A Bottle of Sand: A Trip to the Pyramids

As misleading as the title is, no, I have never gone to the pyramids, let alone Egypt. This post is regarding the first activity of lesson 5 of the History of Narrative Module where we had to do a group project regarding making a fictional story and explain it in relation to the concept of the "souvenir" - an object that forms a crucial basis for any trip to commemorate and remind us of our time and experiences there.

This is the lesson group activity as usual:

"Create a souvenir or a series of objects that narrate a journey to a real or fictitious place. Is this a traveller/tripper/tourist object?

Give a presentation of your new souvenir and describe your travels in first person.

Then share the real intent behind what you made."

For this project, our group did a story about yes, a bottle of sand that our main character picked up and brought home from the Pyramids of Giza. We envisioned the first person narrative to be because he is recalling his family vacation there as he looks at the bottle of sand. Here is the story:

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So when I was 9 I went on a family trip to Egypt. I remember being so excited because I had always dreamt of visiting the place. But by far I'll always remember the day we went visited the pyramids of Giza; they were exactly like the movies. It was so hot and the wind swept sand into our faces. It stung but after we took cover by the shade of the pyramids we recollected ourselves. It felt so surreal so I knew I had to bring something with me to immortalize our time there. We saw a vender earlier that day selling bottles and I asked my dad of we could get a small one to collect some sand there. They were so overpriced but much to the annoyance of the vendor we got it down quite a bit. I shuffled some sand into the bottle and now I can look at it from time to time. Vacations were one of the few times I got to spend with my family.

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Reflection: I actually honestly feel the story could have been more interesting and be based on a fictional object about a fictional fantasy location. But this was what we chose so it is what it is XD.

Though, I do like the simple idea of a glass bottle filled just half-way with sand. There is something more mysterious and unique about something half done or half filled than something full or empty in my opinion. There is perhaps a story behind such a state

Lastly, I would like to add that I like the concept of objects not just embodying memories and experiences metaphorically but also literally. My current art project is about a saga seed and I can't help but draw parallels between it and the concept of time and memory capsules - souvenirs from a bygone age...