Final Day Discussion and wrap up--Student Quotes and a few others

"We cannot really travel without affecting change where we go or being changed ourselves."

"Traveling (sometimes) is a responsibility"

"Every person who travels has different reasons for traveling"

"Do you have the huevos to get up, drop everything, and go see the world?"

"The most important thing we can learn from traveling is learning to appreciate exactly where we are."

"Travels are the soul of this world. Travel remains forever." Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet

"The frontier of personal discovery never gets old. It is as vast and uncharted as we tend to make it."

"Sense of time elongates when you travel." Ran Hennes

"I am super-nostalgic for times in my childhood when I went from one place to another. In fact, most of my memories are of the journey itself instead of the places I went."

"All adventures are worthwhile."

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." John Lennon

"Travel broadens both 'reality' and the imagination."

"The ship is safe in the port. But it wasn't for this reason that the ship was built." Paulo Coelho

"Travel changes you and you can never go back to the way things were."

"Not knowing is a great way to learn much."

"'Travel' isn't the same things as 'vacation.'"

"Engage in new vectors of travel."

"Travel is not a beach in Hawaii."

"Travel should change the way you see the world and yourself."

Final Presentations-Guidelines

Guidelines for the final paper/presentation:
**Present a journey. Where do you want to go, why? Describe your route.

Things to consider:
--what motivates you and what is your route
--you can go near, far, one place, multiple places
--discuss your mode of travel and your budget
--what would it take to make this travel become reality
--what is your travel philosophy-- think back to our readings for possibly inspiration or comparison
--will you go solo or with someone, and discuss your choice

**Please no more than five pages posted to your blog
**Your project may include narrative, schedules, poetry, quotes, music, photos, videos, maps, etc. etc.). Be as creative as you wish. This is your journey.
**Blog post is due on Feb. 25.
**You will each have 15 minutes to present (presentation sign-ups will be passed around on Wed, Feb. 18)
**You may use audio or visual aids (but it is not required). Please let me know if you need a data projector or laptop. There will be a VCR/TV in the room.
**Have fun with this assignment!

February 18--assignment

Hello Travelers,

As a reminder, before next Wed, return to the place you visited the first week of the quarter. Observe and record. Write a travel writing entry in your blog. We'll give each of you time to describe and reflect upon your experience.

Our topic on Wed is "Imagined Communities: rethinking the “homeland”--Rethinking the journey"

Your readings for next Weds are here:
Gomez-Pena
( to be read for discussion purposes)
Travel Blogs

(take a look at some of these blogs for inspiration and to broaden your definition of "travel writing". It's fine if you just skim. Perhaps you'll find a writing style/approach/information that inspires...)

Also, please begin to think about your topics for the final paper/presentation.
(see recent blog post for guidelines).

Have a good week! See you all soon.

Julie

p.s. If any of you are interested in Berlin, you can find more information on the Honors in Berlin webpage:

It's not too late to apply. Just let me know.

Quote of the Day

"Poetry is what gets lost in translation." --Robert Frost


"The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room." --Pascal Pensees

"IRAN: YESTERDAY & TODAY"--Jan. 30

Special Screening and Discussion of "Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and Today" with Rick Steves, Travel Writer and Founder of Rick Steves: Europe Through the Back Door
Register here

As a follow-up to November's lecture, "An American in Tehran:
Discovering Rick Steves' Iran," the World Affairs Council and the Global
Business Center, UW Foster School of Business present a special
screening of the PBS documentary "Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and
Today."

Following the screening, audience-members will have the opportunity to
engage in an in-depth question and answer period with travel guru Rick
Steves himself, to discuss his experiences and views on the Iranian
people and culture.

DATE: 01/30/2009
TIME: 5:30 p.m.
LOCATION: University of Washington, Kane Hall 130
PRICE: $5 members/students; $10 non-members.

This event is pay at the door, but it is filling up quickly, so reserve your spot today!

Travel Writing Periods (a rough sketch)

Ancient World: Odyssey as the archetypal book of travel, classic epic journey (sometimes called the “first road novel”) based on the theme of a voyage. Travel is portrayed as a path to salvation, Odysseus as model traveler (adventurous, durable—and a somewhat unreliable narrator) who acquires inner fulfillment and worldly accomplishment from pursuing his quest.



