Status updates are the new way to journal

After being on hiatus from journaling since early 2006, I have discovered a new way to journal. I was a committed journaller through university, but hadn’t been able to sustain it in the past few years. Sometimes I was fine with that, but other times I really missed having the record of my thoughts and activities.

Before I left for my trip, my mom gave me a little journal peppered with Oscar Wilde quotes, so I packed it and thought I’d try to use it. I find Oscar Wilde’s quotes pretty amusing, and his grave is in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, so it seemed fitting.

Without meaning to, I started filling the little journal with one-line snapshots of what was happening, and decided that this was a manageable way to capture a few of the noteworthy events of my trip. So, I decided that to share my trip, I would blog some of the ‘status updates’ that I wrote along the way.

I’m starting with my arrival in Paris and trip to Strasbourg to meet up with Joel at the Chemistry conference and will continue on with the other parts of the trip in subsequent posts.

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Was serenaded by French accordion players on the train ride in to Paris.

Ran into trouble – no train reservations are available for Strasbourg and I’ll be four hours late meeting Joel but have no way to get ahold of him to let him know!

Old nun on the train laughs at me when I fumble with my suitcase.

Nun proceeds to pull a rectangular prism wrapped meticulously in foil out of her purse and shake it thoroughly. After several minutes, she opens it carefully and drinks the tetra pack full of chocolate milk that was inside the foil. Strange.

Within the hour, said nun pulls a water bottle wrapped in foil out of her purse and does the same thing. Doubly strange.

Walking to the hotel and run into Joel on the street! He was coming to find me. Fancy meeting you here.

Hey, remember that time we followed a trail of rice on the street and got a free macaron at the end of it?

Man in straw hat feeds us slices of Munster cheese off his knife at the Saturday market in Strasbourg.

Marie Antoinette slept here.

Our answer to the question what does royalty do?: make babies and colossal mistakes.