- Ecuador SAP has launched a new website -

Our New Website Has Launched, Finally!

We are pleased to announce that our new website has officially launched. We have completely redesigned our layout with simplicity, ease of use, and a strong focus on content delivery in mind.

Taking a spoonful of or own medicine; we believe that a great website is never truly finished. Our new website will become the launching point for many exciting new features we will be rolling out in both the near and distant future. Some of our planned improvements include, a  forum for our abroad students, universities, language schools and members to access all abroad programs around the world.

A  photo gallery for students, universities, language schools and members to share pictures with students, friends, family and followers. 

A free classified for  students, universities, language schools and members to post advertising in our new website. 

We've dreamed up to help universities, foundations and organizations to establish, maintain and grow in the global abroad programs. Be part of this dream and add your organization in The Ecuador SAP Global Portal.

http://global.ecuadorsap.org/

We truly hope you enjoy exploring our new website, and please feel free to send us comments or feedback you may have.

- The Ecuador SAP Team - 

Ecuador SAP Foundation

USA- Student Loan Debt Rises as Most Other Debt Falls

US NEWS

Student Loan Debt Rises as Most Other Debt Falls

Take steps now if you're worried about slipping into delinquency.

By KATY HOPKINS

August 30, 2012

A rising percentage of borrowers are late with payments.

It's not just the heat that rose this summer: Both the total student loan debt and the percentage of borrowers who aren't making timely payments increased, too, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

In its "Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit," the New York Fed found that education debt totaled $914 billion as of June 30—up $10 billion from March 31. Unlike student loan debt, the amount owed on some other forms of debt, such as mortgages and home equity lines of credit, has decreased. 

"Since the peak in household debt in [the third quarter of 2008], student loan has increased by $303 billion, while other forms of debt fell a combined $1.6 trillion," the report notes. 

[Read an opinion of why outstanding student loan debt needs a long-term solution.] 

In another increase as of June 30, 8.92 percent of student loan borrowers were at least 90 days late on their payments—in what's known as delinquency—up from 8.69 percent in March and 8.45 percent the quarter before. That's higher than the delinquency rate for other categories of debt, including home equity lines of credit and automotive, which each posted rates below 5 percent this quarter.

The percentage of delinquent student loan borrowers is slightly less than that of credit card debt holders and those owe debt in the New York Fed's "other" category who are in delinquency (10.9 and 10.24 percent, respectively). 

[Consider federal repayment plans that relieve student debt.] 

But the actual delinquency rate for student loan borrowers may be about twice as high, according to the New York Fed, "because almost half of these loans are currently in deferment, in grace period, or in forbearance and therefore temporarily not in the repayment cycle." 

Students experiencing financial hardship can take steps toavoid delinquency. Contact your student loan servicer to ask about opportunities to lower or postpone your payments, and don't be afraid to reach back to your college's financial aid office with questions, too. 

[Get online counseling for federal student loans.] 

If you're considering borrowing to help pay for college, be sure to research your options and determine a smart amount to borrow, based on your financial situation, academic major, and career plans.

EXPLORE BELGIUM by cheeseweb

Rail-biking – Riding the Rails in Leykaul, Belgium

by ANDREW on Aug 30, 2012 • 08:23

Rail-biking through the Belgian countryside

The railroad used to travel to many corners of the world, carrying people and freight. But what happens with the tracks when they are no longer used? We went to visit Railbike.be in Leykaul, Belgium to find out one alternative.

Canadians aren’t strangers to abandoned railroad tracks. Railroads used to be the main link to some pretty remote locations, but cars and trucks replaced trains in the 20^th century. The unused tracks were abandoned until the price of steel was high enough to justify removing them.

Today, some of the railbeds have been turned into trails for walking or cycling. For others, all that remains are the scars created when the tracks were cut through the forest and hills. But in Eastern Belgium, one group preserved a section of rails, through the countryside, and opened them up for people to enjoy via a special cart – a railbike or ‘draisine.’

When I heard about Railbike.be, I couldn’t wait to check it out. It sparked a memory of a childhood desire to ride the rails, the way they did in old TV Westerns. Of course, in those shows, the cart had a pump in the middle rather than two bicycles and I wasn’t running from the law, but you get the general idea.

