We Interrupt This Broadcast To Announce... (Part 2)

"Gone tomorrow here today/Just in case you got somethin' to say" --"Goodbye Is All We Have"

"Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare" --Motto of the Dominican Order 

Well hello! Exciting announcement time again! (The crazy just keeps coming!)

My time in England is coming to an end (*tears*) but..........

Instead of going home, I'm going to be spending eight(ish) more weeks in Europe! 

BECAUSE...

I got a grant! :D 

(Which is very rare for an undergrad to get, so I'm feeling very blessed/humbled, lol.)

The Landscape Architecture Department at my home university is paying for me to spent eight weeks travelling around France, Spain, and Italy studying cloister gardens!!!

Specifically, The Cloister Gardens of the Dominican Order. 

(This is why I was doing Intense Study of Cloister Gardens as referred to in my January Wrap-Up, lol.) 

Essentially, this means that I get to spend the summer travelling around visiting Dominicans (and some Benedictines, because context) and getting nerdy about their gardens, which is incredible, and I seriously cannot believe it's happening. God is so good! 

(Am I a little nervous about travelling for eight weeks by myself? Yes. But I think/hope/pray that it's going to be great, and I'm gonna trust God on this one! Also, one of my cousins is joining me for the last three weeks, aka the Italy leg (Italy gets three weeks, France gets two, and Spain gets three...much to my relief, since I don't speak French. I don't speak Italian, either, but at least I can understand most of what's being said, lol.) 

What this means for the blog, though, because I'm going to be doing some Intense Travelling and Studies, and live blogging on top of that would be unreasonably intense, is that I have written enough blog posts to last through the summer and the time when I'm getting back to college (mostly finishing up the stuff I wanted to talk about while I was in England, haha) that are being scheduled ahead for your delectation over the summer. I'll hope to do a post about my experiences over the summer at the end of the summer once I'm settled back in to school, but we shall see! 

So! Enjoy the Written In Advance Thoughts of Samantha, and I'd appreciate your prayers for my travels! <3