(Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image courtesy wanderingtheworld  – flickr)

Wow!  I am over the moon! I can’t believe it. We just booked our first flights for the RTW journey!

It’s been 3 years in the making and there were a couple really horrid set backs (read: cancer) but it’s happening! It’s finally happening. I’m actually tearing up as I write this because I am finally realizing a dream that I have had for so many years.

It’s just seems surreal.

First stop – Iceland!

We really wanted to head to Europe but the direct flights were insane. I’ve been searching airfares for days now and time and time again Iceland was coming out as the strong winner!  We got lucky and found a flight to Iceland for $255 on Iceland Air (inc. taxes) out of Boston. I did some more searching and it looks like for another $100 we can take a budget flight to Europe from Iceland. So for about $350 we’re headed to Europe for far less than what the flights were coming in at originally. Sure there were tons of “deals” to London, etc but everytime I tried to book one – it disappeared. Most flights to Europe were coming in at about $500 – $600 o/w. So I think we got a great deal and we get to check out Iceland as well – which is amazing! (Iceland Air also has a stop over route but that was still more expensive than booking separately.)

I’m super psyched! Iceland is somewhere I always wanted to go but it seemed so strange and exotic – I never thought it would be the start of the trip! I never even thought I would be going there at all on this trip. Yah!

After a few days in Iceland we’re going to catch a cheap flight (most likely on Iceland Express) to somewhere in Europe. Hopefully it will be Italy but we will pick the destination by the cost of the ticket. Eventually we’ll make our way to Prague, Vienna & Italy. We plan on wwoofing our way through Italy and to cut costs we’ll be camping for almost our entire journey (including in Iceland).

We are on a strict budget of $50/day for 2 people! Can we do it??

Transportation will eat up most of that budget, which is why we have to camp, wwoof and move slowly. Mainly we’ll be eating food that we buy at the markets and doing a lot of free things. That’s gonna be hard for me in Italy because I’m Italian and I love food! Hopefully we will also get to stay with some of my family members in that area. However I already know we’re headed to the Blue Lagoon for a day in Iceland and the tickets are about $35/person. Maybe we’ll have to try our hand at couchsurfing in Iceland to comp the cost! Or maybe we can pitch a story about it and get the entrance fee waived! We also have fun just walking around and looking at things, which is free.

It was a huge risk for us to throw Europe in the itinerary due to our budget constraints but time and time again we just kept gravitating towards it.

We found cheap flights to South America but our hearts were already set on Europe and we could never pull the trigger and book them. I know it’s going to be tough but we really want to go to this area and we are both so excited to start the trip off in Iceland/Europe. We are driving from CA back to Massachusetts (to drop Chachy off w/ my sister Bridgette and to visit family & friends) and we’re also looking forward to that journey as well. Randy has never driven cross country so I know we’ll have a blast camping & hiking along the way.

We will be sure to update you throughout both legs of the trips on our budget.

Stay tuned because we plan on writing a lot of posts about how  you can save a ton of money on your next trip abroad!

If anyone has any experience wwoofing in Italy (or anywhere in Europe) we would love to hear it. Please leave a comment below.

If you have any tips on free or cheap things to do in Iceland/Prague/Vienna/Italy please let me know – we will be forever grateful!

To Iceland or Bust!

- Beth & Randy

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Ok, so if you’re like me and the other millions of photographers there is one thing that drives you crazy when shooting outdoors.

Yup, you guessed it – attempting to review your photos on the LCD screen in broad daylight.

(If you look closely, you can see the picture in the LCD but the sun glare makes it really hard to see.)

Forget about it! You simply can’t really see if you got the exact exposure or not. This is not a big deal when you’re tooling around a new city just shooting for yourself but it becomes a big deal when you have a big paid shoot (like a wedding or travel assignment) or you are under deadline and don’t have time to screw around trying to find a shady spot to check your frames.

(The same photo but viewed indoors where you can see it clearly on the LCD screen.)

Now if you are shooting a lot, you technically shouldn’t have to worry about double checking your photos because you should be dialed in with your camera enough to know you got it. When we all shot film we didn’t have the option of double checking exposures but in today’s digital world this is a luxury that no one wants to do without. It is REALLY nice to be able to double check your photo instantaneously and know you got it right.

Because this is an issue, there are a couple things on the market that you can buy that can help you with this problem. This issue is that they either suck or cost a lot of money.

I tried to go the cheap route once and bought this pop up shade which promised that it would shade my screen and I could see my photo. I couldn’t. Don’t buy anything like this – it will be a waste of $15. This thing sucks and further more I hit myself in the eye with it more than once when it was open on the back of my camera. I hate this thing.

