Journal for tbrounst

America is a little obsessed with news. We have four or five 24 hour news channels. We have the morning news, the evening news and the 11:00 news. We have several magazines devoted to news. We have a lot of newspapers, though they’re becoming rarer, like Bigfoot or good Mariners seasons. Even our parody news is widely popular—think about how many people read The Onion or watch The Daily Colbert Report Show. This is something I never really thought much of, but of course it’s different in Ireland. It just took me forever to notice.

Man, being done with everything but still having classes is weird. Like, today, I sat in class and listened and such, but I had no reason to. I’m done. I wrote the essays. I’m making plans for summer. I’m just in limbo. I guess I could revise my essays, but I really don’t feel like it. And, of course, the grades I get here don’t actually count towards my GPA if I don’t want them to. They’ll still show up on my transcript, but what math grad school is going to care I got a B in Medieval Europe while in Ireland? I think they’ll care much more about my (so far) 4.0 in math classes, nine on the Putnam, a summer REU, and however I do on the GREs. Speaking of which, I should take those.

On another note, I unfortunately can’t go to Stockholm. It just didn’t work out with flights. Instead I’m just going to fly to Prague on the 6th. It’s a little depressing—I was excited to see it—but whatever. It was the magic kitten in the rest of this trip. On another note, I’m bringing “magic kitten” back.

So, that’s the news in my life.

Huh…news. That makes me think of something. America is a little obsessed with news. We have four or five 24 hour news channels. We have the morning news, the evening news and the 11:00 news. We have several magazines devoted to news. We have a lot of newspapers, though they’re becoming rarer, like Bigfoot or good Mariners seasons. Even our parody news is widely popular—think about how many people read The Onion or watch The Daily Colbert Report Show. This is something I never really thought much of, but of course it’s different in Ireland. It just took me forever to notice.

Pretty soon upon arriving, I started looking at newspapers. I didn’t see any like I’m used to, they all looked more in the form of tabloids. I didn’t think much of it, though. I figured that was the style of papers in Ireland. When I read the headlines they all seemed a little silly and exaggerated—like tabloids—but I wrote it off. Whenever we went to a store that sold magazines I’d look for an issue of Time (my favorite magazine) but rarely find one. In fact, I would rarely find a “news section” in the magazines. They do, however, have a large number of…uh…let’s say “men’s interest” magazines. In my defense, they’re displayed surprisingly openly.

As for TV news, there’s one channel that’s a 24 hour news channel, and that’s all I’ve seen. No evening news, no nightly news, nothing. I haven’t even seen ads for this stuff. I’ve seen a decent selection of channels (though Sky1 is my favorite) and none of them advertise news.

So, Ireland seems to be less interested in the news than we are. They don’t watch it nearly as much, they don’t have many news magazines, and rarely have news sections in their magazine racks, and I question the quality of their newspapers. To be fair on that last point, I haven’t looked at them too hard, or made much of an effort finding good ones. The only newspaper I’ve read is the NUIG school newspaper, but that one is quite terrible.

So what does this mean? I don’t know. Perhaps the news obsession in Ireland never emerged as it did in America. Now in America it’s such a part of culture that it won’t go away easily, while here the apathy makes it hard for this news obsession to take hold. Or, perhaps, the only channels I’m getting/watching are the ones that don’t have news, and the reason there’s no news section on the magazine rack is because they would have to import those magazines so they can’t turn a profit on them. Or perhaps there’s something I’m missing entirely. I thought it was an interesting point, though, that I haven’t seen news nearly as prominently as it is in America. Just one more of those little differences, subtly but there. Just like so many others from this trip.

Finally, I love Ireland.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On a completely unrelated note, I’ll talk about travel plans. I booked my ticket for Scotland yesterday. It was pretty expensive: €15. Yeah, I get to go to Scotland for €15. Well, by the end it cost €30 because of random and crazy charges (::shakes fist at Ryan Air::), but that’s still awesome.

I thought I should probably post something today, since I didn’t post anything yesterday and I’m theoretically updating daily (ignore the fact that this has become every other daily at best!), but I’m still at the same problem I’ve been in for awhile now. Nothing’s happening and I have no deep insights about Ireland. I finished my last essay today, so all I have left in the way of graded assignments for the semester is one test. I might revise one or two of my essays, but I’m pretty lax about it. I could do more work for my Medieval Europe one specifically, and I’ll try and do that tomorrow I guess. Everyone else seems to be on essay two or three right now, so everyone else has been super busy.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ll talk about travel plans. I booked my ticket for Scotland yesterday. It was pretty expensive: €15. Yeah, I get to go to Scotland for €15. Well, by the end it cost €30 because of random and crazy charges (::shakes fist at Ryan Air::), but that’s still awesome. I’m going to be flying into Edinburgh on April 30th and stay their until May 6th. One problem with that, though, is there seems to be no free hostel rooms in Edinburgh on the 2nd or 3rd. So, I’ll just hop on a train to Glasgow for a few days. After this I’m going to go visit Maggie in Prague until the 12th or so, when I can (hopefully) go visit Bobby in Amsterdam. One problem with visiting Maggie, though, is that apparently there are very few flights in and out of Prague. For example, there’s no flight from Scotland to Prague.

