New Zealand??
So it's almost time for me to apply for school, and I'm really excited that we set a goal to be in Boston by next summer.
Every now and then though, I get a craving for adventure. I become so passionate about the idea of have an amazing experience.
Mari just got back from South America about a month ago, and she just left yesturday to go farm in Peru for a couple months. When she gets back, she's going to take 6 months and travel the Apallachian trail with her brother.
I have friends that go to Japan for a couple years to teach English, or work the summer in Alaska. I'm so envious of people who can do that, and it makes me want it so badly. I could never do it alone though, and I could never imagine being seperate from Jason for months at a time. I don't think it's worth the risk, but I know he's not normally excited about new ideas such as those. I would love to experience something like that with him, and I know he'd love it if he broke out of his over logical thought process.
Well, of course, I was speaking to my mom about this...kinda waiting for her to say that I'm being silly for wanting to do something like that when I'm FINALLY planning on going back to school, but instead, she was excited and said that this is the best time to do something like that. Later there will be more bills, more responsibilities, and after school I may fall straight into an amazing job.
While searching the internet, I found a new sport from New Zealand...called Zorbing. I jokingly sent Jason a link and told him "see, if we could go to New Zealand, we could go Zorbing!" I sent him an itinerary of the International Student Volunteer program that I was supposed to go to after graduating from FSU, and he actually got really excited about it. Since then, we can't stop talking about it.
It's a 4 week program. The first 2 weeks you volunteer, and the second 2 weeks you go on excursions, such as black water rafting, climbing a glacier, sight seeing, and it's all included in the package (as well as food, lodging, ground transportation from south to north New Zealand, etc).
We figured this would be perfect...because we could still have an experience and volunteer, but it wouldn't put us off course as far as school goes. And if I could go anywhere in the world, it would be New Zealand. The problem is that it costs $3500, not including airfaire, which is about another $1000.
At first, I said that I was completely willing to through down a credit card for this trip, since when else would I get the chance to have an experience like this, but then I spoke to my mom. She said she couldn't justify spending $3500 so that the company can make money off of our volunteering. This bummed me out, but I completely understand it. I started looking at other volunteer programs, and they all seem to cost money...at least the New Zealand ones. Though, at this point I had my heart set on New Zealand.
I found a program that is $600 for 2 weeks of volunteering...but then I thought, well we'd want to stay another 2 weeks to explore, and doing that independently would be very expensive. Plus, it would be more difficult to plan climbing a glacier and such, if we're not in a group, but we will have more independence. So what would be better? I know we were still leaning toward the ISV program even though it is ridiculously expensive, merely for the experience.
But as of late, I've had this strange feeling that I lost sight of my original idea in the first place, which was to volunteer or work for a longer period of time, not for spending tons of money to play, right before I have to spend tons on going back to school. I haven't mentioned this uneasy feeling to Jason, because I'm just so excited that he wants to do this.
So now I think, what's the best thing to do? We both agree that if we want to do something like this, this is the best time to do it. But would it be better to spend lots of $ for an amazing 2-4 week experience (itinerary), and stay on track with school? Or we can even to the less expensive New Zealand trip and just volunteer for a whole month, and only play on the weekends and nights, but we wouldn't be able to see as much of New Zealand. When will I ever get a chance to go to the one place that I so badly want to go? It's not like a trip to Europe. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities for that.
Or would it be better to actually have more of an experience and work in maybe Japan for a year or two (can always visit New Zealand from there!)? This means that we would have to put off school...which is a very scary thought to me. I've been working so hard at getting my portfolio together, and I have really good resources for a letter of recommendation (it'll be more difficult to ask them to help me out in 2 years when they know me less, and a bit embarassing that I fell off track), and we've really been working at looking forward to Boston. But again, what better time than now? I can always go to school, right? And I could possibly save of some money, and oh, the pictures I could get. It would be such an amazing experience for both Jason and I!
Any advice? If we do decide to go New Zealand for a few weeks, I have to decide fast. As of now we're planning on being in Boston by June.
