What to do with a big fat August

May 15, 2006 1:58 PM

I just found out that I have the entire month of August to do with as I please. This may be the last time in a long time I have a big chunk of time like this. Help me use it wisely?

I will have August free. I do not have enough money to pay for extensive travel or accommodations, but I do have enough money to live on as I would basically live in NYC, and if I sublet my place I'll have 650 bucks free in addition to that.

Can you think of any good ways to spend this time? I'd like to do something creative or outdoorsy or volunteer-oriented, I'd love it if it involved music or crafts somehow. I'm not up for backbreaking manual labor, but I can hold my own with a shovel or a lathe or something.

Any ideas? Thanks!

posted by jennyjenny to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

Maybe drive cross-country? (Although if you live in NY you might not have a car)

If you can afford a plane ticket, there are lots of places where you can travel pretty cheaply - Thailand, for example.
posted by kdern at 2:08 PM on May 15, 2006

Have you considered staying in NY, in your apartment, and learning about / revisiting psychedellic drugs?

Music and crafts could easily fit in with that.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:25 PM on May 15, 2006

Great question, mainly because I too have all of August free and enough (but not heaps of) money. My additional complication is that my partner does not have August off, so whatever I do, I have to do it alone. My ideas are to go visit relatives in another province, maybe take a train cross-country (Canada), and possibly go and stay in a retreat in BC that lets youth (under 29) stay free.

You wanna go on a train ride with me? ;)
posted by arcticwoman at 2:31 PM on May 15, 2006

What about going to New Orleans and work/stay with Common Ground? Working at a youth camp in some capacity?
posted by fionab at 2:41 PM on May 15, 2006

Burning Man.
There, I said it. There are plenty of options to work setting up the event which, I believe, would cut expenses. Many New Yorkers attend and have multiple (very creative) camps you might join, many under the rubric of Asylum Village. There's a regular Wednesday happy hour/get together in Manhattan if you'd like to meet peopel and test the waters. If you want to immerse yourself in "arts and crafts" I can't think of a better way.

(Note I live in Seattle but have had the pleasure of getting to know some of this NY crew over the years--if you'd like to contact them, drop me an email)
posted by donovan at 2:58 PM on May 15, 2006

You could backpack The Road to Santiago (de Compostela). I did two week's worth of the month-long trip a few years back. While August is a little warm and does have a fair amt of tourists, it's a memorable trek.
posted by ejaned8 at 4:11 PM on May 15, 2006

Do you like children? What about teaching crafts/music/somthing outdoorsy at a summer camp?
posted by delladlux at 4:57 PM on May 15, 2006

Spend some of August at the Chautauqua Institution? Or if you're not into the programs there, look elsewhere in the Finger Lakes region for value resorts. It's a wonderful part of the state in which to spend some warm summer days and evenings, and still not so crowded and expensive as areas closer to NYC.
posted by paulsc at 5:57 PM on May 15, 2006

Backpack the Vermont Long Trail?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:48 PM on May 15, 2006

Go to another country and take a language class. I spent about a month in Seville a few years ago and it wasn't very expensive at all--certainly if you could afford to live in NYC you could afford it there.
posted by exceptinsects at 11:15 AM on May 16, 2006