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Hi! My name is Max. I have just spent a year traveling around the world, with my Mom and Dad of
course. I can’t wait to
share it with you! That’s
why I created this web site . You can follow my journey and “tag along”
…like an electronic stowaway. Together we can explore the world and
learn all about the different countries and people. I will take lots of
pictures so you can share the experience with me.
There are three journals on the site. Mine (the best one), Mom's and Dad's. There are links to them on lots of pages, but you can always get to them from here.
Here
are some links that you may find helpful if you're planning your own world
tour:
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Here I am in Greece. All
About Me… I am 9 years old and live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My school is Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and I just love it. I have lots of great friends and they have the best teachers. Tell your Mom and Dad if they are worried about me missing school next year not to worry. I just finished third grade but I won’t be 9 until October 2nd. My Mom and Dad say that they wish they had waited one year before they put me in kindergarten. So, I have gone on a trip around the world and when I get back, I will be in fourth grade. My Mom will be the teacher while I am traveling to make sure I remember everything I have learned!
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Also, I have a big sister named Cara.
She is 22 years old and lives in Durham. She just got a great job and will
be staying here to work. She is going to visit us in Paris because she
really likes clothes and stuff. I
am going to miss her a lot! My
dog, Jessie, is going to
visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindy for a year in Arizona. They have three
other dogs so it will be like summer camp…really hot summer camp! My Mom
says she owes them…Big Time! My Mom and Dad have been working really
hard for many years trying to save some money. They both really liked
their jobs but said there was more to life than working and shopping. Oh!
And they really missed spending lots of time with me!
So I asked them to quit their jobs and come with me on a big
adventure. (Since I’m not a teenager yet, I still like being with them a
lot!) They said, “Yes”! So off we go! Here's the first story about us from the Chapel Hill Herald (reprinted with permission): Family leaves for dream trip Carrying only their backpacks, couple and their son are taking a year off from to see the worldBy JEAN BOLDUC CHAPEL HILL - A local family has packed up their dream and hopped a plane for Amsterdam, kicking off a yearlong trek that will take them across Europe, the Middle East, India, down under to Australia and back again. Mark and Julie Lewis of Chapel Hill left the United States on Saturday to take their 8-year-old son, Max to all those locations and more, fulfilling a dream they've talked about for many years. Last fall, Julie Lewis, 38, suffered the sudden and still unexplained loss of her younger brother, Tom, who died of heart failure in his sleep. He was 36. "You think you're going to have all this time to do these things," Lewis said. "You're not guaranteed that." After her brother's death, Lewis and her husband took stock of their lives and their finances. They concluded that they could afford to take a break from their lives for a year. In February, Julie Lewis resigned her position as director of sales and marketing for Generations Family Health Plan, Mark Lewis made plans to sell the real estate magazine he published and the two started mapping out their trip. Mark Lewis used the Internet heavily to make travel arrangements. When he first started exploring the details of planning the trip, he had some concerns about the expense of making so many one-way flight arrangements. Somewhat injurious to the ego was the realization that so many people take trips like this that there are several Web-based travel companies which specialize in setting up around-the-world itineraries. The total cost of the family's air fare was just more than $6,000 - about what it would cost to fly a family of four to Hawaii for a week at the peak of tourist season. "People say that we're being so brave. We're not," Mark Lewis said. "We didn't sell our house and give up everything we have. Some people do that, and that really takes guts." If not for the unprecedented growth in the stock market, he said, the Lewis family likely would be home in Chapel Hill. They have rented their home to another family, stored their cars, sent the dog to a relative in Arizona and hit the road. Max, a rising fourth-grader at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in Chapel Hill, will miss a year of school to experience world geography in person. His parents say that missing a year of school actually comes at a good time for Max. Their son was born in October 1991, but was a premature baby with a December due date. That has meant that Max is socially and emotionally always a little young for his peers in school. "If we had it to do over again, we'd have delayed enrolling him for an extra year," Mark Lewis said. Instead of repeating a grade somewhere down the road, Max will have an entire year with his parents as his teachers, walking through the pyramids in Egypt, instead of studying a chapter about them. He'll sit beside children in Nepal as they struggle to learn the basics of reading and writing. Julie Lewis is from Colorado, where friends of her parents live half the year and spend the other half in Nepal building schools and teaching. "Their work is amazing," Lewis said. "They spend half the year raising money and the other half spending it on the other side of the world. You can build a school in Nepal for less than $20,000." Teaching Max things that only experience can provide is an exciting prospect for his parents, but for Julie Lewis, who is as funny and charming as she is razor sharp in the world of corporate marketing, the project is not without its intimidations. Unfamiliar social customs, illness or injury are at the top of Lewis' worry list. "It would be completely different if it were just the two of us," she said. But traveling with a child means those added steps of precaution are important. And not just for safety's sake. "We will be Max's playmates for a year," she said. "On the way to Italy from Australia, we have a seven-hour layover in India. I look around here at home, with the TV, video games, the computer - all that stuff - and he says, 'Mom, there's nothing to do ...' and then I think of that layover. That's an 11,000-mile day." Determined to travel light, the family is bringing only what they can carry in their rather substantial backpacks. Sticking to minimal clothing essentials, they also packed a laptop computer, digital still and video cameras and a first aid kit. Saying goodbye to their friends for a year wasn't as hard as it might have been a decade ago. Thanks to their high-tech capabilities, they'll continue to be in touch with family and friends via e-mail. Using digital photography, they can send along pictures and video clips as well. And what happens when they come home? The Lewises are hopeful that they can find work in the nonprofit sector, but they're firm in their commitment to keep an open mind. "We don't want to know what we're going to do when we get back," Julie Lewis said. "You don't go to Nepal where the average income is $150 per year and come home unchanged." Where will they go next? The Chapel Hill Herald will be following the Lewis family on their yearlong trip around the world with an article on them and where they are on the second Sunday of each month. Starting Aug. 13, The Chapel Hill Herald also will sponsor the Where's Max? Geography Quiz for elementary school children in the area. Each month we'll ask three questions about Max Lewis' new location to help young readers learn some geography skills and have some fun, too. The questions are best suited for fourth- and fifth-grade students, but all elementary children are invited to play. Good resources for finding the answers are available at area libraries, on the Internet and often at the kitchen table. Parents and grandparents can help by guiding children to good resources to discover the answers on their own. Each month, the quiz will contain three questions related to Max's location. For example, Max has just arrived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Here are three questions we might ask: * What body of water lies north of Amsterdam? * Which city is closer: London or Madrid? * Can you name the famous young diary writer who hid here from 1942-44 with her family? Answers: 1. The North Sea; 2. London; 3. Anne Frank.
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