Journaling

Thoughts on journaling

As we begin to contemplate our journaling in Catalunya, I’ll turn to Englishman Robert Macfarlane, whom we’re reading right now in my senior English elective, for guidance and reference.  He documents his excursions throughout England and Scotland in his book, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, which he describes as his latest in “a loose trilogy of books about landscape and the human heart.”  Even if you haven’t read him, you too can move purposefully and journal artfully.  His repeated assertion about travel (whether afoot, afloat, or otherwise) is that the way -- the path, the trail, the journey -- becomes the story.  

Some areas of consideration (i.e. What you might write about in your journals):

1.  Motivation:  What compels you to “take to the ways,” to travel to Barcelona?  What draws and sustains you as you travel?  What’s the difference between mere escape and intentional destination?  Does your motivation influence your journey?  In what ways do your motivations shift or evolve during your travel?

2.  Observation:  How do your senses feed and influence your experience?  What do you see, smell, hear, feel, and taste that’s new and noteworthy?   Who do you meet, what do you learn, what are your sensory, intellectual, and emotional stimuli?  Consider these in your wanderings and your journaling.

3.  Research and study:  Human and natural history.  (Travel Guides!)  Who and what was/is here?  How have these histories shaped the place and the traveler’s experience in it?  How do the locals perceive their histories?  Does far-off travel and frequent contemplation of history cause you to re-examine your own home histories?  (If not yet, it may eventually!)

4.  Flights of imagination:  Macfarlane enjoys contemplating a world that pre-dates any modern certainty.  He often wonders, “How might this place have been?”  Can you connect the “landscape and the human heart”?  Can you imagine returning to Barcelona to explore more?  To other parts of Catalunya, Spain, Europe, the world?!  Studying abroad? Living there?

5.  Artistic and intellectual connection:  Macfarlane often refers to poet Edward Thomas as his muse, but he’s frequently drawn to other writers, artists, historians, scientists, etc.  To what representations (and representers) of place are you drawn as you move through landscapes and cityscapes in Catalunya?  Cervantes?  Gaudí?  Miró?  Picasso?  Catalan independence activists?  Others…?

6.  Language:  Words are the writer’s tools, and Macfarlane’s fascinated with the vocabulary -- both modern and ancient -- associated with the ways he travels. My friend, Just Moller gave me John Stilgoe’s Shallow Water Dictionary a few years ago, and since, as I live by the salt marsh, I’ve felt a deeper connection knowing about staddles, gutters, bores, and looms.  What can you learn about local language, expressions, names?  Obviously, you’re experiencing Castilian and Catalan languages, but can you find deeper meaning -- that is suggestive of place -- in any new words or expressions?   

7.  Visual work:  Any good journal is made more interesting when the narrative is complemented with images.  Drawings, paintings, sketches, doodles, paper clippings, and photos can deepen the impact of your words and the value the journal holds for you over time.  Play around with artwork and scrap-booking in your journals.  Recorded sounds and video may work better in our blog than your journals, but let your journals cover a sensory spectrum as best as you’re able.

8.  Writing:  At the end of the day, a journal’s only as good as its creator.  The writing is the core.  Give yourself time each day to reflect and write.  The most important elements are the records of your thinking as you travel, but if you’re struggling with your craft, don’t sweat it.  Get the ideas down.  You can always return later to refine and revise your prose.  

Travel Journal

One of the expectations of this exchange is that students will keep a daily Travel Journal in a physical book of their choice (something on the lighter/smaller side is better for traveling).  Each entry is to be no less than 5 sentences in Spanish (see topic ideas below), but you may wish to add more to your entries.

You will hand in your journal on the flight to Spain, once during the week (TBD), and again on the return flight.

ENTRY #1: Reflect

*TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE DEPARTURE / DUE ON PLANE

What do you look forward to most? Are you nervous about anything? How do you hope to grow as a person/learner?  What are the most important things for you for this trip? What do your parents/teachers (especially language teachers) think is the most important thing for you for this trip?

ENTRIES # 2-10: Record your observations & learning

• new words/expressions/gestures you learn
• a new recipe learned from your host mom
• historical/political/religious views gathered in conversation/media
• a new card game or board game
• draw what you see (architecture and more…)
• list media resources (tv shows, network and other websites, artists, songs, movies, etc.) that you may want to access in the future.
• make an ABCs list of what you’ve seen and done on the trip
• daily bullet-point list of activities/excursions/people you meet

  

BLOG

Each day one to two students will be asked to add to our trip site.  Our blog URL is:  http://pingreeincatalunya.blogspot.com/

Student who will set up/answer questions about the site: 

March 8:  Nora

March 9:  Tiffani

March 10:  Reese

March 11:  Kelsey and Gina

March 12:  Chad and Jenna

March 13:  Kian and Ben

March 14:  Isabel and Mallika

March 15:  Emma and Haley

March 16:  Anna

March 17:  Griffin