Travel back

Hey guys,
Edgar has been amazing, and has sent us an email today about our travel arrangements for after the trip. We should be getting quotes back early next week about the additional costs, then we can actually book everything and know our goals!

So gracias tan mucho Edgar!

We need to meet up at some time in the coming week, those wanting to fundraise. And just a side note, if you know people who work at big organisations, ask if you can fundraise there. I work part time for ACC, and made $130 profit from selling mini cupcakes there today! And they have asked me to do another one soon. Little things can make a difference?

spanish lessons

hay guys ally here. new gurl in the group. I would be so keen to learn some Spanish before we go. I just tried out some of the sayings below and i suck! i really need to hear it being spoken. BUT i don't want to pay for lessons as this could get quite pricey and im trying to save money! haha! maybe Edgar could help us...

Up to date itinerary

17-Nov
Mexico City
Arrival - Hotel

18-Nov
Mexico City
UNAM-San Angel Rivera house

19-Nov
Mexico City
UNAM-Coyoacan-Casa Azul

20-Nov
Mexico City
Zocalo-Bellas Artes-Alameda-Café Tacuba-Azulejos

21-Nov
Mexico City
Chapultepec - Antropologia - Barragan or Polanco or Plaza Satelite shopping

22-Nov
Mexico City
Teotihuacan - Basilica

23-Nov
Mexico City-Queretaro
Bus to Queretaro-Hotel in Queretaro

24-Nov
Queretaro
ITESM-City

25-Nov
Queretaro-Guanajuato
Bus to Guanajuato via San Miguel de Allende

26-Nov
Guanajuato
City Center and Momias

27-Nov
Guanajuato-Guadalajara
Bus to Guadalajara

28-Nov
Guadalajara
Guadalajara City and Tlaquepaque

29-Nov
Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta
Guadalajara City and Bus to Puerto Vallarta (evening)

30-Nov
Puerto Vallarta
Beach and surrounding towns

1-Dec
Puerto Vallarta
Beach and surrounding towns

2-Dec
Puerto Vallarta
Beach and surrounding towns

3-Dec
Puerto Vallarta-Mexico City
Beach - Overnight bus to Mexico City

4-Dec
Mexico City
Free day - Noche en Garibaldi

5-Dec
Flight MEX-LAX-AKL
Transfer to airport 4.5 hours before departure to LAX

6-Dec
Plane

7-Dec
Flight AKL-WEL
Arrival back to Wellington

Ideas on after trip travel

Hey guys,
I know everyone is trying to figure out what everyone else wants to do in terms of travel after the trip finishes on the 5th December, so thought I would let you know what I HOPE to do

5th: trip finishes, stay in Mexico (what is everyone else doing? I need people for 2 days who aren't flying off to crazy places... I just wanna hang in Mexico)
7th: fly to Dallas, Texas (DFW) (so I can meet up with a mate)
11th: Fly to LA (stopover on flight to nz from Dallas) and meet with Kerryn and Tania to do Disneyland etc (is anyone else keen? we want to know for theme park tickets and accomidation)
15th: Meet up with the rest of the crew to fly home (everyone will have a route home via LA, hopefully we can all get on the same flight home)
17th: Arrive back in NZ thanks to the date line

What is everyone keen for? And I need to know when you are free so we can have a meeting to sort out fundraising etc. We could do a pizza night or just meet some time when no one has classes or work (HAHAHA). Get back to me please! I was thinking things like the cafe thing could start on Wed next week? And we could meet each other of course

Materials related costs

Gordon Harris has promised a $100 dollars voucher per student for purchasing materials for the course, wohoo

Travelling Return dates

Hey guys just wondering on what peoples plans are for return dates just so we get cheaper tickets. I'm pretty keen to stay on for a week or so if thats what the majority of others want to do but at the mo I'd kinda be travelling by myself which I'm not that keen for. I talked to kely (sorry hope i spelt your name right dude) an he was unsure as well, so we might jack up together and do a bit of extra sight seeing in mexico, so if anybody else was keen to as well then yeah would be good to sort that out..(note jack up together may have been a bad choice of words sounds very close to jack off together :S)