This week I have a big wedding coming up and I have been trying to decide over the past 2 weeks if I want to buy a Hoodman. The Hoodman is pretty sweet and it works like a charm (I got to test one out yesterday) but coming in at $80 it is expensive! I also want something I can travel with and the Hoodman isn’t exactly small. It would be a disaster to keep hanging around in a travel bag and I really don’t want to spend $80 for something I will only use occasionally and could break on the road.

Well I got lucky because yesterday I decided to buy one. I went into the camera shop and the sales guy erroneously told me that they were sold out. I was bummed but I went upon my merry way looking at photo bags (for the 15th hundred time). After I was done I saw someone else checking out a Hoodman. They actually had one left in the back. Well I also checked it out for a bit and in all honesty I was pretty sold on it. I decided that piece of mind on a wedding day was probably worth $80. It just so happened that guy decided the same thing and he bought it. They double checked in the back but this time they were out of them, for real.

So I got in my car and started wondering if I could make my own. I decided to swing by Michaels and buy some foam core board for my construction of a black box I could put over the screen. However on the way through the store they had a dollar bin with some foam can coolers in it. It’s about the same length as the Hoodman and it has a hole on the bottom for condensation drainage (or my eye!) – perfect!

I bought one and ran home to try it out. I took some practice shots on the deck of the boat in FULL sunlight and it works like a charm! It may not have the magnifying loupe feature or be as fancy as the Hoodman but I saved $79! Plus it has the added bonus of keeping the canned drink of my choice chilled! Sweet.

I did decide to make the bottom (eye) hole a little bigger but that was the only adjustment I made. I love this thing! It’s lightweight, portable and has dual functions. A perfect piece of travel gear! The best part is that I don’t have to worry about it. I can squash it into my bag, lose it – who cares? It cost a buck and I can buy another one if I need to. It may not be the most professional tool on the market but I only need it for a few seconds each time I use it so it’s not really a big deal.

I wanted to share this little tidbit with our readers because this is a great travel tool and if you shoot a lot outdoors you will really appreciate a budget way to view your photos in full sun.

Stay tuned because I have some more photo “hacks” coming your way as well including how to find a great camera bag!

Also please let me know in the comments if you try this out and if it works for you.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Whew, in about 8 weeks we are finally off to see the world. It’s crazy. It’s unbelievable. It’s really almost overwhelming. This trip has been planned for about 3 years now.

I almost can’t believe it’s happening.

The fact that it is becoming a reality is actually making me nervous. But why? This is my dream. This is the one thing I have had throughout all the ups & downs in the past few years. This trip has made me happier than pretty much anything else but it has also made me more emotional and more upset than anything as well.

Which, when I started planning my “bunnies & rainbows” idea of the trip, was not something I expected. I didn’t expect the almost daily reminder that this is the “right thing” to do, the constant self battle of wondering “I am screwing up my life in a horrible way?” “Is 34 too old to do something like this?”  “Will I ever be able to financially support myself, have a family and still live the life I dream about?”

Holy crap, I serious never expected any of that.  Several years ago one of my dearest, oldest (we’ve known each other since we were 12) and best friends in the world said something that resonated with me.

“You can’t just live life, you have to live YOUR life.”

I always remembered those words because they are simple, yet so true. It’s something most people ignore – the calling of your own life. I know, deep inside, this is what I am supposed to be doing and, come hell or high water, I am going to do it.

Breaking the mold sucks though. Especially at 34. Everyone expects you to travel in your 20′s, not your 30′s and for obvious, good reasons like kids & saving for retirement. Breaking away from that is hard. You have nothing to defend your choice except for the gut feeling that this is what you should be doing.

Defending your choice to others is easy, defending it to yourself is another thing entirely.

But I know there is something for me on the road. I don’t know what it is but I know it exists. Everything in my life has been pushing me in this direction. Random people have come into my life that have pushed me towards this. First there was Andrea who had just spent 4 months bouncing around Southeast Asia, then there was my coworker Rich who had just returned from a 10 month RTW with his wife. Last but not least was Ryan, who was a really great friend of mine that I met on Craigslist of all places and NO it was not on a personals ad. We met up one night in Mission Beach, we went out for drinks and became insta-friends. I mean how stupid is it for a girl to go around befriending someone on Craigslist  and then actually meet them and hang out with them? Stupid! But we had a great friendship that lasted for years. Ryan was probably my biggest push because he was pretty much a perma traveler, having moved to San Diego after 3 years traveling around the world. Now he lives in Indonesia. He was like a real life version of everything I had read about online. Before these friendships, I had never met anyone that had traveled long term before. But there they came marching into my life, one after the next, proving to me that it was possible and awesome to travel long term.

