We’re Famous!

I’m not a writer. I majored in Computer Science and Math, so the only “writing” I did all through college was coding programs in C++. I am trying to garner your sympathy for churning out profound, insightful and hilarious material for you almost every week. Because I’d much rather be solving math equations.

Zhou and I happened to connect with a guy named Andy Hayes last week. (Yes, the Andy Hayes. If you Google his name, he’s the one who comes up first.) He’s a professional travel writer and photographer and the mastermind behind this site. Word of our site’s immense popularity must have leaked across the pond to Scotland, where he is located, as he begged us to be featured in his weekly Thursday “interview with a celebrity.” Ok, ok, you caught me – we submitted our blog to his carnival, and he reluctantly said he would do an interview with us.

Andy was a pleasure to work with this week, and we were very happy with the end result of the interview. Through the process I explored his site quite a bit, as it is full of helpful travel hints and great pictures taken throughout the world. A few of my favorite posts were:

The Best of Asia
A Photo Tour of New Zealand
Interview with Gary Arndt

I usually try not to shamelessly cross-promote, but usually is a very forgiving term. Also, the time that I would normally spend writing this post I spent doing the interview, so the links are a good way to lengthen this week’s short post. And with that, we’ll leave you with a link to our interview with Andy.

Oh, and a Cool Runnings video, just because.

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Puzzles for Postcards

Consonantless Ice Cream Flavors from Ben & Jerry’s:

ee oe aeioe ea
eaoia aie
oee oee uuu
iaie ie eae
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Scrabble Log

Games: 55
Zhou WPLB: 28; 367; 315; SENIlES
Kevin WPLB: 27; 368; 397; sETTINGS

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Getting to Know Zhou (Part 2)

…continued from last Sunday.

(8) Secret celebrity crush:

Zhou’s on-again off-again celebrity crush (who is currently on-again with this renewed love of Home Improvement) is JTT. She’s also gone through Adam Brody, Orlando Bloom, Natalie Portman and probably Zach Braff, although the last one is more just because she loves Scrubs.

Correction
I would just like to say that I have always loved Natalie Portman – she was never a phase.

(9) Most idiotic moment:

I’ve alluded to this in an earlier post, but I think Zhou’s dumbest moment since I’ve met her would have to involve her ability to tell time. A couple years ago we were sitting around eating buttered scones and watching equestrian when, in a moment of brilliance, Zhou shouted out, “Oh I get it now!” I looked at her, then around the room – nothing. “That’s why they call the third hand the second hand! Because it tells you the seconds!”

98.6% of the time Zhou is smarter than me, but just so you know, I knew why it was called the second hand back in the first grade. However, at least her “most idiotic moment” ends in laughter, whereas mine ends in a fight.

Correction
What actually happened: I said to Kevin, “Why do they call it the second hand when it’s actually the third hand on the watch?” He just looked at me. “Oooooh,” I said. To his credit, I think this happened early on in our relationship, and he still didn’t write me off. Thanks, Kev!

(10) Weirdest habit:

Of the plethora of choices that I could answer this question with (one of the reasons I like Zhou so much is because of her crazy habits), I think Zhou’s weirdest habit has to be organizing the sugar packets on the table when we go out to eat. The way she gets right to organizing them, you would think that the scum of the earth had just sat at our table and strewn packets haphazardly all throughout the holder. And after she’s done, I’ve tried to hide a pink packet in with the whites or a blue with the pinks, but she always catches it and puts it back in its proper place.

Correction
This is, obviously, 100% true. But I don’t think it’s that weird. Monk does it.

(11) Best sports moment:

It was the semi-finals. These two teams had squared off in the regular season, and the villains had won in a blow-out. They were the one seed and overwhelming favorites (Vegas had them by over two touchdowns). However, it was now late in the second half, and we were driving down the field only behind by a point. Tim took the snap and faked to his left. I sprinted downfield for the deep bomb. A lineman – probably 245 pounds of pure muscle – had sprung viciously from his 3-point stance and was charging hard at Tim. Unfortunately for him, there was one thing in his way: Zhou.

With her hands behind her back, Zhou slid her feet over and bam! The behemoth fell to the ground. Tim took this opening to reverse field and begin his mad scramble. 25 – 20 – 15 – 10 – 5 – touchdown! We had taken a six point lead with under two minutes to play! While the defender slowly picked himself off the ground, the referee came running up to Zhou. “Wow… in all my years… that was hands down the best block I’ve ever seen… not just in flag football… ever!”

[Side note: two plays later, the villains broke free for a 60 yard touchdown run, and we lost the game.]

Correction
As I remember it, the block wasn’t for Tim, but Greg, who actually said “thank you” as he whizzed by (Greg is very polite). And what the ref actually said was, “Man! That’s the best block I’ve ever seen!” After I thanked him nonchalantly (because one of my hobbies is running into people that are twice my size – no seriously, it is), he said, “No REALLY, I’m not kidding, it’s the best block I’ve ever seen! And not just in flag football either!” By that I assumed he meant the best one he’s ever seen, including in the NFL. That’s right, I’m better than Jeff Saturday. A flag football ref said so.

