christopher ming lee

I didn’t get the Fulbright. Am I disappointed? Yes, but disappointment requires time, and thus, a luxury I can hardly afford. Thus, we move to Plan B.
Art suggested a possible Plan B: apply for graduate study at a Chinese university through a fast-track at Rutgers. I’d pay for my travel, but everything else is covered: [...]

Part 4 to A Budget Traveler’s Guide to Living in Buenos Aires
(or go back to Part 3)
You could argue you don’t get the full experience of BA on such a shoestring budget. What about the football matches, the tango shows, the nightlife? As I prepared for my trip, I knew these were activities I may [...]

Part 3 to A Budget Traveler’s Guide to Living in Buenos Aires
(or go back to Part 2)
Transportation
There’s no reason to use taxis when a little walking will easily take you to a nearby subte which take you all over the city for .90 pesos. If you have a fear of the subterranean, a bus ride [...]

Part 2 to A Budget Traveler’s Guide to Living in Buenos Aires
(or go back to Part 1)
Food
I really did believe Lonely Planet when it said you could get a steak for $4, which in retrospect seems ridiculous. The prices in Buenos Aires are good, but they’re not that good. For realistic budgeting, budget about 45 [...]

I wanted to revisit the goals I set before I left for Argentina to see what I followed through with, and what fell to the wayside these last couple months:
Followed through:

Handled the pain-in-the-ass that is getting your own health insurance.
Paid-off close to 50 percent of my loan.
Finished the Fulbright application in Argentina - with help [...]

Part 1 to A Budget Traveler’s Guide to Living in Buenos Aires
During my stay in Buenos Aires, four out of the five people in the room used the Lonely Planet guide, and everyone agreed on one thing: while the information was useful, it was woefully out of date. Many of the restaurants closed or moved, [...]

“How long have you been in Cordoba?”
“About a month.”
“A month? What the hell have you been doing here?”
It’s a valid question, and I get it a lot from the people traveling through Cordoba. Still, the answer is long and detailed, and I don’t think I could do it justice in a 30-second explanation.
“Don’t you want [...]

I couldn’t decide what to write about for my weekend in Colonia Caroya. There was a lot of material to cover: do I talk about the La Mora tournament? Explain the rules of the game? Do I talk about visiting Maxi’s brother’s school? The kindness of the Visitin family as they hosted me and introduced [...]

I’ll keep it short today - last week, I was waiting at my favorite empanada shop, when I was asked to help a blind man to the bathroom. The owners were all working, I was the only person left in the store, so there weren´t many options.
Of course I obliged. He took my arm, and [...]

I wrote before about how I’m making an aggressive effort to eliminate material things I do not need. This has a two-fold importance when applied to traveling: first, you eliminate the mental baggage associated with ownership. Second, you remove the physical baggage you dig through your bag at the end of everyday.
Basically, I hate carrying [...]