When friends are deciding whether or not to go on a trip, they ask my advice if they want to be talked into going.I've loved to travel since I was a child. When I was eight years old, we spent the summer in Germany so that my dad could work on German skills. I kept a little diary in which I recorded all the important events--such as visiting Anne Frank's house and having hamburgers at the PX!

I became a language major so that I would have a darned good excuse to study abroad. I spent a semester in Florence and another in Barcelona, by which time I had Italian and Spanish completely confused.

After I graduated from college with a degree in Spanish, I secured a job in Mexico so that I could practice my oral language skills. That meant a lot more traveling!

Today I live in Tucson, but since I work at a university, I have free time in the summer. You can guess what I use it for: traveling!

Best travel advice: Put all your money and all your stuff on the bed. Then put back half the stuff and double the money!Or, as Rick Steves would say: Pack light, pack light, pack light!