Railbike.be supplied the rail-bikes – You supply the pedal power

I booked a cart via the Railbike.be website for an upcoming Saturday. Unfortunately Alison was away on her tour of Europe, but I enlisted the support of our friend and cycling powerhouse, Gilbert.

Driving to Leykaul, Belgium can be a bit tricky, depending on your navigation system, because Leykaul is right on the German border. My navigation system took us through a small section of Germany and definitely had me wondering if we had entered the right place. [The Railbike.be website suggests you use 4750 Elsenborn for your GPS] If you are driving from Brussels, I suggest you give yourself at least 2 hours to get there comfortably.

The Railbike headquarters is located in the former Kalterherberg station. Here you will sign in, board your railbike and proceed +/- 7km to Sourbrodt Station. This first section is slightly uphill so you’ll feel the workout. Not to worry though because when you come back it’s all downhill!

The journey takes you through forests and fields. There are few houses along the route, allowing you to just enjoy the environment around you.

Enjoying the Belgian landscape

The carts themselves make a fair amount of noise, so don’t expect to sneak up on any wildlife. However, if you are in the lead railbike you may just catch a glimpse of something before you rattle through.

Once you arrive at Sourbrodt, you have a 30-minute break to stretch, get something to eat and drink, and catch your breath. You can buy snacks and drinks there, but we noticed most people brought their own.

Soon enough, it’s time to hop back on the railbike and head back to Kalterherberg. While we were relaxing, the staff had turned the carts around with a nifty little device (see video). For me, the return journey was the most fun because it was all downhill. I could sit back and just enjoy the ride.

2012 Railbiking from Alison Cornford-Matheson on Vimeo.

Whooshing along on our rail-bike

At the end of the trip, we rewarded ourselves with some waffles from the cafe conveniently located in a converted dining car just next to the station. A great finish to a very fun and active day!

A well earned waffle reward from an old train carriage

The duration of the trip depends on the speed of the slowest railbike team, but should take no more than 2 hours. Although it does require some physical exercise, I think just about anyone can do it. Since two people power the cart, you share the load. With a couple more friends (and a bottle of Belgian bubbles?) the physical part is reduced even further.

I really enjoyed the trip and found it a great way to spend a Saturday morning. We had a great time, got some exercise, and enjoyed a corner of Belgium few have really discovered.

The Rail-bike rental costs €30 and holds up to 4 people: 2 cycling and 2 enjoying the ride.

US NEWS ARTICLE

Harkin Report: Loans to Pay Off and Nothing to Show For It

By EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS

August 29, 2012

Released by Sen. Tom Harkin and his staff, the Harkin Report investigates for-profit colleges and quotes student loan borrowers.

For-profit colleges can help meet the demand for higher education and the needs of non-traditional students, such as those who can only attend part time or are returning to school as older students.

When they fulfill those roles well, they can provide degrees and opportunities for people who otherwise might have not have had them.

Unfortunately, however, for-profit colleges are failing far too many students. The reasons for and consequences of this failure are documented in "For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success" (or the "Harkin Report"), produced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and his Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee staff over the last two years and released in July.

The most poignant parts of the Harkin Report are the voices of the student loan borrowers that pepper it. "'I went to school to better my life, and when my loans become due, I will actually be in worse financial shape then I was before I attend[ed] school,'' one wrote.

Another borrower "took out student loans 'in the hopes of improving my knowledge so that I could improve my worth in society, for a higher paying job. Instead now I have a loan to pay off and absolutely nothing to show for it.'"

[Consider two new ways to pay off student loans.]

But the report's real value is that it draws attention to the deferred dreams and lost opportunities of hundreds of thousands of borrowers, like these, caught in a systemic breakdown, and it provides specific recommendations on how to start improving outcomes for students at for-profit colleges.

According to the Harkin Report, Congress has "failed to counterbalance" the demands of investors in for-profit colleges with "requirements that hold companies accountable to taxpayers for providing quality education, support, and outcomes" and "align the incentives of for-profit colleges so that the colleges succeed financially when students succeed." The result of this failure can be devastating for students.

For example, most for-profit colleges cost more than equivalentcommunity college and public university programs. As a result, 96 percent of for-profit students take out loans (compared to 13 percent at community colleges, 48 percent at 4-year public colleges, and 57 percent at 4-year private nonprofit colleges).

