industry of tourism is a huge problem- researchers estimate that there are only about 2,000 Asian elephants left in Thailand. Also, taming these elephants is no walk in the park… it’s much more brutal. These elephants need to be “tamed” (tortured) when very young to break their spirit so that they allow humans to ride on them. Riding these elephants and contributing money to this terrible practice is a more unconventional example of unsustainable travel, but unsustainable nevertheless.

Besides needing to be aware of how tourism affects the environment and local wildlife, it is also essential to be more aware of pollution levels caused by travel. As sustainable travelers, we can look for hotels and restaurants which recycle and are built from sustainable materials. It’s not even that hard- if you Google “Paris sustainable restaurants“, you’ll receive plenty of results. The same goes for hotels- Hotel de la Porte Doree in Paris uses water preservation techniques and ecological television sets that turn off when you walk out of the room. At about 80 dollars per night, it’s more expensive than the choices we discussed in the last blog post, but definitely cheaper than your conventional hotel.

Sustainable travel extends beyond these two options, though- think about the way you travel, too. 72% of CO2 emissions from tourism stem from transportation. On SkyScanner, if a flight will save CO2 emissions, a notification will come up explaining that the flight is a “greener choice”. Taking a two-way flight between New York and California generates around 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that a car emits in just one year. So, if you’re going to fly abroad, picking these “greener choice” flights are a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Looking at flights from New York to Paris, a “greener choice” flight costs the same amount as a flight with similar layover times.

A part of sustainable travel that many don’t think about is its social aspect. We, as tourists, have a large impact on local people and communities. To ensure this impact is positive rather than negative, we can support businesses that are run by locals as well as community tourism projects rather than big-named companies. Looking into if the employees are fairly paid and if their work environment is safe before you contribute any money would also be a great way to be a sustainable traveler. Feeding into the local economy ensures that tourism doesn’t strike down the local culture.

As tourists, we need to be conscious of the way we travel and the impact we have on the area we travel to. We must take responsibility, and then take action, to help reduce the damage humanity has inflicted upon this Earth. Advocate for sustainable travel and put some of these practices into reality- fixing global warming won’t happen overnight, but everyone can contribute in one way or another!

 

“Oh, I’d love to go there, but I just can’t afford it!”

Plenty of people complain about expenses of travel without thoroughly researching alternatives. Of course, if you want to spend 7 nights in an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, it’s going to be expensive. However, there are so many other housing options for going abroad that won’t cost you more than staying at a hotel somewhere in the USA.

According to Workaway.info, a Workawayer is “a traveler willing to help out for a few hours a day in return for a place to stay and food to eat”. Essentially, someone who exchanges labor for a homestay. Jobs range from working in hostels, training horses, working on farms, babysitting, teaching languages, cooking, for about 20-25 hours a week. Some hosts of these homestays even offer a wage for their guests; besides living like the locals & having a ‘free’ place to stay, you can even make some cash to spend on your meals! The best part, arguably, is that even though Workaway is very safe, you are not obligated to stay for the whole time if your host is rude!

Similar to Workaway, Couchsurfing is another way to live with a local (except this time it’s free!) Hospitality on Couchsurfing is totally costless. A host should never ask you to pay for their lodging, and Couchsurfing recommends that you don’t offer to pay either. However, since these people are letting you into their houses solely due to the kindness within their hearts, good Couchsurfers will repay their hosts with fun activities together and a possible friendship. Going out to a dinner or completing a free walking tour of the city together shows another side of Couchsurfing that many don’t consider; besides the free lodging, you can make a lifetime friend!

Hostels are also a very cheap alternative to hotels- they can easily save you 100 dollars a night (although you’ll have to source your own meals if you’re usually used to breakfast at a hotel). For anyone who may not know, a hostel is a shared lodging where you can rent a bed, kind of supplemental dorm style, typically with a shared lounge and sometimes a kitchen. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Skyscanner has a section on their website to search for hostels! A hotel in the center of Paris could cost upwards of 130 dollars, but if you stay in a hostel, you could be paying as little as 20 dollars per night.

These cheaper forms of housing will help you meet new people to connect with for a fraction of the cost of a hotel!

 

 

 

 

Life-changing experiences sometimes hide themselves in things you take for granted; you may not always have access to those things that you assume you can just make time for later. Studying abroad can be one of those life-changing experiences for students like us, but many claim they “can’t make the time” or that they will just “do it later”. From immersing yourself in a new culture to expanding your global outreach, the benefits of studying abroad has for your educational experience and overall lifestyle far outweigh the annoyance of rearranging your suggested academic path.

