The plan

Last summer and fall semester I was on co-op working for GE. I got lots of work experience, made some money and had a nice break from RPI. But it was boring. So I’m not doing that again this summer.

Instead, I’ve decided to spend the whole summer traveling. I don’t want to end up like so many of my GE colleagues who get stuck in life long careers with just a week of vacation time each year and no time to really explore the world or live their lives. Since I took a semester off to do the co-op, I’ve got one more to go before I graduate, which leaves me this extra free summer. I saved everything I could while working at GE so I was able to turn down several enticing summer job offers, and just do what I want.

The most important part of my plan was to not have much of a plan. Rather than checking off all the tourist spots, I'd rather explore and see what piques my interest.

Here's the basic itinerary:

June 1st: New York JFK International to Reykjavik, Iceland
June 8th: Reykjavik, Iceland to Amsterdam, Netherlands
I'll be traveling all over Europe with a EuRail pass for Benelux, Germany, Denmark and Sweden
July 22nd: London, England to Hong Kong, China
August 11th: Beijing, China to Delhi, India
August 21st: Delhi, India to New York JFK International

Some of the time I'll be staying in youth hostels. But to save money, and better experience local culture, I'll be using www.couchsurfing.com a whole lot, as well as staying with some friends who live or are traveling overseas. Couch surfing is an amazing web community of ~450,000 people around the world. The premise is that strangers offer their couch, floor or guest bedroom for people to stay on for free. It's an amazing way to meet, interact with, and learn from people from around the world.

As an only child growing up, I could easily spend 8 hours straight building with Legos. One of my favorite things to build was either boats or space ships that were big enough for Lego people to live on, and contained everything I thought they needed to be largely self sustaining. Perhaps inspired by movies like Waterworld, I'd build catamarans and pack them with gardens, water purifiers and sometimes things that didn't quite make sense, like a detachable helicopter to hunt seagulls. I think thats why for this trip I had so much fun packing, and deciding the minimum amount of stuff I could get away with taking. In order to limit myself, I first bought a backpack that fits within the FAA maximum carry-on size limit. I only have room to pack about 3-4 days worth of clothes. The strategy is that you can either change your outfit everyday, or you can change your location, and no one will realize that you're wearing the same clothes over and over. I think this summer will be something of an exercise in simple living. It's just me and my bag, not me and a car, and an apartment full of stuff.