A New Approach to Journaling

You will definitely want to bring a journal with you on this trip, even if you aren't much of a writer. Here are some fun new ideas on journaling that will keep you engaged and give you some good memories to look back on later:

1. -Start by journaling NOW. What should you write about?

• Fears
• Anxieties
• Hopes
• Wants
• Curiosities




2. -Choose a journaling style

These include Traveler, Objective Observation, Perspective and Focus.

A) The Traveler's Journal

This idea was developed by Nancy Taylor Nicodemus. Here, you will divide your journal into four categories and journal according to each category’s contents.

1. The Impressions Section is for jotting down the places, people, events, concepts, ideas, smells, signs, and other things you remember. You write words, phrases, or sentences that will spark your memory.

2. In the Descriptive Section you will not elaborate on what you think about what you are writing. Instead, you will use your descriptive abilities to create a vivid picture of what you experienced.

3. The Narrative Section is to satisfy the storyteller in you. There’s no doubt you will come home with stories – good, bad, funny, and otherwise. Write about them in this section before you forget.

4. In the Expressive Section you get to vent, debate, praise, hypothesize, and evaluate. Where you may have described an event in one of your descriptive sections, you may then make an entry in this section to record what you thought and felt about that event.


B) Objective Observation

Divide your journal into three sections.

1. Write a detailed description of what happened.

2. Write about your reactions and feelings toward the event.

3. Write about what you learned.


C) Perspective Writing

Imagine a day in the life of a local.

1. In what ways are you similar to this person?

2. In what ways are you different from each other?

3. What do locals eat? When?

4. How do they spend their day?

5. How does this person view you as an American?

6. What are some thoughts that run through your mind when you see a local? Are they fair? Biased?


D) Focus Writing

With focus writing, you are attempting to narrow down your entries to blurbs about something in particular: a lesson you learned, a quality you discovered that might be good or even negative, something you’ve realized about yourself or something or someone else.

1. What feeling, idea or quality about you seems especially strong today?

2. Does this alter your perception of yourself?

3. What have you discovered about other people?


Ideas for Journals and Scrapbooks

• List what you will miss from home and then what you will miss from your host country.
• Add sketches to your journal.
• Save stamps, coins, wrappers, tickets, postcards and clippings from local magazines or newspapers. Glue an envelope in the back of your journal to hold these items.
• Incorporate your emails or blogs into your journal.
• Keep markers, colored pens and glue sticks handy.

Goodluck with your journals!

Paula