Every now and then though, I get a craving for adventure. I become so passionate about the idea of have an amazing experience.
Mari just got back from South America about a month ago, and she just left yesturday to go farm in Peru for a couple months. When she gets back, she's going to take 6 months and travel the Apallachian trail with her brother.
I have friends that go to Japan for a couple years to teach English, or work the summer in Alaska. I'm so envious of people who can do that, and it makes me want it so badly. I could never do it alone though, and I could never imagine being seperate from Jason for months at a time. I don't think it's worth the risk, but I know he's not normally excited about new ideas such as those. I would love to experience something like that with him, and I know he'd love it if he broke out of his over logical thought process.
Well, of course, I was speaking to my mom about this...kinda waiting for her to say that I'm being silly for wanting to do something like that when I'm FINALLY planning on going back to school, but instead, she was excited and said that this is the best time to do something like that. Later there will be more bills, more responsibilities, and after school I may fall straight into an amazing job.
While searching the internet, I found a new sport from New Zealand...called Zorbing. I jokingly sent Jason a link and told him "see, if we could go to New Zealand, we could go Zorbing!" I sent him an itinerary of the International Student Volunteer program that I was supposed to go to after graduating from FSU, and he actually got really excited about it. Since then, we can't stop talking about it.
It's a 4 week program. The first 2 weeks you volunteer, and the second 2 weeks you go on excursions, such as black water rafting, climbing a glacier, sight seeing, and it's all included in the package (as well as food, lodging, ground transportation from south to north New Zealand, etc).
We figured this would be perfect...because we could still have an experience and volunteer, but it wouldn't put us off course as far as school goes. And if I could go anywhere in the world, it would be New Zealand. The problem is that it costs $3500, not including airfaire, which is about another $1000.
At first, I said that I was completely willing to through down a credit card for this trip, since when else would I get the chance to have an experience like this, but then I spoke to my mom. She said she couldn't justify spending $3500 so that the company can make money off of our volunteering. This bummed me out, but I completely understand it. I started looking at other volunteer programs, and they all seem to cost money...at least the New Zealand ones. Though, at this point I had my heart set on New Zealand.
I found a program that is $600 for 2 weeks of volunteering...but then I thought, well we'd want to stay another 2 weeks to explore, and doing that independently would be very expensive. Plus, it would be more difficult to plan climbing a glacier and such, if we're not in a group, but we will have more independence. So what would be better? I know we were still leaning toward the ISV program even though it is ridiculously expensive, merely for the experience.
But as of late, I've had this strange feeling that I lost sight of my original idea in the first place, which was to volunteer or work for a longer period of time, not for spending tons of money to play, right before I have to spend tons on going back to school. I haven't mentioned this uneasy feeling to Jason, because I'm just so excited that he wants to do this.
So now I think, what's the best thing to do? We both agree that if we want to do something like this, this is the best time to do it. But would it be better to spend lots of $ for an amazing 2-4 week experience (itinerary), and stay on track with school? Or we can even to the less expensive New Zealand trip and just volunteer for a whole month, and only play on the weekends and nights, but we wouldn't be able to see as much of New Zealand. When will I ever get a chance to go to the one place that I so badly want to go? It's not like a trip to Europe. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities for that.
Or would it be better to actually have more of an experience and work in maybe Japan for a year or two (can always visit New Zealand from there!)? This means that we would have to put off school...which is a very scary thought to me. I've been working so hard at getting my portfolio together, and I have really good resources for a letter of recommendation (it'll be more difficult to ask them to help me out in 2 years when they know me less, and a bit embarassing that I fell off track), and we've really been working at looking forward to Boston. But again, what better time than now? I can always go to school, right? And I could possibly save of some money, and oh, the pictures I could get. It would be such an amazing experience for both Jason and I!
Any advice? If we do decide to go New Zealand for a few weeks, I have to decide fast. As of now we're planning on being in Boston by June.