London Calling

I booked my flight to London last night. After I am done with my summer semester in Copenhagen, I will take my Easy Jet wings and fly over the North Sea into London Stansted. If it hadn't been for the Olympics going on this year there, I wouldn't have gone there. I think I would have traveled within Germany before departing home from Berlin. I still might do that, depending on how smart I am with my money. I'm rather excited to actually be in an olympic city while  the games are going on. I've been to Olympic parks where they were hosted, like Athens, Munich, and Barcelona. Still impressive, but without the crowd there, it is entirely different.   Because of my architectural background, the newly built architecture (permanent and temporary) excites me. That is my #1 reason of going actually. Architecture of the Olympics. It's always going to be that way.

There was a moment last night where I almost booked my flight with Ryan Air instead of Easy Jet because I could have saved $10, but then I remembered how I felt when I flew Easy Jet for the first time. Compared to Ryan Air, Easy Jet is like a chartered bus while Ryan Air is like the public bus. For $10, my decision was already made.

Easy Jet Airfare: $63
Admin Fee: $15
Luggage fee 20kg: $20
Faking an English accent: priceless.

Fundraising for Tuition

Happy 4-20 everyone! I find this 'holiday' amusing...

I'm being proactive at fundraising for grad school and study abroad! I'm proud for myself at the moment. I never would have thought of myself ever doing this, but because of an action that I took on a whim, it has inspired me to think of more!
A couple of days ago I thought it might be interesting to invite friends and family to donate old items to me. There is going to be a community parking lot sale hosted by an elementary school in Anaheim, so I decided to take their donations and sell their items there. In return, they will receive a postcard while I study aboard. I invited 50+ people, and although less than 10 are participating, I am amazed on how many items they are letting go of! My car (well, the car I am borrowing since my car is in the shop) is full of stuff right now. The only vacant seat is the passenger seat. And this is only from two people so far!
So participation = foreign postcard. Yay!

I am also beginning to collect aluminum cans from my workplace, so that I may be recycle them for cash.

A little bit goes a long way! I'm happy that I've got friends and family that are willing to participate.

Please check out my donations page. I will be grateful for every cent.

Thank You!

A New Packing Challenge

I am a pretty light packer. Not the bare-essentials kinda gal like this person (he only brought 3 shirts!). It can be fun and frustrating at the same time while figuring out what you really need vs. what you really want. Last time I went abroad, it was for 10 months since I was really to study; traveling was secondary. I simply took the liberty of packing two suitcases and my backpack as a carry-on. But because this time I am studying abroad during the course of 6 weeks, and traveling for 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after, I need to seriously consider my version of bare essentials for 2.5 months. There are no round-trips for me this summer, they're all one-way tickets. At least I'm traveling during the summer, so coats and heavy sweaters are out of the question. From the beginning I already decided that all I am bringing is my carry-on sized rolling luggage and a bag (type yet to be determined, and more on that later). I am pretty confident that I will succeed in this new challenge my travel plans have given me.

As much as I actually wanted to travel with my carry-on sized luggage in the plane's cabin, I'm pretty sure that I will not keep to the ~8kg rule. Either way, I'll be carrying my laptop and DSLR with me everywhere. Many, if not all, budget airlines within Europe have very detailed rules about baggage/luggage, and they only want one piece of baggage being brought into the actual cabin. I will have to surrender currency to the airline companies, but as long as my laptop and cameras are safe, I am happy.

In order to comply with this one item on board, I have decided to embark on a search for a bag that can hold my laptop and DSLR. Naturally, I am on a budget (when am I not?), so I want to keep it under $75. I found beautiful bags that are dedicated to both laptop and DSLRs, but I need to learn that I have to do with less.

The brown MIIM backpack is on the top of my list. Actually, it is the only one on my (realistic) list right now. It has a space for a laptop, and backpacks are generally roomy enough for additional items. And it won't give me that un-even shoulder pain like messengers. Regardless, I still am in love with messengers.

This Ari Marcopoulos Camera Bag from Incase would be my dream bag. That's all I have to say.

I tend to gravitate towards men's messenger bags. I love them a lot more than women's. But I think this ONA messenger does justice to both sexes.