There is, however, a flight from Scotland to Stockholm, and one from Stockholm to Prague. So, might as well spend the night there! How many opportunities will I have, really, to do this sort of thing? So, my plan looks like this: leave Galway for Edinburgh on April 30th. On May 2nd travel to Glasgow. On May 4th return to Edinburgh. On May 5th fly out to Stockholm. On May 6th fly to Prague. On May 12th fly or train to Amsterdam. Thinking about it, I could probably just fly to any place on mainland Europe and then train to Prague, but at this point I just really want to visit Stockholm. Maybe I’ll get a syndrome! Those kidnappers sure look cute…Anyway, I’ll look at fairs, maybe I’ll fly from Stockholm or maybe I’ll train it. It really doesn’t make a difference. Either way this trip will be awesome. And that’s only the first half! Stay tuned as I work out the details for the second half.

I’m sort of like a nomad now.

One thing I was wondering, though, is if I should bring my laptop. It’s realistically the most important thing I own right now, so if it got lost, damaged or stolen that would be terrible. Beyond that, it’s pretty heavy and takes up a fair amount of space. I’m going to be traveling for around five weeks, and I’m not sure I want to lug it around that entire time. On the other hand, it’s a very powerful tool, a good way to keep in contact with everyone back home (hello internet!), holds photos, and is a good way to keep a journal of what I’m doing. I’m not going to have a phone for these travels, so without a computer I’d have almost no way to get in contact with people easily or regularly. I’d probably use internet cafes, but I still would be pretty hit or miss on if I’m on.

It’s a tough call, and I’d like it if people with more travel experience could give me some advice. Should I bring Compy (my computer), or not?

Thanks for the help!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Answers to the Putnam questions I posted a couple days ago.

I wanted to post answers to the Putnam questions, but hadn't bothered sitting down and writing them yet. Fortunately, Nicole left a comment where she sent the questions to a friend of hers (boyfriend?) and he was able to solve them very nicely. His answers are pretty much perfect, so I figured I'd just copy the comment below and talk about the answers he gave briefly.

Hey Tom,

I sent Michael the 2 math questions you wrote and he'd like to know what you think of his answers. So here they are:

Question 1
Barbara has the winning strategy. At each turn Barbara should duplicate Alan's entry in the vertically reflected cell. i.e. if Alan puts value x in position (i,j), Barbara should then put value x in position (2008 - i + 1, j). This will always be possible, because cell (2008 - i + 1, j) is full if and only if cell (i,j) is full. At the end of the game, this will result in an array that is vertically symmetric. Thus, every row is repeated at least twice and the rows are NOT linearly independent. It follows that the determinant must therefor be zero and Barbara wins.

[Tom--this is almost exactly what I put. I think the biggest difference is I said (2009 - i ,j) cell, and I didn't use the term linearly independent. That's a beautiful answer, must better than mine.]

Question 2
Take x = y = z; so 3 f(x,x) = 0 -> f(x,x) = 0 for all x.
Now, take x != y = z; so f(x,y) = -f(y,y) - f(y,x) -> f(x,y) = -f(y,x) for all x,y.
Define g(x) = f(x,0) thus:
f(x,y) = -f(y,z) - f(z,x) for all z.
So: f(x,y) = -f(y,0) - f(0,x) = f(x,0) - f(y,0) = g(x) - g(y) for your choice of g.

[Tom--once again, this is perfect. I think it could have used a tad more explanation, but I also like making my steps super obvious when I write proofs. I think he would have also gone into more detail if he was turning it in for credit. Either way, that's a perfect answer and has step and clear thought. I had the first two steps, and probably could have worked out the rest if I was doing it directly, but I got caught up in trying to prove it by contradiction and couldn't get it to work.]

Wow, Micheal is really good at this.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tom phones in his blog tonight and writes about his schedule for next year.

I don’t think I’ve talked about what classes I’ll be taking next semester. I should do that. If you have any advice, I’d love to hear it!

Complex Analysis: I really loved taking Real Analysis I, and am sad I couldn’t take Real II since I’m in Ireland, so I figured this is the next best thing. It’s basically proving calculus with imaginary numbers. Seems simple enough. Plus, if it’s anything like Real, it’ll be a lot of fun. It’s lucky I love Real, it’s supposed to be one of the hardest math classes.