I use to work all the time, 10 – 12 hour days, in real estate which was extremely stressful. It’s a really horrible way to live. In my opinion, it isn’t even a life. It’s just a routine.

Then when I was 31 I was diagnosed with cancer. I learned early on that working all the time is really unhealthy. The diagnosis delayed the original trip leave date (which bummed me out to no end at the time) but it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me even more courage to get out and follow my dreams. I got the not so subtle tap on the ass that said “This is not the way you are supposed to be living.” Some people go their entire lives without realizing that.

But because my body was revolting in a very literal way, I figured out pretty quick that the way I was living wasn’t going to work for me and in hindsight, that was a bonus.  Also whenI got sick I did what ever sick person does but knows they shouldn’t do – I Googled it. I Googled everything and anything about thyroid cancer. Googling an illness is really a double edged sword because for the 1% of good information you find there is a ton of crap that will just scare the shit out of you. However, in my case the 1% was worth it because I made internet friends with a guy in England who was battling leukemia. Adrian Sudbury was a really amazing person who had a huge impact on my life in a very strange, almost spiritual way. Although he is no longer with us and we never actually met in person, through our brief emails and my bizarre dreams, he pushed me towards the trip in a strange round about way as well.

I do believe we are all connected by a single thread and that things happen for a reason. I know I’m supposed to be traveling but yet with all of the things that have happened and all of the people who have influenced me I still find it hard to take the leap.

Even though I can see right through it, walking away from the ideals created by our normal ways of life is still tough.

I didn’t expect that with everything else, I would be my own stumbling block to changing my own life.

I am pretty sure that I am going to be doing a good, fair share of tear shedding over the next few weeks as we get ready to depart. This morning I cried in the car over the idea of leaving my baby little Chachy behind. But he’ll be happy with my sister, she has a house with a yard and a lot of sunlight. Right now he’s sleeping in a hand bag while I type this at Borders because we don’t have a real apartment and the campground doesn’t have electricity. He’s such a great little dog, no one here even knows he’s in there. He’ll be happy when he has some stability. Hopefully I’ll be happy when I have none.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Julia cooking in her restaurant.

I got some sort of weird flu two days ago so I have been laying low, sleeping and not doing much. Today I decided to go through some of my photos to look for a few for an upcoming guest post on AlmostFearless. What I found was a mess! I have done a good job of keeping my wedding photos organized but I have known for a long time that the travel photos have been suffering.

Well things only got worse a month or so ago because I had to transfer computers and transfer all my files. I back all my files up anyway so that wasn’t an issue but the issue was that one day I would use computer A and then the other day I would use computer B to do my work on. This horrible idea started happening because occasionally Randy would have to take a computer with him to work and would need to take the Mac because it doesn’t need to be plugged in. The PC battery is dead and if the plug gets knocked out of the computer I lose everything. It’s not like I can just start back up and everything is there like it would be if the computer was sleeping – nope everything would be completely gone unless it had been saved. I usually work on several things at once and have several lists going and you can imagine the frustration of losing this info time and time again.

Pablo's Powdered Hands

This issue is what caused me to switch full time to the Mac and Randy now uses the Ipod when he needs to take a computer to work. So I technically have 3 copies of everything (actually 4 because I use two external hard drives) which is great, the only problem is I would edit photos on one computer, not update the external hard drive, then use the other computer on another day. It actually took a while for me to figure out what a mess I had made. Now I have all the same photos at various stages of editing on different computers and hard drives. It is still a mess and I honestly don’t know if I can fix it since there are thousands of photos to go through. I still have Utah photos to edit, Joshua Tree photos (I took over 15oo on my road trip), Vegas photos to edit and various other photos. There are just too many to sit down at both computers and compare which is updated and which isn’t. Plus I have been looking for certain photos to go with certain posts and having a hard time finding them. On top of that wedding season is about to be in full swing, which will leave me little to no time for editing my own work. Ugh. I am so mad at myself for creating all of this extra work.

Sand Paintings for Day of the Dead.

Beyond this mess my organization was not great by any means and my trip to Oaxaca for Dia de los Muertes is my most obvious mess to date. I took over 1500 photos in 5 days and a lot of them are awesome and yet have never even seen the light of day. We met some amazing people and interviewed 2 people while we were down there regarding Day of the Dead activities. The problem is that 1500 photos is overwhelming when they aren’t organized well. Even though I generally shoot double that amount in one day for a wedding, it is a little easier to organize because everything in a time line – pre ceremony, ceremony, family shots, bridal shots, reception. It’s pretty clear cut and that makes it much easier. It’s so much harder when I travel because I am shooting a lot of different things – people, buildings, street photos, emotions. Trying to catalogue all of that is a nightmare. I have amazing photos from the cemetaries and the people we met that have never been shown. I have fantastic photos of Pablo, his powdered hands and his stories regarding the sand paintings in the middle of town. In fact there is an entire interview with him that has never been released. Then there’s Julia, her amazing family and the awesome food she made for us in her new restaurant (and refused to let us pay for), there’s the dancing, the candles, the graves, the trip to magical Mt. Ablan. All these photos are in hiding and quite frankly there are some sad little photos lurking around on my computer because of this lack of organization. They want to be seen and they deserve to be seen. I need a new photo gallery and a new organization method so I can make them happy again.

