Spontaneous Americans

Earlier in the week, we received an e-mail from an American who was in Prague and needed a room for the next day. He was traveling with his girlfriend and her brother who was finishing up a semester abroad in Prague. After a couple of e-mails and a Skype call, we made the arrangements for them to arrive the next day.

They were the first guests to come to us due to my Frommer's guide and they had the good taste to bring it with them. Stephen said that Frommer's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic (Frommer's Complete)when he went to shop for a guide, his mother told him to get the Frommer's as they were the best. He, Ginnie, and Tres seemed pleased with their decision not only on buying the book, but also their choice of accommodations. Thursday night we stayed up until 1:00 am talking, which did not bother me; I do not teach on Fridays. Tres left on Friday to meet friends in Croatia, but Ginnie and Stephen staid until today. They were totally delightful and pleasurable to converse with. I was just surprised at the spontaneity of Americans. It has been our experience that the Germans wait until the very last minute to book a place to stay.

At 8:30 pm last night, I received an e-mail from two more Americans looking for a place to stay. I e-mailed them as soon as I spotted it at 9:03 pm saying we had guests leaving and the room was free. They wrote back another thirty minutes later to say that since they had not heard from us, they made other arrangements. After responding with nicety of thank you for trying us anyway, about forty-five minutes passed when there was yet another e-mail from them asking for the room. Are Americans learning from the Germans or is this phenomena due to Rick Steves who claims he never reserves lodging until he is in the city?

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Budget Airlines Again

Since the last post with the comment on SkyEurope falling out of the sky, I have been keeping a sharp eye on the budget airline news. So many travel writers and travel bloggers, mostly US based are still shouting the praises of "cross the big pond with the cheapest flight possible and then traipse through Europe with budget airlines". What this tells me is that they are not really doing their research thoroughly enough. It reminds me of a recent travel article for Budapest that was in the travel section of a top Arizona newspaper just two months ago. The author was raving about the experiences of the Budapest thermals and spoke so highly of the Racs Thermal. The Racs closed down in 2002. Travel writers should try their absolute best to get it right. If you have not been to a destination in years, skip the topic and write what you do know about from recent trips. Here are some snippets of news from different sites about the troubles of European budget airlines. "Hungarians, Bitter says, are not flying as much as Slovakians or Czechs and most of SkyEurope's Budapest flights were filled exclusively with foreigners going on holiday. He adds that fares from Budapest and Prague to Western European cities are similar, but Prague flights are an hour shorter, making them by far a more profitable venture. He says the Slovakian economy is also stronger, growing at 14% annually compared with only 1% in Hungary. "It's night and day." For the full article see www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/04/23/223221/jason-bitter-slowing-down-expansion-at-skyeurope.html It also is a telling tale why Slovakia is going on the Euro in January 2009 and Hungary will be lucky to get there in 2012. Ryanair one of the oldest and most stable of the no frills is having problems as well. This was part of a longer article at www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/04/23/223145/high-fuel-prices-lead-to-airline-casualties.html "Ryanair warned earlier this year that its profits for the fiscal year ending March 2009 could fall by as much as 50% due to high oil prices and fears of recession. The carrier has embarked on a cost-cutting programme that will see staff salaries frozen and aircraft grounded this winter to help it cope with its rising fuel bill. "We will sit 20 of our aircraft on the ground this winter because it's cheaper than flying them," says Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley. 'That's wrong and it's a huge issue for us. We've made a virtue in the past of having year-round servicesbut I want to point out the difficulty we'll have this year.'" EasyJet jumps into the ring with the headline EasyJet exec predicts cull of budget airlines. The stark warning of a cull of low-cost airlines came as the British budget airline's shares fell more than 4 percent after another spike higher in oil prices towards $120 a barrel.

"There are currently about 50 low-cost carriers on the European market -- that's absurd," Francois Bacchetta, managing director of EasyJet France, told a news conference.

In a few years' time there will be no more than about three or four of us left in Europe," he said. Posted at www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL2332471920080423.

