Continuing my weekly travel posts, and in an effort to consolidate my blogs, I’ll be reposting the travel blogs that started it all: my trip to and through England.
The trip took place between June and early July, 2009 and was originally posted July 10th, 2009. Without further adieu, the introduction post from that trip.
I know that many of my friends knew that I was going to run off to England for four weeks. That being said, it may come as a slight surprise to those of you who are not within my circle of those I call ‘friend.’ That being said, I think I should explain a little bit about my trip, why I went, and what I intended to get from it. And, of course, the format of the forthcoming blog posts will be explained in this introduction as well.
For starters let’s begin with a little bit about me. I’m a writer and recently graduated from The University of Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism, though my specialty was Professional Writing with an emphasis on novels. That sentence, I’ll readily admit, was a bit of a mouthful. That being said, the trip itself was a graduation gift from my Father who said something along the lines of ‘Go forth and explore the world!’ only not quite in those words or the big booming voice that I imagine it in my head. Side note: My Father is an awesome, awesome man and a wonderful dad. I chose England because I am brave enough to wander alone, but not brave enough to wander alone in a country where the primary language isn’t something I know fluently.
I think that covers the basics of where I went and how I was able to, but not quite the why. I wanted to visit England to see the sights and hear the sounds of a foreign country. Not to mention the sheer value of practical experience I would get. Experience, if you don’t know, is something akin to lifeblood for a writer. To tell a somewhat convincing story they must have experienced something, or had someone else relate an experience to them. This is part of why it is so important for a writer to continue to read and meet new people, etc. So, in part, my trip was to expand on my life experiences. That, and, I was/am still interest in seeing stuff in and around England, Scotland, and Ireland (the latter of which I didn’t make it to in my journeys). The why also falls into the ‘chance of a lifetime’ category. It isn’t often that someone gets the opportunity to pack a week and a half worth of clothes, grab a pen and a composition notebook, and run away to backpack through a country for four weeks. It was quite simply too good to pass up.
I will admit, and you’ll probably notice this at least once in the coming blog posts, that I would have preferred to go with someone else. Oh well, shit happens, maybe next time. This journey taught me I can exist on my own for, at least, four weeks. 🙂
Now then, that should cover the basics of my trip and lay a foundation for those who didn’t hear me talk about it before I hopped across the pond. I think. If not, I’ll answer questions in the commentary. That means… it’s time to move onto the format round!
That’s right, I’m going to outline the format for these things. I intend them to be informal and reflectional. I kept a fairly extensive journal while I was overseas and the vast majority of these posts will simply be those entries typed up and put on display. But, since I want to reflect and observe how I changed over the course of four weeks (other than dropping 7 pounds), I’ll add my own commentary or observations, or other things I happen to remember, or think I remember, as I type them up. These secondary additions, observations, or memories will be in a different color. Probably the orange I just used, but, you never know. Most of the entries will be unedited and uncut. If I cut something out, I’ll use an ellipsis to indicate the removed section and might elaborate if questions come up in the comments section. I expect these parts to be few and far between. I also took close to 3000 pictures (2700ish), which means that each post will be accompanied with pictures as appropriate.
Oh, and I’ll be doing these posts on a weekly basis. The first one will, unless something dire happens, appear next Friday.
Until that time, good luck, good health, and I hope I’ve sparked your interest enough to draw you back in a week’s time.
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