I need some help and advice...

Hey Guys,

A few random opinions. Flying all the way across the Atlantic, with no money, for just two weeks, just to watch a few basketball games... I wouldn't do it. I'd watch them on cable in a sports bar where you are now. The European beer is better anyhow. Take the money you'd use to fly the Atlantic and use it to look closer at where you already are - Europe. If London bothers you just now, then the continent awaits. Besides, they're more cultured than we are anyhow.

North America is a big damn place and two weeks won't do it justice. It would be like trying to see all of Oz in two weeks - you'd spend all your time on the road, eating at gas stations, watching highway signs, breathing fumes - bleah. Besides, we're having a cold spell and we're not at our most pleasant anyhow.

You might consider making an arbitrary decision that you'll "do" North America five years from now, after you save up a little money, after our TSA people have calmed down a little, maybe arriving in the northern hemisphere spring when it's easier to be out and about. That wouldn't be failure, that would be intelligent management of your time and resources. If you are in the Southwest you might want to poke around a little in Mexico too, everything's cheaper there and should seem quite exotic to someone from a former British colony.

If you come anyhow, and you get a car I'd suggest you splurge and get the biggest, most luxurious, most powerful car you can find, just for that classic All-American experience. Much of the country is inacessable unless you have a car. It's just how we're built.

Luck, Happy trails.

Do not take this two week trip, and never in winter - the previous poster gave great advice

Usually this fixes everything for me

Desidrata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.