We’re lucky to have found that the international image of America has changed drastically in the past year. Almost everywhere we go in Africa, upon saying we’re from the States, we here “Obama People!”. So instead of tips relating to hiding your “American-ness”, these are a few special tips specifically relevant to our way of life.

1. Learn to drive a standard (manual) transmission. Unless you’re always around expensive luxury cars, you’ll find that almost every car in the rest of the world has a manual transmission, and on the rare occasions that we’ve seen an automatic transmission car for rent, there’s been a very hefty “fee” for that luxury
2. Learn the metric system. Not only does the metric system make far more sense than our antiquated imperial system of measurement, but also it is the way EVERYONE else in the world measures just about EVERYTHING. No need to know absolutely everything, but having a sense of some ranges of temperatures in Celsius and knowing how to convert lbs<>kg, mi<>km and ft<>m will make all the difference in the world.
3. Understand that almost everywhere you go the power outlets will be 220 volts instead of the 110 volts we have in the states. While many modern electronics (iPhones, most laptops, etc) will all accept 220v power, some will not. Look at your device/charger and if you see 110-240v, you’re in the clear. If not, then you’ll either need to get a new device or buy a power convertor (which will definitely add some weight to your bag)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Travel Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.