Mark Twain once said..

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry,
and narrow-mindedness."

tis' the season for cheap airfare!

Here are a bunch of steals on plane tickets for this holiday season. (All these take into consideration that you will be departing from LAX)

Want to experience a Winter Wonderland?

Virgin America is offering a great deal on trips to New York.
Alaskan Airlines is selling one-way tickets to Seattle for as cheap as 79$

How about a tropical holiday for a change?
Hawaiin Airlines is featuring a special for those who are willing to fly from anytime until now and January 31st.

Jamaica.com offers customers deals on vacation packages that include airfare and hotel expenses. There are also different cruises available during the holidays.

Check out dealnews.com! The website provides a list of the newest and upcoming deals on anything from computers to spectacles, including airfare!

For all the students that are exceptionally broke this season, here are some options for you.

Take a road trip with Roadtripnation.com. It is a program that was started by a small group of college graduates, and is now being aired on PBS. They offer "students with a purpose" the chance to travel to different places and talk to people that are active members in the Corporate World. Students that apply and are accepted into the program are either given grants to conduct their own "road trips," or are offered a chance to travel in their sponsored buses with their camera crew.

Their programs take place during Winter, Spring and Summer breaks.

If any of these deals inspire you, make sure that you act fast because a lot of these have very strict deadlines!

photo credit: www.frugalvoyager.com

a soldier-to-be has never been

Ed Song, a senior at CSULB, has never traveled outside the country. He is majoring in Business Marketing and is a contracted ROTC recruit. Song is an executive officer of the 416 Civil Affairs Psychological Operations Command.

Acting as a liason between his fellow soldiers and the Alpha Company set in San Diego, he runs physical training drills while training himself to be an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) Technician.

His lack of travel experience has forced him to explore different ways to gain his own wordly perspective. Like everything else in life, Song views traveling as a privelege that needs to be earned.

With strength, grit and personality Song proves that "Freedom is not free. There is a certain function I need to perform for this country before I can exercise its freedoms."

At the age of 21, Song has developed a sophisticated grasp of the American citizen's right to freedom that emits through the way he lives and views life.

During our quite casual conversation, he never felt embarrassed to express his viewpoints through such stern and formal language. Even though his dialogue sounded as if he were reciting speeches straight from a manual, I got the impression that his confidence came from something beyond his years of military drilling. Perhaps he was born with it.

"If you had all the money in the world, would you still be on your way to the military?" Both for the sake of the interview and as a friend trying to persuade another to re-think his decisions about going to war, I proposed a silly but serious question. "Yes. I need it as a a vehicle to make a difference in the world" Song replies. But with all the money in the world, you can just donate half of it to the poor. Isn't that enough of a difference? My efforts were little gnomes being chomped down by Song's gargantuan of a plan. "It's a part of me that I have to prove to myself. I have to prove that I can do it."

At this point, I was getting the idea that Song wasn't the type to budge and that he was going to be Mr. Narrow-minded for the rest of the interview. In fact, I was wrong.

Although Song was born and raised in Southern California, he feels that he has gained a "broader perspective of the world."

A little ironic?

An average person will argue that you must see the world in order to gain a worldly view, but with Song as the exception, those people need to speak for themselves. "My job as a civil affairs officer is to learn about different cultures and adapt to them in order to acheive a goal" Song adds, "And plus you can learn more about different cultures here more than anywhere else in the world." With L.A. County arguably being one of the most popular places to live, it's also one of the most diverse.

With Song as a witness, we learn that spending loads of money on airfare and traveling to foreign grounds isn't required to explore diversity and culture. According to Webster's Dictionary, to travel is to make a journey. Whether it's a short journey to Little India in Artesia, or a voyage to South Africa, there's always something important waiting to be learned.

Aerophobia

Deathly afraid of flying? You're not alone..

According to FearofFlyingHelp.com, "one out of every six adults has a fear of flying."

But I guess statistics like this and the thousand of others that try to convince people that winning the lottery is more likely to happen than their plane crashing, means nothing to the average Aerophobic. After all, regardless of all the statistics about shipwrecks, my ship really DID sink.

No matter how many times you try to convert these people either with captivating statistics or by telling them that "everything is gonna be okay," they'll probably be able to plaster a calm smile while they're placing their hand-carry items in the overhead compartments and gather up the courage to sit down and fasten their vinyl seat belts, but by the time the flight attendant starts to perform the evacuation plan, all logic flies out the door. By the time reality kicks in they'll probably be kicked out.

The most effective way to treat these symptoms are not by strapping these people into their seats, but by going through systematic healing processes that are generally used for people that suffer from abnormal anxieties.

Aerophobia can arise from different sets of fears. Some might feel uncomfortable being trapped in a small, enclosed area for a certain amount of time. Others, like control freaks might hate flying because the idea of a total stranger navigating the aircraft gives them a lack of power over the situation. Some might only be afraid of specific aspects of flying like landing or turbulence.

No matter where the problems are rooted, there is always a solution. Here are some helpful websites for all you helpless fliers:

www.fearofflyinghelp.com
www.fearfreeflying.co.uk
www.fearless-flight.com/
www.phobia-fear-release.com

a slice of life from a European's pie

An interview with Elizabeth Cubbon

Cubbon is a sophomore and is majoring in Journalism. But she's not your typical CSULB student, she's from Isle of Man.

She is an international-exchange student from Kingston University in London and will be here for two semesters.

Q: What made you want to study abroad?

