It is possible to be the responsible adult for an elder or for someone else's child, but yes, not so likely.
Hmm, for fun (or for family, which is more usual and not quite the same), I have always been able to budget some wiggle room. Nothing extravagant, but enough that e.g. when Reason and I went last fall, I could change my mind upon seeing how she fared (less well than I'd hoped) and put us into a room near Frankfurt Flughafen for the final night, instead of making train transfers up from B-W starting at 3:30 a.m. :P Actually, I haven't traveled entirely for fun outside the US West Coast for years and years; it's been for family, or very rarely for one of two friends I've known for thirty years, akin to family (both volition and obligation). I realize that that's still a vast expanse :) but I measure by cultural habits and assumptions, not km.
For research, including within the vast US, I have had to stretch a grant and/or careful savings while poor--maximization of limited resources. That's pretty much it. When I spent a month in England, it was grant + careful savings + small, ashamed loan from my doctoral advisor because grant + savings didn't quite stretch and she didn't want me to lose the laptop I'd borrowed from a friend in a big hostel room. (ETA This was long enough ago that few people had laptops. It was actually my friend's business-traveler father's Toshiba!) There was enough wiggle room for day trips by train to see random places (three cathedrals, two of which retain at least part of their old structures where people used to sit and write manuscripts), but I had a good rail pass and those three Sundays were when the British Library and Oxford's libraries were closed, anyway. *shrugs* It's a good thing that I could eat sandwiches back then! Historic scriptoria aside, I walked a lot to see things ad hoc (London, Oxford, Cambridge) instead of planning sightseeing. Doesn't feel so touristy to me--at least, I imagine that few tourists walk the three-ish miles from Lambeth up to Camden in London to save the subway fee and to stretch their legs after sitting in a reading room for hours. I did stop at the Forbidden Planet bookshop in Holborn on the way....
I've traveled a few times for research + conference on my former employer's dime, but it's still meagre, just with a slightly higher ceiling than when I was a grad-student mouse. Library staff don't get much "career development" funding, and I didn't want to cause trouble even though my boss said he'd cover my fees from office money. Mouse instincts are ingrained. ;)
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Date: 2017-09-08 05:24 am (UTC)Hmm, for fun (or for family, which is more usual and not quite the same), I have always been able to budget some wiggle room. Nothing extravagant, but enough that e.g. when Reason and I went last fall, I could change my mind upon seeing how she fared (less well than I'd hoped) and put us into a room near Frankfurt Flughafen for the final night, instead of making train transfers up from B-W starting at 3:30 a.m. :P Actually, I haven't traveled entirely for fun outside the US West Coast for years and years; it's been for family, or very rarely for one of two friends I've known for thirty years, akin to family (both volition and obligation). I realize that that's still a vast expanse :) but I measure by cultural habits and assumptions, not km.
For research, including within the vast US, I have had to stretch a grant and/or careful savings while poor--maximization of limited resources. That's pretty much it. When I spent a month in England, it was grant + careful savings + small, ashamed loan from my doctoral advisor because grant + savings didn't quite stretch and she didn't want me to lose the laptop I'd borrowed from a friend in a big hostel room. (ETA This was long enough ago that few people had laptops. It was actually my friend's business-traveler father's Toshiba!) There was enough wiggle room for day trips by train to see random places (three cathedrals, two of which retain at least part of their old structures where people used to sit and write manuscripts), but I had a good rail pass and those three Sundays were when the British Library and Oxford's libraries were closed, anyway. *shrugs* It's a good thing that I could eat sandwiches back then! Historic scriptoria aside, I walked a lot to see things ad hoc (London, Oxford, Cambridge) instead of planning sightseeing. Doesn't feel so touristy to me--at least, I imagine that few tourists walk the three-ish miles from Lambeth up to Camden in London to save the subway fee and to stretch their legs after sitting in a reading room for hours. I did stop at the Forbidden Planet bookshop in Holborn on the way....
I've traveled a few times for research + conference on my former employer's dime, but it's still meagre, just with a slightly higher ceiling than when I was a grad-student mouse. Library staff don't get much "career development" funding, and I didn't want to cause trouble even though my boss said he'd cover my fees from office money. Mouse instincts are ingrained. ;)