I don’t really consider myself to be a connoisseur of travel. I need directions backing out of the driveway, I have to factor in “lost time” when I am driving to a new location, and my family makes bets on how quickly I’ll fall asleep in the passenger seat of the car, even on short trips from my town of Gilbert into Phoenix.
I’ve been places, sure; but nothing exotic (except living in Hawaii) or all that noteworthy, I’m afraid. I’ve never blogged and the only one I read consistently is my friend Stacey who writes about living in Bahrain. So why am I writing a travel blog?
THAT is a very good question with a somewhat round-about answer. I’m writing a travel blog so I can pass my final Northern Arizona University course for a Masters degree in English! I signed up for this class mainly because I have “senioritis” about as bad as my current seniors who graduate next week and this class met my criteria! It is only 5 weeks long, it requires reading and writing, both subjects I love, and it fell into the category of “rhetoric” which is what I needed to complete my plan of study. Oh! And I figured I might be required to “travel” a little bit in the next few weeks in order to write my blog. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
The first clue was in Dr. Gruber’s Welcome Message informing us that the course would require 20-30 hours a week and that her teaching method is “very demanding and challenging” as she “believes that students come to university in order to learn something new, expand their knowledge, gain new confidence in their areas of expertise.” BUT I DON’T HAVE ANY EXPERTISE IN TRAVEL BLOGGING!! My confidence began to wane. Oh good grief I thought! What have I gotten myself into?
After spending a few hours figuring out the format of the class, I launched into my first reading which was an article by Joan Pau Rubies (who is male by the way - thank you Teresa for being the second one to post and Pamela for setting the record straight - Joan is a guy) entitled “Travel Writing and Ethnography.”
ETHNOGRAPHY? It’s a good thing I have been teaching my students Greek and Latin roots I thought, as I mentally went through the root cards my students recite to me and remembered that “ethnos” is Greek for “nation,” while “graph” means “to write or draw.” Okay! Only about thirty more pages to read before I need to dive into an article by Charles Darwin which turned out to be some of his journal writings during his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle. What a weird name for a ship. Clearly I’m distracted. I just wanted to hop on a bus and write something cool about the “last stop” as I had named my travel blog.
But I did learn something from Joan (the guy) - I realized that I was beginning to figure out what kind of travel writer I might become. Joan mentioned that good “ethnography” (remember? the writing of nations/people?) requires a few points: (1) linguistic competence, (2) intimate interaction and (3) the acceptance of a local system of power (251). I agree with him. I think that the best way to experience a new place is to understand its language and have contact with people. I also think it’s integral to accept the local government of the place I visit. If I learned anything from Stacey’s Bahrain Blog, it can be vitally important to follow the rules; if you can figure them out!
I read a few more articles, listened to a TEDTalk about "Understanding the Rise of China" by Martin Jacques and perused a blog called “Runaway Jane” - clever title by the way! But, by far, I most enjoyed a little article from Catherine Watson called “Where the Roads Diverged.” Initially I confess that liked it because it was so short and she didn’t use big words like “bourgeois voyager” (James Clifford 33) or “phenomenology of diaspora” (Steve Clark 3), but her message was good too. She wrote about her love for Easter Island. It ended up being a place that she didn’t just visit, but where she lived. In short it reminded me of the time that I lived in Hawaii (thank you Joe and the Marine Corps). Like Catherine Watson I began to “exist in the present tense.” I wasn’t just a visitor, I was a resident. I went exploring, met people, ate strange foods, listened to music like slack-key guitar, and watched tropical dancing. Like Catherine Watson, I had a “love affair” with “my island” (Watson 282) and realized too that I finally knew why I have always told Joe that if he took me back to Hawaii for a visit it would have to be on a one-way ticket: “I don’t want to feel like an outsider there” (Watson 283).
This week I needed to figure out my understanding of 21st century travel writing and what my focus will be as a travel writer. If I ever do get to travel, I want to write in a way that is easy to understand. I want to entertain people so that get a reprieve from their own busy lives. I want to tell my stories. Clark described it this way: “every narrative is a travel-narrative, the ultimate outcome of those stories remains to be determined” (28).