So many students are set in the more test-oriented educational system of the USA. Studying abroad can help you learn to adapt to new educational settings and styles of teaching; for example, there are no rankings or competition between students in Finland, which is basically unheard of to high school seniors who are asked to list their class ranking on their applications. Class sizes, even for underclassmen, abroad are infinitely smaller than what you may be used to in a public school in the USA; professors abroad typically promote self-learning through group work and student interactions. In Spain, a “jigsaw” method of learning is used, where every student in the class presents part of a lesson to their group; this prepares students for future collaborative work in their professional field. 

Besides expanding your educational horizons, you also enhance your network, which not only creates better opportunities in the work field, but can also improve your lifestyle overall. You can make friends from all over the world; not only will you become close with locals your age in the country you study in, but also with kids from around the globe who came to the country you did. The wider your social circle is, the more likely you are to develop more enriching career and social opportunities. Maybe one of your Italian friends will invite you to an interesting career seminar, but perhaps you will also visit your Australian friend every summer. Your windows of opportunity will expand beyond the borders of the USA.

Maybe most importantly, you’ll learn more about a new culture. You will expand your worldview and learn more about globalization; through studying abroad, you’ll have a better cross-cultural awareness. Culture has a big impact on how people react to situations, respect others, or even just cook meals. Studying abroad will help you see all these mundane aspects of life in a new light. 

When you experience a new culture for months on end, you will grow in confidence; spending time with brand new people while learning a brand new culture will cultivate your soul and pride into something of independence and resilience. It’s truly an essential experience!

“Ciaoooo… uhhh… dov’è il bag-no?”

Going to a country for the first time knowing at least a little bit of the language is enough to make locals open up to you infinitely more. Knowing even a few verbs and adjectives can help you in a tremendous way- reading signs or asking directions can save you from getting lost or wasting your time. 

But getting lost isn’t the most important reason to enrich your travel experience by learning the native tongue- the citizens of the country will be so much kinder to you. Trying to order food in France if you’re speaking French can make the waiters be much more patient with you and your food- everyone likes to see a foreigner at least make the effort to learn the language that they grew up with. John Yamamoto-Wilson recounts his time in New Caledonia, where he simply learned the local word for “hello.” Soon enough, he was making friends left and right with the inhabitants of NC because he was the foreigner who spoke the native language.

You can also get a lot of insight towards the culture of the area you’re visiting. By learning that native language, you’ll probably understand the country’s inhabitants better. You can learn more about their cultural dishes or how respect is expressed. For example, a lot of languages have a specific set of rules for conjugation when addressing an elderly person or someone of a higher power position. 

My personal favorite about knowing the language of the country you’re travelling to is bartering at the markets. I went to Italy with my AP teacher in junior year and I absolutely loved going to the farmer’s market and debating prices of little trinkets. The sweet, old Italian villagers seemed to be extremely happy to hear someone learning their language and were happy to give me the prices I asked for. 

I recommend taking a notebook and starting to practice as soon as you know you’re definitely going on the trip. Write down the basic verbs- to want, to be, to have, to need, to go, etc. Follow that up with the essential travel words, like hotel, restaurant, left/right, bathroom, train station, and anything else you can think of. It’s also convenient to have some questioning phrase in your vocabulary, like “where is” or “how do I”. If you have time after feeling confident in your conjugating abilities, try embellishing your lexicon with food descriptors or things about yourself, like “my name is” or “I am from”. 

Not only will learning some words in a new language be a fun learning experience, but it will also enrich your travelling experience in a way you can’t even comprehend until you do it. I couldn’t recommend it enough!

“Oh no! My flight is in 2 hours and I can’t close my suitcase!”

I feel like everyone new to flying has been through this scenario- you need to be at the airport as soon as humanly possible, yet you’ve not only over-packed, but also packed incorrectly.

Let me save you from this classic tragedy with a few helpful tips!

Allow me to start with the universal problem of over-packing, which is something I definitely suffered with until the past few years. You should really only bring one pair of shoes that you can pull off with any outfit; I recommend a pair of black sneakers. Going off of that point, also try to only pack clothes from the same color family– you can mix and match easier this way, and therefore have to pick less clothing. Don’t forget that you can also do laundry! Chores are probably the last thing anyone is thinking about on vacation, but it can save you so much stress, time, and money from having to pay for taking a second suitcase. Lastly, but most importantly, only pack for plans you definitely have; so many people pack a bathing suit or a fancy dress “just in case”, but there’s really no reason if you can’t imagine yourself genuinely needing it. 

