Although the trip to Vancouver was great, and we found some great deals, it did set me back a bit. Nothing huge but at the rate I want to be exploring spending that much on a weekend trip will quickly whittle away my savings. The solution: SERVAS!
Servas is an amazing resource for those people who want to travel inexpensively. The idea is something similar to Couch Surfer only more organized and secure. Servas has actually been around much longer than Couch Surfer, I believe it was started post WWII as a way to encourage cultural interaction and promote world peace and understanding. So the way it works is you stay with a host for two nights, they feed you and provide you with a room, and in return you interact with them, tell them about yourself and where you're from. Sounds like a good deal huh?
Its a great way to travel for several reasons:
1. Its free (well basically, a year membership is $85. Paid for in one stay)
2. You get to learn directly about local culture.
3. You get the inside scoop on the cool things to do in town. Hosts can tell you all the cool places the travel guides omit. Thus avoiding other tourists and expensive touristy areas.
4. Home cooked meals! (also free!)
What makes it safer than Couch Surfing? Servas requires everyone to interview before they are accepted into the program, so they can weed out the loonies and ensure that potential members understand the etiquette of the exchange. Don't be put off by the interview though, its just a safety net, its not there as a way to be uber selective of who gets in. Its not by any means an exclusive club, they welcome all walks of life and are very interested in getting some younger members.
I interviewed yesterday, with a very nice couple up in Bellingham, WA. Even though they were leaving town for 5 weeks the next day and I only contacted them on Sun, they were kind enough to work me in for an hour long interview. I think that says a lot about what the organization stands for.
After my interview I got word of an Occupy movement taking place on the railroad tracks in the middle of town. My roommate and I were very intrigue and decided to go check it out. In protest of coal trains traveling through Bellingham en route to a proposed terminal at Cherry Point a group of about 80 people blocked the railroad tracks. Before we arrived, about 5 or 6 protestors linked their necks together with u-bar style bicycle locks and laid down on the tracks refusing to move. Police were able to move the rest of the crowd off the tracks but had more of a challenge with the ones that were linked together. They had to use a dremmel tool to saw through the locks; very slowly arresting them one at a time. It looked like some kind of bizarre surgery, officers wearing face shields, halogen lights all around and bare hippie feet poking out from the huddle. The officers were actually using a lot of care not to injure the protestors while sawing them apart, they covered them with blankets to shield them from the sparks of the saw, and sprayed the locks with water to prevent them from burning their skin. I even heard one officer ask if he was in the way of someone's shot, and then stepped aside so they could get a better picture. The remaining protestors stood to the side of the tracks and cheered on their friends singing Kimya Dawson's "Loose Lips" repeating the chorus, "We won't stop until somebody calls the cops, and even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened!"
Coal haters.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Occupy Bellingham movement?
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