Early Christian: Eventually see travel as both a universalizing mechanism and a metaphor for the path to sainthood. The “pilgrimage model” (along with the journey into the “wilderness” to find God) is embraced. Earlier versions of pilgrimage to sites of ancient wisdom and power as represented by exemplary Greeks, for example, were seen as threatening to early Christianity. [Tied to notion that all life is a symbolic journey to salvation?]



Middle Ages: Pilgrimage model for spiritual fulfillment (to Holy Land, to view saint’s relics, etc) joins crusading model (regain the Holy Land, free Jerusalem, win salvation). Both increasingly utilized established travel routes and generated entrepreneurial support—early day “travel industry”—efforts.



Early Modern/Grand Tour era: The rise of “modernity” with the paradigm of otherworldly salvation giving way to a belief in rationality and close observation of sites visited, chosen increasingly for their ability to reward travel with “education” and the acquisition of the “finish” necessary for one’s proper station in society. Although skepticism and disillusionment accompany the Grand Tour (as counter-belief), the idea of a “quest” endures as a secular objective (i.e. as a “modern” version of the Ancients’ travels).

Quote of the Day

"The Question is not what you look at, but what you see." Thoreau

"Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it." Michel Foucault

Travel Terms

A Few Definitions

Travel: To go from one place to another, as on a trip; journey

Ecotourism: Tourism involving travel to areas of natural or ecological interest, typically under the guidance of a naturalist, for the purpose of observing wildlife and learning about the environment.

Travel Writing: Travel writing is often associated with tourism, and includes works of an ephemeral nature such as guide books. Travel writing has also been produced by other types of travelers, such as missionaries, explorers, scientists, pilgrims, and immigrants. Travel writing which is valued as literature may be referred to as travel literature.

Representation (re-present. It’s elastic!): reflecting an idea, image, or person. Representation describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something else.[1] It is through representation people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it.[1] Signs are manipulated in order to make sense of the world.

Native: belonging to one by birth; "my native land"; "one's native language"

Immigrant: A person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another.

Migrant (Migrant Worker):
1. One that moves from one region to another by chance, instinct, or plan.
2. An itinerant worker who travels from one area to another in search of work.

Guest Worker: a person with temporary permission to work in another country; "a Moroccan guestworker in Canada was accused of aiding terrorists"

Expatriate: 1. One who has taken up residence in a foreign country.
2. One who has renounced one's native land.

Mission (Missionary): A body of persons sent to conduct negotiations or establish relations with a foreign country.

Refugee: a person who has fled from some danger, such as war or political persecution

Alien (illegal): 1. An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country. Also called noncitizen.
2. A person from another and very different family, people, or place.
3. A person who is not included in a group; an outsider.

Tourism: Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2006, there were over 842 million international tourist arrivals.[1]

Pilgrim: A pilgrim is one who undertakes a religious pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious significance; often a considerable distance is traveled. Examples include a Muslim visiting Mecca or a Christian or Jew visiting Jerusalem.

Hero: A Hero (Greek ἥρως), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demi-god, the offspring of a mortal and a deity.[1] Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice, that is, heroism, for some greater good, originally of martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.

Explorer: Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown regions, including space (space exploration), for oil, gas, coal, ores, caves, water (Mineral exploration or prospecting), or information. Exploration in information and spiritual age also involves the act of searching for uncommon knowledge or seeking the unknown metaphysical spiritual realms of consciousness, cyberspace or noosphere.

More travel and traveler terms:
Seeker
Slave Traders
Merchants
Pilgrams
Nomads
Sailors-Soldiers
Crusaders
Prisoners
Missionariers
Aid-givers
Diplomats
Spies
Colonists
Imperialists
Border Crossers
Border Artists

Welcome Students!

Greetings Fellow Travelers,

We enjoyed meeting all of you at the first class of the quarter. As promised, here is the course blog. Please create your own blog (instruction below), and then send me your link. I will post your blog link to the "Travel and Travelers" seminar blog. See you all next week!
Julie and Ran

To create a blog, you'll need a Google Account:
CREATE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT HERE

Then go to the Blogger.com site

Follow the instructions on this site.

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions:
villegas@u.washington.edu

Also, here is information about privacy options:

You can opt to secure your personal blog by taking these steps. On your blog:

1. Go to "Customize"
2. From customize, go to "Settings"
3. go to "Permission"
4. Choose "Who can view this blog"? "Only people I choose".
5. Insert emails of all students in class and also instructor emails (and anyone else you choose).