Passports - 2002 or newer

Hey guys I talked to my dad on monday night whom had just been to the states about 2 weeks ago. His passport is slightly older then mine - his was renewed in 2002 and expires in 2010 and mine was renewed in 2004 expires 2012 and he said his passport was fine in the states and had no problem. He was in Washington DC and New York. He said the only thing is that it can't expire within 6 months whilst your travelling. Hope this helps.. So by the sounds of it from the last meeting most of us should be safe!

More ideas on fundraising

Other ideas might be going to the lotteries commission, you knowgetting money from the pubs pokie machines? not sure who to contactbut im sure a bar will be able to tell us. Also not sure if they givegrants outside sports teams but its worth asking.

Also maybe we could form a VUWSA club? as we have meetings etc imsure we fall under the criteria and i think they give you a grand ormore for club activities. Could also be an option?

Shaun Murphy

THANK YOU RYAN!

Excellent, I have now invited you guys to be authors, which means you can post your own posts on the site...yay!

Passports

Brooke asked if all we need is a current passport, or do we specifically need one with a chip in it? Any ideas anyone?

Fundraising ideas for individuals

Well, I know that I am doing a lot of fundraising outside of school, and thought I might put a few ideas out there.

• Selling art portfolios on TradeMe
  
• What do we do? We’re design students, what kind of things can we do that would make all the other people interested, and get them involved?
  
  One idea I will be organising is a fortnightly photo competition, entry being $1 or so. There would be a theme, say “best party ever”, and people would submit photos. They'd be left up for voting, then the winner would get a bar tab (or other prize). It wouldn’t take much organising, and could be really fun. It could be done often, as the theme changes.
  
• Pimping your design skills, I put a few notices on our work social mail about designing posters and handmade cards etc
  
• Babysitting, every family needs one. I charge $20 for the first hour, $5 per hour after.
  
• Organise a night with your mates, sell tickets or make a donation hat; singstar, poker night, pot luck dinner…. You get the idea
  
• Rent yourself out to friends and family for crappy jobs like housework, filing, weeding the garden, cleaning the car etc
  
• Give up something that you love, and get people to sponsor you…. I will be doing a sponsored silence, if I stay sane. Make it funny for extra money?

Fundraising meeting notes

Hey guys :)

My name is Lisa, I'm 3rd year industrial student, I realise that our meeting was a little late announced (sorry!) and that many people have classes. Is there a time when everyone is free? How is friday for everyone?

Anywho lovelies, here is a run down of what we talked about today, replies are good, suggestions are welcome!

1. A party we sell tickets to, at a bar in Wellington. I'm in the process of contacting Rain, on Courtenay place into using their bar. People would buy their own drinks, but we'd provide a DJ (I think). If that fails, I know a few other places in town, like Syn etc. We had a few suggestions of themes; 90's music: the music we hate to love, the Mexico 'M' Party; costumes that start with M....(mechanic, maid, moon, monster...etc
   
2. Buying bulk bottled water and relabeling them, selling them at uni ($2 a bottle or so). Could be good, conveinient http://www.aquaplus.co.nz/school_fundraising.htm
   
3. Cadbury fundraisers; http://www.houseoffundraising.co.nz/products.htm or http://www.interworldfundraising.co.nz/FundraisingProducts/tabid/1926/language/en-NZ/Default.aspx
   
4. Auction our artworks. I don’t know how many of you guys did art or photography at school, but we thought about auctioning them off. I don’t know if we want to sell only one piece each, or try sell multiple pieces each. We talked about having this at uni, or trying to have it at a place like Thistle hall. If we are going to try and get a lot of outside interest, we might have to have it in a more public place. A silent auction might be a good way to go (people write their bids down, and compete for the wining price, kinda like TradeMe, as other people can see what you are bidding)
   
   However, if we are only selling a few, and you have more, I highly suggest you sell them on TradeMe, cause I know I will be! Artwork is selling surprisingly well on there at the moment
   
5. Mini café – having a place where we can sell food items daily; I was thinking along the lines of soup, scones, muffins, cookies, pizza, cans of drink and slices. The emphasis would be on ease; easy for us to cook and prepare, and easy for people to access.
   
