Are you an ugly American?

I found this article today on MSN Travel and thought it was pretty interesting.

Sept. 13—Do you love to share your political views with the locals you meet while traveling? Do you think that people in other countries should do everything the American way? Does your voice tend to get as loud as the print on your Hawaiian shirt? If so, then you might be an "ugly American."

The concept of the ugly American has existed ever since an increasing number of ordinary, middle-class travelers began exploring the world over a half-century ago. Now, an organization called Business for Diplomatic Action, concerned by an apparent rise in what it calls "negative stereotypes about our collective personality," is hoping to clean up the image of Americans abroad. The group has published a set of guidelines for travelers, the World Citizens Guide, that suggests proper ways of behaving when visiting countries outside of the U.S.

Among its tips:
~Be humble. In many countries, boasting is considered very rude. … Assume resentment as a default and play down your wealth, power and status.

~Refrain from lecturing. Nobody likes a know-it-all, and nobody likes a whole nation of them.

~Be quiet. A loud voice is often perceived as a bragging voice. Casual profanity is almost always considered unacceptable.

~Dress for respect. Jeans, T-shirts and sneakers work for many of us much of the time, but there are people in other countries who believe such casualness is a sign of
disrespect to them and their beliefs.

These might seem like obvious ways to behave when you're traveling abroad, and you may not appreciate the guide's somewhat patronizing tone. But it appears we could use the advice. In studies conducted in more than 100 countries by DDB Worldwide after 9/11, respondents perceived Americans as loud, arrogant and disrespectful of local cultures. And in a new survey of seven Asian countries, the results of which were published this week in a Japanese newspaper, the image of the U.S. was reported to have declined across the board in the past decade, particularly in countries with large Muslim populations. Some of this sentiment can likely be attributed to unpopular U.S. policies, but the crass personality exhibited by many Americans is also a probable cause. also a probable cause. (If you agree, tell us the worst offenders you've ever seen.) And while you may not be able to influence our elected officials, at least you can send a copy of these tips to your brother-in-law who's always spouting off at the top of his lungs

Have you guys ever seen this "ugly American" thing in action? I have several times.

When I was in Botswana, I encountered a group of Americans who were not at all prepared for traveling abroad. I don't know if you guys know this or not but the rest of the world isn't like America. Don't expect it to be. They were very vocal about their disgust by the food the locals prepared for them, asked for "real ketchup", and basically compared every single thing to their home state. Not only was it annoying to the rest of us Americans but it was very offensive to the natives.

I saw it again in Guatemala. Here's a hint people: in Spanish-speaking countries...they speak Spanish! Don't expect them to speak English. They don't speak English even when you say it super slowly and practically yell at them. To borrow the great Prairie Dogs quote "do you think saying it louder will help me understand?". I saw this a quite few times when I was in Guatemala and I've got to admit that it was disheartening.

"Do they drive on the wrong side of the road?" This is something I get asked a lot. What makes America's side right and everyone else's wrong? I know most people who call it that don't mean to sound surperior but that's how it comes across to others.

Bottom line - don't expect the rest of the world to be just like America (how boring would that be?) and don't expect anyone to cater to you just because you are an American. Do some research before you leave - check out books from Frommers, Lonely Planet, or Moon. Have an understanding of what the norms for that country are like. If you can't deal with cultural differences, please, do the rest of us travelers a favor and stay home.

Spirit Airlines

I learned about this airline when I was in Guatemala. The missionaries there had good experiences with them but I'm a little skeptical. They have EXTREMELY cheap airfare! It's a little hard for me to even comprehend!

If you travel on the right days, you can get airfair for like $9.00 each way! How amazing is that? I'm very eager to try it. I don't really have high expectations of service during the flight or yummy food. Man, for 9 bucks, I can bring snacks!!

I am seriously going to try it out soon. They fly to a lot of Spanish speaking countries that are on my list to visit. The only thing is you have to be really flexible with your dates. I'm kind of thinking something like Dominican Republic for spring break..any one with me?

Have any of you guys heard of Spirit Air before or better yet, actually flown with them? If so, I want to hear about it!

