Traveling is obviously one of the greatest things someone can do in their life. Especially in our day in age where its almost an aspiration for a young individual to do a bit of traveling before they settle down with a spouse and children. One of the greatest aspects of traveling I have now discovered is knowing friends and/or family in a host county. Visiting allows us to see the country from their point of view and experience the daily routines of people in that particular place. I have been fortunate enough to know family from several parts of Ireland. Dublin, Shannon, and Cork are among them, but the majority of the family is from Waterford. I was able to travel to Ireland when I was in my early teens and then again during my late teens. That traveling turned into necessary steps in my life to open my perspectives of the world outside the United Sates. However, I can make that statement now; if someone would have asked me 10 years ago about my experiences in Ireland, I would have never appreciated the country and its citizens to its fullest. I would have rambled off some fond memories of the trips, but would have not had any depth behind them.
By signing up for the NIU at Oxford program, I was able to re-live my experiences in Ireland. I decided that I would take a visit to Dublin and stay with a cousin of mine before the program started.
While visiting with my cousin we got to talking about celebrities, popular TV shows, and trends. However, none of the topics originated in Ireland. They [my cousin and her roommate] brought up people and shows that originated in the United States. I was very surprised to hear that they do not even enjoy shows that are out of Ireland, or even Britain! They believe the life of celebrities is fascinating and even knew that Brad and Angelina were about to have their twins (a fact that I did not even know!)
Anyone can make that argument though; there are people from the U.S. that could have had the same discussion consisting of those that know about popular celebrities and those that don’t know…or care. But the shocking part of the conversation came when they both knew who was running for president, who is already out of the race, and who “should” be president of the United States. I didn’t even know what they formally called the head of their government! I questioned why that was and even asked them about it. “We’re taught your history. You’re not taught ours.” But they didn’t say it in a negative manor; they said it with a little laugh and said, “But you have all the interesting people there!” I think that if I would have asked an elder man or woman of Ireland the conversation would have gone extremely different.
It’s interesting to interact with the men and women of another country in the sense that it gives an insight to the world outside the U.S. I wouldn’t have even thought that people from other areas of the world new the popular culture and politics of our country. This is mainly because I never ventured to care about theirs. Through the ability to travel, my eyes have been opened. A quest for knowledge should begin to form when we realize we do not know as much as we should…at least that’s what happened to me through my travels.
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