What's in a name?

It took me a long time to figure out what to call this blog. I've been thinking about starting it pretty much all summer but I was unsure what to call it. This is my blog about perhaps the biggest step of my life so far, my move to Aarhus, Denmark to begin my MA degree in Journalism, Globalisation and Media. So I wanted the title to reflect the fact that this is a blog about culture, about a journey and about learning.

My dad came up with a few very funny suggestions like 'Aarhus, in the middle of our street', 'Nightbus to Aarhus' and similar Madness inspired titles. I'm not sure that any of those quite described the blog I was going for but it was funny all the same. I could have named it something to do with Vikings, something like 'Longboat to Viking land' but I don't think that quite fits either. I know there's a lot more to Denmark than Vikings as I am yet to discover.

My boyfriend inadvertently came up with an interesting idea for a name last weekend. We were talking about my trip and how I might get the opportunity to visit California, at which point he joked that American men might take a fancy to me, I said that I was not exactly an 'All American Girl' to which he replied 'no, you're a British Fruitcake, because you're nuts'. So my blog could have been entitled 'British Fruitcake Abroad' or something similar. Although I think that 'British Fruitcake' is quite a fitting description of me, using that in the blog title gives the impression that this blog is all about me being a bit crazy and eccentric abroad, which I promise you will feature a lot but it is not the main premise.

I want this blog to assist me in my journey to Denmark, with the preparation, settling in, subjects I will study and observations I make. In my second year I will specialise in 'Journalism Across Cultures' so I think that this blog will help me to record my own immersion into the new culture of Denmark and help me to think about the challenges facing journalists and journalism across the international community.

The title 'Wanderlust' evokes everything that I want to write about. Wanderlust is a loan-word from German which became a British word in 1902. It literally translates as a desire to wander or travel. This is how I feel at the moment, I have a desire to go out and discover new cultures, learn about how the world is changing, and how journalism fits into that. Also the fact that this is a word that has travelled across cultures, from German to English reflects how I will lend myself to different cultures and pick up different meanings and ideas along the way.

I'd love this blog to be an interactive experience for the readers too, I'd like to be challenged for my ideas so would encourage anyone and everyone to comment and to ask questions. The only thing that I will not tolerate is personal abuse, please by all means attack my opinions and ideas, attack the things I can change but please don't turn that into maliciousness.

It'd be great if you could follow my journey and share in my desire for new experiences and challenges.