5/18/10
I’ve really thought about three areas for my personal interest.
The first would be looking at churches. I’m not sure, at this point, what direction would I take this. I could compare and contrast parishioners’ use of churches from today back to a certain period.
The majority of places I wrote down on my initial list were churches and cathedrals. These religious facilities always boast amazing architecture, and the ones in the Eyewitness Travel guide seemed to be full of history. Perhaps instead of looking at the use of the buildings, I could look at how they were constructed and note similarities and differences across time and location.
Another idea I had was to look at the Jameson Distillery and the Guinness Storehouse. With all of the stereotypical attitudes towards Irish drinking, I might analyze how the Irish view themselves in relation to other countries. In other words, do the Irish really drink as much as we Americans perceive them to?
If I actually had a pint for all the people that have told me to have a pint of Guinness for them, I might as well not even board the plane for Dublin because I’d violate the alcohol policy so many times over.
As of this writing, I abstain from drinking. But I have a lot of college counterparts who I feel could rival an Irish drinker any day of the week. Regardless, I think this is a topic worth a brief study.
My last interest would be looking at martial arts in another country. It’s not listed anywhere in the packet or that I noticed in the guide, but I think that’s a good thing. I’ve been involved with Metamora Martial Arts for almost seven years, having been to dozens of tournaments and presented seminars and demonstrations all over the tri-country area.
While I can’t speak for all schools, I have a general idea of what is expected in American karate schools. I’m curious to find out how they are taught in Ireland, and how that might compare or contrast to how they are taught in the United States. Even here, even within the same school, different instructors expect different levels of performance from their students.
I’ve found a few schools in Dublin, and my guess is that Wild Geese Martial Arts is nearest to our hotel. If nothing else, I’d at least like to watch a class somewhere and get some information out of it.
With that, I think I have solid leads on picking a special interest for my second essay in Dublin.
