This is the story of how I came up with the name of my blog “The Traveling Scarf”
I have a closet full of clothes, well now that I’m married I have half a closet full of clothes but I always tend to stick to about 4 or 5 of my favorite outfits… I must appear dirt poor and homeless to other people I’m sure. It’s only gotten worse since I moved to Uganda because the housekeeper does my laundry 3 days a week so I never even have to dig to find other options because my 3 favorite tops, my pair of black jeans my bermuda jean shorts and my traveling scarf are always available. I’ve also grown accustom to a pair of pajama pants that I found in Patrick’s stash that I am pretty sure were a freebie on an international flight (considering the tag says Qatar Airways) I think the only reason I own as many clothes as I do is because I hate doing laundry with a passion. When I lived at home with my Mom she refused to do my laundry until the inevitable “swimsuit bottom” day came because I ran out of clean underwear and her OCD would kick in and i magically had clean clothes again. When I was in middle school I cycled through a pair of breakaway pants (back when those sort of things were cool, well at least I thought they were cool) and a fake Adidas t-shirt… I surprisingly still had friends believe it or not!
Prior to 2008 I had only left the country on family cruises and a mission trip to Costa Rica when I was 14 where we painted our faces and wore silly outfits and danced around in the street because apparently that’s how you get people to love Jesus! haha… Then came along an exciting opportunity for my best friend Leslie to study abroad in Brisbane, Australia. Granted this was before Leslie turned into a soccer mom with 4 children and lived in the sticks and before I had a real big girl job so naturally I pulled some money out of my stock account booked a plane ticket and traveled halfway across the world to spend 3 weeks in the wonderful world of Oz.
I arrived in Brisbane a bit earlier than expected and phoned Leslie to let her know I was at the airport. Leslie answered the phone, which was about the only useful thing she did in this scenario because her only response was “I’m at the University of Queensland” Now I will give her a little slack because it was very early in the morning and if you have any clue of how I am before the sun… Leslie is about 10 times worse. Thankfully I met a friendly stranger from Canada who also happened to be going to the University of Queensland… I think I missed the day in grade school where they taught you not to get into vehicles with strangers but the thought of trying to figure out how I was going to find the mysterious Gibson Hall on my own, the first time I was alone in a foreign country seemed much more frightening at the time. So I made it to the University of Queensland safely and free of charge because as it turns out my stranger from Canada was also a gentleman and paid the cab fare! Now if only I could remember his name….So I made it to the University but now I had to find Leslie… so I am walking for what feels like ages until FINALLY another American girl approached me and said “You look lost, can I help you?” I explained I was going to visit my friend Leslie Smith (at the time she had the most common last name in the world!) and amazingly she said “Oh! She lives in my dorm!” so she kindly escorts me to the dorm that Leslie lives in (mind you, you need a key to get in so even if I would have found her I wouldn’t have been able to get in, nice one Leslie….) So I get to Leslie’s room, knock on the door, she answers, lets me in, gives me a casual “oh hey” and goes back to bed! “Oh hey! remember me? the friend that just spent 22 hours on a plane to come visit you??” I stood there awkwardly for about 5 minutes until she eventually woke back up and said “Oh, when did you get here? wanna go get some breakfast?”
The next couple weeks were filled with lots of adventures!
Leslie isn’t much of a cuddler….
I got to hold a Koala Bear!
Leslie made friends with an emu…
And then it attacked her….
We fed some kangaroos…
And I took a selfie with one…
We hiked for forever to get to a mysterious lighthouse…
And we finally made it!
And then we found a “snake”
The day we decided to go to the Australia Zoo, (We miss you Steve!) was the day it decided to rain 😦 We found a small kiosk to purchase scarves to shelter us from the rain… and there it was! I didn’t realize at the time that 6 years later that this scarf would become my international traveling companion, after all it was just a $8 purchase to shield the rain.
Sadly, my trip ended but this was just the beginning of what would become the legacy of “The Traveling Scarf” Since that day in Australia, that scarf has traveled all over the world with me and has become a staple in my wardrobe. If that scarf could talk it could tell you so many tales of friendship, joy, laughter, sorrow and adventure and probably even a few secrets… unfortunately it can’t talk, but I can! so my versions will have to do for now!
The Traveling Scarf 