The magical Mt. Ablan.

Well up until this time I had organized my photos like this  – “good” “better” “best”. Pathetic I know. I would start the editing process by wedding out the good shots, then I would go through those for the better ones, then I would edit those and put them in the “best” pile. There was no further organization. Day of the Dead was probably my largest travel photography undertaking and it suffered severely due to this organization method. Really I needed to sort it more like this – Cemeteries, Ceremonies, Markets, Food, Street Photos, Pretty Places, Mt. Ablan, emotions, Etc. Then I should’ve gone through and picked out the good, the bad and the best and edited them like that.

Oaxaca grave on Dia de Los Muertos with a woman holding rosary beads in the background.

I am definitely making a change after witnessing this mess that I have created. I am no longer going to use my old method of photo organization. I honestly never even edited all of the photos from Oaxaca because it was so overwhelming and other work projects kept getting in the way. If I break things down initially I know it’s going to be so much easier because instead of just sitting down to edit hundreds of photos on end I can just do one type of thing like Oaxaca Markets or Pablo and the Sand Paintings.

Oaxaca Grave Detail

I’m writing this post because editing is a HUGE part of any photographers job and honestly it’s more work than anything else. It is hard to keep on top of because it is a manual process and I never want to put out photos that I think are not as good as they could be. Just sorting through 1500 photos to determine which ones you are going to edit is tough enough. When you start actually editing it physically becomes draining. Lack of organization, as I have obviously learned, makes it SO much worse.

Wall of graves in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The other thing that bums me out is that my gallery page on this blog sucks. I have tried a million different galleries and I can’t get them to work. The current one is totally outdated with old stuff and because I could never get any other galleries to work on WordPress I had to make slide shows in Picasa and then embed them on the page. I don’t like doing that and I really hate the way it looks. If anyone has any tips or wants to help me make a real gallery please contact me. I have a couple that I have in mind that I like. I will be forever in your debt. I can’t be a travel photographer with a horrible gallery and bad photo organizational skills and right now I am both. Boo!

On a positive note, you can expect a lot of Oaxaca photos in the upcoming weeks. I am bound and determined that these will photos will have their day.

What do you do to organize your photos? Please feel free to leave a comment – I’m sure people out there have much better ideas about this than I do and I would LOVE to hear them.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Some of you may know Brooke of Brookevstheworld.com. Brooke is one bad ass traverler who has spent time in some hard parts of the world. Can you say 6 months in the Ukraine (during winter!) and an extended stay in Kyrgyzstan while learning Russian? Currently she’s trying out the ex-pat gig while staying holed up for a while in Sydney Australia.

Brooke and I have been pals for the past 3 years or so, trading traveling tips & the ups and downs of life. Now she has created a newsletter for women travelers with tons of her traveling tips in it!

If you are a traveling woman you will definitely want to check it out & sign up!
If you are a male – check it out & sign up but only if you dare!

Seriously it’s made for women specifically and deals with issues that women encounter on the road. Underwear and shaving the bits have been the focus of the two last newsletters. It has tons of tips to help get you on and through the road, feminine issues and all.

Did I mention it’s also hysterical??

I was lucky enough to contribute to it last month and you can check out my ridiculous story about de-hairing below deck on the last newsletter – When Hairy met Sally.

So go ahead, check it out and sign up for the newsletter. Feel free to contact Brooke too because she is always looking for new contributers – female or male!

If you are a travelin’  kinda gal you owe it to yourself to join the Underground! Why leave home without it?

Find Brooke and get in on the action:

Join the Underground!

Brookevstheworld.com

@Brookeshoenman

Did you like this article? If so, consider retweeting below or stumbling it. Better yet sign up for our RSS feed and get the goodies delivered directly to your inbox! Consider yourself hugged.

*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I love to share. Thanks!

The weekend of June 12th I took off on a weekend trip to Massachusetts for my mom’s 60th birthday. She had no idea we were throwing her a party and she had no idea that I was flying home to see her. My sisters and I sent both our parents away to the Cape for the night, I flew in on the red eye, we painted the living room (her gift) and planned a garden themed party for her.

