Explanations and Preparations

Since first blog posts "always" have to be explanatory...

In a little over four weeks I will be flying, for the fourth time in my life, to Europe.
I am excited, but, to tell you the truth, I am also exceedingly nervous. Why? I'm not for sure. I've been to Europe before, and, in particular, I've been on the Humanities Europe Study Abroad tour before too. I know how a day can feel like three, a week can feel like a month, and four weeks, a lifetime. Home becomes nothing but a dream of a different life, and right now that's the part I'm nervous about...besides the anxiety that I won't be prepared or won't survive.
Yes, I know how ridiculous my anxiety is (I've lived with it for years, so we've gotten to know each other really well) and I also know that I should be dancing-on-the-walls ecstatic about going to Europe. I know it's a privilege, trust me. If you had talked to me six-ish months ago about it, I would have showed strong signs of wanderlust. I'm still suffering, but I'm also suffering from more anxiety/stress.

Now for the "fun" explanatory stuff...
As a brief intro, I'm taking three tour courses, nine credits total: Humanities 201 (The Arts in Western Culture: Prehistoric-Renaissance), Humanities 202 (The Arts: Renaissance-Modern), and Humanities 385 (Travel Studies with a specific project to study). I'm super excited just to get these three required credits for my major in Humanities completed, besides the fact that I'll do it in Europe with a lot of opportunities to research things I'm most interested in.
I'm a big history nerd, particularly with respect to the Middle Ages. So, I was hoping to focus specifically on something relating to the Middle Ages (like Medieval architecture) for my 385 class, but my dad, who, as a professor in the Humanities department, is one of the three professors directing the tour this year and is teaching 385 and 201, convinced me to change it to symbolism, particularly Medieval and Renaissance religious and nobility symbolism. (Yeah, it's cooler...)
My dad also persuaded me to create this blog (well, actually, he didn't, but his suggestions and my logic did) for the project portion of 385 and the other classes. The result will be a lot of pictures and information on the symbolism I find and the other art I'll see and study for 201 and 202.

Curious about some of the things I'm thinking of seeing? I created a Pinterest board: Europe 2014. (I'll admit it, I figured I might as well use Pinterest more productively so my dad can't get on my case about wasting time on it.)