karma-chameleon asked: Hi Lena,

Been following your blog since Sex and The Ivy days...I am totally envious how much you get to travel? How do you budget for these considering your a student and a freelancer and not working in a multinational dishing out mega green bucks.

During college, I was in the fortuitous position of having some European friends and friends who lived/worked/studied in Europe. A lot of my travel therefore consisted of inviting myself to stay in people’s dorm rooms and/or homes. Recently, I have been traveling with Patrick, who is German and goes home to visit his family for two long-ish trips a year (the holidays and the summer). So we have a homebase and free food and a lot of flexibility here. It’s really nice to not have to live out of a suitcase! (Although that’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple weeks due to random things that have come up.) I also have family in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, so I get to visit both cities annually. Very occasionally, I may get my transportation expenses paid for if I’m doing a speaking event. That’s always awesome, since those events take place in locations I might not otherwise visit. (For example, when I did a talk at Bellingham, Washington last year and got to stop by Seattle to visit Kennedy.)

Of course, I’m in a very lucky and privileged position, especially for someone who comes from a less than privileged background. (My mother works as a maid for a hotel chain, which comes with its own benefits, i.e. discounts, but is less than lucrative.) Going abroad shouldn’t be as expensive as it is, but don’t think it’s totally out of the question just because you don’t have a ton of money. If you’re a student, there are many ways to make traveling affordable, particularly if your educational institution will spring for academic research trips or offer financial aid for summer programs abroad. At Harvard, many of my friends, who largely came from middle class families, traveled without making a large dent in their own wallets, or at least without paying much more than they would have anyway for summer rent in the States. Some got grants and others got small loans. I even knew people who worked as au pairs and took care of children in exchange for living with a European family.

Any reader tips for affordable travel? Share them in the comments please!

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