art history

I've never been much of an art history buff. Well, I've never been much of an art person in general. The closest creative bone I have in my body is solely for writing, and you've seen how poorly that can go for me sometimes. My brain just seems to work in words rather than images.

However, most of you studying abroad probably have a keen eye for art. Even if you're slightly interested in going abroad, then it's a helpful trait to possess. Art is one of the main aspects used to showcase just how special each individual city is and how many famous people once lived there. It is the key to bragging rights for places across the globe as each strives to prove how the most influential artist and the most well-known work is housed "right where you are standing." It's mind-boggling, I know, especially when you've heard it five hundred times before in ten other cities.

In every country you visit and in every city you stay in throughout that country, you will go on a walking tour at least once. It's inevitable. As sure as I am that the sun will rise in the morning, I am just as sure you will find yourself staring at buildings where dead famous people were born, streets where stars once walked and exact benches where a renowned artist envisioned his masterpiece.

You may be convincing yourself that you will surely not take a walking tour of every city you visit. However, I assure you that you will. Somehow or another, you will be coerced into following a pink umbrella through the streets of one of the most "wonderful" places in the world, because walking tours are the bread and butter of any populous area. They showoff the most distinguished aspects of the city and culture while highlighting the overall splendor of the glorious state. Not only do they promote the art and architecture, but they also make every person on the tour so hungry and so tired that they are forced to stop in a nearby cafe for water, sandwiches and an espresso shot for much-needed energy and a little boosting of the local economy.

This is where the history part comes into the equation. You've seen so much art and so many places where famous people did famous things and left famous landmarks, and it all begins to blend together in a swirl inside your head until you have your own masterpiece in the making right in your frontal lobe. Nothing else in the world seems to matter except food and sleep, and frankly, you're toast. You're history. No wonder there are so many dead people buried in this town! They never made it out of the walking tour!

I do not want to get carried away with myself. Walking tours are actually wonderful, because this is where you learn all of the information you need about art and history and the limits of the human body. While the street address of Michelangelo's childhood home may be useless information to your college roommate, it is what makes your study abroad city special, and it is what will endear you to your new home. Then, in twenty years, you will be able to walk that same street with your kids and point out that same house and tell them about how you and your friend were laughing at the tour guide's accent when she said, "Michelangelo lived there."

Who knows, maybe in twenty years after you cure cancer, solve world hunger or win the nobel peace prize they'll be pointing out your apartment and saying, "____ ____ once lived here."

It may be history, but it's your city's history, and now it's a part of your history. Revel in it. Embrace it, and try to remember at least one-sixteenth of it.

Class dismissed.