Category Archives: Study Abroad

Less than one week to go

Kansas City – Well, it’s that time. With less than one week left in the home of the corn dog and the land of the funnel cake, I am in a position of needing to begin the final stages of planning and preparation to depart from Kansas City for London this coming Friday. Of course, this doesn’t come without a little bit of pain. After all, my cat and dog are rather not happy at the prospect of me leaving them for a few weeks, but they’ll just have to deal with it. The cat sure has found a way.

“The cat sure has found a way.”

However much grief may come to the family fuzzies, there’s always some trouble with either homesickness on my part or worry on my parents’ parts while I’m away. Luckily though, we live in 2013, and happen to have a little technology called Skype (Buíchos le Dia!) With a good internet connection on both ends, one can see and speak to another on the other side of the globe!

Another thing to prepare for is to figure out what I need to get through British Customs. Now, normally as an American citizen, all I would need is my passport. But because I’m staying for three weeks, and will be studying at a British university, I am required to get a student visa upon arrival at Heathrow one week from today. All I need to present is my passport, an acceptance letter from the University of Westminster (where I’ll be studying), and some bank documents showing I have enough money to live on.

One other sort of “pass” that I invested in this past week, to become official on the 15th, is an English Heritage Overseas Visitor Pass. They cost around £28 and can be picked up and activated at any English Heritage location. All you need to activate the pass is, as the English Heritage website reads,

“…print out your booking confirmation (voucher), and take this with the credit card used to make the booking. You must also have proof of identity with you in the form of a passport, identity card or driver’s license to authenticate that you are the rightful owner of the voucher and as proof of overseas residency. This can be a photocopy.”

English Heritage is similar to our National Historic Sites in the United States. It is a nonprofit organisation that maintains many of the historical places, buildings, battlefields, ruins, etc. throughout England. There are similar organisation in Scotland called Historic Scotland, in Wales called Cadw, in the North of Ireland the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Manx National Heritage on the Isle of Man. During my 2002 trip over to England, I got the opportunity to visit a good number of English Heritage sites, including Battle Abbey (the site of the Battle of Hastings of 1066), Dover Castle, and St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury. I would highly recommend getting this pass for your trip.

So, until next Friday…

Planning One’s Banking and Currency Abroad

Kansas City – I made a couple of stops today at my local bank, getting one major step of the process of preparing for departure out of the way: money. There are always some questions floating about in the rumour-mill regarding how to go about banking and taking money abroad. In the past it was a bit trickier for me, as I used to bank at a more localised bank, that didn’t have a very good international department. Now however, since moving into Kansas City, MO, I’ve switched to a bigger bank, Commerce to be precise, that thankfully does have a good international department, as I experienced today.

Not only were they able to set up my accounts so I can use my regular card over in the UK, but also were able to supply me with enough Pound Sterling (GB£) to get started overseas in regards to setting up a cellphone (mobile phone) plan, etc. upon arrival. If you’re in Kansas City, or St Louis, Commerce offers foreign exchange services at 8 branches in Kansas City and 1 branch in St Louis. From what I saw at the Plaza branch where I got the GBP in question, they offer at least Canadian Dollars (CAD), Euros (EUR), and British Pound Sterling (GBP) Mexican Pesos (MXN). I’m not certain, for example, whether or not one can exchange at Commerce for other currencies, the Australian (AUD), or New Zealand (NZD) Dollars, Japanese Yen (JPY), or the Russian Ruble (RUB) just being a few examples. Other places in the past that I have gone to for currency exchange on my way out have included any currency exchange post at any major airport.

“…in part due to the nostalgia of it…” (Public domain)

I’d make sure you have your credit or debit card(s) as well on hand when abroad, just in case you need them. As much as I’d love to use hard cash, in part due to the nostalgia of it, it is often more useful to use the plastic. A friend recently proposed the idea of the United States dollar leaving the realm of actual hard currency (coins and banknotes) and turning towards an electronic currency, physicalised in one’s cards.