It was perfect – she had no idea until she walked in the door the next day and everyone yelled – surprise! The garden theme was carried on from the invitations to the buffet tables. We covered the main table in moss and actually ”planted” little plants in the moss so it looked like they were growing out of the table. It was very cool!

I have a very large family (read over 100 people) and some of my aunts, uncles  & cousins were able to make it over for the small, informal birthday surprise. I took a lot of pictures and when I reviewed them I noticed how off-kilter most of them are. I don’t really know any other way to describe them really, except well maybe, bad. They are all just a little off, and I personally find them quite hysterical and I’m sure other family members reading this will laugh too. My mother will want to kill me but after 15 years of taking photos she hates, I can’t see why I should stop now – right mom?  None of these photos are posed and, with the exception of the one below, they all seem to be taken at the wrong time. The are the off-kiltered family photos, a result of too much gin. It was a really fun night!

Mikey, Meredith & Auntie Charlene starting off the gin party.

Mom, Aunty Charlene & Grandma sharing a secret. I have no idea what Alex is doing.

Yes Tabitha, limes are very sour.

I don’t know why my mother is carrying this light around outside but my father isn’t following it.

Once again too much gin leads to bad decisions. My Aunt Charlene decided it might be a good idea to take the wheelbarrow out of her SUV to wheel someone a couple doors down to my Auntie Bette & Uncle Chris’ house. The picture below is not particularly exciting unless you enlarge it to see the look of complete shock on my mother’s face. My father seems entertained by the wheelbarrow idea but my mom appears to be in total disbelief and the look on her face just cracks me up.

My mother’s look of disbelief.

My mother convinced everyone that this was a bad idea so no one ended up in the wheelbarrow, which was probably a good thing.

The next day I took some random pictures around home.

Strange family portrait – My mom, sister Bridgette & my dad. Missing is my sister Kate.

My brother in law then found an old Kodak camera which we jimmy rigged to take some TTV type photos.

My Dad:

My mom trying to figure out what kind of contraption I was using to take pictures. I can almost hear her getting angry at me from 3500 miles away the momentshe sees this is posted on the web. I really like this picture of her though.

My Auntie Toni says hello.

On the same day my friend Ali gave birth to her 2nd child, a beautiful little girl named Maggie Rose, I became the proud owner of my first boat! A cute little 27′ foot Catalina sailboat named Lucky Lady. 

 Yah! Yah! I am so excited! I’m still kind of in shock that I even bought a boat seeing that I don’t even know how to sail but I did it and I love it! It may have been one of the best things I have ever done. Seriously.

I have realized all the nay-sayers who tried to squash my wet sea dreams were people who had no idea what they were talking about. The best day of a boat owners life is the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it…this is just a crap quote. I cannot tell you how many times this was quoted to me on my boat buying journey. It’s def. not true, every day is great on the boat! I finally noticed that the people who say that quote are people who have never owned a boat. They want to but they are just too afraid so they repeat that quote like talking heads because not doing so would force them to face their own reality that they are not being true to their own dreams. Suckers – suck this! This boat is kickin’.

I spent all weekend cleaning and painting the interior of the boat. I really want to paint over the top grey part of the boat but I haven’t decided on a color yet. Any ideas?? I wanted to do it black like a pirate ship but I’m thinking it might be too hot in the sun. Anyway, I slept on the boat all weekend and Randy & I took it out for a spin on Monday. Which turned out to be a really scary event. In retrospect, it was not my smartest idea to take it out, when 1. I barely know how to sail and 2. it was Memorial Day and everyone seemed to be out on their own boats. A homeless man was Huck Finn-ing around the harbor in a 4′ sailboat with his hat over eyes and came w/in a foot of running right into us until I screamed at him to turn around and he woke up. Technically he had the right of way but there was another boat fishing to the other side of us and we had nowhere to go. It was extremely nervewracking! I then almost burst ino tears when we had to bring it back to slip, I was so afraid of hitting someone else’s boat that Randy had to bring it in. Randy and I are trying to work things out again. What can i say, he is cute and hard to stay away from. Anyway, I have a friend who is promising to teach me how to sail and I can’t wait. This little boat is awesome and just hanging out on it all weekend makes you feel like you are miles away from reality. I realized I’m not going to be sailing to South America in 3 months like I was originally thinking (sometimes I don’t know where I come up with these delusions…) but it’s still fun to hang out on the docks and soak up the rays.

I fed some ducks and a jumping fish. Life is good.

Lauren, Scout & Chachy on the boat before I redid the inside.

 The kitchen after I redid some painting.

I’ll be adding new pics soon because I’ve done a lot more work on it and the boat is so cute now!