(12) Previous international travel experience:

Zhou has been to China many times – probably about every other year since she moved to the United States. She has also been to Europe twice – once with her family and more recently with her friend Kathleen.

We’ve also done a Caribbean cruise together with a bunch of friends. I think that’s about it. Regardless of how you cut it though, she’s way more well-traveled than me, and therefore will need to protect me on our journey.

Correction
I’ve been to Europe three times, thank you very much. The picture above is the only photographic proof that Kathleen and I were in Europe together. Ok fine, we took that picture in my backyard. I have a castle, I just don’t like to brag about it. Also, I had a very bad run-in with some salmon that time I went with my family, and I can’t eat it anymore.

(13) Thing Zhou is most proud of:

Besides landing a catch like myself, and besides her awesome flag football block, Zhou is most proud of this:

We were visiting our friend Jing in Charlottesville one weekend last fall, and of course I thought this meant hanging out with Jing and being social and all. I think that Zhou thought this too, until she spotted the above wooden puzzle on Jing’s coffee table shortly after we arrived. From that point on, Zhou spent every waking minute focused on putting that puzzle together. I told her that it wasn’t worth it, but Jing had already mentioned that one of her friends had solved it, so there was no turning back.

We were about to eat brunch shortly before our departure on Sunday, and all of a sudden, there was Zhou, and there was the puzzle – solved. I’d never seen her so happy. And then we ate pancakes, and I was really happy.

Correction
Man, solving that thing was sooooo satisfying. Sorry for the ruined weekend, guys! But on a more serious note, I have to say that the thing I’m most proud of is how I’m learning to let things go and be less bothered by little things that don’t really matter. Also, that picture above is not the best picture of me. I am much more beautifuller in person.

(14) Favorite personality trait of Kevin:

It’s clear that Zhou likes me for my great taste in movies / music and my unusually small ears. But those aren’t personality traits. Personality-wise, I think she likes the fact that I don’t really let anything get to me and I’m almost always optimistic. She also once mentioned that she likes how I don’t keep score – if I do the dishes one day, I don’t let that affect who does them the next. (However, when playing Scrabble I demand we keep score.)

Correction
In addition to the unusually small ears, Kevin also has an unusually large head. That’s just an FYI. (Also, the three things Kevin mentioned are in my top five favorite things about Kevin.)

I think that the thing that I like best about Kevin is that he knows what he wants, and he has high standards that he won’t compromise. For example, Kevin would never continue working at a job that he hates just because he would make a lot of money. As for me, I would definitely consider staying at a job I didn’t enjoy if they paid me enough. It’s hard to describe, but it’s just that he has all his priorities in order, and he knows what he needs to do to be happy. And then he goes and does it! I think there are a lot of people who know how they could be happier and more satisfied with their lives but don’t do anything about it.
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Puzzles for Postcards

Consonantless U.S. Cities (solve three of four; and as a reminder, these are all one word):

iia
iai
aaa
iaa
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Scrabble Log

Games: 40
Zhou WPLB: 22; 368; 427; DOWnTIME, ASININE
Kevin WPLB: 18; 363; 461; MEANEST, PAgODAS, BROODING

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All Work And No Play Make Homer Something Something

The most common reaction that Zhou and I get when we tell someone of our upcoming plans is “Really? That sounds amazing!” Then we tell the person that we’re going to travel the world for a year after we learn all the seven-letter words in the Scrabble dictionary (taenias: some sort of tapeworm; banties: small hens), and the person gets even more excited. This inevitably leads into a conversation that starts with the details of the trip and ends with somebody chanting Sanka’s Jamaican bobsled song. It’s the middle part of the conversation that always makes an impression on me though.

At some point, the person always says something like “I wish I would have done this at your age,” and then goes into a rant about his or her spouse and/or kids. (Yes, Zhou and I are too boring to hang out with people our age.) This makes me realize how fortunate Zhou and I are to have not only the time to travel, but also the money, motivation and moxie to make it happen. (I specifically am fortunate to have a Zhou who is very good at planning and very forgiving when I don’t put in nearly as much time as she does.)

To me, the problem is that it does take a very fortunate set of circumstances to be able to do what we’re about to. And the further we’ve gotten into the planning of our journey, the more I realize that it’s the right thing to do at this stage in our lives. So while it’s nice to be idolized by everyone now, when future Kevins and Zhous announce their plans to travel, I dream that the more common reaction will be, “cool, I just did that myself!” The more I think about it, the more I think that this actually could become more popular among motivated recent college graduates who don’t yet have kids.

There are four major obstacles to overcome to enjoy a trip like ours: motivation, time, perception and money. Fortunately though, I believe there are also four good solutions, and as it turns out, one solution remedies each obstacle.

