Words, words, words

In January of 2007, I traveled to New Zealand and Hawaii on a 'South Pacific Natural History' trip, with the school I was then attending. It was a rigorous four-credit course jammed into 26 intense days, covering everything from anthropology to history to geology. We were required to keep a scientific journal, later used as our only reference material for the four final exams we had to write. In this journal we noted everything that sounded remotely scholastic, stuck in brochures and bits of interesting flora, and pretty much kept (at least) one hand on it at all times. We traveled in two large vans, and it eventually got to the point where the people in one van would signal to the other whether we needed journals, cameras, both, or neither at every stop we made (which came fairly regularly).

Some of the more ambitious kids kept a second, more personal journal. At the time, I claimed it was to share stories with my family, but in reality I needed something more private than a scientific journal that I would eventually hand in for a grade. I wrote everything in this journal, the good, the bad, the ugly... where we stopped, what we ate, who made the vans smell bad, Who hid the van keys, what I laughed about, everything. Unsurprisingly, the funniest stories involved things like blood and Marmite.

By the end of the trip, I had a near-permanent dent in my forefinger and writer's cramp to go with it, but if anything, I wish I'd had time to write more. Most journaling was done at night due to the twisty roads and crazy schedules, but once you get past some of the illegible scribbling, it's packed full of stories, postcards, pictures, labels and memories.


These journals are now the most tangible memories of one of the most awesome times in my life. Some of the stories will probably see the light of day after my Crazy European Adventure (CEA) is over, but if nothing else, I think my grandchildren will have a good laugh someday. It's definitely safe to say that I will be keeping a new one in the same vein for my upcoming CEA. It will probably contain even more insanity than the last one. :)