7:14pm, Pacific Western Time, Nov. 4th 2008

Write that date down because it’s history in the making.

I will just come out and say it. If McCain manages to pull this off than this whole thing is a sham. I have felt for months that there is no way he is going to win this election and so far the polls are saying the same thing. Of course, there are still a couple key states left but right now Obama has 207 electoral votes and McCain has 135. The first to 270 wins.

I am a big Obama fan and I will be shocked if he doesn’t win. Not just because I like him but because everyone else does too. I can count the McCain fans I know on about 1 hand and I know a lot of people. It is the general concensus here that Barack will be our new president this January. Which in a word is AWESOME.

It’s not that I really dislike McCain, I don’t. He’s actually someone I wish I could know better -he seems like a really interesting individual. It’s just that Obama is everything that we need here in the U.S. He’s smart, exciting, well thought out, has great ideas & a lot of passion. He is basically the exact opposite of Bush. He envisions change and has the energy to do it (ie: possible end to the war & universal health care). I mean come on, even his logo is cool looking. The guy is simply rad.

We’ve got a couple other big things on the ballot here in CA – making gay marriage illegal.  A ridiculous idea, I still can’t see why people get mad about who loves who. Do people honestly think that Jesus cares? Come on now. A lot of problems in the world exist because there is a LACK of love. Some people never even experience real love. Most people who have consider themselves very lucky. Why would anyone want to discourage love? I don’t and I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t either. Last I heard he loves everyone, not just straight people. Another big one for me is higher living standards for farm animals. Yes, I am all about this because I love farm animals and miss my little Pepe everyday. Every living creature deserves to have a good life where they are not abused and there is ABSOLUTELY no reason for anything less. Again you could say this comes back to love or lack thereof.

A lot of things are riding on this historic day.  Although we have the seperation of church & state in the U.S. God is always in the center of things, especially on election day. With the issues of war, respect & love on the ballot I have to wonder – have we been guided by the light or blinded by it?

Go Obama.

People try all sorts of things in an effort to save money for a ’round the world trip – scholarships, contests, blog ads and of course working around the clock. There are an equal amount of people who try to constantly come up with a way to make money while on the trip, for the hopes that they only have to return home when they choose to not because they have run out of money. I fit into both these categories.

No matter how I try nothing ever seems to work.

My pudgy gut and strange love for logic puzzles tells me that I do not have ADD but sometimes I still wonder. It seems there are so many ideas in my head and because of this none of them are ever fully born. I have an “idea” dry erase board lying against the wall next to my bed. I write my different ideas on it and I look at them before I go to bed and when I wake up. Ultimately I come up with more ideas on how to make my ideas come to fruition and then when the reality of the day sets in, my mind gets tired and I forget what the other ideas were anyway. Nothing ever really  gets done and it frustrates me to no end. 

It makes me think I’ll never be able make a difference in the world.

Thinking of this on the ride to work, the same line kept repeating in my head  – “What if we’re doing all the right things but just for all the wrong reasons?”  I didn’t enjoy this thought because I didn’t want it to be true. But there it was all day staring back at me from my computer screen, jumping out of file folders and blinking on my missed call messages - screaming like an unwanted child that was thrown down a well. Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh.

I’ve got some random ideas lying around on my board but I never would’ve thought in a million years that someone could go around the world, sponsored nonetheless, by dancing in 15 sec. spurts and recording it. On top of that, I never would’ve guessed that the sponsor would be a gum company. Huh?

Well Matt did it and he did it well.

He’s been doing this for the past few years and he’s starting to become popular even outside the travel circuit. I wouldn’t be surprised if we spotted him dancing on David Letterman or with Regis (eek!) soon.  This evening, in total boredom and with a severe lack of ideas, I saw a video link online that promised the face of Jesus on an ultrasound. Being a person who believes in the supernatural and can’t turn down a picture of Jesus in a frying pan or Mary in a washcloth – I couldn’t resist.

I didn’t realize clicking this was going to bring the day full circle.

I watched the video, I saw the Jesus, which was very convincing (as long as you believe in the anglo version of Jesus) and next in the line up, to my surprise, was a video of Matt. It’s the newest video and a good one at that. I realized watching it that what we have here is a person who did all the right things for all the right reasons. He didn’t do it for big ideas, big money, big love or the big time. He did it simply because it made him happy. Turns out it made a lot of other people in the world happy too. Then the world rewarded him with free travel for years and years.

I wonder what would happen if we all did the right things for all the right reasons.

Make sure to turn on your speakers. Enjoy.

5 Offbeat Paths To Travel Deals

Note: This is a reprint from a story on MSN. Because Beers & Beans is devoted to cheap travel & helping people around the world I decided to post it here for others to read as well. Happy Reading!