[Find out how to determine what to borrow for college.]

The for-profit colleges examined in the report also rarely set tuition under the federal aid limits, leading to students needing additional aid. Because many of these students cannot obtain loans from private lenders, they turn to loan programs offered by the for-profit colleges themselves. These loans have interest rates that can be double or triple those of Stafford loans, don't offer the protections of federal loans, and have default rates as high as 80 percent.

Students also drop out of for-profit colleges at high rates (54 percent of the more than 1 million students enrolled in for-profit colleges in 2008-09 had withdrawn by 2010), leaving them with the student debt but without improved job prospects.

According to the Harkin Report, students at for-profit colleges drop out at these high rates not only because they face competing demands like work, family, and financial limitations but also because many for-profit colleges fail to invest in student support services shown to help students succeed.

The Harkin Report also found that for-profit colleges aggressively (and sometimes deceptively) market their colleges to students, and devote less to funding to faculty and curricula than they do to advertising, recruiting, or pre-tax profit.

In addition, some schools have substandard curricula; fail to adequately support enrolled students (a particular necessity for the low-income first generation students that for-profit colleges often serve); don't sufficiently staff career placement services; and do not adequately disclose that their programs lack programmatic accreditation for particular professions. 

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Harkin have introduced legislation to address that last point. If passed, Senate Bill 3474 (the Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act) would not allow programs to receive federal financial aid if they do not provide the state licensure requirements and programmatic accreditations necessary to enter an occupation.

The Student Loan Ranger urges you to contact your Senatorsand ask them to co-sponsor Senate Bill 3474 and to read and take action on the Harkin Report. You can help prevent more students from having loans to pay and nothing to show for it.

Do You Need a Spoon?

VAGABUNDO MAGAZINE

Do You Need a Spoon?

Posted on 28 August 2012. Tags:

“Do you need a spoon?” A metal spoon is shoved in my face. I shake my head, blushing, motioning that no, I’m fine feeding myself with my hand, hoping my hosts don’t notice that most of my rice is in my lap. Unfortunately, I’m left handed, so eating saucy rice with my right hand looks something like watching a monkey use a tool for the first time, but I’m going for it. I can’t make the cultural faux pas (again) of eating with my left hand – the poop hand.

It’s Eid in Zanzibar. That means two things: a four-day celebration of Muslims whooping it up after spending the last 29 days fasting during daylight hours, and biryani. Biryani is the tastiest frickin’ thing I’ve eaten in days and the cosmic unfairness of most of it ending up on my lap instead of in my mouth is making me want to cry. Also making me want to cry is the stifled snorts of laughter from my Zanzibari friend across the room, sitting with the men and successfully managing his own motor skills well enough to feed himself like an adult.

My social awkwardness was at threat level 9 the entire meal, but as we were leaving I was profoundly thankful. In my butchered Swahili I tried to express my thanks to the women of the house, putting my hand over my heart. There was rice there, so I brushed it off subtly, hoping the sweeping motion would emphasize the gesture. No matter how cripplingly awkward you can be (and by you I mean I), there’s something pretty cool about being welcomed into a special family event by strangers.

How did I end up here? Last November, I was offered a one-year job placement in Zanzibar completely out of the blue. As they made the job offer, I had to ramble on to disguise my ignorance while frantically Googling to determine that yes, Zanzibar is a real place and not just a fun word to say. At the beginning of winter in the Canadian subarctic, a sudden job offer on an island paradise seemed like someone’s cruel joke. Somehow, less than four months later, I found myself walking off a ferry into the blinding tropical sun of Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Zanzibar is an archipelago of two main islands:  resort-dotted Unguja, and its relatively undeveloped sister island, Pemba. Semi-autonomous from Tanzania, Zanzibar is over 90% Islamic and has a fascinating history of centuries of

Arabic, Indian and African cultural confluence. My new home would be in the heart of Stone Town, a maze of crumbling centuries-old buildings and narrow streets that is Zanzibar’s cosmopolitan political and sociocultural capital.