Motivation: This is less of an obstacle to be overcome, and more of a strainer to separate the chunky slackers from the fluid world travelers. If you aren’t motivated, no need to travel. However, it doesn’t take a lot to be motivated for an adventure of a lifetime. Zhou once wrote that she wasn’t sure what motivated us to turn our dream of traveling into a reality. I imagine though that the conversation went something like this:

Zhou: I just swept the floor [twice], can you eat that chili dog over the sink?
Kevin: You know, we could travel the world for a year and it won’t matter where I eat.
Zhou: In the meantime… sink!
Kevin: I’ll book the tickets. [Zhou then booked the tickets.]

So you see, it doesn’t take much. However you end up deciding having fun is something you’d like to try, feel free to read this earlier post to help jump-start the planning process.

Perception: I get the sense that some people would frown upon young travelers who don’t contribute anything to society. (“When I was your age, I used to walk four miles to work, uphill both ways!”) It’s bad enough that I didn’t contribute anything to society for 18 years, unless you count my summer job of eating Graeter’s, the best ice cream in the country. (The job itself wasn’t to eat the ice cream, but one of the perks was free food while on the job. I think that we actually ate more in ice cream than we made in hourly wages, but that’s really not saying much.)

However, when I talk to my backup friends in London and Sydney, I find that time for world exploration is practically encouraged in those countries. It’s called a “gap” year, most likely short for global awareness period. (Ok, maybe not – I just like making acronyms of everyday words.) I’ve heard that Zhou and I will probably bump into a lot of Europeans and Australians while on the trip, and not just while we’re in Europe and Australia. If the people across both oceans promote young travelers, why can’t we?

Time: College usually ends in May, and for most jobs the work year starts in January (sure people start working in June, but then there’s that stub year which is hardly a year at all). That leaves around 6 – 7 months of free time for one either to try to mooch off the parents again, play a marathon game of Settlers of Catan, or go out and see the world. As much as I like Settlers, seven months would be a really long game…

Maybe there could be a program run through colleges – a “ninth semester” program of world travel. I know that my seventh semester was pretty tough, and the eighth was 10x easier, so it makes logical sense to do a ninth that involves nothing more than playing with real Swiss Army knives and hanging out with real Brazilian models. And of course eating as much foreign McDonald’s as possible.

This program could be set up like a semester abroad, only without classes (maybe do some volunteer work at some of the stops, like Vanderbilt’s Alternative Spring Break). I have no idea how liability and that type of stuff would work, but I do know that liability is bad and drinkability is good.

Money: At first glance, this appears to be the biggest obstacle. However, with a well-planned out budget and an acceptance that you won’t be staying in four-star hotels everywhere, world travel is actually much cheaper than you may think. One extreme example is that Zhou and I should be able to do our trek in Nepal for approximately $10 per person per day. This is an all-in cost that includes everything from lodging to buying lots of cheap DVDs. The DVDs in other countries aren’t quite this cheap, but our average daily budget for the entire trip is around $35 per person.

Despite it being less expensive than it may appear, traveling isn’t exactly like eating peanuts, or whatever the phrase is. The biggest cost is the fact that we won’t be getting paid during our time away. (Not everyone is as lucky as these people.) And if sleeping through Econ 101 taught me anything, it was opportunity cost.

There are a few solutions for the money problem. (1) Inherit a lot of family money, or win the lottery. (2) Become an investment banker, date another investment banker and both of you bust your butt at work for a couple years after college. This solution though is no longer recommended, as there’s this whole recession thing that may or may not have stemmed from me piling too much debt on big companies. (3) Save. This one deserves its own paragraph, so let’s do that.

I really don’t want to preach on how to save money, but Zhou feels that it is necessary. Maybe a simple algebra problem will make this seem informative. Let’s use the $35/day number that I mentioned earlier, and say that you travel for six months (180 days). Your total daily budget would then be $6,300. After throwing in the cost of transportation, immunizations, visas, insurance and gear, the total cost of a six-month getaway could be approximately $12,500. In order to save this much money through your four years of college, you would need to save a little under $8.60 per day. That’s just one hour of work, or two less drinks at Starbucks, or eight less rolls of toilet paper (switch to leaves – it’s probably better for the environment) per day. And if you need 118 more ways to save, click here.

Once the Kevins and Zhous of the future are able to become motivated, spare some time after college and save money, I envision that the gap year for world travel will become increasingly popular here in America. Tune back in as we actual start traveling to get our advice on where to go.
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Puzzles for Postcards: Today’s we’ll try a new type of puzzle, fresh out of the Jeopardy! oven. Below are four words (single words, not hyphenated) from a common category, only they all have their consonants removed (the opposite of VQs). You’re job is to be the first to solve three of the four, and we will then be obligated to add you to the list of winners.

Consonantless Colors:
(1) aea
(2) aee
(3) ioe
(4) oie
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Scrabble Log

Games: 39
Zhou WPLB: 22; 367; 365; VITTLES, ASExUAL
Kevin WPLB: 17; 361; 364; PARTIERs

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