There are creative ways to cut the cost of seeing faraway places, particularly if you’re open to strangers or don’t mind getting your hands dirty.

5 offbeat paths to travel deals

By Bankrate.com

You can enjoy an unusual style of foreign travel inexpensively — or at least get a hefty tax break — if you’re willing to volunteer your time, your home or your knowledge.

With the lowered value of the dollar, many would-be international travelers are looking for ways to stretch their budgets. Discount hotels and cheap restaurants are typical places to save, but you can save big bucks and enjoy a really different vacation experience through a cultural organization — or even the federal government.

There are hundreds of organizations, many accessible online, that provide valuable travel services, but it’s important to do your homework before you sign up, says Kam Santos, the director of communications at Cross-Cultural Solutions.

“There are a number of questions to consider when you’re choosing (an organization),” Santos says. Make sure you know about an organization’s credentials and how fees are allocated, for example. Try to get references to see how other participants view the program.

For programs that include staying in other people’s homes — with or without hosts — safety and trust are important.

“You want to find out if the accommodations are comfortable and secure,” Santos says. “Who will you be living with?”

Some organizations do in-person interviews to vet all prospective hosts and travelers. Others require you to do your own checking but provide tools that allow you to talk with the hosts and with others who have stayed with particular hosts or in particular homes.

If you’re content with high prices, tour buses and impersonal accommodations, these trips might not be for you. But if you’re looking for something new and are willing to give a little, you’re likely to get back a lot, Santos says.

Here are five ways you can experience unusual travel in a foreign land while minimizing your costs.

Agritourism

Sample Organization: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, known as WWOOF.

Where: more than 80 countries.

How it works: You provide the brawn; it provides the benefits. WWOOFers agree to help their hosts with farming duties for an agreed-upon number of hours (usually about four) each day, and hosts provide meals and sleeping quarters.

Responsibilities may include typical farming activities such as weeding and harvesting; they also may involve minor construction work or other tasks. Operations range from small hobby farms to commercial operations.

Benefits: You’ll likely see a part of the country few tourists visit and learn a lot about organic growing. Because WWOOFers often stay with families, they can get an inside perspective on an area and tips about the places locals love to visit when they’ve got free time.

If you come at harvest time, you can expect to enjoy some fantastic meals.

Drawbacks: Though there’s a huge range among the farms, don’t go into your stay expecting four-star accommodations. Some farms may require you to stay in a tent.

“If you’re not comfortable at a youth hostel, you might not like this,” says WWOOFer Margit Johnson, a retired college administrator. “It’s pretty close to the earth.”

Costs: You pay for access to the list of WWOOF hosts in a given country; costs range from about $15 to $70. Once you’ve found a farm that fits your needs, there’s no money exchanged between hosts and guests.

Other notes: No farming experience is required to WWOOF, though an interest helps. In general, the WWOOFing crowd tends to be 20-somethings eager to explore the world.

Also check: Agritourism World offers updated listings of farms around the world that are open to the public. The farms offer everything from you-pick apple farms to dude ranch vacations. For the most part, expect to pay for the privilege of working.

Volunteer Travel

Sample organization: Global Volunteers.

Where: 19 countries on five continents.

How it works: Volunteers generally spend one to three weeks in one of about 20 countries. They participate in projects such as teaching English, providing health care or maintaining community buildings.

Benefits: You don’t have to fend for yourself. Meals, lodging, ground transportation, emergency medical evacuation insurance and other expenses are covered. Participants go because they hope to give back and experience a cultural immersion. They often return with a sense of accomplishment and new friends.

Drawbacks: The work may be rewarding, but the schedule isn’t easy. Because of strict regulations required for tax benefits under federal law, you’ll be busy.

“Volunteers work 40 hours per week,” says Judith Strobel, the director of media relations at Global Volunteers. “The weekend and most evenings (are) free.”

Costs: Costs vary greatly depending on the country you visit and the length of your stay, but they are often tax-deductible.

Other notes: If you plan on taking a tax deduction, be sure you check with the organization you plan to use to make sure it meets Internal Revenue Service requirements. Among other things, the organization must be a registered nonprofit. You’ll also be required to work an average of eight hours a day, five days a week.

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Also check: Cross-Cultural Solutions offers volunteers abroad activities in social services, education and health. Some options include caring for the elderly, working for women’s empowerment and working with people affected by HIV/AIDS.

Habitat for Humanity volunteers help build simple homes for people in many countries. Some knowledge of construction is helpful but not required.

Home swaps

Sample organization: Home Exchange.

Where: More than 100 countries worldwide.

