This post was written for GeoVisions by Brielle Sydor of Elon College.  Brie was one of our counselors in 2012 on the Italy Summer Camp program and will be returning to Italy this summer to live and work. While I was happy to find that many of the Italian stereotypes were true—amazing food, beautiful architecture, cute boys—there was one that was definitely less amusing: theft. Every guidebook and travel website out there will tell you to “guard your possessions with your life” while traveling through Rome or Naples, and I certainly wish I had listened to them. On not one, but TWO occasions, I had my iPhone 4 stolen from me and didn’t even realize at the time that it had happened. Those thieves are tricky; so if you are unlucky enough to have your smartphone swiped while living abroad, simply follow my (unfortunately tried-and-true) recovery plan to get yourself back to the cellular world. Before You Leave:

Carla Gott has been teaching in Thailand with GeoVisions for more than five months. For more information on a woman’s perspective, living and working in Thailand, please email Carla at: gocarla1@umbc.edu

Carla Gott has been teaching in Thailand with GeoVisions for more than five months. For more information on a woman’s perspective, living and working in Thailand, please email Carla at: gocarla1@umbc.edu

For those of us involved in sending people abroad for many years, it is impossible to escape the dreaded call about an accident involving one or more of your volunteers or teachers.  In my 35 years of doing this work, I've been on the receiving end of such calls three times.  When I mention these calls in meetings, someone always suggests that one every ten years isn't so bad.  And if you've been the one picking up the telephone in the middle of the night to hear the news that someone is injured, or worse, even one in your lifetime is one too many.