   The soup would be my thing, we have a massive crock pot that we can keep it heated in. The other things are quite easy to make, and easy to sell. I kinda want to know who is willing to cook for this, and what you can cook. Things like slices are quite good, and cookies, because they last a long time. Scones and muffins are slightly more time consuming, and have to be fresh. I personally use a packet mix muffin, and it always comes out moist and yum (for muffins), so might be a foolproof way for people to get involved. Using packet muffins means that you just need to chuck in extras like frozen berries and chocolate chips etc.
   
   Goldie suggested that maybe we do one off days instead, as this may produce more money for us? Like “cupcake day” or “nacho day”. Or we could incorporate this as one day a week with the café?
   
6. Movie rental – hiring out a movie theatre, then selling off tickets ourselves, keeping the profits. I have known for this to work quite well, as they are new movies, and movie theatres can be quite generous about our profit cut
   
7. Movie night at uni – using the lecture theatres to have our own personal movie screenings. I will have to check with Mark Shaw about this, as we would want it after classes until closing. We would have to clean. This gives us the opportunity to keep all the profits, and be able to control the price of the tickets. We could also sell snack food here. Get some beanbags to create more space.We could either do two screenings in one night, one movie each screening, or increase the price and make a night of it, and show 2 movies back to back. I also think if we were “good” they might agree to let us do more than one night, maybe one every few weeks, or once a month?
   
8. Sponsored labour – sell ourselves. We made a lot of money stocktaking for a company, or filling envelopes etc. It would mean freeing up one day as a group, and going together to do a job for a business. It is normally boring as work, but it would only be one day. When I did it, we stuffed promotional material for election packs… I would have to find out places that did this, suggestions?
   
9. Corporate sponsorship – trading something to get money out of a company. What can we give or offer? Logo’s on t-shirts overseas etc? Goldie suggested that we might try something about name affiliation; “Westpak Victoria university bi-annual OE” or something of the like, that organises future funding as well. We could give them footage of our trip for them to use in advertising, as well as using their name in any publications about the trip etc. Need ideas for this one.
   
10. Selling glowsticks at the ball, or at parties etc; they cost 11-15c each, sell them for a dollar. Fun for parties, apparently sell quite well. If anyone has siblings at high school or school in general, suggest them for school disco’s, they sell so well! http://www.glowsticksltd.co.nz/?gclid=CIOl7PCu9pQCFRYcagodFQQPrg
    