New England Vacation - Chicago

Our flight left EARLY the next morning. I got up at 3:45....yes, that is a.m.! Our plan was to catch the earliest flight home so Dad could still put in a full day at the office. I don't know about you guys but I really don't put much effort into getting ready at 3:45. I thought I was just going to be heading straight home (with a small layover in Chicago) - no big deal.

Wellllllllllll.....we arrived in Chicago around 7. Mom and I decided to sit and enjoy our breakfast while the guys checked out our boarding area and whatnot. So we are sitting at Chili's when Dad calls to inform us that we won't be leaving. The airline had asked for volunteers to give up their seats because they were overbooked.

My dad lives for overbooking! He absolutely loves it! The first thing he does at boarding areas is count the people. He's normally right on the money too. He's normally already standing in line before they even make the overbooked announcement. So that's what happened this time. Dad, Mom, and I gave up our seats and were scheduled for first class on the 3:45 flight. Dustin had a very important class at school so he went on to B'ham.

Chicago is one of my favorite cities so I was pumped about the idea of having more time. We caught the CAT from the airport and headed straight for the shopping district. An unlimited days pass on the CAT was only $5 each - way easier than messing with a taxi or rental car.

We managed to hit H & M and Nordstrom's Rack, along with other shops on State Street. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory at the Hancock Building. It was fabulous!



We didn't care that it was raining - we bought umbrellas and kept right on walking. I seriously looked rough - Little did I know that morning at 3:45 that I was getting ready to go shopping in Chicago.

We headed back to the airport and the CAT took a little longer than we had expected so we were literally running through the airport to make our flight. I get to through security and to the gate first, about 10 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave, and find that the flight was delayed. All of that rushing for nothing.

The place was PACKED! Once again, the flight was overbooked and they were begging for volunteers. And yep, you guessed it, once again we gave up our seats. That's twice in one day! We now have 6 free roundtrip tickets good for one year. Not to shabby, eh? We didn't leave the airport this time but just hung around, read books, ate, shopped, and watched everyone hurry by. The 9:00 flight was also overbooked but we resisted temptation and headed on back to B'ham. They were offering free tickets, hotel room, vouchers for food, and seats on the 9:00 flight the next night.

That brings our little New England excursion to a close. Stay tuned though because we ended up with a total of 7 free tickets so more vacations are on the horizon. =)

New England Vacation - Vermont

Okay - I think I can wrap up our vacation in this post - wooohooo!

After the Cog Mountain Railway, we hit the interstate headed for Vermont -Destination: Ben and Jerry's. =)

Ben and Jerry's really has a cool (no pun intended) experience going on. There is a gift shop, lots and lots of ice cream, a factory tour (that includes a free sample), play ground, activities for kids of all ages, and it goes on and on. I'm not sure about prices for the other activities but the tour was only $3 for adults.

I didn't really know all that much about B & J before this stop. We only have one of their shops in our area and I haven't even been there. I've had B & J's ice cream a few times in the past but I wasn't a well-informed fan. I really learned a lot on the tour. Everything is decorated with bright fun colors and funky scenes. Very interesting! It's really an innovative company with some out of the box approaches to marketing, charity, etc.

I thought the flavor graveyard was really cute. The tombstones had such cute little poem things on them - it cracked me up!

Of course we had to try some! It was delicious!!

We then got back in the car and headed for Hartford. We wanted to spend the night really close to the airport. That way we could go ahead and return the rental car and just hop the shuttle the next morning.

Yikes - I have to post about our experience on the flight home so I guess the vacation will have one more post.

New England Vacation - Mt. Washington

It feels like I'm never going to finish posting about our little vacation! See, I told you guys we cram a lot in! We were only gone from Wednesday afternoon to Monday night. Sheesh!

Okay so we are now on Saturday. Right after whale watching, we hit the road, heading for New Hampshire. Once again, we saw a lot of country side and I did a lot of sleeping. =) Our goal was Mt. Washington. More specifically - Cog Mountain Railway. We spent the night in a lodge type place in Bretton Woods. Bretton Woods is pretty remote but I hear they have great skiing in the winter.