Lessons Learned #1: baggage fees

Yesterday I decided what date I was leaving Moscow for my next destination. It wasn't an easy decision. I tend to dwell on choices when given many. Naturally I am on a budget, but I ended up booking my flight to Oslo with a generous layover in Riga, Latvia. I figured that for the same price as flying to Copenhagen I could fly to Oslo. I could have had a painless layover in Riga for 1-4 hours, but I realized that I could actually spend the whole day in Riga if I chose the longest layover available. I decided that for the same price, I might as well get to know Riga. I have gotten postcards from there via Postcrossing and I deemed it a place worthy of visiting.

Now here comes the reason why I am writing this post rather late at night- and I have work tomorrow morning. I had booked my Moscow-Oslo flight through Priceline with AirBaltic. I didn't know that AirBaltic was a budget airline. Budget airlines typically ask for extra fees for baggage, and it was rather unfortunate that Priceline didn't do into detail about AirBaltic's baggage rules and conditions. Let alone that Priceline typically doesn't have budget airlines in their lineup. At least I found out about that now. I went to AirBaltic's website and found out that:
1- one handbaggage, not to exceed 8kg, is allowed on board.
2- one (1) checked baggage up to 20 kg will cost 20€ if purchased on their website before your flight.
3- one (1) checked baggage up to 20 kg upon check-in will cost 30€.

(UPDATE 4/18: while looking for more flights on Priceline.com, I saw that there is a link beneath he listed flight letting users know that baggage fees are not included and to directly go to their website to pay a baggage fee. I need to perhaps not book flights late at night anymore!)

Okay, now this sounds familiar (ie EasyJet, RyanAir, etc)

So I purchased the checked baggage fee. I had thought that it would only be 20€- saving myself 10€ if I had found out about this upon check-in, but it seems that 'layover' for AirBaltic means another baggage fee. 40€ it was. That is half of the cost of the original ticket. I hope this is the only time this happens.

I have flown budget airlines throughout Europe before in 2007/2008, such as RyanAir, WizzAir, and EasyJet. I think just by seeing those names it is assumed that they are going to charge fee on top of fee- especially RyanAir. But then again, years ago I only packed for 3-5 days, not 2.5 months.

I need to think about packing even lighter. I have 1.5 months to strategically draft this out.

So far, by experience, Easy Jet > RyanAir. Always.

Russian Smiles.

Pushpins! I probably have boxes and containers full of these little things in my room and office space left over from school. I started with one 100-count box of pushpins and ended up with 2 boxes of aluminum and clear ones. I guess that's a profit. I also ended up with 3 t-squares and 3 rulers when I graduated from architecture school when I started with only one of each. Funny how that works.

Welcome to the Pushpin Post. I wanted to start something where I can blog about my adventures and misadventures in school and travels. I will be beginning my course of study during RISD's summer term in ::: drumroll ::: Copenhagen! About 3 weeks ago I bought my plane tickets. I don't think it had completely soaked in me yet because my mom said that I looked like a deer in the headlights when I was buying my tickets online. After searching daily, hour after hour (almost), for an entire week after I got my admission papers, I booked my arrival for Moscow and departure from Berlin. It was cheap. Like $300-500 cheaper than arriving in Copenhagen (or any other European city). I decided I might as well because I've wanted to visit the former USSR since I was 12.

Russia = visa acquisition.

Getting a visa to Russia is like getting a visa to North Korea. Okay, it isn't anything like that, but it sure seemed like it at first after reading about it for 4 days straight. My first step was to actually renew my passport since it was going to expire in September. I needed a passport valid 6 months after departing from Russia, and 3 months after departing from Denmark. Thank goodness for those hard working employees at the National Passport Processing Center because I got my passport (new and improved) back in 2.5 weeks. Three days later, I find myself at the Russian visa agency in West Hollywood applying for a Russian tourist visa. I was in and out within 5 minutes. Of course, I came prepared with a completed application and a brand-spanking new passport. Now all I have to wait is 2 weeks.

Who ever said Russians don't smile are right, but they sure are quite helpful.