11. Oh it’s so been done, but BBQ. I need not say more.
    
12. Raffle, is it worth it? Donated gifts

Remember to post comments and suggestions

Spanish Phonetic phrases

Thought this was a little bit of fun

hello = O-LA
goodbye = AH-DEE-OS
please = POR FAH-VOR
thank you = GRAH-SI-AHSE
it is nice to meet you = GU-STO EN CON-O-CER-TAY
take me to my hotel = YEE-VAH-MAY A ME O-TEL
where is the bathroom = DOEN-DAY ES-TAH EL BAHN-YO
how much does this cost = KWAN-TOE KWES-TAH
help = AH-YU-DAH
doctor = MEH-DEE-COE
police = POE-LEE-THEE-AH
pharmacy = FAR-MA-SEE-YA
taxi = TAXI
train = TREN
subway = SUB-TER-RAN-E-O
bus = AU-TO-BUSEstreet = CAH-YEH
left = EASE-KEY-AIR-DAH
right = DEH-REH-HA
middle = MEH-DEE-OH
under = THEY-BAH-OH
beef = CAR-NAY
chicken = POE-YO
lamb = COR-DE-RO
fish = PEHS-KAH-DO
pork = SIR-DOH
veal = TER-NER-A
ham = HA-MONE
broil = AS-AR
bake = AH-SAH-DOE
boil = AIR-VEE-DOE
fry = FREE-TOE
vegetable = LEH-GOOM-BRAY
salad = EN-SAH-LAH-DAH
bread = PAHN
cheese = KAY-SOE
rice = AH-ROES
potato = PAH-PAHS
soup = SO-PAH
chocolate = SHO-CO-LAH-TAY
dessert = POS-TREYH
coffee = CAH-FAY
tea = TAY
milk = LAY-CHAY
beer = SAIR-VAY-SAH
purified water = AH-GWAH PURE-E-FEE-CAH-DOE

Here's some extra phrases:
Do you accept credit cards = AK-SEP-TA U-STED TAR-HE-TAS DE CRÉ-DEE-TO
I feel sick = ME SIENTO ENFERMO
What time is it = KAY OR-A ES
Do you have change = TE-EN-AY US-TED CAM-BEE-O
I do not understand you = NO TAY EN-TE-EN-DO
I need to make a phone call = NEH-CEH-SEE-TOE HA-SAIR U-NA YA-MA-DA TEL-E-FÓ-NEE-CA
I am lost = ES-TOY PER-DEE-DO
What is your name = CUAL ES TU NOM-BRAY
Where do you live = DAWN-DAY VEE-VES TU
Where are you from = DE DAWN-DAY EH-RES TU
I am married = YO ESTOY CA-SA-DOE
I am single = YO ESTOY SOL-TEH-ROE
Where is the church = DAWN-DAY ES-TAH LA E-GLEH-SEE-AH
Do you have money = TEE-EN-ES DEE-NAIR-O

Does anyone else want to learn a little bit of Spanish?

Edgars emails to date

Monday, 30 June 2008 9:13:47 a.m
Hello,

Please find answers below to some of the questions I’ve received. These answers are not definitive, but the closest I have at the moment. Cheers

FAQ

What are the dates for the course and for travelling?
The course starts the beginning of the third trimester 17 November 2008, until 23 January 2009. The trip is at the moment planned to take place from 17 November – 5 December 2008, which involves around 3 weeks in Mexico. The course stops then (5 dec), and resumes from 5-23 January back in Wellington. There will be a few informative lectures during the second trimester 2008.

What is the cost?
We have a preliminary quote for $5,648NZ in twin share accommodation, and $6,500NZ if you want your own room.
It includes flights, taxes, twin share accommodation in three or four stars hotels (including El Castillo in Xilitla, former home to James Edwards), daily breakfast, all necessary transport, teaching materials, and full insurance for the whole trip, including extra time if you decide to stay for longer.
Students who sign up will need to pay a $500NZ deposit. The due date for the deposit is yet to be confirmed, but it will be reasonably soon, as we need to confirm numbers before long.

What are the costs of living in Mexico?
Cheaper than New Zealand. You would need to supply lunches and dinners. Lunch is about $5-$10US and dinner $7-$15US
Entertainment. Varies a lot, a movie ticket can cost $2US, and entry ticket to a nightclub from free to $30US or more.

Is the trip totally funded by the student?
In principle, yes. However, we are trying to negotiate sponsorship from a couple of places. This would mean a reasonable discount in the preliminary quote, and even supply of drawing and modelling materials, but we can’t promise it yet. I will keep you posted about this as soon as anything is confirmed.

How are the students selected?
1. Students should have passed either of the papers: DESN/IDDN/ITDN/DMDN/LADN 389 or ARCH/IDDN/ITDN/LADN/DMDN 312
2. Students should have a point grade average B or better
3. Payment of deposit (first in, first served)
If you haven’t taken the prerequisites or your grade average is below B, contact me and we can discuss whether you may be eligible to take the course.

