Onefoot, one foot at a time. With my legs, I will tread the exotic inches of theearth. My eyes will see things I have never imagined. I will not finish untilI've allowed every sip of the world's oxygen to flow into my bloodstream, like anherbal medicine. I will not die satisfied until I've tasted every foreign sunset.Dancing in every vernacular, still enchanted by the essential mystery of theunfamiliar. Yes, even the olfactory senses (that often go unappreciated) willremind me, 80 years from now, of the scent of a Mexican city in summer. One footin front of the other, patient steps, digging my toes in the sand. One foot at atime - this is how I travel.

There is an ineffable quality about visitinga place you have never seen. Every second of "newness" is absorbed inpondering or a chattering conversation. The feeling of this newness is capturedon film, or on the worn page of a notebook. Humor, fear, excitement, unbearablejoy - these are emotions to place in a mental picture frame.

Thisafternoon la groupe went to Europe's largest sand dune, Dune du Plye. Suddenly, Ibecame Lara Croft of the infinite sandbox. Watching Donny and Chris flop and rolldown the dune was unbearably hilarious. They had a dramatic running start, then(pause) the perfectly performed somersaults down the hill. - Excerpt from traveljournal, 7/11/01.

Certain words remind me of a special time and place,warm, compassionate, amusing. "Orangina" sets off the rousing image ofsalty surfing in a Biarritz evening; "Queue up!" resonates an enthusedbut humble British accent; "Discoteca" recreates the memory of dancingin flashing lights with some of my best friends, sweat running down my face,laughing over a tall glass of Coke.

Life itself is a journey withchanges, new directions. Lost luggage is like the friends who stray from ourlives. Knowledge is a symbolic passport to a new day's task.

On ourvoyages from "here" to "there," we learn so much. Travel canbe the fantastical journey in a child's book, a fire that warms our sense ofcreativity. Feeling compelled to take new adventures, an individual may discoverrealities - truths that were shaded by assumption and pride. Travel is a truth.Travel is a much-needed set of spectacles as I walk down new trails, divergingfrom obscurity. One foot, one foot at a time.






A Visit to Iran by Sharzad S., Hercules, CA

New Year's Eve by Mikel P., Lancaster, PA

Inside Krishna's Temple by Gazal T., Houston, TX

London Morning by Jill D., Ludlow, MA

If I Had Been Born A Boy by Elaine S., Congers, NY

My Indian Name by Michael S., Ashland, WI