Another problem I noticed that I used to have is that I simply didn’t know how to fold clothing for a suitcase (trust me, it’s much different than folding your laundry). You really want to go for efficiency when it comes to packing, which is why you should also pick mostly anti-wrinkle fabrics. Rolling and folding is essential to creating the most space in your luggage; folding your jeans in half lengthwise and then rolling saves much more space than simply folding them into fours. I also really recommend bundling your clothing. For example, placing a pair of shorts and socks on top of a long sleeve and then performing the fold-roll combination will also increase your space, as you now have one slimmer roll rather than two or three equally sized rolls. Don’t forget about stuffing your shoes with socks, too!

Lastly, I wanted to focus on the type of suitcase that’s best to use. Personally, I think suitcases without compartments on the inside are the best; pockets inside take up space and weight that you could be making the most of with your clothing and toiletries. If you’re looking for a new suitcase, opt for an expanding bag with no interior pockets to get the most bang for your buck!

No matter how you decide to pack your bag, you’re probably doing great as long as you don’t miss your flight! I wish everyone the best of luck. 

 

Enthusiastically typing in “New York CIty to Spain flights” to Google, you happily land on a flight that’s $700 round trip. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “that’s not bad!”, right? 

It is bad.

You can do better.

Many people utilize Google Flights or airline websites to find their flights- this is obviously fine, that is, if you want to spend twice the amount that you have to spend. 

I was introduced to SkyScanner when I was in 9th grade by a friend who loves travelling as much as I do. I’ve been obsessed ever since, using it for every trip- $300 round trip to Iceland, $200 round trip to Paris. 

SkyScanner is completely customizable to your preferences; you can pick if you want layovers, certain airlines, exact or vague dates, and locations to fly to/from. My best tip to finding the cheapest flight is to put in your area (for me this would be New York) and click general (so, I would also get flights from New Jersey). JFK airport rarely has the cheapest flights, so I like to wager my bets by looking at all the airports near me. 

I also recommend selecting “cheapest month” instead of picking a certain month or even exact dates- this is easier, of course, when you have low commitments, but there’s always a way to make time for things you’re passionate about. Flights under cheapest month to, for example, a country in Europe, are normally 80-130 dollars one way if you fly with a layover and a more “budget” airline. If you go during prime travel season, like June, tickets could be up to 250 dollars round trip with extensive layover times. If you don’t use SkyScanner, flights during June could be (at the cheapest) 400 dollars. 

Furthermore, try buying tickets in September or March, and on Tuesdays or Saturdays. Skyscanner themselves have released statistics showing that these months and days have the cheapest tickets!

I’ve flown with budget airlines and more well known airlines, and there’s not really much of a difference. Just bring your own snacks in place of the lack of meals for longer flights, and you should have no issues! Some airlines, like WOW, try to trick you by not including the price of one bag in their ticket price- this is also why I recommend packing everything into the biggest carry-on possible, which I will focus on at another time.

Overall, if you’re going to buy airline tickets, take full advantage of SkyScanner. You’ll find cheap flights from convenient airports during less traveled months. Saving money on your flight can save you hundreds of dollars which you can then splurge on more excursions or cultural foods. 

Facing culture shock is daunting, no matter where you go. It can really come in any form, from coming to State College from California to studying abroad in a country you’ve never visited. When something scares us, it’s easy to cower in fear and remain in your comfort zone instead of going out and exploring- how can we grow as people if we don’t confront our fears and try new things? That’s why I think travelling is so important; it completely changes your approach to everyday tasks because it shows you life from a different person’s set of eyes.

Falling in love with culture is a different type of love. Expanding horizons on what you solely know as normal through plain conversation with others so ethnically different than you is one of the only ways one can learn to grow. Travel is not just about the fun things you do or the cool places you go, but rather the people you meet and the knowledge and wisdom you take back with you and continue to improve upon.

Culture defines your identity and diversity aids in allowing more acceptance and amity within your heart. Through learning more about foreign culture and diversity you begin to learn how to communicate better on both an interpersonal and external level. It allows you to set aside any past prejudices and listen, learn, establish positives of a different culture and enrich your own life through diverse friend groups of sexuality and religion, or even just the way you cook dinner. 

I, personally, am an avid seeker of cultural exposure and knowledge of as many ethnic backgrounds as I can possibly gather. Often I can be found exploring Chinatown with my father, or going to the Greek Festival in Brookville, Long Island. Some type of yearning just sits inside of me, a type of wanderlust; this world has done so much for me, so my philosophy is to give back just as much and learn, explore, and accept. 

Together with my family, I have visited 13 countries, and I want to share my knowledge of how to get the best deals, how to interact with locals, and effectively pack for flights to save money. As a dual-citizen of the European Union and the United States who has spent nearly every summer in Poland with family, I also feel like I carry valuable knowledge about both cultural lifestyles with me wherever I go. I can’t wait to share all that I know!