Can I stay a few weeks longer?
Yes. Just keep in mind that you may need to pay a difference in the price of your ticket if, for example, there are no seats at the same price available, or if the airline charges for changing dates, etc. You will need to sort that out directly with the travel agent or the airline. On the other hand, the School’s insurance will cover you for the full length of your trip.

How and when do I apply?
I am waiting for the University system to process the course, so it is up and running and you are able to enrol. It should be ready some time next week. The course fees will be announced then. Once that part of the process is running, I will send around the details of the travel agent so people who enrol can also pay the deposit and guarantee their place.

Kiwis don’t need a visa. If you don’t have a New Zealand passport, please contact the Mexican Embassy to check whether you need a visa (04) 472 0555.

I hope that helps. I will send another update later on this week.

cheers


Monday, 28 July 2008 6:20:10 p.m
Hola!

I have now 15 enrolment forms. We can now proceed to making the deposits of $500. Please remember that this is non-refundable.

I have also received a new quote from the travel agent which is higher than the original one. The prices are fluctuating a lot, and they depend on number of people, availability, oil prices, dollar weakening, etc. It sounds like there are different prices everyday, and worsening every time. The best we can do is to make the deposit as soon as we can, and book flights and accommodation before it gets a lot more expensive. Fortunately, the subsidy from the University will cushion these increases.

I investigated the option of booking our own accommodation, rather than going through the travel agent, this would make the trip a bit cheaper. However, the University’s regulations require us to go through an authorised travel agent for security reasons.

The travel agent can’t give us a definite price until we book. The range of price per person may vary between (including the University subsidy of $15,000):

$4895.00 - $5495 per person share twin
$5950.00 - $6695 per person single room

The travel agent definitely reckons that it shouldn’t be at the highest end of the spectrum, but we do need to consider it as the potential spectrum. Thanks to the uni subsidy, the higher end of the range is still cheaper than the original price. We won’t know the final price for sure until we give the deposit and they can check availability and secure seats and accommodation.

The travel agent will take only one deposit payment for the group. I have created a bank account to hold your deposits until we are ready to transfer them to the travel agent. Make your deposits to:

YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL DONE THIS... IF YOU NEED BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS, SEE EDGAR

Include your name in the reference fields, and let me know when you have made the deposit.

Once we have all the deposits in, I’ll transfer the money and get the final prices from the travel agent. The sooner we do this, the better for the price. Preferably, all deposits should be in by late this week.

I also need to know:

Your preferred return date if you are not coming back with the group. This will save you extra charges for changes.
Whether you’ll take a twin share or single room, and whether you know already who you’ll want to share with.

Cheers


Monday, 28 July 2008 7:44:18 p.m
H i guys,
The itinerary below. The attached PDF is from the previous quote and is sent just as reference. The itinerary in this email (below) is up to date and includes the extra days in Guanajuato. We can do the 'Optional Tours' in the PDF on our own for a fraction of the price
cheers

Nov 17: Depart Wellington
Nov 17 Arrive Mexico City via Auckland and Los Angeles
Transfer to hotel Royal Zona Rosa
6 nights including breakfasts
Nov 22 Day trip to Teotihuacan
Nov 23 Coach Mexico City to Quaretaro.
4 nights Hotel Real de Minas with breakfasts
Nov 27 Coach Quaretaro to Xilitla
3 nights Hotel El Castillo with breakfast
Nov 30 Coach Xilitla to San Luis Potosi
2 nights hotel Fihler with breakfasts
Dec 02 Coach San Luis Potosi to Guanajuato
2 nights Hotel TBA with breakfasts (approximate cost included)
Dec 03 Puebla Museums etc
Dec 04 Coach Guanajuato to Puebla
3 nights Hotel Colonial with breakfasts
Dec 07 Coach Puebla to Mexico City Airport
Dec 09 Arrive Wellington via Auckland and Los Angeles