The creation of this blog is linked very much to the genesis of the first blog I kept, Sapporo Stories, when our family moved from southern Alberta to northern Japan for four months in 2008. I kept it as a way of sharing stories and photos of our adventures in Japan with family and friends back home. We were in Sapporo as part of a teaching exchange between the University of Lethbridge, where my husband John has been a professor since 2003, and Hokkai Gakuen University in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Despite early misgivings on my part (what kind of crazy person takes a six-year-old and two three-year-olds to a country where she doesn't speak the language?), we all had an incredible time.
When we decided to spend part of John's sabbatical year in France, I knew I would want to keep another blog. Again, my main purpose is to let grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends old and new check in on our travels and day-to-day life in France, but I also wanted to do more to get back in the habit of writing. I had worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers from the time I was 16 until we moved to Canada when I was 31... and although not quite the same thrill as a front-page article, the act of writing the different stories and tales of our time in France has brought me more pleasure than I could have imagined.
Who knows what will happen when we return to Canada. Part of me feels like our life in Lethbridge is so ordinary, so "unblogworthy". But the practice of writing -- and the thrill of having people read those words -- will be hard to give up.
Whatever happens -- I promise to keep you posted.