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Comment on April 18th Post

This comment came in regard to my post about budget airlines: "It's not just fuel prices. There are two more important reasons: high airport charges and Hungarians' reluctance to travel, the latter obviously due to the dire economic circumstances. I wouldn't have booked Skyeurope either. Chances are that the airline will soon go bankrupt, maybe even leaving passengers stranded. If you want cheap flights, try Ryanair. Besides being the cheapest, they're reliable." I quite agree that the budget airlines have been shunning Budapest due to the high airport costs and that Hungarians do not have the discretionary income to travel. We have used Ryanair in the past and were quite satisfied, but they just do not have many destinations from Budapest. Trying to bridge two of their flights together to get somewhere new and different, it has turned out to be less expensive to fly direct on a major airline. I had tried the former tactic last year when we were going to Scotland and had 43 different options of using two budget airline routes to get there. This was before anyone added Glasgow to their list from here.

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Bye, Bye the Budget Airlines in the Sky

With Ron going back to the States for three weeks this summer, I was looking for some get-away for the two of us when he returned. I will be working on another Frommer's book due in by July 15th and will need a summer escape. Not too long ago, the budget airlines discovered Budapest and we were on everyone's flight path going to the usual (Paris or London) or the more obscure (Malmo, Sweden). We did take great advantage of these services and just about throw a party when a new one landed in Budapest or added new routes. At one time, I needed both hands and extra fingers to count our airborne blessings with fourteen budget buddies to share adventures with. Then fuel prices went and ruined it all. One by one they dropped out of the Budapest sky, some not even as much as giving a good-bye kiss before running off. Wizz Air targeted SkyEurope and advertised their plans to strip them of the Magyar majesty and they accomplished their goal for over a year. SkyEurope will give us another go come this June 8th with the paltry offering of flying from here to Trieste, a place we had not been. Thinking this through, a flight to Trieste would give us a couple of days there and then a short train ride to Ljubljana, where we really wanted to go. We could take the train directly to Ljubljana, but eight hours on a train is a waste of four hours of vacation time. Loaded with dates and alternative dates, I logged on to the SkyEurope website once I retrieved my old log in information. Score! I found a fare of 790 forints going and 2,900 returning. For $23.06 each, we could have that budget vacation this summer. For that price I did not even check with Ron. Onward budget soldiers, get that fare. Click next to continue. Next screen, add 2,550 forints to check in one piece of baggage. Well we travel light, our carry-ons are below regulation, but we have been refused bringing on board. To be safe, pay the fee. Click next to continue. Next screen, choose your seats. Wow, we can make a choice so emergency row, here we come with four long legs to stretch out. Click next to continue. Next screen, confirm your names, addresses, phone numbers. Everything okay? Click next to continue. Next screen, pay the piper. Total cost 65,989 forints ($437). Wait, there must be a mistake. What happened to the $23.06 round trip fare for each of us? After adding the luggage fees, I went back to find there was a charge to choose our seating each way, and the rest or the lion's share was taxes. Eight hours on a train can be so relaxing. You can get up and work around, they now have plugs for laptops, and think of all of the reading I can catch up on.

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Thank You Paul Roberts

Thanks to Paul, I now have the information about the Austrian Airlines added benefits to share with others. Austrian – the world’s most valuable boarding card! Be sure to keep your Austrian boarding card in future – because we’ve just turned them into the most valuable boarding cards in the world. Austrian guests can now use their boarding card to enjoy a range of benefits. We offer all Austrian guests massively reduced or free entrance to a range of exciting cultural offers and institutions in Vienna or international cities (New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Moscow, London etc) when they present their boarding card. We offer an innovative, worldwide unique product on a simple but effective platform: the ultra chic boarding card. Therefore: keep your card and simply use it! Here you may find an overview (in PDF-format (http://www.aua.com/NR/rdonlyres/8407AB4C-5869-42FB-AB91-88192127CD1C/0/MostvaluableBoardingcard.pdf )) about our exclusive offers. Explore a variety of special offers in co-operation of partners in Vienna and other international cities: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Belvedere Museum Vienna Kunsthaus Vienna Musikverein Vienna Discotheque U4 Vienna Neue Galerie New York Meinl Cafe Chicago, Tokio, Moscow, Istanbul, etc. Do & Co British Museum, London Terms and Conditions: Austrian boarding card (with OS flight number) Each boarding card valid for one person up to and including 10 days after flight date Presentation of boarding card (official identification with photographic ID and submission of boarding card sometimes also necessary) From: http://www.aua.com/uk/eng/about_flight/boardingpass/

