Gap year resources

by Neil Woodburn on

If the new year has come around and hit you in the gut with the reality of facing another 12 months chained to a cubicle, you might want to explore your gap year options.

A “gap year” is nothing more than a gap in your career where you bugger off and travel the world, live abroad, or otherwise engage yourself in experiences far more worthwhile and rewarding than simply working for the man.

Gap years, which have become quite popular in England, are slowly gaining ground in America where I live–although most professionals I know would still consider taking a year off as nothing short of career suicide.

There are others, however, (and you know who you are) that sit around and daydream of the possibilities, mulling over what they’d do and where they’d go if they were to ever summon up the courage to take that first step out the door.

As a public service to those of our readers trapped in this purgatory of travel lust, we’d like to provide you with some motivation in the form of a very detailed Telegraph article, A comprehensive A-Z of gap year options from Arizona to Africa.
This great resource provides purpose and meaning to the Gap Year so that your wanderings are not aimless and hollow. In other words, you won’t be a bum. Instead, you can travel the world while bettering yourself or the community at large through a variety of programs such as teaching in Ghana, conservation projects in Africa, language classes in Guatemala, volunteer work projects in Cambodia, science fieldwork in Greenland, and a ton of other options as various as the world is large.

In addition, the Telegraph directs would-be travelers to a handful of helpful, sites designed to aid those seeking that elusive gap in their professional careers. Just make sure you don’t surf them at work; GapYearForGrownups.co.uk is not the site your boss wants to see on your computer screen when he barges into your cubicle.

Want to get around the Prado Museum line?

by Iva Skoch on

I promise I will stop writing about the painfully long lines everywhere you look in Madrid, starting with the lottery lines to the King’s cake line, but seriously…look at this line at the Museo Nacional del Prado. People as far as the eye can see! I haven’t seen a line of art lovers this long even at the Louvre.

Granted, Prado is an amazing museum featuring one of the finest art collections in the world and I understand people want to see it. What I cannot understand is why everyone is waiting in line (for up to 8 hours, I hear) to purchase tickets if you can get tickets online and bypass the line entirely.

Please, do Velazquez a favor, and do not give up on him. Next time you are in Madrid, go to an internet cafe, buy a ticket in advance and get around the people who clearly enjoy queuing up.

Travel that brings you up close to the news

by Jamie Rhein on

In September when I was in Los Angeles for an impromptu weekend away, sans family, my friend and I passed Cedars-Sinai Hospital the night we went to the Algonquin West Hollywood Literary Award Soiree. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this made me think of Owen Wilson and his stay there. (Even Justin has his Owen Wilson musings. Although, I have to say, I was perhaps more fond of Darjeeling Ltd. than Justin.)

Now that Britney has had her Cedars-Sinai stay, I have to admit, that, yes, reading about her visit to the hospital gave me a flashback about my LA trip and when I passed by Cedars-Sinai.

This brushing up with news stories happens frequently if you travel. Those who stay home merely get info from a newspaper that ends up in a recycling bin or is off the radar as soon as the channel changes. Yesterday’s news stays yesterday’s news.

Travel makes news stories more vivid somehow, even if the news is months old. Places become not just a name we heard about, but one with which we have a taste of a personal relationship–even if it’s just an asterisk.

For New Year’s Eve we headed to Ottawa, Ohio to spend the night with friends. As I drove through town, I thought about the flood that happened there this past August.

My friend took me on a little tour to show me where the sandbags were and how her brother’s downtown office was spared because its first floor is actually above street level and the sandbags saved it. Not only did the sandbags save it, but her high school-aged son helped put the sandbags there.

I also met friends of theirs who lost totally lost their house and are in the process of having it rebuilt. There hasn’t been a flood like that in Ottawa since 1900 or so. Until the flood this past summer, Ottawa was just a place where our friends had moved.

Then earlier this week, there was Ottawa in the news again. Kenneth Richey, the British citizen who has been whiling away a quarter of his life on Death Row in Ohio for the death of a 2-year-old girl was released yesterday. He was being held in the Portage County jail in Ottawa awaiting his release. When I saw he was in Ottawa, I thought about my recent trip there and the great time I had at our friend’s house– and the flood.

