About Us

Cruz

3 years old upon departure; 5 upon our return

Bella

8 years old upon departure; 10 upon our return

Cyrus

10 years old upon departure; 12 upon our return

Angela

Mama, translator, photographer, and control freak

Jason

Papa, teacher, brewer, and family chef

The Scoop

The Cast of Characters

Before and after The Big Field Trip

The Smirkman Five

Upon our return, 2 years later

The Smirkman Five

Before departing on The Big Field Trip

I still don’t know what foolish notion possessed us—Jason a teacher/amateur chef, and me a translator/control-freak—to drop everything and drag our act to a dozen countries across five continents on a two year around-the-world journey. Nevertheless, we’ve been back in the US for over a year now, and despite the irrational notions that originally motivated the expedition, we somehow survived to tell the tale. We’re eager to continue using this site to share what we learned from our adventure.

When Jason first announced that he wanted to put our lives in Santa Fe on hold and go gallivanting around the globe, I reacted with all the love and support that comes so naturally, given my German Catholic upbringing in Kansas. Why can’t you have a normal mid 30’s crisis and go buy a Porsche or have an affair? But his enthusiasm was infectious, and we were soon developing competing slide show presentations, pitching our proposed itineraries to a tough audience in the living room. Left to decide which travel plan would prevail were our three young children—Cruz, an unsuspecting three year old, Bella, an animal loving eight year old, and Cyrus, a less than enthusiastic pre teen. Alas, when the lights came on and the curtains were drawn, the kids voted for Jason’s itinerary, hands down. My Around-the-Mediterranean proposal just couldn’t compete with his Around-the-Whole-Stinking-World bit. Or more likely, he bribed them with ice cream. I’ll never know the truth. Despite my futile allegations of election day fraud, followed by ineffective pleas to consider the global footprint of this socially and financially irresponsible globe-hopping scheme, I eventually conceded victory to Jason, and our fate was sealed.

In October 2008 we set off on an adventure that has since become known as The Big Field Trip. We stayed for two to three months in each country, mostly in the developing world where our dollars stretched farther. After our arrival in each country, we strove to travel as little as possible, with a goal of missing all of the standard tourist sites and doing our best to stay off the gringo trail. We steered clear of hotels and instead arranged home-stays in the hopes of getting to know each community more intimately, while also establishing some semblance of a stable home life for the children and meeting some very interesting characters along the way.

My duty throughout the course of our adventure was to mind the coffers by keeping my translation company afloat, to arrange language lessons in each country for the family, and to further my study of music by seeking out a native guitar maestro in each locale. Jason homeschooled the kids, dealt with travel logistics, and used the rest of us as guinea pigs in his experimentation with the local cuisine. Cyrus and Bella focused on their homeschool studies, supplemented with music and language classes in each country, and documented their travel experiences. And little Cruz focused mainly on forging new friendships with flea-ridden dogs, piglets, holy cows… and occasionally with human children, so long as they were not entirely put off by his cerulean blue eyes and golden hair. In short, we all immersed ourselves in each culture and tried as best we could to live like locals.

Before setting off on the journey, Jason received a grant from a non profit in Santa Fe that had caught wind of our harebrained scheme and funded the creation of this web site, which was originally fashioned to serve as an educational tool for teachers in the US. Throughout the adventure, Cyrus and Bella posted homeschool reports, photos, and videos from our travels. Members of the site followed our adventures and learned vicariously through The Big Field Trip, posing questions for the kids to research on the ground.

We’ve had a few years now to regroup and re-acclimate to life as normal people. Jason has been perfecting the recipes he learned in each country and I have been dutifully practicing guitar songs I learned along the route. I have had a chance to revisit my travelogues, and the kids their homeschool studies. We’re all ready and eager to share what we learned on the road. Though I’m rather partial to the idea of recounting our story in the format of a Rockumentary (ala The Partridge Family), perhaps this site is the most appropriate format to share our tale. And thus it has been decided. Henceforth and forevermore, we shall disclose here the lessons we learned along the trail. Each week Jason will post one of his favorite recipes and I will try to get my travel stories from The Big Field Trip published. Enjoy!

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