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My Book, My Book Has Arrived

Again when I arrived home, there was a notice from UPS. I called the driver and he was back in 15 minutes. My advance copies of my book arrived. I was so excited, dizziness took over. What a thrilling moment to open a box of your own books.

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Outcome of My Meeting

I am often reminded of the proverb "Be careful what you wish for". After going through all of the stages of death from denial to resolution in regard to my position at the university and my letter to her sent on Saturday. The reassurance was her reply that stated she could not agree more and we should meet. This happened late this afternoon. One thing that I am thankful for is her support for new ideas. When I have complaints, I accompany them with potentials solutions giving me the edge. The bottom line is her fear is that the university may not feel it is worth the cost of having two full time native language speakers with the new Bologna program. American Studies is no longer a major unto itself. We have to retool. As a result, I am now the creator of a new sub-specialization of Journalism, Academic, and Creative Writing. The program has to be 50 credits and completed in three semesters. Each course will be 3 credits each and we decided on an internship for the last 5 credits. I submitted a list of 22 possible courses with descriptions. I will design a program with mandatory classes to be taken the first semester of the specialization and then they will be able to select electives also. There is a journalist who works for NBC in NYC here for one semester teaching at the University of Szeged, but they want to keep him here another semester. I am hoping we can incorporate his expertise to kick start our journalism portion. In addition, the head-head of the departments of English studies forwarded an e-mail for me to respond to from a gentleman from an institute in Washington state would like to create a cooperative program with our university. They offer an MFA in Creative Writing. I was successful in getting a Writing Lab established with 10 computers, 8 of which will be connected to the Internet. Classes will be held in this room as well as a separate writing lab program that I will oversee. Being one who thrives on challenges, I could not be happier.

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From Congress.org Newsletter

This was in my Congress.org Newsletter. I am so glad I do not earn enough to pay US taxes.

GAO Report on Government Credit Card Abuse

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report entitled "Government Purchase Cards: Actions Needed to Strengthen Internal Controls to Reduce Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Purchases". The report for the 2006 fiscal year detailed certain improper charges that were put on government credit cards. According to the report, the purchase card program has had success in increasing purchase efficiency. However, the report also notes that "...if not properly managed and controlled, use of the purchase cards results in fraud, waste, and abuse."

The study found that around 41% of all transactions made with purchase cards during that time period were not properly authorized. Around 48% of transactions above the $2,500 "micropurchase threshold" were unauthorized. From the sampling that the GAO studied, around $1.8 million worth of purchases was unaccounted for. The report refers to the failure rate as "unacceptably high." Examples of fraud, abuse and waste were found at "dozens" of government agencies, including:

• the U.S. Forest Service--$642,000 worth of fraudulent use of convenience checks paid to cardholder's live-in boyfriend
• the U.S. Navy--$2,200 worth of lost computer equipment (presumed stolen)
• National Science Foundation--$1,800 worth of fraudulent purchases from a nail salon
• United States Postal Service (USPS)--$1,100 for internet dating sites
• Department of the Interior--$24,300 worth of "Improper cash advances" for personal gain
• USPS--$13,500 for dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
• Department of State--$360 in women's underwear and lingerie for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug enforcement program in Ecuador
• Department of Defense--$77,000 in high-end clothing stores

You can read the entire GAO report here. Contact Congress about the GAO report.