On an international scale, every time I see John McCain on Jon Stewart, or like last night when he gave his acceptance speech when he won the Primary in New Hampshire, I flash to the photo I took of the photo of him at the museum in what is left of the Hoa Loa Prison, once dubbed the Hanoi Hilton. McCain was a prisoner of war there for five years.

(McCain is the guy in the middle)

Most of the prison was torn down to make room for an hotel/shopping complex, but the remaining section is a fascinating, albeit gruesome look at a slice of Vietnamese history. Most of the museum is about the French occupation with just a few rooms about the U.S.

When we drove through Louisville, Kentucky in August, I thought of Kentucky Kingdom and the young girl who had her feet recently severed by the Superman Tower of Power ride. These are not pleasant thoughts. I’d rather think about the Kentucky Derby and sipping Mint Juleps, but I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby. I did write a post about the accident so it’s in my brain somewhere and comes out at the oddest times.

Every time we go to Cleveland, we pass by the Trooper James R. Gross’s Memorial on the side of I-71 North. My son looks for it on each trip and asks if we’re almost there. Trooper Gross was shot and killed in 1996 during a highway traffic violation stop. This spot will always be in my son’s mind I bet just because we travel to Cleveland. Even today, when I couldn’t remember the name of my officer, I asked my son. He just turned 6 and told me straight away without thinking about it.

It’s not like I’ve gone to these places to be closer to the news. I’m not one of those people who would take the unofficial Anna Nicole Smith tour in the Bahamas to trace her woes. But, there are places one happens upon that gets you thinking of those stories that captured the media’s attention for awhile. Or if some big incident happens at a place where you once were on vacation, there your mind wanders remembering your trip in an unexpected way.

This time though, as you remember, the news story intertwines altering the experience somehow. It’s like being temporarily in a Wes Anderson movie or something. Or, maybe it’s just me.

Photo of the Day (1/09/08)

by Jamie Rhein on

My first major trip on my own was when I was in the 12th grade. I had a summer job in Maine working at a kid’s camp. Great way to learn how to water ski. My mode of transportation was a bus from New Paltz, New York to Augusta, Maine. Oh, the glory of the whoosh of the door before the bus pulled away from the bay. Freedom.

Our very own Martha’s shot of someone boarding a bus in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Puerto capture’s the essence of a grand bus adventure. Besides that, I love the mix of color and black and white.

Add your own adventure inspired photo to our Gadling Flickr Pool. (or make it just a really, really, really, great shot.)

Ohio’s not too happy, but here’s a travel video [sort of ] with Buckeye spirit

by Jamie Rhein on

First of all, if you were watching David Letterman last night, was it interrupted for a press conference about the results of last National Championship football game? Just checking.

You can bet that people are feeling down in the mouth in Ohio because of OSU’s loss to LSU yesterday. Still, a loss doesn’t get in the way of Buckeye pride. I didn’t quite get football culture until I moved here–actually, I still don’t –not exactly, but I’ve learned a bit about the attraction. There’s an identity of being a Buckeye that transcends race, class, gender and age. I’ve also learned to alter my driving pattern around game day. Heading down Ackerman, Hudson, Lane or Kenny Roads when the games are home is a way to creep along as people stream off of 315 or I-71 in search of parking. It’s nuts.

Today when I received a link to the OSU Alumni Magazine in my in-box, a video link caught my attention. Made as Ohio State University promotional material, it features people, some in different parts of the world, who have sent in pictures of themselves spelling out O-H-I-O with their hands and arms. You may have seen it yesterday if you watched the game. It’s also to be used as a commercial during basketball coverage.

I got a charge from watching the video from figuring out where the pictures were taken and if I’ve been to the places featured myself. I saw some shots that reminded me of Gadling posts. Look for the one that’s related to Aaron’s post of his trip to Ecuador. The shots featured in the video were culled from hundreds that have been sent in to the O-H-I-O Spot, an OSU pride kind of project. Here’s the link to the other pictures. You can still submit to the project. Here’s the page for that.