Preparing for Study Abroad – Logistics of Travel

Kansas City – I like to plan ahead, so far in advance that I have some events marked out on my calendar as far out as 2015 (mostly the midnight premieres of the next two Hobbit films). However nutty some of this early planning may seem, it is a good thing to do.

“However nutty some of this early planning may seem, it is a good thing to do.”

Flying and Connecting

In particular, I like to know, in cases where I’ll be somewhere that I’ve never been before, or rarely been before, what to expect when I get there and how to get from A to B without trouble. This is especially true when it comes to airports. Let’s face it, I’m best when it comes to Kansas City, O’Hare, and Midway. But when it comes to places like Heathrow, JFK, or Boston Logan, I need to do some extra planning before hand so I don’t get lost when I’m there, especially when it comes to places like JFK and Logan where I’ll be transferring with only a couple hours to spare.

In preparation for the possibility that I won’t have as much time as I think I will, in part due to the ever changing wait times at airport security, I’ve been looking around on some of the most interesting pages I’ve read to date: airport websites. Depending on where you’re flying through to go to your study abroad site, your connecting airports (and final destinations) may have more or less information, depending on how techie their staff are, I suppose. Heathrow, Logan, O’Hare, Midway, and Toronto Pearson are some of the more tech savy airport websites that I’ve gone through when planning for this trip. Meanwhile, I was less impressed with the websites for JFK and Atlanta. The big difference is in user-friendliness. Whereas I found it far easier to navigate the websites for Heathrow, Logan, O’Hare, and the rest, the JFK page seemed rather outdated, whereas Atlanta just had too much information. Let’s face it, I don’t need to read a message from the Mayor of Atlanta and the GM of Hartsfield Airport every time I look at one of their scroll down menus.

However, JFK was a lot easier to use in its “Flight Schedule” section. See, I wasn’t looking at a flight this week, I was looking to see what terminals my flights would be going in and out of through that airport come mid-June. Not only was I able to see what terminal I’d be leaving New York in, but I was able to find what terminal I’d be arriving in London at.

For me, the biggest concern always when flying is going through airport security. I always find it quite stressful, as anyone who has flown with me before can tell you. In booking my flights, I made sure to have a good 3 hour layover outbound from the US and a 2.5 hour layover returning to the States. Let’s face it, I prefer Amtrak security checkpoints to FAA ones.

Once There

I’m a big fan of guidebooks, in particular the DK Eyewitness and Rick Steves’ guidebooks. The DK books are excellent for me because they have great clarity, and the black font on the white page is easier for me to see on the fly, considering my eyes would make horrid HD cameras. Recently I ordered the 2012 edition of the DK Eyewitness London guide, to replace my long outdated 1999 edition.

Courtesy of DK.com (Penguin Group)

The DK travel guides also give an excellent guide to the best sites and what to expect in each particular location focused on. On the other hand, Rick Steves is more personable in his writing style. Also, with the Rick Steves guides one can find his insightful PBS programmes, which I’ve been watching for years. He’s also on NPR in some cities (I once heard his radio show in Dallas, but never in Kansas City). Check your local listings for both.

Also, though I am a big supporter of many of the new technologies (mobile phones, tablets, laptop computers, etc.) I would highly recommend having some sort of old fashioned watch with you. I have a very nice Timex wrist watch that I bought a Target that tells the time perfectly (it has yet to lose even a second). Though traditionally I’m more of a fan of the pocket watch, let’s face it you’re not going to have quite as much room on the plane to reach into that pocket as you may think (trust me, I know from experience). Plus, if you’re going to be in school when you’re travelling it’s a good idea to have another way besides your phone to tell time in class, considering most professors aren’t a big fan of students looking down at their phones in the middle of class. According to ISA, the organisation I’m going to London with, the University of Westminster doesn’t even allow phones to be on in the classroom or lecture hall. Logistically, you’re going to need to keep an eye on time when you’re travelling. One of the best ways to do this without pulling out your iPhone or Android is simply to look at your wrist watch and know thus.