Germany Bound

After deciding to take this opportunity to study in a foreign land, I knew that a plethora of things needed to be done. Never having traveled internationally before, I couldn't help but flock to the internet for advice. Needless to say, the first step was to apply for a passport. Now, the Department of State says that processing times for passports are 4-6 weeks with routine service, so applying early was key considering my short time frame (6 weeks from deciding to go till departure)....then came checking with Aetna to make sure that my health insurance would cover me abroad, checking with AT&T for international phone plans, stopping by the bank to notify them that my debit card would be used abroad...etc. As if that didn't seem like enough stuff, I still have to file all of the paperwork with both Leibniz University and MTU for credit equivalency, payment, authorization, etc...did you know that you need academic reference letters from faculty to study abroad? I certainly didn't, and not like it was too big of a thing to obtain, but it was just another thing to do. IPS (international programs and services) at MTU was extremely helpful all along in getting all of my arrangements situated here at Tech and over in Germany ready to go, but there was still plenty of forms/documents to fill out myself....in addition to working extra shifts to go towards paying for the expenses related to being abroad and not working for 7 weeks.

Another important thing for travel, is of course the airfare itself. As if you didn't know already, airfare (especially international) is not cheap to begin with, but when you get within a few months of your departure date....prices seem to escalate dramatically. Knowing full well that a ticket from Houghton to Hannover, Germany would be over $1,000 I was not surprised that the initial price I found through United Airlines was nearly $1,600. But, lets get real, I'm not one to see a sticker price and pay it...I shopped around. Eventually a friend of mine who had studied abroad before suggested I check out STATravel.com to search for special reduced price fares for students and faculty traveling abroad...so I did. Turns out that CMX is not a large enough airport for STA to bother dealing with, the nearest one to me was in Green Bay, WI....a 4 hour drive, it wouldn't be bad if the price was right. STA came in out of GRB at $1200, a savings significant enough to warrant the travel to and from...I immediately spoke with my mother about the find, and we agreed to book it the next day. Come to find out, that the fare expired and GRB had escalated $300 in price overnight and it would now be over $1500 to fly out. Disgusted, I began to search desperately for alternatives....my very thoughtful mother suggested looking into booking with a travel agency in town, I didn't expect them to beat the online retailers like Kayak.com or Priceline...but come to find out they were able to book me out of Houghton for the same price as Green Bay, needless to say that was booked almost immediately. This reaffirms my hatred of commercial airline pricing. I've traveled domestically numerous times, and have fought with the pricing schemes of airlines numerous times...and have learned 3 lessons: book early, be flexible (dates, departure/arrival city, etc), and try all your options...you never know when you'll hit a good deal.

While there seems to be alot of work that goes into study abroad, I can already tell that it will be worth it. Another big thing that I still need to to, and shall be the subject of tomorrow's blog post: LEARN GERMAN!