Bienvenidos a Miami

I'd like to say that I'm writing this from Buenos Aires, where I am suppose to be right now, but unfortunately, American Airlines decided to foil my plans. Yesterday I had a flight from Boston to Chicago, then I was suppose to fly from Chi-town to Buenos Aires, arriving at 9 am and being met by members of AIESEC Buenos Aires for a day of Argentinian fun. At 7:00 in Chicago, they casually announced that the flight to Buenos Aires had been canceled. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Was my first ever blog a detailed account of this exact situation on my way to Spain?

Anywho, I jumped to the front of the line, and found that I had 2 options for travel. I could either stay in Chicago overnight, fly to Miami the next day, then fly to BA that night at 8, OR go to Miami and stay there for the following day, then fly out at 8. I was promised a free hotel in either case. I chose Miami, wanting to knock off a few hours of travel for myself the next day, and flew from Chicago at 8 pm last night. I got into Miami International at 1130, and waited for 3 HOURS ...there was not one American Airlines representative anywhere. I finally found someone who put me in the airport hotel. So I got up to my room, sent an extremely apologetic message to my TN manager and to anyone who was scheduled to pick me up 7 hours later in a country I would not be arriving to until the next day. I also have no idea where I'm staying/when my traineeship starts...so lets hope I can get that information before 8 pm tonight.
Its now 1245, I'm watching movies in my hotel room and can't check in to my flight for another 6 hours. SAAAAAAWEET.

Life handed me lemons. Unfortunately, there's no tequila in the mini-bar.

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." — Martin Buber

You may have noticed Madison at the top of nomadlife for the past few days, with no new posts- so whats up?? Schools almost out, and Madison @ers are about to scatter themselves all over the world once again this summer. India, Colombia, Greece, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Nigeria~ it's going to be one hell of summer of Dream Living for these Badgers.

For everyone new to this blog: Use this blog to share with us your experiences, your thoughts, and your stories. Blog often and add a label to your posts with the country you are blogging from.

Returning from a traineeship this summer

If any of you are looking for a place to live this summer upon your return from crazy adventures, Becca, Katy and I are looking to sublet our awesome apartment on gilman and state (near the chocolate shoppe...thanks katy). This house is perfect for an @ summer house due to it's large living room and glorious porch, so if anyone's interested in that...let me know!

Sara

TIA

Kiel McElveen has been going on adventures in South Africa, and I don't know if everyone knows about his blog since it's not on nomadlife....

so check it out here: http://kcmcelveen.blogspot.com/

Traveling Alone

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Jesse Bouman. I am a former Madison @er. I recently completed a year long internship in Thailand through Aiesec. I saw that my blog (http://thejessebouman.blogspot.com) was linked to this blog a while ago and would like to thank anyone who took the time to read it. I’d like to impart a little knowledge from the experiences I had during my travel to anyone who is interested in traveling abroad.

Perhaps this is stating the obvious (since everyone here is an @er), but I would like to encourage everyone to travel when they have the opportunity. Where ever your travels take you, I would like to endorse a method of travel that I found to be one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. I’m here to promote traveling alone.

Traveling alone can be a liberating experience. There isn’t anyone to tell you what to do, when to do it, or where to it. You are your own guide. The options are limitless. My favorite aspect of traveling alone was variety of individuals I met. I experienced a gamut of personalities and occupations. I met doctors, accountants, fighter jet pilots, teachers, railroad conductors, taxi drivers, nomads, retirees among others. In Malaysia I met a Ukrainian woman who hitchhiked her way to from Ukraine to China, took a train to Laos, and hitchhiked her way to Malaysia and predominately stayed at temples for lodging. Where ever I went there was a new character to meet and a new experience to be shared with a complete stranger.

Travelers have this unique bond of friendship where ever they go, with whoever they meet. Everyone is friendly and has a story to tell. It’s plausible that one could experience this feeling of camaraderie with a travel buddy or a group of friends, but I found that it was less likely. Groups of friends and couples tend to keep to themselves. I met many friendly couples along my journey, but they were more apt to keep to themselves. I even met someone in Malaysia and traveled with her for a week after we met. However, our communication was primarily with each other rather than interacting with new individuals. Traveling alone forced me to approach strangers and begin conversations. Excursions are always more entertaining and cheaper with a group. Some of the best times I had traveling were at dinner, with a group of people I just met. We would sit and talk for hours, enjoying each other’s company. My cultural understanding grew immensely from these dinners. Your knowledge and appreciation of culture isn’t limited to the country you are traveling in, but rather the people whose company you are in. I had fascinating conversations comparing and contrasting culture, politics, pop culture, etc with people from several nations (Japan, England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Estonia, Netherlands, Belgium, Kenya to name a few). Individuals educate everyone else about their homelands and often times everyone tries to compare it to the current country of travel and previous countries as well. I will always have fond memories of those dinners with people I will probably never see again.

I know my solo travels forced me to grow in a way that I would not have had with a travel partner. My ability to network with professionals was enhanced by this experience, which is a valuable life long skill. I am a huge advocate of traveling alone and hope some of you take the opportunity to do so. If you have any questions about my travels in Southeast Asia or the international Aiesec experience feel free to email me, jesse.bouman@gmail.com

Se va pa Peru

Our beloved Jen Reece is embarking on an adventure tomorrow morning! She is spending next semester doing research in the Caja Marca region of Peru. She attempted to create a nomadlife account, but "just ended up with a gigantic orange slice." So this is her blogger address: http://www.jenreece.blogspot.com/

Jen, I realize once you're in the highlands you won't have extremely easy access to a computer...but I still expect to be able to stalk your life occasionally...and I'm saying it here, so that you know that everyone knows, that I expect this :) love you!

NYE 2008: Dubai

First, I want to congratulate you all for the excellent showing at WSC and the hard work all year that led to those awesome awards. I don't think I could be any more proud of being from the world-famous @Madison LC. :)

I thought I'd give you cool cats a taste of what New Year's Eve is like in arguably the most fabulous location ever. While many of you were partying it up in St. Louis and in other places around the world, I took some time off of my MC term in Qatar and traveled to Dubai, where I stayed with members of the MC and various trainees. My first dinner of the new year was in the Burj Al Arab, the only seven-star hotel in the world.

This is what the weekend looked like:


Looking straight up in the Burj Al Arab lobby.


At Jumeirah Beach with the AIESECers.


We reserved a table at Peppermint, one of the top clubs in Dubai. Here we are, spelling out "2008" (even though the "2" is backwards...)

In the new year, I hope you work hard, play hard and stay safe and happy, as only you Madison AIESECers know how to do. May 2008 bring you as many challenges and opportunities as possible.

(P.S. A little birdie told me that the applications for the 08-09 Qatar MC will be opening soon... anyone interested? I could give you a GREAT recommendation...) :D