Intro Programming: I’ve wanted to learn how to program for a long time, so this seemed like a good time to actually do it. Also, my dad really wanted me to take a programming class. Also, when I talked to Andrea my math buddy about my Putnam score she told me TAKE COMPUTER SCIENCE CLASSES (in capital letters). Also, my ideal jobs would be (in roughly this order) Google, Microsoft, Intel, Nitendo, Microsoft—Xbox division, and Wizards of the Coast. Of those, the first three are heavy technology jobs (though they love math too), and I assume I’d have to program for the fourth and fifth on that last. So, seems like a good fit. Plus, it’ll probably be in the newly constructed Ford Hall that had no cost overruns…Jack.

Intro Psych: I’ve wanted to take psych for a long time, I just couldn’t fit it into my schedule. Now I can! Mom will be so proud. Also, Kachina. I’m hoping it’ll focus on social psychology which is really cool. Either way, I think I’m going to enjoy the class and it’ll be nice to leave Collins—er, Ford Hall—for a bit.

American Lit: I’m going for an English minor, and at the start of this semester all I had was a 300 level English class. I was hoping I could get credit for that here with my 400 level seminar, but at the start of the semester I was told I wouldn’t. Just recently I e-mailed Gretchen Moon (the English chair) about my class and she said it would get me credit for the minor. So, I’m done with the minor! Still, I felt like I should take an English class of some sort, and this looked like the most interesting that would also fit in my schedule. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what to expect from it, but it should be fun. At the very least, it won’t be too hard (it’s 100 level), and sounds better than some of the 300 level classes I thought I’d have to take (Chaucer or Faulkner, for example).

So, that’s my plan. What do you think?

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

So, on another note that’s completely unrelated to Ireland—outside of the fact they’re both awesome—I got my Putnam score back. I’m going to keep you in suspense a bit longer before I say how I did, though if you really want to know you can check my Facebook, and explain what the Putnam is first. The Putnam is a giant, super hard math test that takes six hours on a Saturday. Students from all across the country take it; some of the best mathematical minds in colleges do it. I say this because I want to emphasize that anyone taking the test knows what they’re doing. The test is 12 questions, each worth 10 points for a total of 120 points. Over half the people who take the test earn a zero. I’ve only met one person who got 10 or more points, and he’s now a math professor, and a brilliant one at that.

I should probably write something today. What with not writing anything yesterday and all. In my defense, I went bowling for a friend’s birthday last night. Uh…the kind of bowling that involves pins and a ball. Not the kind that…you know…Anyway, the first game and the last two frames of the third game were good. We’ll never speak of the rest.

Before I get too much into what I want to write about today, I feel like I should make a comment about my blog post “Response” from a couple days ago. I’ve had a couple people talk to me saying they hoped it wasn’t them I was talking about, or something similar to that. Don’t worry; if you read this blog I wasn’t talking about you! I had three people specifically in mind when I wrote that post, and I know none of them read the blog (at least, not anymore). One of them, who I was talking to as I wrote that post, said she kept forgetting I was in Ireland. Considering that, I shouldn’t expect a speedy—or any—response, I guess. Still, it only seems polite that if someone says “dia duit” you say “dia is muire duit,” if you know what I mean. Everyone who reads this blog semi-regularly, though, doesn’t fall into this category. You’ve been doing a great job at responding!

So, on another note that’s completely unrelated to Ireland—outside of the fact they’re both awesome—I got my Putnam score back. I’m going to keep you in suspense a bit longer before I say how I did, though if you really want to know you can check my Facebook, and explain what the Putnam is first. The Putnam is a giant, super hard math test that takes six hours on a Saturday. Students from all across the country take it; some of the best mathematical minds in colleges do it. I say this because I want to emphasize that anyone taking the test knows what they’re doing. The test is 12 questions, each worth 10 points for a total of 120 points. Over half the people who take the test earn a zero. I’ve only met one person who got 10 or more points, and he’s now a math professor, and a brilliant one at that.

I got a 9! (To quote Collin Starr: “that’s an excited 9, not 9 factorial”).

This is the second highest score anyone I know has gotten. In fact, I only know of three people who got above a five, and two of those people are math professors now (and one is me, of course...I see a future vocation!). Keep in mind how many very smart math majors I know when thinking about this. Of the students at Willamette this year, only three of us scored points, and the other two students, both incredibly smart, scored two points each. I was in the top 1500 scores in the nation.