By contrast, my hometown is basically Mars. With midnight sun in the summers and near-complete darkness in the winters, Yellowknife only became a city in 1970 and attracts the outliers of social normalcy. Only a certain breed survives the frontier mentality, isolation, deep cold and the lack of entertainment (you’ve never been to an ugly truck and dog contest? Well let me tell you, my friend, you are missing out.) I managed to entertain myself fairly well with the typical folly of youth, but the larger world beckoned. My travel experiences had thus far been limited to a few months of backpacking here and there, primarily in Central and North America and Eastern Europe. I wanted something new.

The last six months have been a crash course in Africa, Islam, and my own occasionally entertaining incompetence. It’s been a rollercoaster of intense highs, frustrating lows and learning that there’s a lot more to this place than meets the eye. Just like Optimus Prime.

I have six more months left in Zanzibar. In that time, I’ll be traveling to Ethiopia to hike the Simien Mountains, see the churches carved out of rock atLalibela, and eat my weight in local food. I’ll be hosting my parents on their second tour out of North America. I’ll be continuing to explore the island of Zanzibar by bike and go deeper down the rabbit hole of local culture and custom.

Next spring, when my contract is up, I’ll be heading south as far as my funds will allow. The goal? To travel overland to the southern tip of Africa, hitting Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa along the way. See you on the other side.

A Broad Living Abroad

VAGABUNDO MAGAZINE

A Broad Living Abroad

Posted on 29 August 2012. Tags:

For someone who hates having a home, I seem to keep getting them.

Unsure if it is deliberately or by accident, I find myself with the associated routine of sleeping in the same bed night after night. This pillow, this duvet, this awkward-sized twin bed. It’s comforting and infuriating all at the same time.

This dichotomy, of opposing yet co-dependent feelings, is all too familiar for most people living abroad. And like a serious case of bed bugs, or that incredibly catchy “Call Me Maybe” song, the experience of living in a foreign country, is a difficult one to shake.

I want nothing more than to be in a strange city with the exhilaration and uncertainty of questioning my next night’s stay. Yet I also experience this weird sense of elation because I know exactly how to direct a cab driver to this apartment, to this bed, and to this home.

Living abroad fits some of the criteria of travel. The foreignism and consequent confusion lead to frustrating experiences paralleled by those who are travelling in a more traditional sense of the word. But again, there’s this silly bed- a loaned piece of furniture which makes everything seem that much more habitual.

I finished a year of ESL teaching on a small rural island in South Korea.  This fact is usually met with a look of commiserated shock from Koreans when I mention the island’s location. They don’t know why I would choose to teach there. I’m not sure either.

Being on this island afforded me the opportunity to travel internationally. To travel in a way I could not have anticipated when I first read the job advertisement which included an unsettling combination of asterisks and tilde signs and claimed that I could “Live island life and make great money!”

I was able to visit Beijing on weekends, Tokyo on holidays, and take advantage of laughable seat sales to places like Boracay and Taipei. At the end of the 12-month contract, I left the island and all identifying features of the expat life behind.

But here I am again, some eight months after travelling through Asia, in the heavy-hitter capital of Seoul, South Korea.  I came back for another year of ESL teaching. Not because I couldn’t find a job at home (I didn’t bother looking), or because I hadn’t mastered the complete Korean numerical system (I didn’t bother trying), or because I’m convinced I can positively impact the language acquisition of a Korean toddler (I just didn’t bother). Instead, I came back because I felt like I left this place with a lot unanswered questions.

For few, travel is an ongoing and fluid affair. Arrival gates mean nothing more than the dilemma of finding the night’s accommodation by the cheapest means possible. But for most, those gates signify the end of a trip. The entrance stamp doubles as a deadbolt on travel, at least for the time being.

But for the expats, the lines of travel are blurred.

I have a local bank card and a bakery attendant who recognizes me based on my purchases of cheap filtered coffee and a walnut-raisin loaf.  But my bank statements are in a currency I’m still trying to accurately convert and I ordered that coffee based on a mime of pointing and smiling.

I’m in a foreign country. And I really have no idea if this is travel.

All it takes is a 30-minute episode of Jeopardy! to confirm how little I know about the world. This point is written not to emphasize my own ignorance about Latin prefixes or the sequential events of the First World War. It’s mentioned moreso to highlight the fact that almost all questions I encounter- be it posed by Alex Trebek or the barista at the bakery- are answered with a look of confusion and the reminder that I need to read more encyclopedias.

