I’ve been on the road in Colombia for a month now and, believe me, the thought has crossed my mind to “cheat” a bit and just finish the job in the quickest way possible. I’m getting paid only $25 a day to research and write about hotels, restaurants, and activities for what? Maybe I could just look up something online and write about it instead of actually going there. Who would know the difference?

My days often look something like this: Wake up and write as much as I can from the notes I took the previous day. (Morning is the only time my mind is fresh). Head out around noon and do some research — visit hotels, eat at restaurants, and participate in some activity that I can write about. Come back to my dorm room in the evening and jot down notes from my day. Go to bed.

Rarely do I go out, rarely do I feel like this is an authentic vacation. This is a job, just like my previous job as a high school English teacher. This is my new profession — one that doesn’t even pay for itself right now. I remain hopeful that it will one day.

Travel writing is not a glamorous job, as Thomas Kohnstamm, a Lonely Planet writer, explains in his new book, Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? Kohnstamm goes so far to detail his life as a travel writer that he admits he wasn’t paid enough (tell me about it!) to go to Colombia, so he never went and just wrote the book in California. For another assignment in Brazil, he sold drugs to supplement his income. Read More »

• Faster is better. The truth about the ‘quickie’.

• Amy Winehouse kicks Keith Richards ass when it comes to trashing a hotel room.

• The intelligent bra takes the jiggle out of jogging.

• Posh Spice dresses really, really bad.

• WTF??? Paris is going to Harvard.

• Skinny is out… 2008 is all about the wide-leg.

• The Hills’ LC is going to the big house.

Okay, I get it. We are all college students on a budget. We all love a great deal, a cheap meal and any leftover cash is going to be spent at the bar thank you very much. But, my fellow students, as a server I have realized that many of you are just clueless about tipping. And without your tips, I won’t have money to spend at the bar either.

Maybe it’s how you were raised or maybe you are just cheap. But if you are going to walk into any place that is offering you a service of some sort, be prepared to spend a few more bucks on the person waiting on you. If you are going out to a “splurge” restaurant- be prepared that the tip is going to be an extra chunk added on to the bill. Want the $30 dollar steak but don’t feel like tipping on it? Then please, that’s what Burger King and Denny’s are for.

In lieu of cheap tippers that I as well as other friends of mine in the service industry have come across–here are some of the guidelines when it comes to tipping. Click here For a full list of tipping etiquette for every service imaginable (and I mean everything). Read More »