That said, I’ll be honest: I got lucky. I got a question that I knew pretty well what I had to do, made up a theorem that I thought was real (turns out it was!) and hoped it worked. On a different day, or with a different question, I might not have been able to do it. I know I got lucky with that nine. Still, I don’t mean to downplay this, it’s really incredible; I just want to put some perspective on it. Either way, that’s an incredible score and I’m really proud of it.

So, what now? Most notably, grad schools know about the Putnam. No, they won’t take it instead of the GREs, but it’s good bragging rights, and makes me look a lot better. This will help me get scholarships and—hopefully—a stipend for grad school. No matter what it makes me a much more attractive student and I’m much more likely to get into grad school and get money for doing so.

In case you care, I included the question I got right (or, at least, the one I think I got right) and one question I really liked and almost solved, but tried to do by contradiction instead of directly (for you non-math people: I screwed up at the very first step). Hope you math-y people enjoy!

I’m just really happy. That was some very good news and I’m really excited. I never thought I’d do that well!

The problem I got:
Alan and Barbara play a game in which they take turns filling entries of an initially enpty 2008x2008 array. Alan plays first. At each turn, a player chooses a real numebr and places it in a vacant entry. The game ends when all the entries are filled. Alan wins if the determinant of the resulting matrix is nonzero; Barbara wins if it is zero. Which player has a winning strategy?

And, no, the answer “play a better game” is not a solution, though it should be.

The question I didn’t get but liked. Note, that after a semester of Foundations of Modern Mathematics, Justin should be able to solve this question. I’m going to slip it into his final:
A1. Let f : R^2 -> R be a function such that f(x,y)+f(y,z)+f(z,x)=0 for all real numbers x,y, and z. Prove that there exists a function g : R -> R such that f(x,y) = g(x)-g(y) for all real numbers x and y.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I feel like I should have something to talk about today, but I really don’t, so instead I’ll just give a quick summary of the past couple days.

Well, I feel like I should have something to talk about today, but I really don’t, so instead I’ll just give a quick summary of the past couple days.

So, Saturday night was a big rugby game. If Ireland won they would grand slam the season, which means they had a perfect season. So, we watched the first half then went to the college bar and watched the last 20 minutes. It was a great game. When we left at half time Ireland was down 6-0, when we got to the bar it was 12-14 in favor of Ireland. Then, with seven minutes left in the game, Scotland (the evil team) scored so it was 15-14. Those were some intense seven minutes after that. Ireland ended up scoring again, got the lead, and barely held onto it. In the end, it came down to one field goal kick for the Scots and they missed. The bar exploded in chanting, screaming, and a surprising amount of bouncing. It was a really great game and I’m glad I got to watch it.

After that we went out to dinner, then others were going to a pub. It was a fun group, and I wanted to join them; it would have been nice to spend a night out. However, Scott had been talking to me and we had set up an evening of DotA (okay, midafternoon of DotA for him) and I was really excited for that. It was Saturday night, so the internet wouldn’t be too bad, and I was looking forward to hanging out with my friends from home. Like old times.

Of course, I got back and the internet was out. Great. I missed hanging out in Irish pubs with friends shortly after great victory and missed hanging out with friends. It sort of sucked. I ended up playing DotA by myself for a bit, then crashing. It wasn’t great, but it was an okay end to the night.

Sunday was just spent working. Between my medieval Europe essay and a write up for my presentation the other day (which I should talk about…uh, long story short I was a crazy domineering woman with a stick. You could say I was Bernarda Alba.) I had enough to do to fill most of the day. I pretty much just worked. That’s what Sundays for a student are for.

Today I just decided not to go to class. This is a rare decision for me—in my life I have cut class twice ever. Both were this semester. One time was to hang out with Maggie after London, which was a very good choice, and the other one was today. Here’s the thing, I had one hour of class total today. It was from 9-10. So I’d have to wake up early for it. Beyond that, I’ve already written the one essay that’s the grade for the class. Beyond that, we were told to pick one of two novels to read, one we would discuss this week and one next. I picked the one we’re discussing next week. So, the one hour of class I had today was early in the morning, discussing something I hadn’t read and had no interest in, and completely irrelevant because I’m done with the class. The hour extra sleep I got by sleeping through the class was much more valuable.

Then I woke up! I spent the morning finishing up my essay and wrote around 2000 words in about an hour and a half. I’m pretty sure that’s Nano’s work there. I have no idea how I did that, and Brian was also shocked.

What this means, though, is that I’m pretty much done. In the next two weeks I have to read two plays and write up a director’s plan. This doesn’t seem too hard, and I’ve completed the biggest hurdles. I’ve finished five essays and a presentation in the past two or three weeks. It’s pretty remarkable, actually. I just plowed through that work. It’s also sort of funny to me because so many people are just now starting their essays. While I’m going to spend the next two weeks not doing anything, everyone is starting to get incredibly stressed and freaking out about all the work.

