Traveling abroad as an exchange student can be a life-changing experience, but it can also be a harrowing one, especially when your home stay family’s cultural traditions and lifestyle differ drastically from your own. For most students, small traumas (like my friend who ended up sleeping in a room above the livestock in her Nepali host family’s home only to wake up one morning covered - head to toe - in itching bites courtesy of the bugs inhabiting the animals’ living space) build character and teach independence. When I was 14-year-old exchange student staying with a family in France, my personal traumas involved embarrassment over not understanding how to shower in the curtain-less bathroom without causing a flood and discovering I had unwittingly eaten gizzard one evening thanks to a gap in my vocabulary.

Unfortunately for one Maine teen, the experience of being a foreign exchange student involved real trauma. Jonathan McCullum, a 17-year-old student, reportedly dropped to a scant 97 pounds from his starting weight of 155 lbs when he ended up with a family that failed to feed him adequately. When McCullum returned home from his year living abroad in Egypt, his family was understandably shocked to find their son had lost one third of his bodyweight. Not the AFS organization is in hot water over the mess. As for the host family, their religious practices apparently involved a great deal of fasting. The story below also suggests that the host family balked at having to feed a strapping American boy, whose appetite exceeded that of the daughter they sent to the United States as part of the exchange program. Whatever the truth, it’s a sad story and a cautionary tale for anyone considering a study abroad home stay program.

Student Starved During Egypt Stay

In case you were in any doubt that getting poop-canned wasted and acting up on a flight can land you in the big house, may we present the fate of Jose Roman, a traveler who just got sentenced to 10 months in the slammer for threatening the crew during a JetBlue flight last summer.

Man Gets 10 Months for Flight Disturbance

Oh, those crazy Poles. Who knew that a recent exhibit showcasing women’s undergarments throughout history would gain the country more recognition than Washington’s recent decision to upgrade Poland’s military forces. But yes, it’s true. And we wish we could go, ’cause there’s something gratifying in knowing that women’s underwear did not simply begin to torture women with the thong’s invention in recent decades. This exhibit shows that it’s always been a bit tortuous! Phew. At least the universe is not tilting wildly out of balance.

But we digress. Poland’s Museum of Industry in Opatowek has garnered more attention than you could fit in the cups of a triple-E bra with its current exhibit From Pantaloons to G-Strings. Among the many items on display are knee-length cotton underpants of yore, corsets and the dumpy cotton underwears that became de rigueur for Polish women during the 1980’s communist regime. In fact, if there’s anything you take away from this exhibit, folks, take away the fact that communism is just plain bad for women’s underwear. Freedom, on the other hand, leads to thongs. Go figure.

Lastly, how hilarious is it that the AP photograph flying around the internets with this story features a little boy skulking through the shadows behind rows of women’s panties? Now that’s some subversive journalism.

Unmentionables on Display in Poland

Here’s a new one: airlines giving back to passengers? Okay, they’re being forced to. But still. After being found guilty of fixing fuel surcharges associated with airline fares, the two airlines have been ordered to refund passengers who paid the illegal charges on long-haul flights over seven hours. If you flew on a British Airways or Virgin flight that departed from the UK between Aug. 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006, you are entitled to a refund of up to 20 GBP for each flight. You can read all the details at the story linked below.

BA and Virgin Launch Refund Site

Smoke a butt at the Swissotel Chicago, and you might as well hand the hotel management a cool $250 when you check out. Fines for smoking in non-smoking rooms are nothing new. But Swissotel’s approach is. Instead of letting smokers run wild with abandon, the 632-room property has begun paying its housekeeping staff to rat offenders out. If a housekeeper enters your room to do her daily clean up and suspects you’ve been sucking down cancer sticks, you get fined. She gets $10. It’s not a lot, but the hotel is betting it’s enough to inspire a keen sense of smell in its employees.

The hotel is currently renovating all of its rooms and going for a green certification, so we can understand their anal ‘tude. After all, unlike hotel guests, smoke never really leaves a room.

The semi-funny part? The hotel has let two former guests escape from fines. Why? As the Chicago Tribune’s story The Smoke Patrol puts it:

To date, 22 guests have gotten socked with fines — with two granted amnesty because it turned out that friends did the smoking, according to hotel officials.

Riiight. That’s what I used to tell my parents. Glad to know it still works.

You think you’ve had to sit around at the airport for a lengthy stretch? Try living there. Actually, on second though, don’t. You might end up a police target like “homeless chef” Anthony Delaney, a Brit who reportedly lived, ate, slept and showered in London’s Gatwick Airport for three whole years. Airport authorities were none to pleased with their guest, who now faces charges for violating the court order banning him from the airport.

Homeless Chef Lived in London Airport for Years

Thanks to Inside Edition for investigating what is, perhaps, the most burning question facing travelers today:

Was Your Hotel Room A Former Meth Lab?

Apparently, hotels are becoming a hotbed of activity for nefarious meth makers. Inside Edition went so far as to interview one person who had found traces of meth in a whopping six - yes, that’s one two three four five six only - Denver hotels. We’re glad investigative journalism is still alive. We’re also glad that Inside Edition offered up these tips for travelers:

- There are rarely signs that your hotel room might have been used as a meth lab. But experts say you should look out for unusual stains on the walls and ceiling. They may be red or purple in color.

