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Welcome!
The word, "souvenir," comes from the French verb for "to remember." A souvenir is a memory. What do we usually think of when we think of souvenirs? I think of the T-shirt vendors who hang out outside the Colosseum in Rome. For five euros (or the equivalent in US dollars or Japanese yen), they'll sell you a T-shirt with a sketch by Michaelangelo or a picture of the Colosseum. Tourists go crazy over these cheap "souvenirs." They think they're a bargain. Then they take them home, put them in the washing machine, toss them in the drier, and when they take them out, their souvenir shirts have shrunk so much, they won't even fit a cat. And we call that a memory? Travel journals don't shrink. They endure. They help our journeys resonate in our minds for years to come. When people travel, one of the most important items on their packing list — second only to clean underwear — is usually a camera. We travel to new places and we want to bring back memories. I have always loved photography, but on a trip several years ago, I realized that my camera wasn't enabling me to document the full experience of my travels. Taking pictures deals exclusively with what we see. When we journal, on the other hand, we can write down all of our senses — not only what we see, but also what we hear, smell, taste, feel, and so on. We can describe the people we meet and the places we visit. And more importantly, whereas photography allows us only to look outward, in a travel journal, we can also capture what's going on in our mind. This website is designed to help you get more out of your travel journaling. After you read through the articles here, there are travel journaling exercises you can try at home to help you practice, and hone your writing skills before your next trip. The articles here are rough drafts from a book I'm in the process of writing. Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip) is scheduled for publication by Inkwater Press in the summer of 2008. If you'd like to be notified by e-mail when the book is available, please sign up for my e-mail list. Coming in the spring of 2009, I'll be partnering with Northwest Travel to lead a travel journaling cruise. We'll cross the Atlantic Ocean, from Brazil to Spain, with additional stops in Cape Verde and Morocco. On shore days, you'll have time to get out and explore. On our days at sea, I'll teach classes in travel journaling and essay writing. For full details, please visit the Northwest Travel website. (The full curriculum of classes for the cruise will be posted here soon.) For more information on my upcoming travel journaling classes, or to hire me to speak at your group's event, please see my Classes page. The links on the left will take you through the articles and exercises on this site. The "Resources" section consists of books I recommend for travel journalers. All types of journaling can teach us a lot about ourselves. But as you'll read in these pages, travel journaling is special. Travel changes us and frees our personalities in ways that don't happen when we're at home. I hope you enjoy these articles and exercises. If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an e-mail! Peace,
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Every
journey has two parallel experiences — the external, in which we
observe the world around us, and the internal, in which we visit new places
within ourselves. When we weave these two journeys together through our
writing, we end up with vivid accounts of our trips — keepsakes that
help us remember our travels for years to come. A travel journal is the
ultimate souvenir.
