Post-Graduation Explorations

In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson    

It is (at least to me) a little known fact that one of Australia's nicknames is the Land of the Long Weekend (though this seems to be more related to student culture, with no classes on Fridays, than to any other demographic). Therefore, in honor of my impending trip Down Under, I would like you to join me here Friday evenings for a new post about preparing to move to Australia!

Posting topics will vary but may include: the student/worker/dependent visa process (after all, the fiance may be going with me), packing for an extended 'trip', local attractions, vaccinations, books, etc.

This week I will be sharing my 'to read' list. My goal is to have all 13 books read before I touch down in SYD (Sydney's international airport). I have roughly 32 weeks to accomplish this, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

1)The Fatal Shore. Robert Hughes - historical non-fiction novel about exiling prisoners to Australia from which stemmed colonization.


3) In a Sunburned Country. Bill Bryson - comical recount of Bryson's encounters with Australians while living Down Under.

4 (Travelers’ Tales Guides.) Australia: true stories of life down under. Habegger - Thirty-nine travel tales about varying experiences vacationing and traveling in Australia.












Wish me luck!

While enjoying my coffee this morning I ran across an interview with Guardian Budget Traveler journalist Benji Lanyado on the future of budget travel with the advent of social media. (For the full interview pop on over to Gadling.com.)

Lanyado recommends using Twitter for help finding those local hidden treasures that travelers love so much. In fact, Lanyado's confidence in using Twitter to troubleshoot his travel plans is so compelling that The Guardian now runs a front page live stream, which Lanyado has dubbed TwiTrip, when he is on the road. He also goes so far as to say that travel guidebooks are facing extinction in his October 3, 2010 article about the evolution of travel resources.

In a way, Lanyado's new coping mechanism for travel makes sense.  Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter operate in real time (whereas books are out of date as soon as they are printed) and are accessed by locals (guidebooks were historically written by travel writers and foreign correspondents).  Not to mention the enormous number of users on these sites. Therefore, there certainly is great potential to gain highly specialized and up-to-dated information AND how many people recommend. However, if you don't have a smart phone/iPad/Nook/etc, using social media platforms such as Twitter when on the go is not be possible.

 This move to Germany will be my first chance to experience travel with a means to access such media as Twitter and Foursquare. Up until now I've been a die hard fan of the Guide Book.

What form of 'guide' do you like to use when you travel?

Want to read more by Benji Lanyado? Check out his website or find him on Twitter (@benjilanyado)

Keeping with the travel and expatriate theme I just finished Roxana Saberi's Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran. WOW! What a read! For anyone looking for a holiday gift for that independent young woman in your life I highly recommend this book! Roxana's recount of her experiences as an Iranian-American foreign correspondent in Iran are both compelling and edifying; giving the reader a very detailed account of what it is like to be both female and independent, in a country where such a combination is not highly prized.


Synopsis (from www.harpercollins.com)

On the morning of January 31, 2009, Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist working in Iran, was forced from her home by four men and secretly detained in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. The intelligence agents who captured her accused her of espionage—a charge she denied. For several days, Saberi was held in solitary confinement, ruthlessly interrogated, and cut off from the outside world. For weeks, neither her family nor her friends knew her whereabouts.
After a sham trial that made headlines around the world, the thirty-one-year-old reporter was sentenced to eight years in prison. But following international pressure by family, friends, colleagues, various governments, and total strangers, she was released on appeal on May 11, 2009. Now Saberi breaks her silence to share the full account of her ordeal, describing in vivid detail the methods that Iranian hard-liners are using to try to intimidate and control many of the country's people.

In this gripping and inspirational true story, Saberi writes movingly of her imprisonment, her trial, her eventual release, and the faith that helped her through it all. Her recollections are interwoven with insights into Iranian society, the Islamic regime, and U.S.-Iran relations, as well as stories of her fellow prisoners—many of whom were jailed for their pursuit of human rights, including freedom of speech, association, and religion. Saberi gains strength and wisdom from her cellmates who support her throughout a grueling hunger strike and remind her of the humanity that remains, even when they are denied the most basic rights.

Between Two Worlds is also a deeply revealing account of this tumultuous country and the ongoing struggle for freedom that is being fought inside Evin Prison and on the streets of Iran. From her heartfelt perspective, Saberi offers a rich, dramatic, and illuminating portrait of Iran as it undergoes a striking, historic transformation.



Some praise for Ms. Saberi.
“Between Two Worlds is an extraordinary story of how an innocent young woman got caught up in the current of political events and met individuals whose stories vividly depict human rights violations in Iran.”
— Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Between Two World is the harrowing chronicle of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi’s imprisonment in Iran—as well as a penetrating look at Iran and its political tensions. Here for the first time is the full story of Saberi’s arrest and imprisonment, which drew international attention as a cause célèbre from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and leaders across the globe.