I am entering the Blog Your Way to Antarctica Contest from Quark Expeditions. The deal is, you write up a little bit about yourself online, post a picture, and try to get people to vote for you to win this prize. The person with the most votes by September 30 will win a free expedition/cruise for two to Antarctica!!!! The only catch is the winning person has to blog 24 times about their experience. And pssh, is that really a catch? I would jump at the chance to blog from freaking Antarctica!

(Here’s my profile, please vote for me, and I will love you forever)

This would be, in an addition to the MOST AWESOME VACATION IN THE WORLD, a fantastic opportunity for me as a journalist. It really is my goal to become a foreign correspondent of some sort- whether for a newspaper or magazine or a travel book company- I want to travel the world and write about everything and everyone I see and meet. In the current economic climate in journalism, I really thought I would have to give up my dream for a while. No one’s going to pay someone to travel around the world and write when blogs and the Internet allow anyone out there to write about their particular patch of the globe.

(Did I mention that my profile is right here, written and ready to be voted on?)

Honestly, winning this trip would help me keep my dream of someday being a foreign correspondent alive. So please, do a good deed to day and vote for me- I think the top person currently has a bit under 2,000 votes- I think I can get that with a bit of hard work. What do you think?

And I’m making a campaign promise right here and now that if I do indeed win this trip, I will kiss a penguin on the nose/beak/whatever he has. I will also dance with penguins. And serenade them with Alanis Morrisette’s “Head Over Feet” (a seemingly appropriate song, since penguins slide down ice hills, if I recall).

The only bummer is you have to register to vote. But it really doesn’t take that long. Don’t let such silliness stand in the way of you getting to see me kiss a penguin someday!

Please VOTE FOR RACHAEL to MEET PENGUINS IN 2010!