Packing and Planes

NOTE: I wrote this yesterday while waiting for my 5 hour connection from JFK to London, Heathrow. I was picked up this morning and am having a fantastic time!

Well today was it. Flying to England.

It has been a rough couple of days packing and making sure I see all of my family and such. Monday, Memorial Day, we had a giant BBQ in preparation for my departure.  The kids came up and I got to see all of my uncles! Yay!

My baby cousin Alexis and I

Here I am waiting in JFK with no internet bored out of my mind. L How is this possible!? Well I mistakenly thought that during my 5 hour layover, I would have the Interwebs at my disposal. NO FREE WI-FI. Really Delta/KLM-JFK (the plane food was delicious though)? 

So I shall tell you about my packing!

It was terrible. I cut my knee, stubbed my toe, yelled, screamed, and hollered. But it all fits and I have everything I wanted to bring with my carry on being heavier than expected and my suitcase being lighter.

The best way of packing I found was to roll all of my clothes.  After I set the first layer in I found I still had an large amount of room. They weren’t lying when they told you to roll your clothes, it really works! Fortunately, I now do not have to worry about bringing things back to the states (within reason). It also helped that a lot of my clothes were light and I wore the only jacket I will be taking to England.

This morning was also an adventure. From riding in a tiny airplane to waiting 5 hours for my connecting flight to London Heathrow.

Becky and the tiny airplane

I know I will be exhausted tomorrow when I am picked up from the airport. I MUST FIGHT JET LAG (NOTE: I lost and had to take a nap)!

To be continued…

All of the University News Stories!

Here is a collection of all of the articles, blogs and videos I have done for University News:

Articles:
Student Spotlight: Allie Strader
Financial Literacy Expert
Student Spotlight: Melissa Bromley
RIT Spring Career Fair
Student Packaging Jamboree
RIT Taste of 140 Characters Conference 
Student Spotlight: Meghan Lima
Wifely Role in Sex Scandals 
Student Spotlight: Kara Shierly
Microsoft Puzzle Challenge
The Vagina Monologues 
Student Spotlight: Ross Lancaster
SPIE Conference 
3-D Planeterrainium
Frans Wildenhain: Honoring the Craft
RIT GeneSIS
Student Spotlight: Harshita Sood
Joe Delgado: Helping Others Achieve Wellness Goals
Student Spotlight: Tracey O'Dowd
Frans Wildenhain: Sketchbooks
'Fade' among 20 Best Video Games
Technology Woman of the Year
Crain's 40 Under 40
Three Generations of Alumni
Student Spotlight: Guerin Gagliastri
RIT Players: 'Peanuts' All Grown Up
Student Spotlight: Bharat Thazhathu
Imagine RIT Exhibits Honored
STEP at RIT
Student Spotlight: Chris Haltigin
Autonomus Humanoid Robot at RIT

Blog:
My First Week at University News

Video:

I have also done a lot of captioning, went to press conferences and attended events. Working at University News has been my best professional experience!

I hope I grabbed everything! If not go here and have a look!

Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time is the best. I repeat BEST show in existence.

From the creators of 'Lost' and ABC (owned by Disney) have created a masterpiece. Because ABC is owned by Disney, the fairy tale characters closely resemble the Disney costumes (ex: Belle and Cinderella shown below).

The season finale came out last week and I absolutely loved it. This is a series that I would actually consider buying instead of just watching it once it was that good.

Belle

Cinderella

I don't want to give too much away but...

Once Upon a Time, if you don't already know is the story of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, He's just Not that Into You, Something Borrowed) and her prince (Josh Dallas) but combined with every other fairy tale imagined.  It starts as the classic tale, the prince and princess defeat the evil queen and live happily... for a while.

Snow White and Evil Queen Regina in Fairy Tale world

As Snow White and Charming prepare for the birth of their first child, the evil queen (Lana Parrilla) casts a curse on the kingdom that moves every fairy tale character into our world, which has no magic so the she will be the only one with a happy ending.  The only way the curse can be broken is by Snow White and Charming's daughter, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison, How I Met Your Mother), when she turns 28, sent to the our world beforehand to avoid the complications of the curse. On her birthday, her son (given up for adoption at birth), Henry (Jared Gilmore) finds her so that he can help break the curse, he is the only one who knows the truth.  Emma Swan travels to the tiny town of Storybrooke to protect and care for her son who has been adopted by the evil queen who is mayor of Storybrooke.

Snow White, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood in our world

As the series progresses, you learn about the character's pasts in fairy tale land and the effects of the curse in Storybrooke with some surprising twists and turns. Need I mention that Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle, 28 Weeks Later) is behind most of the schemes that arise?

With this all-star cast and amazing plot line, I am going to be addicted to this show for a while. I wonder how they will continue season 2... If you haven't seen it yet, catch up while there is still time!