I’ve been places, sure; but nothing exotic (except living in Hawaii) or all that noteworthy, I’m afraid. I’ve never blogged and the only one I read consistently is my friend Stacey who writes about living in Bahrain. So why am I writing a travel blog?
THAT is a very good question with a somewhat round-about answer. I’m writing a travel blog so I can pass my final Northern Arizona University course for a Masters degree in English! I signed up for this class mainly because I have “senioritis” about as bad as my current seniors who graduate next week and this class met my criteria! It is only 5 weeks long, it requires reading and writing, both subjects I love, and it fell into the category of “rhetoric” which is what I needed to complete my plan of study. Oh! And I figured I might be required to “travel” a little bit in the next few weeks in order to write my blog. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
The first clue was in Dr. Gruber’s Welcome Message informing us that the course would require 20-30 hours a week and that her teaching method is “very demanding and challenging” as she “believes that students come to university in order to learn something new, expand their knowledge, gain new confidence in their areas of expertise.” BUT I DON’T HAVE ANY EXPERTISE IN TRAVEL BLOGGING!! My confidence began to wane. Oh good grief I thought! What have I gotten myself into?
After spending a few hours figuring out the format of the class, I launched into my first reading which was an article by Joan Pau Rubies (who is male by the way - thank you Teresa for being the second one to post and Pamela for setting the record straight - Joan is a guy) entitled “Travel Writing and Ethnography.”
ETHNOGRAPHY? It’s a good thing I have been teaching my students Greek and Latin roots I thought, as I mentally went through the root cards my students recite to me and remembered that “ethnos” is Greek for “nation,” while “graph” means “to write or draw.” Okay! Only about thirty more pages to read before I need to dive into an article by Charles Darwin which turned out to be some of his journal writings during his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle. What a weird name for a ship. Clearly I’m distracted. I just wanted to hop on a bus and write something cool about the “last stop” as I had named my travel blog.
But I did learn something from Joan (the guy) - I realized that I was beginning to figure out what kind of travel writer I might become. Joan mentioned that good “ethnography” (remember? the writing of nations/people?) requires a few points: (1) linguistic competence, (2) intimate interaction and (3) the acceptance of a local system of power (251). I agree with him. I think that the best way to experience a new place is to understand its language and have contact with people. I also think it’s integral to accept the local government of the place I visit. If I learned anything from Stacey’s Bahrain Blog, it can be vitally important to follow the rules; if you can figure them out!
I read a few more articles, listened to a TEDTalk about "Understanding the Rise of China" by Martin Jacques and perused a blog called “Runaway Jane” - clever title by the way! But, by far, I most enjoyed a little article from Catherine Watson called “Where the Roads Diverged.” Initially I confess that liked it because it was so short and she didn’t use big words like “bourgeois voyager” (James Clifford 33) or “phenomenology of diaspora” (Steve Clark 3), but her message was good too. She wrote about her love for Easter Island. It ended up being a place that she didn’t just visit, but where she lived. In short it reminded me of the time that I lived in Hawaii (thank you Joe and the Marine Corps). Like Catherine Watson I began to “exist in the present tense.” I wasn’t just a visitor, I was a resident. I went exploring, met people, ate strange foods, listened to music like slack-key guitar, and watched tropical dancing. Like Catherine Watson, I had a “love affair” with “my island” (Watson 282) and realized too that I finally knew why I have always told Joe that if he took me back to Hawaii for a visit it would have to be on a one-way ticket: “I don’t want to feel like an outsider there” (Watson 283).
This week I needed to figure out my understanding of 21st century travel writing and what my focus will be as a travel writer. If I ever do get to travel, I want to write in a way that is easy to understand. I want to entertain people so that get a reprieve from their own busy lives. I want to tell my stories. Clark described it this way: “every narrative is a travel-narrative, the ultimate outcome of those stories remains to be determined” (28).