Elizabeth: I've always lived in a small town so I was just waiting for an opportunity that would allow me to take a huge step, and this was it.

Q: What do you like the most about CSULB?

Elizabeth: I noticed that people here are a lot more friendly and confident, especially towards strangers. You probably won't get it because you're from here, but it's just the way people approach you and present themselves. I guess you can say that they're more comfortable with being themselves in public.

(Maybe us Beachers are a bit too liberal at times?)

Q: Did you find it hard to adjust?

Elizabeth: It was kind of hard making friends at first because I figured everyone already had their little groups going, but that was my fault. Everyone, for the most part is very friendly.

It was also hard for me to get used to the drinking age. Where I live, I was legal to drink last year and I'm only 19. Here, they're so strict on kids that just want to have a little fun. In Europe, a lot of the students' social life revolves around the bar scene.

Q: What do you miss most about home?

Elizabeth: Well I miss my family and friends the most, but there are little things that I can't wait to go back to. Like drinking and partying legally. I also miss going out on weekdays. Here it seems that the social scene usually revolves around the weekends, but where I'm from, students stay in during this time because it's too expensive to go out. Instead, they party through out the week.

Q: What are some things you'll miss most about California?

Elizabeth: The weather! It's always nice and sunny here and it's always raining in London.

Q: Are there any places that you would recommend people going if they wanted to experience a little bit of the European flavor?

Elizabeth: There's this place on 2nd St. that's called La Creperie. I love the atmosphere there and their crepes are the best that I've tasted since I've been living here.

East Meets West: Studying in Taiwan

Cal State Long Beach sent 13 students to Taipei City, Taiwan, in September on fully paid scholarships to spend the 2007-08 academic year at Ming Chuan University.

MCU is a family-owned university that was founded in 1963 and is known in Taiwan for its specialization in business and management.

John Tsuchida, chairman of the Asian and Asian American studies department, launched the beginning of the international exchange program with MCU after making arrangements with the university's dean of law.

"The biggest obstacle going overseas is finance," said Tsuchida, "and our job is to make it possible for students to experience studying abroad."

In this program's first year, MCU accepted all of the 13 students who applied for the one-way exchange and provided them with free tuition and board. In addition, the Taipei Economic Cultural Office, located in Los Angeles, donated money toward the students' airfare and awarded two of them with additional $10,000 scholarships.

Some of the students who were selected were personally recruited by professors from the AAAS department. According to Chad Tsuyuki, the AAAS department's administrative support coordinator, the students who were chosen to study abroad at MCU have diverse majors.

Candace Walsh, one of the selected students, is an English major with an emphasis in creative writing, and graduate student Man Ng is majoring in Asian studies.

Regardless of their majors, the students will be taking an array of Mandarin classes, and have been assigned accordingly based on their skill levels.

Tsuchida said that the goal of this program is to "make students more global. American students do not think speaking a foreign language is an asset these days, but it is."

In an effort to expand the cultural and language learning process even further, one of MCU's faculty members, Joe Wang, set up a home-sponsoring program for the students from CSULB. Different families in Taipei volunteered to host some of the students and allowed them to visit their homes.

Although this supplementary learning experience was offered to all 13 students, only a few of them took it.

Man Ng, one of the students that signed up for the home-sponsoring program, said "[He] learned Chinese better with a host family than in class." "I personally am enjoying learning Chinese here and experiencing the culture in Taiwan. I think this was a great trade-off."

The students will be returning at the end of MCU's spring semester in July and as far as the future of the exchange program goes, Tsuchida said he has plans to improve and establish stable ties with MCU. He is working on a semester program for those students who cannot commit to a year-long session.

He understands that most college students have job commitments or other circumstances that they cannot sacrifice by going abroad.

Also in consideration is a summer program next year for students who have taken one or two Chinese language classes and are interested in studying in Taiwan.

"There are a lot of intangible benefits from studying abroad, and our job here is to make opportunities happen," Tsuchida said.

the birthday suit fad

Word on the street is, people are getting more and more comfortable being in the nude. According to a survey conducted by the American Association for Nude Recreation , 19% of Americans have skinny-dipped in a non-private setting and 18% are actually willing to go to a nude beach.

As we travel through the 21st century, where the leisure industry is booming, people are going above and beyond to find that ultimate unique experience. USA Today relates this growth in interest to the increase in nude recreation advertisements floating around the media. According to the same survey,“the 18-34 age group is more willing to bare it all and visit a clothing-optional resort or nude beach than their baby boomer counterparts age 45-54.” The article draws a connection between the statistic and our century's version of pop culture.

Laurie Dwyer, a senior at CSULB says, “Sexuality is getting more and more prevalent, and [nude beaches] are just another way for them to explore that.” After surveying a diverse set of 25 CSULB students, 16 agreed that they would be willing to go to a nude beach, 4 were unsure, and 5 students were just repulsed at the idea of it. “There are only a few of them in the world,” Dwyer adds “and people these days are into doing what they’re not supposed to.”

Do you agree? Well if you ever decide to change your mind and explore the world in your birthday suit, here are the Travel Channel’s Top Nine Nude Beaches.

9. Little Beach, Hawaii

8. Haulover Beach, Florida

7. Red Beach, Greece

6. Praia do Pinho, Brazil

5. Hedonism II, Jamaica

4. Samurai Beach, Australia

3. Wreck Beach, British Columbia

2. Ocho Rios, Jamaica

1. Montalivet, France


photo credit: Little Beach, Hawaii By John Fischer