Emma Swan

Ticket to Italy

MAKE WAY EVERYONE! MAKE WAY!
I AM TRAVELING TO ITALY. OFFICIALLY.


This is crazy. A little 9 days separate me from the Europe, more specifically England. Then 6 days after my arrival to England, I'm flying out (with Becky of course!) to Italy.


So many adventures will happen!


We are flying out June 6th to Ciampino, Italy and staying in Rome for 4 nights and then heading up to Florence and Pisa for 3 and then we are back to England!


Crazy huh?


We were able to get cheap tickets from ryanair.com for about $150, other travel sites had prices listed on average for $200.  If you like planning ahead (like I do!) RyanAir is the cheap way to go. There are of course restrictions to what you can bring but I'm sure I can get by with a little bag for a week! WHICH REMINDS ME I HAVE TO PACK! Oh dear, 1 piece of luggage will be the death of me...

Not mine but I fear it will be..

Getting the plane ticket, in my opinion, is the easiest part of the trip. Next came hostel booking. I searched for weeks comparing hostels (ughhh so many) prices, ratings and so on and so forth on hostelworld.com. The final decision came to Ottimista - Furio Camillio for Rome and Hotel Marcella for Florence. While we were planning on staying in hostels, these bed and breakfasts were a lot cheaper (and were less likely to put me into an anxiety attack!).

Rome

But how do you get from Rome to Florence with no car? Take the train! Italiarail.com was the place to go. The train tickets were fairly cheap, around $67 roundtrip. It also wasn't too bad working around the plane ticket (we have to be back in Ciampino by 4 on the 13th). 


All that is left is to get bus passes for Rome, plan out what we are going to see there, bus tickets for Florence (around the city), and a bus to and from Florence to Pisa (cliche picture of me holding up the leaning tower her I come!)

Pretend I'm holding it up! 

Also, as a last note, I know I haven't been great keeping up with blogging, these last few weeks have been absolutely nuts!

The Costs They Forgot to Tell You About

I'm super excited to study abroad in East Sussex, England but there are a lot more costs that cropped up after I decided to go officially. It comes in that 80 page book they expect you to read...okay okay I may have read most of it!

Some of them may be pretty simple and you may think"well, duh..." but here is what I found going through the process.

1) Passport

As you may have guessed, I didn't have a passport before November and I needed to go and get one (can't fly to England with an enhanced driver's license!). I had to get the works. First you pay for the passport, $140.  Then the execution fee, another $25.  The picture, $10. And finally, the money order to be able to send the money to the government, I think this was about $5. This brings the grand total to $180.00. Wow.

Renewing it alone is $140!

2) Luggage

A good set of 3 piece luggage for a new traveler is around $90 from JCPenny (which is rebranded itself! I'm loving their new logo). Be careful about your allowed size for your flight too! I have a piece of luggage that came in the set that is too large!

3) Cell Phone

Don't EVER bring your own cell phone over. I thought I would just add the international plan and be done with it. NOPE. It was about $30 per month ON TOP of my regular bill and then add 99 cents per minute. How about just getting data? THINK AGAIN! That was an additional $20 to the data plan you are currently paying for and you only have access to about a megabyte.  Go for a disposable phone when you get overseas for emergency purposes only . Much cheaper, $20 - $50.

4) How much your University will actually pay for the program / Deposit
My study abroad program is through Queens University, RIT didn't offer a program that allowed me to stay in England for the amount of time I desired or at the right time.  I thought cool, going through a Canadian University will be a bit cheaper because of the conversion. I also looked at what my University gave me in scholarships and the scholarships themselves could pay for it.  When I was going through the whole business with Financial Aid however, they told me they could only pay for a percentage of my scholarships. Even if I went on co-op during the Spring.  (The Financial Aid is different than the academic year, beginning in the summer and ending in the Spring).  I had to pay the $1000 deposit by myself and then they added another kicker to the equation... they would only pay for tuition, not room and board.  So it was an uphill battle to get the money.  I ended up taking out my government loan for the Spring so I could pay my room and board and the remainder of my tuition for England. Total cost out of pocket: $1000 and applying to as many scholarships as I possibly can.

5) ATM fees. Obviously, overseas will not have the same banks as we do, so there will be withdrawal fees. Take out large amounts of money if you are taking out of the ATM to avoid paying the fee each time. HSBC is in England but they just sold all of their banks in NY and CT off (just my luck) to First Niagara...Yes, HSBC they defiantly have the same services, thanks for screwing over your customers. Watch out for foreign transaction fees on credit cards too!

This is just to name a few. There are a ton more.

My advice?  Always plan to spend more than you do and look for little money savers.  Though it may be stressful now, get as many jobs or work as many hours as you can to help pay for the extra costs.

Remember to pack lightly!

19 more days and I am so terrified and excited!