Bicycles, Kayaks, and Showshoes: Reading and Writing about Travel 2018

One theme of the essay "Ascension of the Moonlight" by Simon Winchester is to fully appreciate unexpected beauty. I think this because Winchester really takes his time to basking in the rare events at the beach and it is obvious that he has spent time reflecting on them. He knows he has experienced  beauty of friendship, universe, nature and rarity. I really liked his use of a simile that connected stars with a blizzard; he said "... with a clear sky full of a blizzard of stars"(Winchester 268). I have never heard stars described that way and that helps exemplify how his experience was so unique. I also really liked Winchesters title. "Ascension of the Moonlight" is such and eloquent and clever way of getting the reader ready to experience the descriptive beauty that he writes in his essay.

The theme of Winchester's essay, "Ascension in the Moonlight" is: some of the best experiences happen unexpectedly and from the hands of kind strangers. The experience that Winchester had was unexpected because he did not plan for anything that happened. He said, "I had no idea what he meant..."(Winchester 268). The events were a result of kind strangers. Winchester met Paul and Angela who took him to see the unique sightings. An example of effective language was when he said, "...and he winked at his wife conspiratorially, as if a drink at lunchtime was somehow mildly sinful,"(Winchester 266). This gives insight into the quirks of Paul and what is typical in their setting. Another example is when he says, "Only those lights, and the stars, broke the velvet blackness of the night,"(Winchester 270). This makes the scene clear and the word 'velvet' gives the darkness texture.

To me, the most prevalent theme in Brianne Goodspeed's "Bicycle Love" is the importance of taking a journey into something known by yourself. Goodspeed calls this a pilgrimage and I think that is the perfect word for what she went through. By traveling to a new place all alone, on a means of transportation new to her, Goodspeed found purpose in her life for those 3 weeks and learned so much about herself. One sentence that was effective in my eyes was “As I struggled over what to do, I thought about my parents and sympathized with their fear for my trip” (Goodspeed 146-147). It was nice to see her use her experiences to sympathize with her parents. I also liked when Green Knees described her journey by saying “It was everything”(Goodspeed 148). I feel like this was also Goodspeed's response to her pilgrimage.

Yay, I finally got the blog to work! My name is Peter and I am currently majoring in Theater Arts and Creative Writing/English. A little about me is that I clearly enjoy theater (its my major) but in particular musical theater, so if you're also a fan lets chat. I also have a past in Boy Scouts, so I enjoy being outside and taking trips to go camping. One of the recent trips I've taken was to West Virginia, where I camped on the side of the Appalachians mountains. They weren't quite the size of the Rockies, but they were still just as beautiful.

In “Ascension in the Moonlight,” Simon Winchester demonstrates the value of human kindness and how it can be discovered in the most unexpected of places. Initially for Winchester, Ascension Island was droll and forgettable, the location simply serving as a means for the author to return home faster. Due to the hospitality of strangers, however, Winchester forms invaluable friendships and witnesses sea turtles giving birth along with a passing comet, noting that it “was perhaps the greatest wealth of experience that any one individual could ever know in one moment.” Winchester beautifully describes the events around him, invoking several senses of his readers such as in line, “...the soft and sugary sand took on an appearance just like snow--the sea beyond it black, its waves crashing rhythmically on the shore…” Invoking visual, tactile, and auditory imagery all at once, the author creates a detailed window into the unique world he is experiencing. Lastly, ‘“Wherever would you be...with...

Carol, Camping, and Cycling Catastrophes All my life, my Aunt Carol has held the biggest influence over me. She is brave, outspoken, spontaneous, and just downright fun. I have always looked up to her because she speaks her mind and does what makes her happy. Carol is the “fit” aunt, which means she does all the triathlons, ironmans, and marathons, while managing to make you feel jealous that this 60-year-old woman has a better body and fitness routine than you. She is the kind of person that you can’t say no to, even if what she suggests sounds outrageously crazy.             On one warm, September night in Carol’s backyard, we strike up a conversation about how we have always wanted to go fall camping.             “Why don’t we go camping this weekend?” Carol eagerly asks me.             “Yes, tha...

The theme of Simon Winchester's "Ascension in the Moonlight" can be summed up in a term I would call the face of beauty. He presents the conflict fairly on: at least three weeks of nothingness, rolling on the waves. Opportunity presents it self by way of an unremarkable, wayside island that happens to have an airfield belonging to the RAF. One motif that the author emphasizes is that of isolation. The narrator finds himself on an island where the loneliness is nearly tangible. The only thing that appears to be on his mind is the imminent arrival of the jet: his ticket home. All of this changes during the night at the beach. There he witnesses sights that few can lay a claim to: Brazilian green turtles laying their eggs and a comet traversing the night sky. "And it was in that instant I realized something: that in this astonishing grand conjunction - of new friendship, of tropical warmth, of strawberries and cream and cool white wine, of white sand and sea swimming, a...