The Line Up

Several people have been asking about the order of the places I'm going to, which I'm hoping means they are planning on visiting while I'm there.

Deciding on the order of countries as well as which countries to visit were exciting and challenging tasks, and this list could possibly change (or at least, be added to). I did a lot of research in order to figure out how much to plan-- what made the most sense financially and what would give me the most flexibility. Lots of plugging in flights online and 3 travel agencies later, I decided to book through April 2012 with STA Travel (using a great student/discount/round the world option). The amazing travel agent I worked with gave me a great price because I was buying all the tickets together in a round the world bundle and made sure all the tickets I'm buying would have a small fee ($50) if I changed their date. So although having these flights lined up might give me less flexibility than some other Watson Fellows have when they embark, because I'm traveling to so many countries that are pretty spread apart, it made the most sense to book as far as I could ahead in order to get the least expensive flights. And I can always change the dates later for a small fee. I've found that knowing these tentative dates has actually provided a helpful framework to work within as I plan my housing in each place and try to find organizations to work with. I'm going to book the last bit of my trip, (From Europe back to the US) as well as any other side trips I take as I go along.

Here goes:

July 28th: Burlington, VT--->Washington DC--->Singapore
August 1st: Singapore--->Denpasar, Bali
September 21st: Denpasar, Bali--->Kuala Lumpur--->Bangalore, India
November 14th: Delhi, India--->Dubai--->Casablanca, Morocco
January 9th: Casablanca--->Abu Dhabi--->Frankfurt, Germany
February 27th: Frankfurt--->Johannesburg--->Lusaka, Zambia
April 12th: Lusaka--->Johannesburg--->London

Still to come (very approximate!)
April 12th: London--->Dublin
June 7th: Dublin--->Reykjavik
July 28th: Reykjavik--->HOME!

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