The Blog of Matt Gornick

experiments in building businesses, lifestyle design, and social hedging

Why don't US students take a gap year?

I have heard some of my friends doing a "Gap Year" where they take a year between college and the work force to travel the world, volunteer abroad, or study topics that are interesting to them but didn't get time to focus on in school.  A few years ago, I would never have thought of a gap year, but after talking with some friends I'm starting to think it is a great opportunity for our generation.  It is natural to follow the paths of others, but seemingly difficult to try something different.

Here are some of my ideas of a good gap year that I think would be a huge learning experience:
1. Work on or create a startup company
2. Spend 8 months in Italy learning the language and cuisine
3. Live the life of a rock climber and travel through the cliffs in North and South America and learning the culture and dedication of the sport along the way

Tips for Traveling Overseas

There was a blog post recently on How To Travel more Intelligently (http://stu.mp/2010/10/howto-travel-more-intelligently.html), so it inspired me to jot down some of the tricks I employed on my travels.  I recently traveled to Italy and spent an amazing 10 days sight seeing, soaking up culture and history, and meeting some of my relatives who lived in Asiago, Italy.  

I put together some quick tips I used to save myself some headaches in overseas travel.

1. US Dollar -> Euro:  While in the US it is easy to rack up fees at your local bank to get US Dollars converted into the currency of your traveling country.  To give yourself a break, Charles Schwab has an Investor Checking Account with all of the ATM fees waved.  A small tip that I found out was that they also don't charge currency conversion so you can go to an ATM in Italy and get out Euros at the US/Euro exchange rate without any fees.  

2. Money Belt - Everyone I talked to mentioned the pickpockets in Rome and around Termini Station.  To mitigate the risk getting items stolen, I picked up a money belt on Amazon.  This one worked really well for my trip, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007FCI1/ref=oss_product.

3. Small Combination Locks - I locked my backpack while I was walking around the cities to once again mitigate the risk of someone digging through my backpack and stealing my stuff.

4. Rick Steve's Podcasts + Tips - http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/packlight.htm  I downloaded all of the podcasts for the cities we were staying in so I had some background into the history, culture, and sightseeing locations.  It was amazing to walk into the Uffizi Gallery and have some background knowledge of all of the works of art.

5. Tim Ferris Tips: My sister and I made it through 10 days on only 1 piece of carry on luggage that we shared.  Try to pack as light as physically possible and only bring the absolute essentials.  You'd be surprised how little you can survive on while traveling.  Also every city has a Walgreens-like location, so you can buy anything that you forget or is above 3oz.  Check out Tim Ferris's blog for packing light.  http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/07/11/how-to-travel-the-world-with-10-pounds-or-less-plus-how-to-negotiate-convertibles-and-luxury-treehouses/

5. Skype - International calling is quite expensive.  I believe Italy to the US was somewhere around $1.50 per minute for my iPhone on AT&T.  To save money and still stay in touch with my family and friends back home, I have the Skype Unlimited plan which I paid around $30/year to call any US number without any extra charges.  I connected my iPhone to a hotel available wi-fi network and was able to call the US without any additional charges.  One phone call makes up the cost of the Skype Unlimited plan.

6. Travel Agent - Some people like to be more spontaneous and travel without any sort of plans in mind.  Because we wanted to visit 4 cities (Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan) in 10 days as well as visit our relatives, we had to plan more diligently.  A travel agent was a massive help and allowed us the luxury of having train tickets organized and purchased in advance as well as detailed notes about all the locations.  Our travel agent, Nancy, also organized the hotels we were staying at so that they were centrally located to all the sites that we wanted to see.

Good luck on your future travels.