Truthfully, the shape of this column will likely take the form of posing a bunch of unanswered questions and hoping my references to current Top 40 successes earns me the smallest fleeting ounce of credibility. But beyond these pop culture nods, the exploration of the in-betweens of travel will exist. As one trip ends, and the next is yet to start, an expat sits patiently waiting in the home they love to hate.

I still can’t definitively resolve uncertainties about my current state of travel.

Am I travelling?

Am I expating?

Am I using nouns as verbs and passing it off as “travel writing”?

Like I said, all these lines eventually become blurred.

BBC NEWS
30 August 2012 Last updated at 09:38 GMT

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• Emai

Deportation fears after university visa licence revoked

Emmanuel Egwu, student: "People are panicking. What is going to happen now?"

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• MP demands university visa answer
• London university 'panic' anger
• Students 'trapped in visa delay'

More than 2,000 students potentially face deportation after a London university had its licence to teach and recruit overseas students revoked.

London Metropolitan University has had its right to sponsor students from outside the EU revoked, and will no longer be allowed to authorise visas.

Ministers say the university is not tracking course attendance and that many students have no right to be here.

A task force has been set up to help students affected by the decision.

It means that some 2,000 overseas, non-EU, students have 60 days to find an alternative institution to sponsor them or face deportation.

Announcing the move on Wednesday night, the UK Border Agency said London Metropolitan University had "failed to address serious and systemic failings" identified six months ago.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England said it was an "unprecedented situation which relates only to London Metropolitan University" - which has a total of 30,000 students.

It added: "It will not affect existing or future international students at other universities. No other UK university has had its licence to sponsor international students revoked, and UKBA's decision does not in any way reflect concern about licensing arrangements at other universities in the UK."

The university's Highly Trusted Status (HTS) was suspended last month while the UKBA examined alleged failing, preventing it from being allowed to recruit overseas students.'Panic and heartbreak'

Immigration Minister Damian Green said London Metropolitan University had failed in three particular areas:

• More than a quarter of the 101 students sampled were studying at the university when they had no leave to remain in this country
• A "significant proportion" of checked files found "no proper evidence" that the mandatory English levels had been reached
• Universities must know that students are turning up for their course and are not using a student visa to enter the country for work, but more than half of the records sampled suggested the university "just didn't know" whether students were turning up for classes or not.

Continue reading the main story

Case study

London Met student Lorynn Conklin, from Fresno, California, says: "I have no idea what I'm going to do now, I'm freaking out.

"I'm a single mum and I had lost my job - which is one reason why I decided to go back into education. I've sold my car and I'm living on a couch in my mother's place. I don't have health insurance because I was planning on starting the course in the UK.

"I will be out of thousands of dollars because of this. I have already shipped my furniture and now have to pay to ship it back.

"I only have weeks to find a place to live for me and my son, find a new school and basically start all over again."

A statement posted on the university's website on Wednesday read the implications of the revocation are "hugely significant and far-reaching".

"Our absolute priority is to our students, both current and prospective, and the university will meet all its obligations to them."

It added it had already started to work with the UKBA, Hefce, the NUS and its own students' union to tackle the issues.

Although there have been other suspensions, no other UK university has been fully stripped of its ability to recruit overseas students.

The NUS has contacted Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to "express anger at the way that decisions have been made in recent weeks and to reiterate the potentially catastrophic effects on higher education as a £12.5bn per year export industry for the UK".

NUS president Liam Burns said: "This decision will create panic and potential heartbreak for students not just at London Met but also all around the country.

"This heavy-handed decision makes no sense for students, no sense for institutions and no sense for the country. This situation and the botched process by which the decision was arrived at could be avoided if international students were not included in statistics of permanent migrants."

Mr Burns added the decision could have been limited to future students rather than covering existing ones.

'Last resort'

But the UKBA said allowing London Metropolitan University to continue to sponsor and teach international students "was not an option".

It said it had been working with the university since it identified failings six months ago.

It added: "These are problems with one university, not the whole sector. British universities are among the best in the world - and Britain remains a top-class destination for top-class international students.

