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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How
do you afford this trip?
We planned for two years to completely change our life away from the
American Tradition of trading Time for Money. Our new plan is to use our Time to
create Intellectual Property which we will then sell for Money. We will continue
to trade our Time for Money in the form of training others in generating
Intellectual Property (as professors).
Specifically, Henry sold his house and we moved into Kathleen's condominium (smaller). We followed a strict budget (for a few months we only gave ourselves $12 a week spending cash) and paid off all our debts. Then Henry switched jobs to make more money (we saved like crazy). Finally we packed all our worldly possessions into the attics of generous parents (free storage).
Where
did you get your Van?
We researched vans on the internet. There's companies
set up to cater to non-Europeans traveling abroad. There are
several to choose from and there's a publication Europe by Van
and Motorhome by David
Shore and Patty Campbell. (We highly recommend their book.)
We eventually settled on the company Campenje in Utrect, The Netherlands, and we've been
very pleased with our experience. Check out our Van Life section for more information on the Van.
What did you do in Romania?
Kathleen is continuing her project to take photographs of people and life
in the transitioning society of Romania. It develops on our first year in
Romania which meant a full year in the Maramures region of Northern
Transylvania. (Click here for
book proposal.)
Henry is using the time to write in preparation for beginning his studies for a Masters in Screenwriting at the University of Southern California. is going to write. This will give him the space to create some work which he can then try to market once we return to the States. You can check out some of his existing children's stories in his reading room.
How
long did you plan for this?
We knew we wanted to do something out of the ordinary
soon after we met, so you could say we planned for four years before leaving the
states.
How
long are you traveling?
Our initial trip to Europe was divided into five months (from May through September) traveling Western Europe on
our way to Romania. Then spent twelve months in the
north of Romania and an additional two months in Egypt and re-hashing our
favorite haunts in Italy and Hungary. We finally returned to Holland and sold
our van back to the people we'd bought it from.
Our second trip was funded by an IREX and Fulbright grants, and has left us focused entirely on Romania. This time we have stayed also for one year, and were allowed only a two week vacation which we took to Turkey.
What
are some good resources for planning such a trip?
You're best off checking our our Books
Page where we've got all the skinny on what to read.
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