Huh, maybe I’ll play some more DotA.

Anyway, that’s what I did this weekend. Now it’s time for bed.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I think the hardest part about staying in contact while abroad, for me at least, has been that a lot of people I want to talk to just don’t respond. I don’t know what it is, but there are a lot of people who haven’t responded to my messages or that sort of thing. I assume it’s more out of forgetfulness and business than animosity. Perhaps they just don’t have a good way to respond to my comments.

Bleh.

I really don’t feel like writing one of these today. I’m tired. I’ve been on the computer far too much recently. I have a headache from overuse of the computer. More importantly, I don’t have anything to say.

I think the hardest part about staying in contact while abroad, for me at least, has been that a lot of people I want to talk to just don’t respond. I don’t know what it is, but there are a lot of people who haven’t responded to my messages or that sort of thing. I assume it’s more out of forgetfulness and business than animosity. Perhaps they just don’t have a good way to respond to my comments.

I know that before I came here, I was far from the best at responding in a timely manner. My friend Anna can attest to that—she would regularly respond to my messages in a couple weeks, I would wait a month. So it’s sort of hypocritical of me to complain. On the other hand, I feel like there is something more special about me sending the message than some random person at Willamette—I’m in Ireland. If I got a message from a friend abroad, I would respond quickly because I would be excited to hear from them. Or, perhaps I wouldn’t since I was so bogged down in homework.

While here I’ve made a conscious effort to push “communicate with home” to the top of my list of priorities. When I get wall posts, messages or e-mails I respond ASAP. I try and be on Skype whenever I’m not working or in the library. I write a blog even when I have a headache and nothing to say because it’s a lifeline home. But if I was at home would I do all this? Certainly not!

Obviously there’s one main difference. If I’m at home it’s easy to communicate with people. I don’t care if you don’t respond to my wall posts, I see you in class (actually, I still care, but that’s because I feel lonely if I’m not acknowledged). E-mail is used to organize meetings and talk to a lot of people at once, but not just to say “hi!” Yet, here it’s a completely different attitude. Everything I do is as a way to talk to home and my old friends I don’t want to lose contact with.

It’s been a little weird because I’m getting a really good taste of who I’ll lose come graduation, but I don’t want to think about that right now. What I care more about is that I’m going to just keep responding to the messages, wall posts and e-mails I get, and hope that people respond back. I love talking to people back home and being able to share my experience, and I hope I get to keep doing it.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So, St. Patrick’s Day. Perhaps the most interesting part about it was that it was sunny. Really, really sunny. I’m going to post some photos of it soon, but check them out and you’ll be shocked. People were walking around in shorts eating ice cream. We sat on grass and didn’t get wet. Apparently this is the first time in decades that St. Patrick’s Day hasn’t been raining. I’m glad it wasn’t. It would have sucked a lot more if it had been. Fortunately, the good weather stuck with us through today. It’s been pretty awesome. I thought Ireland was supposed to be wet!

Hello! I survived St. Patrick’s Day. More on that in a bit. First, it seems that people really liked my last blog post. I got a whole three comments on how much people enjoyed it! That may not seem like much, but that’s actually much more than most posts. The thing is, it was actually easier for me to do that post than most of them, and it was a lot of fun to write. I definitely want to do it again. The only problem is I need a lot of brief topics to mention, and I don’t have many right now. Sometime I’ll do it again though.

So, St. Patrick’s Day. Perhaps the most interesting part about it was that it was sunny. Really, really sunny. I’m going to post some photos of it soon, but check them out and you’ll be shocked. People were walking around in shorts eating ice cream. We sat on grass and didn’t get wet. Apparently this is the first time in decades that St. Patrick’s Day hasn’t been raining. I’m glad it wasn’t. It would have sucked a lot more if it had been. Fortunately, the good weather stuck with us through today. It’s been pretty awesome. I thought Ireland was supposed to be wet!

I also drank a bit. I had the equivalent of four shots of rum—all diluted in Coke—in about an hour. I ended up feeling something: it seemed as if the world was moving a quarter second behind, and I was tired. I think my inhibitions slipped a little bit; I might have been a bit more willing to act a little stupid, but that could just be my memory revising it. Overall it was not nearly all it was hyped up to be. I’m glad I experimented a little, and it was the perfect time (I was in Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day after all), but it still doesn’t seem to hold much appeal to me. It’s certainly not as fun as DotA, which I’m actually addicted to!

