The crazy train that is Mel Gibson, Britney and her dad arrived in Costa Rica this morning to stay in Mel’s home for a mini-vacation.

Before I found out that Mel Gibson was indeed crazy, I would have been high-fiving Britney Spears in my head upon hearing this news. In fact, I might have still high-fived her in my head, but WTF, you’re bringing your dad with you?

Are these two friends? Like Hollywood kind of friends that are wink wink nudge nudge friends? Is this a publicity stunt?

Maybe they are going to do a project together. “Mad Max in the Britney Dome“? She can wear Tina Turner’s gear and sing “Gimme More” but this time she can do it with feeling.

As much as they seem to make an unlikely pair, I think that I like them spending time together. Lots of crazy plus lotsa crazy = a couple that isn’t so crazy. Once the crazy cups runneth over, there’s no where else to go but back down to normal, right?

Special thanks to ET for posting this important story with such urgency. They totally know what matters.

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 »

I’m a girl with a mission. For over a year now, I have been traveling the globe in search of truth. Along the way I am discovering myself. Here is one tale from the road, of which there will be many forthcoming…

A few summers ago, I spent three weeks traveling in India with 20 fellow middle and high school teachers. Yes, 20 irritating, unfriendly colleagues. 20 people flying together from California around the globe. 20 teachers riding in one tour bus around India. You might already see the punch line coming… Read More »

For college students everywhere, mid-March means the glorious time to break away from the monotonous second semester daily grind and go buck wild on sunny beaches for a week. Although I participated in most “college-esque” activities; sororities, student organizations, etc, having the stereotypical balls to the wall spring break was something I never did. And now, looking back on it, I’m proud of it.

Trying to convince my conservative parents that spending upwards of $1500-$2000 for a week’s vacation was a hopeless cause. All of my friends would say, “But alcohol is included in the package deal! All you can drink!” Yeah, I’m sure that will be a real selling point. “You see mom, I can binge drink with all that money…”

At the time, I thought I would look back on my college experience and wish I would have splurged on a crazy spring break experience. But now that I am more removed from the situation and college life, I’m actually kind of happy that I didn’t partake. Read More »

I don’t know if I should be embarrassed to say this, but I have a confession to make:

I love Oprah.

Like, love. Idolize, even. I think she is a phenomenal role model for women, has the best topics on her show and wears the absolutely most amazing earrings. And I would give anything (anything!) to spend one day in her shoe closet.

And yesterday, I got to go to her show!

It was like a dream come true. I have been trying to get tickets for years and, finally, my lucky day came. I didn’t know who was going to be on the show and I didn’t care; I just wanted to be in the same room as Queen Oprah. And I was!

Since Oprah tapes in Chicago, my mother and I decided to make a little mother/daughter trip out of it. We flew into Chicago early Monday morning, spent the day shopping (which, by the way, sucked because my mom was all about buying me things and we couldn’t find anything! Could there be a worse situation?), ate a deeelicious dinner and then tucked in early to get our mandatory beauty rest. After all, we would be seeing Oprah herself the next morning, not to mention the 30 million people who might see us. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 140

Mood: Confused

I rolled a pencil back and forth on the smooth plastic-wooden café table. The coffee sitting next to me was still too hot to drink, and I needed to do something with my hands and attention. Even people watching was out of the question; with half the college still tucked away at home or on some exotic island vacation, campus was a dreary ghost town at night. Sometimes I felt like the only one.

But of course I wasn’t. Since I was meeting someone else here.

I looked up at the clock again, squinting my eyes to make out the tiny ticking hand that counted off seconds. Justin was five minutes late. I told myself it was nothing. People are late to things all the time. I was late to things all the time. There was no reason to panic, no reason to think he had decided against coming. No reason to worry.

He had invited me here, after all. He had been the one to mention meeting in the café on Sunday night to “catch-up”. It had been a quick phone call, but he had done most of the talking, and all of the suggesting. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 125

Mood: Rested. Finally.

“What are you planning on doing today?”

My mom flitted around me, putting silk napkins down at the empty place settings and touching the pine branch centerpiece. She was anxious. I can always tell when my mom is anxious because she hovers, does everything twice, and buzzes around a space without sitting down for hours.

Her parents were coming up, driving all day from Pennsylvania. They had been driving all day yesterday too. Their long journey meant that as soon as they got here, my grandparents would drive my mom insane. It wasn’t that they weren’t nice people. They were very nice; they just had a habit of making everyone feel like they should be praised for the sacrifices they made for their child. A lot.

“I’m not sure what I’m gonna do. Probably nothing.” I took a bite of cereal and watched my mom touch the tablecloth for the seventh time. It was only 9:30 in the morning, and she was already up and showered and in full hostess mode. I was still in my pajamas. I had been in my pajamas for the last day and a half. It was great.