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Austria Travel Tip for Saving Money

I came across this travel tip today for saving money in Vienna. However, I cannot check it out because when I go to the site below, I only get the Hungarian version and there is no link to change it to English. I tried changing the country to the UK and the US, but it did not help. If you fly on Austrian Airline, you can use your boarding card to get massively reduced or free entrance to Viennese attractions and cultural institutions such as the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Leopold Museum, Mozarthaus Wien, the U4 Discotheque and more. They've also added free entry to the Wine Museum Burgenland. For details, log onto www.aua.com and click on "All about the flight".

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The Letter of Doom

I wrote a very strong letter to my department head about this new program which I am supposed to develop. My concerns revolved around the lack of money to make is successful. At one meeting when I mentioned that I ordered and bought books from the States for my own courses, one professor remarked, "You are such a perfectionist. Just download articles from the Internet and make a reader." This is what we did my first two years here, but good pedagogy requires something better than this. With such a reader, there is no consistency in reading levels, ideas, framing of concepts, and so on. Also the thought of teaching only the theory of journalism and medias studies without any practical applications did not seem that the program would be engaging for students. Therefore, we would start with a splash and then it would soon fade into oblivion from lack of interest. The thinking here is to just slap something together and call it new. When it does not work out, it is the students fault for not trying, not caring, not being interested enough, but never the fact that we cannot be on the cutting edge. Hungary is at the bottom of the list of European countries in technology, so what competitive advantage does this give our students once they graduate? Before they even get close to graduation, their education is already years behind other countries in some areas. With some forethought, I e-mailed my letter to my former teaching partner. He taught at ELTE for six years and knows the system as the players well. He agreed the letter was strong, made some points where I should cut and condense others. As he mentioned, it did contain many truths that they would not want to hear, but needed to be faced with. After making the revisions, I sent off the letter as a Word document with a note in the e-mail that this was a loving and supportive letter with my students in mind. I waited and waited, and panicked at the length of time it took for a response. This evening, I did get a response from my department head who stated right off that she could not agree with me more. We are going to meet to discuss the options. However, being the person I am, I did come up with 23 courses in the area of journalism, media studies, and academic writing along with course descriptions and sent that off too. It seemed to me that this would bring clarity to the points I made in my letter by showing that a media course needs to have movies if you are going to study the portrayal of race and class in American film. Additionally, what good are journalism classes if there are no hands on experiences? A writing lab would be perfect for this so students can create a newsletter, a blog or write an article for possible publication. Most of my colleagues are busy with their own professional development, which is not necessarily reflected back into the classroom. They look for grants and opportunities for themselves, but not for the program or the university. I feel if I expose a problem, I have to also offer solutions for it at the same time. Those ideas are cooking.

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If One Door Closes...

When my students apply for a scholarship and do not get it, I always tell them when one door closes another opens, so perhaps it is for the best. This is a lesson I need to remember for myself as I teach it to others. I was totally infuriated over the fact that an American Studies department at the largest university in Central Europe could even think of cutting the position of their native speakers. As the universe responds to needs, the ultimate head of the English department forwarded an e-mail he received asking me to respond to it. This gentleman from an institute in Washington state was looking for a university to make a cooperative connection with in Budapest. Up to now, he has been hitting brick walls with no one giving a positive response before he was even able to explain what he wanted. I was not sure what powers my head of department was instilling on me; why would I be the one to write him back? I was given the warning though that the university had absolutely no money for anything new. How well I knew this mantra having my job threatened every two years. I wrote the writer back and it turned out we have extensive pages long 'discussions' in the course of the afternoon. He is currently in London. He represents a program that confers an MFA degree for Creative Writing. That is their only position in academia. Currently, they are working on accreditation. The US Embassy in both Finland and Portugal have flown him to universities in those countries to give seminars and lectures, thus he is trying to set up cooperative agreements in each region. By chance, he and his wife came to Budapest for a vacation and not surprisingly, he fell in love with the city and wanted to establish some working relationship here. Our students have been crying for a creative writing option for years. This would be a match made in heaven if we could do something like this. Before making any further exploratory commitments, I forwarded a note to the ultimate department head as well as my department chair who has been resistant to any creative writing possibilities. The suggestion was that this could fit into the new journalism, media program. With the ultimate head on my side, I knew that the department head had to be swayed to concede to our side. It worked! I received the affirmation that this indeed could be a bonus for our program. We are in the thralls of excitement, but first the institute needs to get the final go from their Board of Directors to actually make this happen. If it does, then our university will be paid for room rental, another coup. No money put out, but money coming in. This point brings me to another reason why I was angered over the positions being cut. It was due to me and my contacts that our department received eight brand new computers and a grant of two million forints ($12,600) for infrastructure from an American company based here in Budapest. Without my endeavors, this would never have happened. That amount is more than I earn in a year, so I have paid for my salary and still earned the department money.