On another note, there was a world premier episode of The Simpsons on St. Patrick’s Day that you only got on Sky 1 (which, oddly, is a British station, but it airs in Ireland). This is the first time Ireland got a world premier episode of The Simpsons. So what happened? They go to Ireland where Homer and Grandpa get really drunk and buy a pub. It was pretty excellent. In all honesty, it probably wasn’t as good as I thought it was, but it included all sorts of references that were funny because I just experienced it. It was like a full episode of in-jokes for me. They go to the Giant’s Causeway, Blarney Castle, and the Guinness Brewery, along with making fun of the film Once and that day where people dress up and read Ulysses. I’ve experienced all of that! Well, except that last one. ::shudder:: It was a great episode. You should watch it when it finally airs wherever you are.

I should probably have some actual commentary on stuff. Perhaps the weirdest thing about St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was that it seemed like St. Patrick’s Day anywhere in the world. Outside of the tradition of don’t wear green and get pinched, which didn’t seem like a big deal in Ireland (it was secondary to the tradition of get really, really drunk), most of it seemed like St. Patrick’s Day back at home. Well, that’s not really true. More of the 4th of July. People dressed up in clothes with the Irish flag, went downtown to watch a parade, and hung out in the unseasonably nice weather. A lot of people showed national pride. Yet, there was nothing that seemed to differentiate it from the holiday back home (except more people doing stuff). Sure, people used it as an excuse to drink a lot, and to get together, and it was sort of a big deal, but there was no celebration or aspect of it I saw that I don’t see at home.

I wonder if this is because when other cultures (like America!) started celebrating it, they emulated it exactly, or if America’s culture is so prevalent that our version of celebrating this holiday overrode the real one. There were an incredible number of American tourists; perhaps they just celebrated like they were in America (with more drinking, of course) and after awhile the old traditions were replaced by what the tourists did. Or maybe the old traditions were just getting really drunk and Americans brought the idea of wearing green and getting clover face paint. I really don’t know, and I’m far too tired and incoherent right now to figure it out.

Overall, it was a really nice day. The weather was amazing, I didn’t have any homework, there was a new Simpsons, and it was fun to just relax for a day. It was a great break between essays, and now I just need to plow through two essays (and a heavy revision of one essay) in a couple of weeks to hit wonderful summer vacation.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I wanted to try something a little different. I’ve been writing some long posts this entire time, so instead today I wanted to mix it up a bit. I’m going to write a bunch of short posts. Each post I write is too brief to be a real blog post, and I’m going to spend less than 75 words on each topic, including this one. Ready, let’s go!

Today I wanted to try something a little different. I’ve been writing some long posts this entire time, so instead today I wanted to mix it up a bit. I’m going to write a bunch of short posts. Each post I write is too brief to be a real blog post, and I’m going to spend less than 75 words on each topic, including this one. Ready, let’s go!

*click*

Yes, I did compare two different cultures, and my experience of returning home soon, to soda. A very complex and heady subject reduced to nothing more than carbonated water and sugar. I’m sort of awesome like that. To be fair, the first post I wrote for this blog was about candy flavors. I do sort of want to go back to that airport and see the candies—now I know what they are!

*click*

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. It is going to be crazy. Already, pubs are packed with American tourists excited to see an “authentic” St. Patrick’s Day. They’re walking around wearing stupid souvenirs about Ireland. I might go out tomorrow night, but pubs will be standing room only (if that!) and people will be crazy. Mostly Americans. Also, class is canceled. I assume because they know no one will show up.

*click*

I was talking to someone who told me the minimum wage in Ireland was around €8. I told him that back in Oregon the minimum wage was $8. His eyes grew wide and he said “I thought you were going to say $18! I can’t imagine anyone in America getting paid that little. Geeze.” He was still clearly shocked about it 10 minutes later. It was an eye opening experience. For both of us.

*click*

There’s a restaurant here called Mustards that is excellent. It serves delicious pizza and hamburgers, both at cheap prices, and with a student discount. Plus, its brownie and ice cream is amazing. When Jackie comes to visit, we’re going there, and when my parents come to visit, we’re going there. I haven’t been able to find a good burger in Ireland, except at this restaurant.

*click*

I want a chocobo.

*click*

Speaking of chocobos and Ireland, I just got the ability to summon Cuchulainn in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. He’s a water demon, for some reason. I assume because of all that fighting he does in the ford. This is probably my third favorite summon, behind chocobo and cactuar. Also, I just found out that there are cactuar plush dolls. I need one, if not just for the expression on its face.

*click*

I live in the ocean.

*click*

I’m done with four of my six essays. I have until April 2nd to do the last two, which puts me in a pretty great position. Three of those essays I knocked out in a day each. I got books from the library after class, did research, wrote, ate some dinner and finished writing. Of course, now I have no urge to go to class. I’m literally done with everything I’m getting graded on!