"We are doing everything possible, working with Universities UK, to assist genuine students that have been affected."

Universities Minister David Willetts has announced a task force to help overseas students affected by the decision, which will include UKBA and the NUS.

He said: "It is important that genuine students who are affected through no fault of their own are offered prompt advice and help, including, if necessary, with finding other institutions at which to finish their studies."

But Universities UK President Professor Eric Thomas said there were alternative ways of addressing UKBA's concerns and that the "revocation of a university's licence should only be a decision of last resort".

It added that the move would cause anxiety and distress to many legitimate international students.

University and College Union warned that the move would have an impact on future recruitment of foreign students.

Its general secretary Sally Hunt said: "No matter how this is dressed up, the damaging message that the UK deports foreign students studying at UK universities will reach all corners of the globe."

Are you an overseas student who will be affected by this decision? You can send us details of your experiences using the form below.

ESCAPE BELGIUM - published by cheese web

Gellert Spa and Baths in Budapest, Hungary

by ALISON on Aug 28, 2012 • 08:15No Comments

Gellert Spa’s beautiful effervescent pool

It’s no secret, I love relaxing at a great spa. So, when I visited Budapest, Hungary, home to dozens of modern and traditional spas and Turkish baths, I knew I had to visit one. My pick – Gellért Spa and Baths.

I was curious to see how the Hungarian bath experience differed from spas in Belgium. So, early one morning, my friend Jenn and I, set out to spend a day soaking our cares away.

To reach the Gellért Baths, we decided to walk across one of Budapest’s seven bridges, the Liberty Bridge, taking us to Buda from Pest. The Gellért Hotel and Spa complex sits at the base of the bridge beneath Gellért Hill.

Walking across the Liberty Bridge, you see the Gellert Hotel off to the left.

Despite sharing the building with the Hotel Gellért, the Gellért Baths run independently run and are reached through a side entrance, beside Gellért Hill.

Walking into the vast Art Nouveau entrance hall, we were momentarily silenced. The beautiful arched ceiling is crowned with stained glass and the room is decorated with palm trees and statuary. If this hallway was any indication, we were in for quite an experience.

Gellert Spa’s Art Nouveau Entryway

Our second moment of awestruck silence came when we looked at the spa’s price-list. It wasn’t the prices causing our muteness, but the sheer number of options: hours of entry, cabins, lockers, treatments… it was all a bit overwhelming. Luckily the woman behind the glass ticket window was friendly and helpful and even advised us that the changing cabin was plenty big enough for two, saving us a few thousand HUF.

We then made our way underground to the vast changing rooms, where we rented towels and found our cabin. The front desk clerk was correct. There was plenty of room to safely store all of our belongings inside. After a quick change into our swimsuits, it was time to hit the pools.

Our first stop, was Gellért Spa’s most famous pool – the effervescent bath. This indoor pool is 26⁰C and, as the name would suggest, is slightly mineral-y and bubbly. Bathers are required to wear caps in this pool, which we purchased for about a euro. (Top tip, take a shower cap from your hotel for free.)

The bubbly and beautiful effervescent pool

If 26⁰ isn’t hot enough for you, there is a smaller ‘sitting pool’ heated to 36⁰C.

The water for the Gellért baths comes from a variety of springs bubbling out of Gellért Hill. These natural hot springs are rich in magnesium, calcium, sulphate-chloride, hydrogen-carbonate, fluoride ions, and sodium. Rumour has it, the water here helps cure arthritis and circulatory problems, as well as spine, muscle and joint deterioration. All we know is our skin felt nice and we were incredibly relaxed after a day in the healing waters.

Because it was a hot and sunny day in Budapest, we didn’t want to spend all of our time soaking indoors. We headed outside to enjoy the sun and check out the three outdoor pools.

The largest and most dramatic of Gellért’s pools is the 500m² wave pool. This pool makes waves every half hour signaled, inexplicably, by blaring the opening bars to ‘America’ from West Side Story, over the PA system.

The 500m wave pool (un-wavy at the moment)

Above the wave pool is a smaller 36⁰ pool and a shallow children’s pool. There is also a small sauna with a plunge pool for cooling off.