We ate dinner at some place called Grandma's Kitchen (I believe it's in the neighboring town). It was pretty yummy. I had pancakes and they were HUGE!

Sunday morning, we packed up and headed for Cog Mountain early. Cog Mountain Railway was the first Cog railway in world. It climbs up the side of the mountain to to the 6,288' summit. One section is called Jacob's Ladder and has a grade of 37.41% - impressive! Advance reservations are recommended for the 3 hour trip so check out http://www.thecog.com/ for more info.

New England Vacation - Bar Harbor

Mom and Dad couldn't leave Maine without eating famous Maine lobster at some point. So, we decided on West Street Cafe, http://www.weststreetcafe.com/. Excellent choice! The food was scrumptious! I'm not that crazy about lobster so I ordered some yummy pasta dish. The servings were extra large and the food was delicious.

Independence Day evening, D and I joined the rest of the Bar Harbor tourists for a firework show over the bay. It was really quite impressive. I really wasn't expecting the show to last for 45 minutes but it definitely did!

It was soooo crowded!

The next morning, we were at the docks nice and early. Did you know that the early morning whale watching trip is cheaper? We are all about saving money so we were there. The day was absolutely perfect for whale watching. We saw all kinds of things - birds, seals, puffins, whales. I didn't take any snapshots of the whales because I was too busy videoing. They are pretty amazing creatures though. Bar Harbor Whale Watching, http://www.barharborwhales.com/, did a fabulous job. The narrator was extremely informative and interesting.

The Queen Mary 2 was anchored right outside of the Bay.

New England Vacation - Acadia National Park

Once we were in Bar Harbor, we headed straight for Acadia National Park. The park is absolutely gorgeous. Frommers says that this might be his favorite National Park of all. So of course, we had to go. =)

There is an entrance fee for the park. $20 will get a car full into the park for 7 days. Other passes are also available and are listed on their website, http://www.nps.gov/acad. If you are a National Park fanatic, you can get an annual pass that is good for any National Park for $80.

The main parts of the park can be seen from the 20 mile "loop". The majority of the loop is one way, with many places to stop and explore. Driving the entire loop, including short stops along the way, takes between 3 and 4 hours. It is absolutely gorgeous! While there is much, much, much more to do in the park, this is all our few hours would allow. I've uploaded a lot of pictures from our trip around the loop.

There is also a 3.5 mile road that goes to the top of Cadillac Mountain. At 1,530 feet, it is the highest point on the eastern coast of the United States.

Check out the official website for Acadia - it is a great source of info. You can even take a virtual tour online! http://www.nps.gov/acad

This was our first look out point in the loop. See the bald eagle perched on that tree in the center?

D on the rocks at Otter Point

Loving Otter Point

View from Otter Point

Otter Point - The rocky cliff is absolutely gorgeousView from the top of Cadillac Mountain
My Parents on Cadillac Mountain=)
We are always ready to smile


We drove down the mountain with this gorgeous view. The sun was starting to go down - breathtaking!

New England Vacation Continued

Thursday (after we picked up D from the airport), we hit the highway, headed to Maine. We drove through Massachusetts and a tiny bit of New Hampshire.

My dad is a huge fan of driving. He loves to drive, especially the scenic route (just ask him about HWY 1 in California...you'll quickly see what I mean). So, we ditched I-95 for Hwy 1. Sure, it took us longer to get there, but we got to see a lot more. We had to wait until we were on the Maine side of Hwy 1 because the bridge in New Hampshire was out. There is a really nice Welcome Center that is accessible from both Hwy 1 and the interstate. The welcome center is chock full of information, books, and smiling helpers.

They also had this cool sign that listed cities in Maine. Who knew that Maine had such diversity! =)

This was our first glance of the bay as we drove along scenic Hwy 1.

I'm a big fan of sleeping in the car. =) I love to sleep on roadtrips. I also read books like crazy. My brother, on the other hand, spends his time in the car like this...Phone service on Hwy 1 is a little sketchy so the poor guy kept losing internet service.