*click*

Originally I gave myself 100 words per topic, but found it was too easy for me so I dropped it down to 75. What’s the point of doing something like this without some sort of a challenge? I had one that was exactly 75 words, but remember I said I’d be under 75 words. Cutting that last word was hard. Of course, I did summarize the Trojan war to 18 words.

*click*

Paris “kidnapped” Helen. Greeks fought Trojans for her. Heroes died. Greeks won with trick horse.

…that’s shorter than the version we had in class.

*click*

Whoo! I hope you enjoyed. This was actually a lot of fun to write…and a lot faster than normal. I guess without all that explanation and heavy thought these are easier. Huh, who would have guessed? Tell me what you think!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I love soda. In case you didn’t know. I don’t drink alcohol, but man do I drink soda. I’ve been cutting back, and even compared to a lot of my friends I don’t drink that much. At the end of last semester I was drinking around four or five a week, I think. At the start of this semester it was almost nothing, but it’s been slowly inching up as time has gone on. It did take me five days to drink that two liter, at least. (If you’re wondering why I’m talking about this, I’m getting there).

I love soda. In case you didn’t know. I don’t drink alcohol, but man do I drink soda. I’ve been cutting back, and even compared to a lot of my friends I don’t drink that much. At the end of last semester I was drinking around four or five a week, I think. At the start of this semester it was almost nothing, but it’s been slowly inching up as time has gone on. It did take me five days to drink that two liter, at least. (If you’re wondering why I’m talking about this, I’m getting there).

My favorite soda is Coke, probably because of all the ads conditioning me to love it, or whatever. Either way, it’s my drink of choice. Unfortunately, Willamette doesn’t have Coke as readily available as I would like. I think they have a deal with Pepsi, or something. All the soda machines on campus dispense Pepsi products, and the only soda you can get at lunch or dinner is Pepsi products. This is okay by me since my second favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, which is plentiful on campus. It also makes Coke a bit more special to drink, and tastes better because it’s so rare. I get plenty of both, though, so I’m happy. By the end of the semester, though, Dr. Pepper has lost most of its taste to me because I drink it so much.

In Ireland, Coke is pretty much the only choice. I’ve pretty much only seen Coke products in the way of soda (let’s be honest; most Irish would rather drink something else). So, I’ve been happily drinking Coke as the semester goes on, and haven’t thought much of it until recently.

The main eating area on campus sells Dr. Pepper. It was weird seeing it at first. I was just not used to seeing it—I think this is the first time I’ve actually seen it since I’ve been here. I picked it up with my lunch the other day and had my first Dr. Pepper in two, maybe three months.

It was delicious. Probably because I haven’t actually had it for so long that it was extra good, it was a nice change. It’s like when you eat something a lot you lose the taste (as happened to me with Cadbury Eggs this semester), but if you don’t eat it for awhile it’s extra good. That’s what happened here. This Dr. Pepper was just amazing to drink.

I can’t help but wonder if that’s what it’s going to be like when I get home. As the semester begins to wind down—only 17 days until classes end—I’m starting to look to summer plans and even to when I’m back in America. It isn’t that long (sadly). It’s starting to play in my mind more and more. While there is a lot of stuff about America I’ll really enjoy getting back to (fast internet, how I miss you!) there’s a lot of stuff I’m going to miss being away from.

I wonder if returning home will be like that Dr. Pepper, extra delicious because I’ve been away for so long. Or maybe I’ll hit an incredible culture shock of returning home and think about what I left behind. I obviously don’t know. I think it will be a combination of both. Some stuff will be extra sweet, but readjusting to America, and what I left behind, will be hard.

I just know two things. One, returning to America is only going to take up more space in my mind as this semester gets nearer to its end and home becomes closer. Second: I’m getting another Dr. Pepper on Thursday.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night we went to see Watchmen. For those of you who don’t know, Watchmen was a graphic novel (glorified comic book) that revolutionized the comic book world in the 80’s with its realistic characters, focus on character development and ultra-dark and gritty tone. It begins with a former super hero getting brutally murdered and follows the investigation of who killed him and why as many former heroes have to face there past and humanity. Many people considered the book unfilmable, but that didn’t stop them from doing it anyone.

