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Flashbacks to 2011 [traveling]
May. 24th, 2021 03:21 pmOh 2011. Year of the Dissertation, the Failed PBP, the move to Texas to the Villa Maria Dump House.
I am currently working on sorting out housing accommodations for Arizona this summer.
For the Failed PBP, somehow I wound up being the person in charge of finding a place for 7 of us to stay, somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. This was because of the people involved; I was the main connecting point.
That was before the real rise of the Disruptive Outsourced Hotel Room Industry (DOHRI). However, at that time Europeans had already established a custom of renting out their houses to each other for vacations. The place where we wound up staying was someone's real house and was wonderful in all respects except for the fact that the owners used some form of awful insecticide that caused really bad problems for S. At least they had yard space.*
And except for the fact that I was not in a great emotional state during that trip, exacerbated by the Thought Tragedy of the Commons.
For 8 months leading up to that trip, some of the other people on the trip were very persistent in wanting to know all of the exact details of our travel plans, all without being the person in charge of actually making the arrangements themselves.
There are very good reasons for this. If you plan out your travel well, it can be much less expensive.
But it is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility to do all of the searching and booking AND dealing with the questions and comments.
That is why people hire travel agents, no?
Anyway.
My DOHRI experiences in the US have been mixed, at best. Depressing, sterilized dwellings. A horrible, passive-aggressive negative review due to a person who traveled with me, forever tarnishing my internet reputation.
In spite of the summer being the off season where I am heading, everything anywhere near where I'd like to stay near the University looks horribly expensive. I suppose people just pull their listings or something. The closest things that look anywhere near reasonable are all near Old Town Scottsdale, which seems silly. Could be worse?
I will get over all of this.
I just need to whine about it for a few minutes first.
Most likely I will book something tomorrow.
*Also, for the record, the 2015 PBP was glorious in that I just stayed in youth hostels by myself and didn't have to arrange anything for anybody else. Aside from that one mishap where I wound up on the Metro with my bicycle in tow, ahem, whoops. I am 100% fine with my misanthropy.
I am currently working on sorting out housing accommodations for Arizona this summer.
For the Failed PBP, somehow I wound up being the person in charge of finding a place for 7 of us to stay, somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. This was because of the people involved; I was the main connecting point.
That was before the real rise of the Disruptive Outsourced Hotel Room Industry (DOHRI). However, at that time Europeans had already established a custom of renting out their houses to each other for vacations. The place where we wound up staying was someone's real house and was wonderful in all respects except for the fact that the owners used some form of awful insecticide that caused really bad problems for S. At least they had yard space.*
And except for the fact that I was not in a great emotional state during that trip, exacerbated by the Thought Tragedy of the Commons.
For 8 months leading up to that trip, some of the other people on the trip were very persistent in wanting to know all of the exact details of our travel plans, all without being the person in charge of actually making the arrangements themselves.
There are very good reasons for this. If you plan out your travel well, it can be much less expensive.
But it is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility to do all of the searching and booking AND dealing with the questions and comments.
That is why people hire travel agents, no?
Anyway.
My DOHRI experiences in the US have been mixed, at best. Depressing, sterilized dwellings. A horrible, passive-aggressive negative review due to a person who traveled with me, forever tarnishing my internet reputation.
In spite of the summer being the off season where I am heading, everything anywhere near where I'd like to stay near the University looks horribly expensive. I suppose people just pull their listings or something. The closest things that look anywhere near reasonable are all near Old Town Scottsdale, which seems silly. Could be worse?
I will get over all of this.
I just need to whine about it for a few minutes first.
Most likely I will book something tomorrow.
*Also, for the record, the 2015 PBP was glorious in that I just stayed in youth hostels by myself and didn't have to arrange anything for anybody else. Aside from that one mishap where I wound up on the Metro with my bicycle in tow, ahem, whoops. I am 100% fine with my misanthropy.
