Wow, I never realized how much money this trip would actually cost me. One of the reasons why I decided to be an au pair was because I thought it would be the cheapest way to get to live in a new country and travel. Okay, maybe it still is since I don't have to pay for food or rent, but I never really realized how many other expenses I would have, and these expenses are just to GET there...imagine how much more I'm going to spend once I'm there?
I think I'm going to make a special page on this blog for au pairs (or whoever is thinking of becoming an au pair) where I'm going to write down all the expenses I've had so far, just so they can take all this into consideration before they take their decision of becoming an au pair. I wish I could've found a site before that could tell me how much it was going to cost me to do all the paperwork and stuff, so I could've maybe saved up for that.
I will do that page as soon as I figure out how to do it hehe.
Besides that, I've been making a list of the essentials I need to bring to Paris, I think this will help me when I pack. But there's so many (okay maybe not that many, a few) things that I need to buy before I leave. They're small things like power adaptors, a new toothbrush, face wash etc, but the money starts accumulating.
Wow I sound so cheap! It's not that I'm cheap, in fact my dad always tell me "You have an expensive taste", it's just that I've been money conscious since I don't want my parents spending too much money on my trip and well I want to save my money for once I'm there. Also my dollars don't buy too many euros. For example, if I want 200 euros I need to take out 280 dollars! So therefore I want to spend my money wisely since I know it won't buy me much once I'm there (sad face).
Anyways, I have to go pack (yes I have been procrastinating telling myself "Oh you can do it tomorrow, you have time!") and get it over with. Even if this rainy weather is making me want to stay in bed and watch movies all day long.
Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Flight...check!
SO I finally made a decision after what seemed to be forever! Wow, I know I'm terrible at making decisions but I never thought it would take me so long to decide on something so simple like this! When I finally told my dad my decision about going to Montreal for the summer (and therefore I would have to arrive to Montreal before going to Paris to have a round-trip from Montreal-Paris), I thought the rest would be a piece of cake, that we only needed to select the flights and that's it. I was so wrong.
I am not joking, I think it took us 2 HOURS to pick a flight! I never thought booking your flight would be so complicated! I don't know if it was because of my indecisiveness or because my dad just likes to make things complicated (he would probably argue against this comment, but I assure you my dad likes doing things in a specific way). In the end, we ended up buying 3 separate flights! (now you can see it got complicated huh?) I'll try to just briefly tell you how we ended up buying 3 separate flights, but short-story telling has never been my forte....
Since my dad travels a lot for his work ( when we lived in Montreal, here not so much, but he's starting to travel more now) he gets a lot of air miles, one of the perks about traveling for work I guess. He had air miles with 3 different companies : Air Canada, American Airlines and Delta. We compared prices/air miles (if you didn't know, when you book your flight with air miles you also have to pay something extra, how much depends on the flight. I think it's for taxes of something like that), and in a way it was better if we separated my flights. Okay, maybe one of the flights was unnecessary, but I really wanted one in specific because I would fly to Montreal non-stop on the 27th (arrive around 7pm), and I would get more time in Montreal before I left to Paris on the 28th. So my awesome dad said okay, but that I had to pay the difference (because there was another option where I could have a round trip from Montreal and Texas, and it would've been cheaper, than 2 separate flights). But I think it will be worth it, I know it will be worth it, so I said yes.
In a way, this decision about taking so many different flights ended up being more expensive on the money side, but on the air miles side we saved up around 10,000 air miles AND we ended up using air miles from different companies instead of using up all the air miles from one, so we still have some air miles in all of them which I think is good.
So I will be traveling to Montreal with American Airlines, from Montreal to Paris (and back) with Air France (Delta) and from Montreal to Texas with Air Canada.
I am so excited to get to go to Montreal before I leave to Paris. I feel like I need to be in a familiar environment, back to the place where I lived for so long,because I miss my old life so much. It feels like that life was so long ago.... I don't know why but it feels weird when I think about how I lived in Montreal... I can't really explain the feeling and I don't know why I feel that way since I've only been away for 4 months (then again those 4 months felt like forever).
I can wait to get off the plane and out of the airport to feel that cold winter air. I can already see the snow sparkle at night, hear the quietness that can only be found in the winter... Words cannot describe how amazing those things are and how beautiful it is if you stop and just look around. I get happy just thinking about it.
That's one of my favorite things about traveling back to places you call home, the feeling you get when you finally step on soil and smell that familiar air, see familiar surroundings. You might ask yourself what is up with her and air? Well, it might sound weird but I think that air from different places have a different smell (I know it's weird). For example when I used to travel back to Mexico for the summer and Christmas, once I stepped out of the air port and saw all those mountains that I grew up surrounded with and breathed in the air, I knew I was back home.
I think I'll be getting the same feeling when I get to Montreal and I can't wait to be back home....
I am not joking, I think it took us 2 HOURS to pick a flight! I never thought booking your flight would be so complicated! I don't know if it was because of my indecisiveness or because my dad just likes to make things complicated (he would probably argue against this comment, but I assure you my dad likes doing things in a specific way). In the end, we ended up buying 3 separate flights! (now you can see it got complicated huh?) I'll try to just briefly tell you how we ended up buying 3 separate flights, but short-story telling has never been my forte....
Since my dad travels a lot for his work ( when we lived in Montreal, here not so much, but he's starting to travel more now) he gets a lot of air miles, one of the perks about traveling for work I guess. He had air miles with 3 different companies : Air Canada, American Airlines and Delta. We compared prices/air miles (if you didn't know, when you book your flight with air miles you also have to pay something extra, how much depends on the flight. I think it's for taxes of something like that), and in a way it was better if we separated my flights. Okay, maybe one of the flights was unnecessary, but I really wanted one in specific because I would fly to Montreal non-stop on the 27th (arrive around 7pm), and I would get more time in Montreal before I left to Paris on the 28th. So my awesome dad said okay, but that I had to pay the difference (because there was another option where I could have a round trip from Montreal and Texas, and it would've been cheaper, than 2 separate flights). But I think it will be worth it, I know it will be worth it, so I said yes.
In a way, this decision about taking so many different flights ended up being more expensive on the money side, but on the air miles side we saved up around 10,000 air miles AND we ended up using air miles from different companies instead of using up all the air miles from one, so we still have some air miles in all of them which I think is good.
So I will be traveling to Montreal with American Airlines, from Montreal to Paris (and back) with Air France (Delta) and from Montreal to Texas with Air Canada.
I am so excited to get to go to Montreal before I leave to Paris. I feel like I need to be in a familiar environment, back to the place where I lived for so long,because I miss my old life so much. It feels like that life was so long ago.... I don't know why but it feels weird when I think about how I lived in Montreal... I can't really explain the feeling and I don't know why I feel that way since I've only been away for 4 months (then again those 4 months felt like forever).
I can wait to get off the plane and out of the airport to feel that cold winter air. I can already see the snow sparkle at night, hear the quietness that can only be found in the winter... Words cannot describe how amazing those things are and how beautiful it is if you stop and just look around. I get happy just thinking about it.
That's one of my favorite things about traveling back to places you call home, the feeling you get when you finally step on soil and smell that familiar air, see familiar surroundings. You might ask yourself what is up with her and air? Well, it might sound weird but I think that air from different places have a different smell (I know it's weird). For example when I used to travel back to Mexico for the summer and Christmas, once I stepped out of the air port and saw all those mountains that I grew up surrounded with and breathed in the air, I knew I was back home.
I think I'll be getting the same feeling when I get to Montreal and I can't wait to be back home....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)