A Travel Journal Is the Best Souvenir You Can Create

Your trip abroad is probably going to bemuse, bewilder and confuse you. It will also give you the time of your life. Sometimes it will do all of these things at once. You will be submerged in a welter of new experiences: trying to explain yourself in another language, being away from home for the first time, and making new friends.

A travel journal is your chance to make sense of these experiences – to think about them, live with them and search in them for a meaning that doesn’t exist for anyone else.

That’s what a travel journal is for. It is not just a diary. A diary is a bare record of what you did and where you went. A journal can be much more than that. It is a way of working out how you think and feel about the things that happen on an overseas trip. It helps you discover what makes you different from anyone else. It is a way of being with yourself.

Incidentally, a travel journal will seem more valuable to you as you get older. It will be a record of your growing up, of your discovering the world.

 That’s why when you travel with us, we provide you with a little blue travel journal, “Reflections From My passports Tour.” It's filled with thought-provoking questions (a few are listed below), inspirational travel quotes and plenty of empty space. As an unexpected bonus, your travel journal can even win you a $250 Visa gift card in this year’s Reflections From My passports Tour contest.

A travel journal is the best souvenir any traveler can create – especially if you’re a student traveling overseas on your first educational tour. Your travel journal will become a cherished keepsake you’ll have to look back on after your experience to help you relive those memories again and again.

Questions to think about and answer while you're on tour:

• Compare this place to where you live. How is it different? How is it similar?

• How do you think the local people perceive you? How do they interact with you?

• In what ways do you feel out of place? In what ways do you feel at home?

• How does the culture of this place approach meals and food? How is that different from American culture?

For example, in the U.S. many of us are used to grabbing a quick bite to eat on the go and getting our morning cup of coffee at the drive-through, but it's not unusual in most European countries to spend hours eating dinner (even lunch) and sipping a cappuccino at a local café every morning.

• What advice were you given before you left? Was this advice helpful? 

Keep an eye out in the near future for a blog post on this. We'd love any suggestions as well!

• What have you learned about yourself and what kind of person you are on this tour?

Have you kept a travel journal before? We’d love to hear about your experience!