Tara Tribune
May 11, 2008
Hear a broadcast version of this story!
Take a roadtrip with Josh!
Find out if Shania Twain is on tour
By Tara Bannow
UW-Eau Claire News Reporting and Writing
EAU CLAIRE, WI--Eau Claire sophomore Josh Zamzow is pretty easy to please. In fact, not much makes him happier than being in a desolate, wooded location miles from civilization.
The 19-year old named hiking and camping as his favorite pastimes, adding it gets difficult in the winter when he is forced to spend so much time indoors. Nonetheless, Zamzow does find ways to beat the winter blues by hanging out with his friends.
Each summer, Zamzow spends an entire month exploring some far off location, usually in the upper peninsula or in Boundary Waters, Minn. He’s gone all over, including to Canada. These trips, on which his uncles and cousins join him, always involve deep-woods camping and canoeing.
“It’s pretty ‘wildernessy’ out there,” he said. “There’s nobody else out there usually.”
On one of their trips, Zamzow and his cousins set up camp on a giant rock in the middle of a river. Once they had canoed out to the rock and set up their tents, a lightning storm began.
At that point, he said, there was little the group could do but throw on their ponchos and wait it out. Zamzow said this is one occurrence in his life which has always stood out to him.
“It’s not very exciting, but that’s my life,” he said.
The soft-spoken print journalism major said he aspires to one day write for a magazine such as Men’s Life, Esquire or a travel magazine.
Currently, he feeds his hunger for journalism by contributing to the Riverfront Review, a political newsletter at his university. While Zamzow said the newsletter receives a good deal of criticism, it gets better each time it is released. The Review has already come out with five issues. Although it tends to be a conservative publication, Zamzow said he is not too big into politics.
“I really just joined because they needed the help,” he said, adding that his political views tend to lean toward the conservative side. He said his roommate is very political and has influenced him in that respect. “He’s a good guy.”
Zamzow met his roommate in their physics class during his freshman year when the two were lab partners. When his lab partner got a job as a residence hall assistant in Horan Hall, Zamzow agreed to be his roommate.
“None of his friends wanted to live in an all-guys dorm,” Zamzow laughed, adding him and his roommate get along very well and often go running together.
Although Zamzow said he is not too much into sports, he enjoys running and only watches the football games leading up to the Super Bowl.
Zamzow said he is also a big fan of food. Having been to Mexico twice, he’s not too keen on the fake Mexican food that’s common in the U.S. He will only feed on the likes of more authentic Mexican food, adding that Eau Claire’s El Patio, is “just okay.” He also mentioned brats as one of his favorite foods.
Another thing that happens to be very important in Zamzow’s life is family. Having grown up near his many cousins, he said they were more like brothers and sisters than extended family members. Zamzow grew up in Princeton, Wisc., with his mother and now 9-year old sister.
He said one of his favorite things to do as a kid was go exploring in his grandparent’s attic. The two had a giant, Victorian mansion just two blocks away from his own home.
Needless to say, Zamzow has always been very close to his grandparents, and spent much of his childhood with them, when he wasn’t busy finding antique Civil War guns in their attic.
As for music, Zamzow said he loves country. His favorites are Shania Twain and Garth Brooks. Unfortunately however, music is not at the top of his list, as his Ipod is currently only at about one-fifth of its capacity.
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