Christina In Bristol

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Planning and research
I have a plan for the next year. Parts of it are very vague, and it could change entirely next month or even tomorrow. But I'm having fun researching options for parts of it. This is the plan:

Continue the internship I'm doing until March or thereabouts. The current plan is to get results that can be written up for submission for journals by December, and then who knows. Meanwhile, I need to use the weekends to see more of Europe and of the UK. Also, writing a novel was on my very short list of things to do by the time I'm 30, which gives me 3 months and change. It doesn't have to be a good novel or one I'm willing to have anyone else read, it just needs to be written. This may or may not be a worthwhile goal. Getting a Master's degree was also on that list, so maybe I'll just dance instead of write.
In March, go travelling in Africa and Asia for two or three months. I have people to visit in the following places/countries (?s generated by friends whose plans are about as fixed as mine):
- Yaounde, Cameroon
- near Durban, South Africa
- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia?
- Gabarone, Botswana?
- Comoros
- Abu Dhabi?
- Pakistan?
- South Korea
- Japan
- Hong Kong
- Malaysia?
I'd also like to go to Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Namibia, Mauritius, India, Singapore (again), Thailand, Laos and China. Obviously that's not all happening in a few months, but I'm having fun checking out the options on round-the-world tickets:
- oneworld alliance's version seems quite flexible. I need to spend some time looking at routing options (or calling up BA).
- The official site for World Navigator has so far eluded me, but KLM has a very cool interactive map where you can try to build an itinerary.
- Star Alliance has a FAQ and downloadable miles calculator.
- The Great Escapade doesn't have enough options in Africa and Asia for me, but has a very user-friendly itinerary constructor.
- If there weren't so many reasons to go to Africa, I'd be tempted by the Sky Trekker option for Buenos Aires alone.
There are a bunch of sites with advice on round-the-world tickets, now I just need time to digest them.

Post-travel, either start working (I'm updating my resume to be consulting-friendly) or spend a few months doing interesting stuff before starting a PhD program. Thanks in part to LSE, "interesting stuff" is currently defined as related to policy analysis. So I've been checking out lists of links like these and think tank internships.
Move somewhere (if not already done in step 3) and get more rooted, working on solving problems to -- much like FATMOUSE -- MAKE EVERYTHING A LOT BETTER.

Oh, and sometime next summer ThinkTanker and I are meeting up somewhere to learn to surf.
- posted by Christina @ 1:29 am

Comments:

Write about dancing. Simple solution. Yes, I just pinched myself for you.

# posted by

Kevin Church : Thursday, October 14, 2004 6:05:00 pm

Hi Christina:

I'm in Oxford now. I've been here for a couple of weeks but have been mostly seeped in settling in nonsense. I've got most everything figured out now (except for maybe a bank account), and I'm in the swing of things at school too.

Have you moved? Your blog name has changed from London to Bristol and now as I'm posting this comments it appears to have morphed to "LondonBristol". I'm admittedly a little confused.

Regardless, feel free to look me up if you're ever in Oxford, you can e-mail me at sam dot sanjabi at mail dot mcgill dot ca and I'll do the same if I'm ever ... wherever you are.

-Sam.

# posted by

Anonymous : Thursday, October 14, 2004 9:21:00 pm

By the way, that sounds like a very ambitious (and potentially very rewarding) plan. Good luck with it.

-Sam.

# posted by

Anonymous : Thursday, October 14, 2004 9:26:00 pm

November is National Novel Writing Month

The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

- Russ

# posted by

Anonymous : Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:23:00 pm

Very glad to see my home listed on your list of places to go. I have a fabulous recipe for sweet potato pie that I will make for you when you are here! =)
-Jess

# posted by

Anonymous : Sunday, October 17, 2004 3:40:00 pm

Hey, wait a minute. If you can go on these trips then you would certainly fulfill my career goal of marrying a rich woman. And you're smart, too. Oh wait. Which means you wouldn't... bother... with... damn. There's always a catch.

# posted by

Quentin : Monday, October 18, 2004 6:53:00 pm