Expectations and Fear

 

It’s a bit scary traveling this far across the world. I’ve done it before, but that was in 2003, and I can’t lie; I don’t remember anything from when I was two years old. So, this is almost an entirely new experience for me, which is scary due to the lack of knowledge to work off of.

The expectations of those around me have also fed this feeling.

Throughout the holidays, my friends and family have been asking me what I was most excited about with this trip, and I have found myself unable to give them an answer I am satisfied with. I’ve found that it is difficult to know what expectations I would have while prepping for this Study Away trip. I have realized that I don’t know yet what I should be excited about because of how much I know will happen within the three weeks this class will travel throughout the country. The country of Italy is incredibly rich in history, and it would be impossible to fit all of it into even a year’s worth of travel. So, how could I possibly find the single thing I am most excited about?

As of right now, I don’t think I can.

But that’s okay, and I realize it’s okay not to know what to look forward to. Even more so, it’s okay to be nervous about the trip.

I’m ready for this trip to start; upon posting this blog post, it will be roughly 28 hours until it's time to fly.

The hours need to go by faster. I’m ready to see what this January will bring, and hopefully, by the end, I’ll be able to say what I was most excited about.

-        Austin K

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Digital Scrapbook of My Time in Italy

Image
It's astonishing to think that our incredible adventure through Italy is over! We started in Venice and worked our way south through Orvieto, Fontecchio, the Amalfi Coast, Rome, and many places in between. Here, I will share some of my favorite pictures and memories from each location. Venice We started out in Venice where we took tours of various sites such as the locations of historical factories and the Venice arsenal. While in Venice we had a free day, and I went to the islands called Murano and Burano. Murano is known for its beautiful glass and also has a really nice glass museum.  the island of Burano ~ known for its colorful buildings a canal in Venice a sunset we saw while on the taxi boat on the way back from Burano a cat crossing a bridge in Burano   a gondola! Venice is full of tiny walkways and beautiful bridges and canals the group I went with to Burano Orvieto After Venice, we continued on to Orvieto. Orvieto is a small town perched high on a hill. This location...
Read more

Environmental Hazards in Italy

Image
      While in Italy, we discussed and visited a few locations that have had notable environmental hazards. The most prominent one, and one which most people who haven't ever even been to Italy, is the eruption at Pompeii. We took a trip to Pompeii and got a tour of the site and it was shocking to me how huge the site was. It seemed like it stretched on and on and would take hours and hours to explore the whole thing. It was so interesting seeing everything that was preserved at this site. So many things were excavated and are still being excavated to this day. It was very interesting in the article about the Pompeiian vineyards reading how they were able to make casts in the holes left by decayed organic material in order to learn about not just the people, but also the plants and animals in this area. For instance, they were able to make casts of the roots of trees to identify them and could even see the mathematical precision the romans used, planting vines exactly fou...
Read more

Looking Back on Italy- Emma Penick

Image
      After spending three weeks in Italy, I learned so much about the History and Present day culture. In terms of what I was expecting, there were some things that certainly were how I thought they'd be. For instance, the views. The beauty of Italy was just as incredible if not even more so than I was expecting, which given that that's what I was most excited for, was definitely a wonderful thing to experience! In my first post I also talked about the food, and while there were many tomato centric dishes, as expected, there were also a plethora of dishes I had never heard of that were absolutely amazing! My favorites of these were the pistachio pasta and the truffle pasta.      One thing that I was not expecting how BIG the portion sizes would be!  Though, by the end I did get used to having bread, then pasta, then a main course, then a dessert, somehow! Also the fact that there would be bread available at basically every meal, I never thought ...
Read more