The new word up on the One Little Word blog is ADVENTURE.

I didn’t have this assignment prepared before I went to Version Scrap. I was thinking I could make an art journal page, or maybe a scrapbook page about a little everyday adventure. And then the weekend trip to Paris came up and it turned out that the Universe wanted me to document a brand new ADVENTURE instead.

As if travelling to Paris on my own wasn’t ADVENTUROUS enough, I found out at the airport that my flight was overbooked. This was at 06.15 in the morning and clueless me was still hoping I would make the flight. Instead I was one of the five people to miss it. I was booked on a second flight that would depart 1,5 hours later. It didn’t depart until 10.00 o’clock… And all this time I was telling myself to please stay calm and to not freak out!

Fortunately because of the flight delay, I was able to text with Riikka (who by this time had just arrived in Paris) before I had to turn off my phone. I was supposed to meet her at the airport in Paris, but now at least she knew I wasn’t going to be there on time.

When I finally got to Paris, I quickly found the train station. I had to get a train ticket, but found that there were three kinds of machines… I had to go to the info point to find out which one I needed.

The guy at the desk not only pointed me to a green ticket machine, he also took his time to find out which train I should take (which I actually already knew, but he didn’t like it when I tried to interrupt him, so I kept my mouth shut…). When I stood in front of one of the green ticket machines, it turned out that said machine only took credit cards and coins. I on the other hand had a purse full of fresh bills and no credit card…

I found a money changing machine… that didn’t work. I kind of gave up on catching the train and went to the ticket office to stand in a very long line… All was not lost though, because although the line was impressive and the ticket sales persons weren’t exactly friendly, they were fast!

The train rolled in almost immediately after I had set foot on the platform. But… the sign on it didn’t read the destination I needed to go to. There was no other train… And my train was supposed to depart in the next two minutes. All the other tourists occupying the platform were looking as clueless as I was! So we all took the chance. Fortunately it turned out right!

I paid attention to all the stops, just to be extremely sure I wouldn’t miss the stop I needed to change to the metro. I didn’t and I miraculously found the platform to the connecting metro line without any problems.

When I got to Vincennes, the promised little train that supposedly took visitors from the metro stop to the venue wasn’t there. I didn’t see a stop for it, so I decided to walk. I knew it would take me approximately 25 minutes, but I didn’t know it would involve dragging my suitcase (small one on wheels) over various dirt paths, that had a variety of stones sticking out of them…

I finally made it into the venue just before 01.30… I was so sure I was going to miss my first class, Birgit’s class… I had been sure of it from the moment I had learned that my flight was overbooked at 06.15 that morning. But… I miraculously made it! And if it hadn’t been for a lady at the entrance having an argument with the woman at the desk… I would have been EXACTLY on time. Birgit hadn’t even started her class when I came in. It was unreal!

And all this was only the story of the first morning! This trip was full of observations and ridiculous situations. I wanted to record it right away!

I thought it would be fun to be ADVENTUROUS with my documenting method too. I wanted to incorporate the supplies and class projects I gathered during the trip. It took some time to figure out how… but I think I’ve got it. I bought a Snap album and I mixed the pocketed pages with the tags from Birgit’s class, the mini book pages from Magda’s class and I’m also going to use the covers I made during Françoise Melzani’s class.

I still think the idea that pocket scrapbooking makes everything quicker and easier is a misconception… I’ve only just about finished the pages for the first day.

It’s not a pretty book either. It’s a mash up of everything. But I like that. It’s just as confusing as the trip was, with loads of writing, artsy stuff and towards the end there are going to be loads of pretty pictures of Paris!

As you can see, it’s still in progress. I’ve got the pages for day two planned out and I keep all the photos and memorabilia for day 3 behind one of the Snap album tabs that I’m going to take out later on.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my process and I’ll be sure to share the finished pages with you in the near future!

Please check out this month’s ADVENTURE projects on the OLW blog too. We would love for you to play along with us!