- Also look for burn or drip marks on the walls.

- Meth cooks often disable smoke detectors, so make sure the one in your room hasn’t been deactivated or covered with duct tape.

- Rooms that have recently been used to cook meth may have an unpleasant chemical odor.

- Many local police departments list the addresses of former meth labs online.

- If you suspect your room was used to cook meth, don’t be afraid to ask to be moved to a new room.

Hmm. Unusual purple stains on the walls. And I thought that was just my last hotel’s excuse for art.

During his life, John Wayne confused no one. He was, simply put, the picture of an American man. And if you didn’t like it, you could stick it in your eye. But in death, it seems the iconic actor has left more than a few travelers perturbed. Not surprisingly, the recent confusion associated with Wayne has nothing to do with the man or his place in the national consciousness.

Instead, it has to do with travelers flying in and out of Orange County, Calif. You see, as many frequent travelers know and contentedly accept without much thought, the airport that serves the area is known as the John Wayne Airport. And while many do not find this fact problematic in the least, the Orange County Tourism Council is lobbying to change the name to the Orange County/John Wayne Airport. It’s a small change, but the reasoning behind it hugely hilarious.

Apparently, the airport’s name is “very confusing” for travelers. In their quest for clarity, Orange County tourism officials are reportedly meeting with members of the Wayne family this week to discuss an adjustment to the name.

Funny that an airport named after one of the most recognizable personalities in recent American history is being deemed “too confusing” just as a glut of moronic shows lionizing Orange County and its residents pepper televisions in houses across the nation. Of course the tourism office wants to reap the rewards of the county’s moment in the national spotlight. And really, the Orange County Tourism Council is smart to be worried. The county’s newly minted fan base probably has a collective IQ of three.

Still, changing the airport’s name may solve the current problem, but reveal another in its wake. Picture it: droves of Botoxed, hair-extended reality television supplicants staring blankly about themselves upon arrival at the less-confusingly named airport asking one another, “Wait a second, where’s all the orange stuff in Orange County?”

In a recent press release, Southwest Airlines poses the question, “Have you ever wondered what happens to the books left in seat-back pockets, the jackets found in the gate area, or the children’s toys left onboard the plane?”

Um, people steal them? Frankly, I assumed the policy of the friendly skies towards lost property was a strictly finders, keepers, losers, weepers sorta thang. But apparently, Southwest strives to return lost items (even, as the press release states) searching through electronic devices to find personal information to, um, reunite wayward items with their owners (….identity theft, anyone?…).

But when items are not claimed or returned, the official procedure was, until very recently, as follows:

Prior to The Salvation Army relationship, Southwest “salvaged” the unclaimed baggage and lost items to a warehouse facility. The new process provides a charitable way for the Airline to donate the items back to the community.

I should emphasize that the quotation marks around the word salvage were actually in the press release. How very mysterious. Was that “warehouse” by chance a landfill? Or perhaps an underground Southwest employee secondhand boutique? Will we ever know? The suspense.

Now, in what is, admittedly, an altruistic method for dispensing of lost items, the airline has partnered with the Dallas-Fort Worth area Salvation Army. Unclaimed items are donated to the evangelical organization, which uses the proceeds to fund its myriad religious and social service programs.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this announcement is that it came without any mention of a lost items phone number travelers may call to inquire about lost items. Yeah, maybe they can garner contact information our PDAs, but what about my stuffed bunny? He tends to be especially tight-lipped with strangers.

What does this mean for travelers besides an aw shucks feeling toward Southwest? Well, the next time you lose something valuable on a Southwest plane, you’ll be able to concentrate your seek and recover mission on a mere 11 Salvation Army thrift stores in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

Southwest Airlines Finds Salvation for Lost Items

Yesterday, San Francisco residents had the opportunity to casts their votes on the pressing issue of whether Alcatraz, which attracts nearly 1.5 million visitors annually, should be purchased from the federal government and turned into Global Peace Center by two nebulous organizations known only as The Light Party and the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance (Break From Past Proposed for Alcatraz).

Okay, I’m half embarrassed, half completely and totally amused that I live in a city where something like this actually gets on the ballot, but nevertheless, we must not hate that which we do not understand. Instead, we must make fun of it.

And I quote from our official voter information pamphlet:

“By converting Alcatraz Island, a place of pain and suffering, into a Global Peace Center, we will activate powerful forces for cooperation, reconciliation and healing. Through this process we will reconsecrate Alcatraz as a sacred site and thus pay due respect to the Native American people, while simultaneously giving birth to a new and peaceful paradigm for all humanity.”

More like a crazy paradigm that will make all humanity point and laugh at us. And what is this “reconsecrate” business? Was it ever consecrated in the first place? By something other than evildoers and bird poop? Last time I checked, the island had evolved from a military outpost to federal prison to protest grounds to an enduring family attraction with the positive side effect of frightening little children away from lives of violent crime. That’s a pretty peaceful paradigm for you right there.

But don’t worry, world. Alcatraz will be just fine. The feds just pumped $3.5 million into it for renovations, an archival museum and an 180-seat theater. And we doubt The Light Party (which is, incidentally, run by a man who goes only by the name Da Vid) has the kind of cash one would need to purchase such a landmass. Of course, there is always the chance that Michael Jackson is involved (sounds like his kind of project for some reason). And if that happened, we might be screwed.