“You should really get up and get out.” She frowned at an invisible stain on one of the napkins. “Being inside all this time isn’t good for you.”

“Mom. I just got home.”

“So? Vacation doesn’t mean you hibernate for weeks. Sometimes you can be quite lazy, Miss.” Read More »

It’s that time of year again.

Actually, who are we kidding? It’s always that time of year. When is there a time when we don’t wish that our jeans were a little looser, our abs were a little tighter, and that we could resist the temptation of that evil bag of chocolate chip cookies lurking in the kitchen (that always seems to magically disappears within an hour while cramming for finals)

You and I both know that stress = Get me some good food now por favor. Add that with the festive holiday treats from gingerbread lattes to potato latkes, It’s no wonder the average American gains 7-12 lbs during the holiday season.

But, winter break is around the corner and while shoveling down yummy treats may help us cope with the fact we have to learn a whole semesters worth of econ in three days, come the end of finals, we are going to feel (and look) like a big ball of grossness. Sure, Santa’s belly full of jelly is cute and cuddle-y on an old guy in a plush-velvet, red jumpsuit- but I’m thinking not-so-much my look. Especially when i’ll be spending some quality time post-finals on the beach…

Whether you want to drop a few dress sizes or just maintain your weight, foodfit.com gives us some tried and true tips from weight loss specialists to help us avoid those pounds that just seem to sneak up on us.

Remember: Each pound of weight lost requires that you either consume 3500 fewer calories or burn them off with exercise (and let us not forget, one shot = 100 calories. And really- who takes just one?)

1. Figure out what 1,500 calories looks like. If you’re trying to lose weight on a 1,500 calorie meal plan, you need to maintain a healthy mix of those calories – at least five servings of fruits and vegetables; six of whole grain breads, rice, crackers and other grains; two of protein foods; and three of nonfat dairy products. Learn about serving sizes: 3 ounces of lean meat, fish or poultry (the size of a deck of cards) is one serving. One slice of bread is one serving, while a large bagel may equal almost five! Read More »

I don’t have many regrets from college.

I don’t regret that “B” I got in English my sophomore year because I opted to go to a date party instead of the library. I don’t regret hooking up with a good friend, even if it turned out horribly ugly in the end. I don’t even regret catching a terrible cold that lasted 3 weeks after wrestling in Jell-O in the middle of October…in Michigan.

But if there is one thing I do regret from my years of undergrad it is that I never went abroad.

When my friends first started discussing going abroad for Junior year I was wary. Living in another country sounded interesting, but I was worried about being half way around the world for such a long time. I would miss my family. I would miss my friends. I would definitely miss late night pizza in Ann Arbor.

My friends moved forward, signed up to study in Australia and I opted out in favor of more time in good ole’ Michigan.

And I didn’t regret my decision…then. I had a great time! While it seemed like everyone I knew was going to be abroad, I ended up having tons of friends stick around Michigan with me. We all got a ton closer, I got more active in things around campus, I had an awesome spring break and it was a really fun semester (turning 21 helped, obviously). So what if my friends were off in Australia learning how to surf, camping in the rainforest or travelling through East Asia on their way home? Ann Arbor was just as great.

Then I graduated, got a job and realized that I only get 2 weeks of vacation time a year. Not nearly enough time for me to settle into another country, experience other cultures or see the world.

And the regret sunk in. Read More »

Sometimes I indulge in this fantasy where I drop every responsibility I have (damn you, student loans!) and run away to a foreign land.

Then my dreams are dashed when I realize that I do, in fact, have responsibilities that need to be attended to…and even if I didn’t, I don’t have thousands to throw away on a trip around the world. So, what is this 20-something to do? Well, realistically…I go on Facebook and check out the pictures my friends took back in 2005 when they went abroad.

Then I stumbled on an application that looked a bit curious…Trip Up CouchSwap!

It’s perfect! It merges reality and fantasy and wraps them up into one attainable goal for us travel-loving college kids. Poor college kids sleeping on other poor college kid’s couches…for cheap (or free)? Sounds like a typical Saturday! What more could we need?

I’ll tell you: CouchSurfing.com

Here the idea branches out even further into it’s own little social network where people around the world document and rate the travel accommodation they’ve received by traveling backpacker-style.

Now, I’m the first to admit to a little too much trust in my fellow man (or woman, whatever) and the idea of getting murdered while taking a nap on some person’s futon doesn’t really cross my mind…while you may be thinking there’s no way you’ll ever allow some random to take you in. Well, I’m officially calling you out. Read More »