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Roller Coaster Ride

A couple of days ago, someone sent them a link to a video called The Blue Ribbon. I have seen this before, but it was some time ago. It gets a bit sentimental toward the end, but the point is made and there are analogies to be made besides. Here is the link. www.blueribbonmovie.com/ I sent the link to all of the students through our Yahoo group with the message that they may not hear it all of the time, but they each deserve a Blue Ribbon and I am giving them one from me. Regardless of how frustrated I may feel at times with their seeming lack of dedication to their academic work, I have to pull back and realize that most of them are taking two majors and more courses than is really humane. By giving them all of the support they need or want, they aim higher at pleasing me. The next day, I received this e-mail from a former student. I have not seen her for a year.

Dear Dr. James!

Thank you for this e-mail and this video! And I would like to tell you, that you were the only one in the last three years who really cared about how we imporve, what and how we do!

And it means a lot to me since I've learned a lot of things from you according to my thinking or my attitude towards life.

Thank you again for making this day different from any others!

CG

Only minutes later, I received an e-mail from my department head that stated the native speaker positions were at risk of being lost. However, she thought the proposal I had made to establish a writing center was a brilliant idea and would champion the cause. One minute I am higher than a kite and sobbing like a child over the lovely note I received from a student telling me what a difference I have made, and then, another telling me my position is at risk. What a schizophrenic situation it is here. Now I have been deemed responsible for creating a sub-specialty within the American Studies department dubbed "Journalism, Media Studies, and Academic Writing" creating courses to account for 50 credits. Although I love challenges, this is a grand task for a university that cannot afford the subscriptions of databases for research and has no media of its own for classroom use, and no money to supply the needs of the curriculum. After six years, I am now in fear of losing my job. What is even more infuriating is the fact that since I am not a Hungarian, I can not move up the ladder beyond Lektor, yet get the responsibilities of someone with a much heftier salary.

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The UPS Man Cometh

After staying at school today extra late, I came home to find a sticky note on the outside door buzzer with my name on it, from the UPS driver. I knew it was my books and wanted to kick myself for not being at home when he attempted a delivery. To be honest, I wanted to kick Ron's butt too for not being home since I could not be. Not that it was anyone's fault, we had no idea today would be the day, but excitement set in and I became irrational. I called the number he left on the note and between his fractured English and my decimated Hungarian, we communicated. At 3:15, he returned with a box and I tipped him generously. Flying in the door, I tore into the box and sure enough there were books from my publisher. On the top were the "Europe by Rail" books. Underneath those were more "Europe by Rail" books and digging further down did not change a thing. Ten copies of the "Europe by Rail" books were all that was in the box. Trying not to be majorly, I dashed off an e-mail to my editor, fearful that that all of my ten copies were going to be the rail book and none of my own book. Within an hour, I received a response that there would be ten copies of my own book following, but the editorial assistant has not received them yet. This is like Christmas when you get something close to what you want, but not exactly what you want. You are happy about it, but not thrilled. At least Christmas will come again in a couple of weeks.

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Some Blog Recognition

Dear Ryan,

Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.0 score out of (10) in the Recreation category of Blogged.com.

This is quite an achievement! http://www.blogged.com/directory/recreation

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style. After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.0 score. Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!

