VENICE IMAGINED

What will it be like to see up close the history of a thousand years packed onto 118 small islands? I know what these islands look like from the outside, having been there, but this eleven week trip to Italy will show me what is inside the beautiful, mystical character of Venice, the so called "City of Light." During my past visits to Venice, which occurred nearly a decade ago to tell you the truth, I witnessed the famous maneuvering of the canals, tasted four-scoop gelatos while strolling the Rialto Bridge, spoke to a friendly glass blower on the island of Murano, and listened to a Saint Marc's Square quartet for hours. The architecture could not escape me either, not with parents to point it out that is. I enjoyed the usual European architectural flourishes that America rarely produces with a respectful yet almost jealous eye, not to mention reveled the structures that were so old they stood crooked or broken. The people were also a large part of my interest in Venice. People were friendly, mysterious in their cultural jargon, and by far luckier than I was to live in heaven. Things always look good to tourists; it is their vacation after all.

Ten years ago I saw Venice as a perfectly modern world that had been blessed with famous historical relics and the graceful touch of age and distinction; looking back, I realize that my impression of Venice has been transformed, possibly by media, or maybe even by my own memories repeating themselves too often and becoming littered with new, imposing knowledge about history and life. To the current me, Venice is quaint. As a lifestyle it is trapped by the historical and economic value of unconquerable hindrances, and forced to accept a worldwide pressure to display itself due to the very things that bring it charm and a sense of culture to its inhabitances. On the up side, life in a city somewhat apart from the modern, western world provides peace that is always present and full of passion; it is a peace reliant upon the kindness of both natural and economic tides, though, and I have no idea yet what that may mean. I imagine that my walks through Venice this semester will reveal a city happy in its pace of life but full of shadows of past and current conflict. I see the touristic shops full of delicate, brightly colored glass that, for all I am aware, accurately portray the inner spirit of Venice; which I hope is true because the idea at least is beautiful. When learning about Venice's past and present, I will travel across the water to find clues of the truth and will do my best at learning to read it. On the streets and on the water I will observe the mix of tourists and natives, discovering how each sees the other and where they are wrong and right. I will slowly fall into an intermediate catagory that understands the mindsets of both, and in this position I will be able to acheive a broader view, though inheritently inaccurate in detail, that will encompass all major aspects of Venice. The antiquated Venetian lifestyle, I think, will come to mean the preservance of our past, a beautiful example, but at the same time I will see that its slow decay can enlighten us to the mesh our world is becoming on the cultural front. My time abroad will also highlight the value we should place on preserving our individual cultures and offering respect to those of others. These ideas may be an overlying goal for my trip abroad, but as I traverse Venice and its history, I will keep these thoughts in mind to see them validated or changed. My focuses will be diverse, though, and any attempt to sum them up in a main theme will probably fail.

So, what will I see when I look back into the City of Light? I will no longer see a touristic utopia, that I know, because what I see will be better. A very real city that offers the the world a vivacity not created by an overactive imagination but by our own past and by the imaginations of the millions of people who have lived in and visited it. In Venice the imagination has become tangible through the work of a thousand years and, more importantly now, the work of the Venetians who make that image home. I will see that the Venetian idea is real, and that perhaps the idea of Venice serves merely as a reminder that our ideas and our steadfast belief in them are what make up our realities. This is what I hope to find, because this seems like the best scenario. Will it be better? Will it be worse? It won't be long until I look into the shadows and find out.

HELLO

Having never blogged before, I find my debut here a challenge. Mostly, I want to be readable, in other words, interesting, and in doubting my ability to be so, I set myself up to fail. Doubt instills no will to try. But my longing to achieve remains, so I am going to try ignoring my doubt, how about that? We shall see.
My name is Audrey, and I am a student. Right now, my academic home is Purdue University, although anyone reading this blog, except for my course companions perhaps, will probably find that difficult to believe. The reason? It's September 17th, West Lafayette is busy, yet I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, with no 8 a.m. alarm set to get me going and actually with nothing to do tomorrow. I might wake up around 9, that's when the cat usually barges through my door to press his wet nose to my chin, forehead, cheeks, and anywhere else my skin is bare of covers. He's my sister's cat, Hermes, and I think he's half monkey, but that's irrelevant. Momma and I might run out to do a few errands in the afternoon before returning home for a delayed lunch. Later, I'll write a bit, work on my messy room, then have dinner and retire, again with no alarm; matter of fact, I unplugged my alarm earlier because I simply don't need it, it had been blinking from the last power outage for a week anyway.
Lazy? At least is it for a college student. I have to admit that I've wished more than once in the past three weeks that I was in West Lafayette with a pile of biology books surrounding me and dinner with a friend coming up in maybe an hour and a half. I do miss my bike as well. It's in the garage, but I don't have any crowds to beat. You may be wondering why I have chosen not to return to school? The answer is that Venice trumps West Lafayette, Indiana. In two weeks, Venice is where I will be. Keep reading this blog, and you will see that I am on the verge of possibly the best semester of my Purdue career, although I hope it's not, (meaning I want my semesters to get better and better, not for this one to turn out terrible). I will no longer be lazy in two weeks. In Venice, I will be studying, or devouring because I know that it's going to be a lot of fun, the history and character of an amazing city. On top of that, I think I will learn a lot about myself due to the abundance of required writing assignments, including this blog, in which I will analyze not only what I see in Italy but also how I see it as an individual. All of these assignments will be posted here for anyone's critique.
This first post, merely an introduction and a warm-up, has taken me a while to write in truth. I had two sizable interruptions caused by the sudden, rapid approach of a fat, little spider that almost conquered me, twice. Very scary. In the end, I won... and finished writing.
To the people who knew me before they read this: you are not obligated to read everything I post... seriously; but if you do read something, you can be cool and leave comments. To everyone: Thanks for reading. Assignments are next.