We spent the night in Scarborough, a small little town before Portland. We stayed at Comfort Inns (or their partners) for the entire vacation. They had a stay 3 nights and get a $50 gas card promotion. Mom also has one of their member point cards so we were racking up the points. The Comfort Inn in Scarborough is extremely nice. It had been open for only 2 weeks.

We quickly discovered that Maine is a popular destination for July 4th. We got stuck in parade traffic in almost ever town we drove through the entire weekend. Sheesh, these little towns completely shut down for the parade! Because we kept having to take detours, it took us forever to get to Bar Harbor! I think I've probably seen more of Maine than half of the people who live there. We took all kinds of country back roads - wow! Maine is absolutely gorgeous! I wouldn't mind living there in one of the beautiful New England style houses that I love so much if it wasn't for the 10 feet of snow and -40 temperatures in the winter. That's not my style. =)

D and I at one of the lovely stops along the way to Bar Harbor

I thought this bridge was pretty swanky

Another pic of our gorgeous views

Independance Day Vacation

Where better to spend July 4th than in the New England States, where this whole "new land of the free" thing got started?

My brother had a free round-trip ticket that was going to expire July 13th. You know it didn't take much motivation for my travel-friendly family to jump all over that. =)

So the research began. We ordered travel guides from AAA (free with membership). We wanted to go on the trip but we didn't really have extra money to spend. We've learned in the past that a little research can save you a lot of $$!

Our goal was to visit Maine, New Hamshire, and Vermont. These are the only 3 states in the north east that we haven't visited. We checked all of the major airports in the area. We orginally were going to fly into Albany and drive from there. However, it turns out tickets to Hartford were a lot cheaper.

My parents and I flew into Hartford, Connecticut on July 2nd. Dustin had a class he couldn't miss so he flew out the next morning.

We didn't spend much time in Hartford but the little we did see, we loved. The Capital buildings and monuments are very impressive.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, Bushnell Park

We cracked up when we saw this at the McDonalds next to our hotel. Welcome, Sweet Tea and Southern Style Fried Chicken! New England will be forever changed.

How I caught the bug

This was taken from an April '07 post on my personal blog. Since this post, I have added 3 more states and Guatemala to my list (and I've now been on earth for 21 years) =).

________

Traveling is one of my favorite things. I've caught the bug! The feel of new places, smells, sights, cultures....it's just indescribable.

"One of my favorite things is to go where I've never been"

~Diane Arbus

Growing up, my family was always on the go. If there was the slightest little reason to travel, we did it! We went to every family reunion, wedding, funeral, tourist destination, educational museum; it was amazing. We would pile in the van with a stack of books, books on tape, and enough snacks to feed the whole state, and off we would go.

Once, we hit 10 states in 10 days...stopping only to do the tourist things. Heaven forbid if we had to stop too often to use the restroom. Once we were on a mission, nothing would detour us. I got to where the moment I would get in the van, surrounded by the grey walls and leather, I would just immediately fall asleep. You think I'm kidding but it's the honest truth. =)

My parents took the job of homeschooling us kids very seriously. We would spend hours at science museums, historical monuments, war reenactments on old battlefields, national parks and forests, aquariums, and every other venue that could be considered "educational". I think we learned more on vacation than we did the entire school year (and that's saying a lot)! We kids would moan "nooooo.....not another civil war museum" or "Mom, we can't take another educational thing on this trip".

Even though when I was growing up, I wasn't always excited about leaving town and missing church and parties, today I'm extremely thankful. My parents worked extra hard to broaden our horizons and expand our little minds to think outside of our little southern culture.

So this is what is to blame for my infection of the traveling bug. =) In my 20 years on earth, I've been to 41 of the United States. I've also been to Canada, Mexico, Japan, Botswana, South Africa, England, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Germany.

Traveling

So it's been a hobby/passion of mine for quite some time now. I absolutely love to travel-anywhere! I'm game for whatever - day trips, something here in the states, or international. It's amazing how much traveling can broaden one's horizons.

I blog about my travels on my personal blog, but then I read an article the other day about creating individual blogs. So welcome to "Travel Stuff". =)

I hope this will become a place to share about great destinations, travel tips, and just everything relating to travel.