Sincerely,

Amy Liu

Editorial Department

http://www.blogged.com

I am on page 7. I have to work harder to move up the ladder.

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My Editor Responds; My Article is on the Web

Well, I received two e-mails from my editor at Gayot Publications this morning. The first was that she received my business article and would read it this weekend. The next e-mail was sent two hours later, saying it was terrific and exactly what she wanted. Her only comment was that since the publication has their own rating system, they do not include any awards a hotel has garnered. One of my reviews mentions that the Kempinksi Hotel received three international awards for business travelers, so she broke my 150 word running streak. If that is all she faulted, who am I to complain. The more exciting news is that my first article is now on the web at http://www.gayot.com/travel/citytrips/budapest/day1.html . After going through the 3 days, there are additional links to the rest of my writing at Budapest: Hotels, Restaurants, Attractions, Travel Guide Hungary, and Budapest Tourism Office. The photos of Fisherman's Bastion on page 1 and Castle Hill View on page 2 are my photos that they chose to us.

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The Business Traveler

After writing the first article for Gayout Publications, I was hired to write a second article for the business traveler to Budapest. After the introductory information, the guidelines were to include five hotels, five restaurants, and five off the clock activities. Each review could not be more than 150 words. After writing up the first two hotels and restaurants, I realized I had hit 150 words exactly. Then it became a challenge to write all fifteen reviews with exactly 150 words. It may sound easy, but it was not. Challenging for sure, but I did it. My deadline for the article was April 14th, but I sent it in today. As pleased as I was with it, my only hope was that my editor would be equally as pleased. Fingers are crossed.

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Planning for Australia

In early 1993, I had a partner of six years die of AIDS at home. It was a long tough battle for both of us. By summer of that year, I decided I was going to use my frequent flyer miles to go to Australia. I had my tickets for two weeks in December and one week in January, went to a travel agent in San Francisco who planned a wonderful multi-city itinerary for me that included some special train trips, some short haul flights, and all lodging was in an exotic place. It was the perfect healing trip.

Then...or rather during this time, I had met someone and we started seeing each other. I told him about my trip and said he could come along or wait for me. He fussed about the cost, but I refused to back down on my trip fearful this would be a short term romance; therefore, I would live with regrets about not having my dream trip. He finally relented and I called my travel agent. I still had enough miles for a second ticket. The agent could not find a frequent flyer ticket for both of us even if I changed my dates. Then he found it impossible to fond a revenue ticket where we could travel together even though we were willing to pay for the ticket. With all of this hassle, I gave in, cashed in my seats and re-booked the miles for two tickets to Europe, since my new boyfriend had never been there. I had been three times at that point. An Australian trip was a crushed dream that I never forgot.

This September will be our 15 year anniversary, so I think the timing is perfect to finally get to Australia and I am bound and determined to make it happen. Being 15 years older, I am not hoping, planning, or expecting the HOT time I had planned, but I do want to see a lot of the country.

Trying to figure out dates is a puzzle. I teach at one of the universities here and in years past, we were done for winter by December 14th and we took off right after that. This year, the holidays have been a bit bizarre. Our Easter break was shorter than normal due to National holidays. My best guess is that we will be able to leave by December 12th or worst case scenario, one week later, the 19th. Hungarians do not plan that far ahead, but I will need to try to push for an answer. We usually take four weeks, since I don't start teaching again until February.

My first task is to get a FROMMER'S travel guide for Australia. I know we want to be in Sydney for New Years for the fireworks display, but other than that we are free to roam the country. I know precious little about your countries regions so I need to really do some research. I have collected some articles from the web when something strikes me, but have not gone back to review them. I read about Kangaroo Island and that sounded fascinating. I know for sure we will need a chunk of wildlife time, seeing animals in the environment. We are both animal lovers. Ayers Rock (Uluhru) is another must too. I am not certain if we should consider just traveling the eastern part of the country or if Perth is worth the travel time. I do know what a massive country it is. I have my homework cut out for me.

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