How it works: After paying a fee, you can list your home along with thousands of others in more than 100 countries. The Web site helps facilitate one-to-one home exchanges anywhere in the world.

While you’re in someone else’s home, they’re in yours. Plenty of contact with your exchange hosts helps eliminate fears of having strangers in your home.

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Benefits: With no hotel costs to drain your budget, you can stretch your vacation dollars. Need a late-night snack? You can head to the kitchen, not the (expensive) minibar or (more expensive) hotel restaurant.

“(Home exchangers) will often introduce you to the neighbors, so you’ll get to meet people in a way that you don’t get to if you’re in a hotel,” says Home Exchange President Ed Kushins. “The neighbors will come over, or they’ll invite you over for dinner. And they’ll tell you the places to eat that aren’t in every tour book.”

Drawbacks: If you don’t have much flexibility on your travel dates, you might have trouble finding an exchange. Because successful Home Exchange users have homes in reasonably desirable locations, you may have a tough time swapping your home in Podunksville for a flat in Paris.

And if you’re a private person, you may not enjoy the idea of people in your home when you’re not there.

Costs: $100 for an annual membership; no other fees apply.

Other notes: If you’ve got an oceanfront mansion or Tuscan villa and you’d like exchange with others who have homes as grand as your own, HomeExchangeGold caters to wealthier homeowners.

Also check: Homelink offers about 12,000 homes in 72 countries; annual memberships start at $110. InterVac has more than 50 countries represented in its database.

Hospitality networks

Sample organization: Servas.

Where: 125 countries worldwide.

How it works: After being interviewed by a Servas representative, answering a few essay questions, collecting two recommendations and agreeing to a set of basic rules, you can link up with hosts around the world. In general, hosts agree to provide a place for travelers to stay for three days and two nights; other arrangements can be made on a case-by-case basis.

Benefits: Well-vetted host and traveler lists mean you’ll have safe, friendly interactions wherever you stay. And with a long hosting list, you’ll have lots of choices. The organization expects hosts and travelers to make diligent efforts to share their ideas and experiences, and many report lifelong friendships as a result.

Though not required, hosts often go the extra mile to accommodate their guests, says longtime Servas traveler Shel Horowitz, the owner of Frugalfun.com and author of “The Penny-Pinching Hedonist.”

“In practice, most visits include breakfast, dinner and time to socialize,” he says.

Drawbacks: The enrollment process is more complex than some other programs. If you like privacy and don’t want to share much with your hosts, this may not be a program for you.

Even the most gregarious folks rarely do more than a few Servas visits back to back. “After two or three (Servas visits), it’s nice to recharge your batteries,” Horowitz says.

Costs: A one-year membership costs $85, plus a refundable deposit for host lists.

Other notes: Servas was founded in the 1940s.

Also check: Couchsurfing.com is an organization in which hosts offer up their couches (or guest bedrooms) for weary travelers. There is no monetary exchange, but travelers usually offer to take on small household tasks or pick up a dinner tab.

HospitalityClub.org, one of the oldest online hospitality networks, has members in more than 100 countries who are willing to share their homes with visitors.

Citizen ambassador programs

Sample organization: People to People.

Where: worldwide.

How it works: In addition to its widely known student ambassador programs, this organization provides ways for people in specific fields such as law, medicine, nursing and education to link up with their counterparts in other countries. (Programs known as “missions of understanding” are open to anyone who is interested in learning about another country.)

Delegations of 20 to 40 people spend a week to 10 days in a country to discuss their day jobs and learn more about how similar jobs are done in other countries.

Benefits: Many of the programs qualify for education credits, and the locales beat a cramped hotel conference room any day. Thanks to the program’s long history and reputation, it can occasionally book activities that you won’t be able to find elsewhere, such as gorilla tracking in Rwanda. Top-notch accommodations ensure that travelers will be comfortable and safe.

Drawbacks: Up to 60% of your time is filled with meetings, lectures and discussions. You’ll need to check with the organization to see if your tour will meet minimum work guidelines for a tax write-off, which requires 40 hours of work each week to meet IRS regulations; extended tours usually do not qualify for the deduction.

Costs: A typical tour will cost about $5,000, but employers often subsidize that cost.

Other notes: Though the programs will accept adults of any age, most participants are 50 or older and quite well-traveled, according to Meredith Blanka, People to People’s vice president of marketing.

“They’ve generally done traditional trips before, and they’re looking to do more, see more and give back at this point in their lives,” she says.

Also check: Sister Cities International links U.S. cities with other cities around the world to help residents develop business partnerships, explore other cultures and connect similar organizations from different countries.

This article was reported and written by Erin Peterson for Bankrate.com.

Published May 19, 2008