Enjoying the hot tub with the sauna and cold plunge pool in the background

Surrounding all of these pools are terraces with lounge chairs for sunbathing. There is also a restaurant and take-away counter, which were seriously over-worked and under-staffed when we visited. Our ‘quick bite to eat’ took over two hours.

Scenes from Gellert – The building at night, roomy terraces with space for sunbathing and the wave pool.

We happened to visit on Sunday, not realising this was ‘family day.’ Through the rest of the week, in addition to the pools mentioned above, there are separate areas for men and women. These separate sections contain small pools, saunas and treatment areas.

So how did it compare to Belgian spas? All in all, I didn’t find it very different. The Art Nouveau architecture was lovely, the facilities were up to date and everything seemed fairly well organised. However, the Gellért Spa is geared towards tourists and not as traditionally Hungarian as some of the other bath complexes in the city.

I guess I’ll just have to return to Budapest to conduct more research…

Do you have a favourite spa in Europe? Tell us about it in the comments below.

How to Save on Personal Expenses in College

US NEWS

How to Save on Personal Expenses in College

By JULIE MAYFIELD, LINDSEY MAYFIELD

August 28, 2012

Track your spending online so college costs don't get out of control.

College students and their parents have probably spent the last several months researching college funding options, such asconsidering in-state public schools, applying for private scholarships, and filling out the FAFSA.

Now that you know your choices when it comes to academic expenses, it's time to examine how to cut costs on food, clothing, and other personal expenses.

After successes—and some failures—of our own, our family has tips to help shape your financial strategies.

JULIE:

Parents of first-time college students like to chuckle about how their kids have discovered frugality now that they're on their own. Grocery and gas prices are now on their radar. And they become experts at sniffing out "buy one, get one free" restaurant meals.

Like many families, we learned by trial and error about budgeting for the non-education expenses of college. Here are some of the things that worked for us.

1. Put kids in charge of spending money early: The first year of college isn't the ideal time for kids to manage a budget for the first time. Make sure your child has the opportunity to earn money and decide how to spend it before they leave for school—and the earlier the better.

That way, managing some spending money won't be on the list of things they're experiencing for the first time freshman year.

[Follow these four steps to financially prepare your student for college.]

2. Set expectations: Your student may be used to you buying his or her clothing, financing restaurant meals, and purchasing school supplies. If that's going to be the student's responsibility in college, make sure to communicate that clearly, and early on.

Make sure that whatever arrangement you agree on is understood by both parties.

3. Give practical gifts: When it's time to mail a care package or buy a birthday or holiday gift, think practically. College kids will probably appreciate laundry detergent, restaurant gift cards, and plain old cash better than anything else.

And those kinds of gifts can help the parents' budget too, since you student is less likely to come calling for more money down the road.

LINDSEY:

Coming off of high school graduation, I felt confident about my finances thanks to a summer job, graduation money, and relatively low expenses during high school. It didn't take me long, however, to discover how quickly the college lifestyle can drain funds, if left unexamined.

Here's how I learned to keep track of my spending and save for those few splurge items.

1. Use an online financial tool: This is something I just discovered this summer, when my school's Student Money Management Services talked to one of my student groups. They stressed the importance of knowing where your money goes, not just how much of it you spend.

You can do this through whatever website or method works best for you, but I personally love Mint.com. I use my allowed monthly budgets for groceries, gas, and clothing as a personal challenge to see how little I can spend.

[See other ways to save on college costs.]

2. Make it part of your routine: When I open my laptop each morning, my process typically includes checking E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and news headlines. What I learned to add to that morning ritual was checking my financial progress online. That allows me to look at each purchase I make within a few days, and examine whether it was necessary and where it puts me on my monthly budgets.

Keeping daily track of my spending was especially important because I was using my debit card much more than cash. When you don't actually see the money leaving your hands, it can be difficult to register just how much you're spending on those Jimmy John's sandwiches or Target runs.

3. Allot time to mull over purchases: One of my major pitfalls when shopping is being rushed. Whether it's a trip to a grocery store or clothing boutique, I like to have time to consider each item and think about whether I really need it and if it's the cheapest option available.

Simply walking through a store and tossing everything I like into my cart is how $100 shopping sprees have happened without my even noticing. A good strategy is to do your best to never be surprised when the cashier announces your total. This can take some of the guilt out of any purchase.