I figured it would be nice of me to post something sometime soon. I’ve been bogged down with a lot of other work, though, and haven’t really had the urge to write one of these for the past couple days. The good news, though, is I’m making good headway on my work. I had six essays to do by April 2nd. I did one about the time I went to London, then last Wednesday I did a second one. I started a third today and am hoping to write most of it this evening and finish it tomorrow or the next day. Then, Monday I’ll start the fourth one and make a lot of progress and finish it on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, which is a national holiday in Ireland so I have the day free. That will take care of my four essays for my Irish Culture class, and all I’ll have left to worry about is my long essay for medieval Europe and my director’s plan (which I’m thinking of as an essay) and about two and a half weeks to do them. Not bad. After that, it’s hanging out with Jackie, parents, and Anna for two months, and then eight weeks of math research before gearing up for senior year. Not bad at all! I just need to get those essays done…

Last night we went to see Watchmen. For those of you who don’t know, Watchmen was a graphic novel (glorified comic book) that revolutionized the comic book world in the 80’s with its realistic characters, focus on character development and ultra-dark and gritty tone. It begins with a former super hero getting brutally murdered and follows the investigation of who killed him and why as many former heroes have to face there past and humanity. Many people considered the book unfilmable, but that didn’t stop them from doing it anyone.

I’m in a pretty fortunate position when it comes to this movie. I knew what to expect—I knew a lot of people who thought it was just another super hero movie—because I read the book, but I’m not as crazy obsessed with it as a lot of people who act like it’s the best thing ever. I don’t sanctify it. As such, I really enjoyed the movie. I wasn’t shocked that it wasn’t a typical action movie, and I also didn’t care about what they changed.

To be fair, though, they didn’t change much. While it would be easy to complain about what they cut, what’s more impressive is what they kept in. Look at it this way: Sin City was a full length movie and it only adapted three issues and a short story. Watchmen however was only two and a half hours and had to include 12 issues. That’s a lot of plot in not much time, and they handled it really well. They cut out a lot of the subplots, which is nice. In the world of Watchmen, people read pirate comic books, and throughout the series there is a full length pirate comic that’s a big metaphor for all the action in the stories and the characters and…it’s pointless and boring. Reading through it was a slog to get to the rest of the action. Cutting it out sped up the story significantly, and the people who complain it’s gone are probably the same who think Tom Bombadil was an important character to Lord of the Rings. He did nothing!

The other aspects they cut were, sadly, a little more interesting. The comic included a number of subplots of random people living in New York, such as a kid reading a pirate comic and the newsman standing next to him, or a psychiatrist and his wife, which were actually interesting to read. Near the end of the comic the evolution of their plots is shown as a direct contrast to what many of the main characters say—it shows the goodness within people in what is often described as a rotting and evil city, and by extension world. Plus, having these subplots made the emotional impact of the climax significantly stronger. In the end, though, they had to be rejected to keep the main plot moving. Someone who watches the movie without the book won’t mind, but as someone who read the book I’m sad to see them go.

Overall, the biggest problem with the movie was that it was too rushed in a couple of places and some of the subtlety of the book was lost. Dr. Manhattan being a watchmaker originally, and then becoming essentially a God (in parallel to common theological arguments), or Rorschach saying he liked a material because it was black and white never mixing (and then using it for his mask) are two examples of what was lost. It’s not a big deal, and wouldn’t be noticeable to most people, but I fear that it makes the movie a little rougher around the edges and some of the excellent character development is lost.

I loved the movie, though. It was excellent and well done. The action was intense, but didn’t suffocate the main points, and the mood and style seemed fitting. It worked very well, and it’s the sort of movie I would watch again. It’s not a super hero movie, but it’s a movie about super heroes. It brought the story to life, and fixed the biggest problem I had with the book: the pacing. The movie moved quickly and never felt bogged down the same way the book did. If you’re looking for something different, for a commentary on normal super hero fairs, then Watchmen is a great choice. Just don’t expect it to be like other movies. It isn’t.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think the title says it all

No blog today. Twelve hours of homework will do that to you. Also, I think blog posts will be less frequent from now on. Mainly, I’m in the home stretch, but have a lot of work between now and the end. Specifically, I have five more essays to write by April 2nd. It also doesn’t help that I’m running out of things to say in the blog. Early on it was easy—look around me and write about the closest thing I see, pretty much. Now that I’m adjusting and getting used to everything, it’s harder. These two factors—more schoolwork and less to say—will probably make me write less for awhile.

On an unrelated note, I just heard back from the Willamette Valley REU program. They want to me do the REU at Willamette! Yay! It looks like I’ll be at WU this summer, doing math research. To top it off with even more awesome, pretty much everyone I know is applying to be a summer RA with TIUA. If even half of them get the position it’ll be a good summer. Yeah, we’ll be working full time jobs, but that might actually mean we have more time to hang out than we do during the school year! (In large part because we’re working at the same time, unlike during the school year where our hours are staggered). I’m really excited.

I just need to last until April 2nd.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think the title says it all

No blog today. Twelve hours of homework will do that to you. Also, I think blog posts will be less frequent from now on. Mainly, I’m in the home stretch, but have a lot of work between now and the end. Specifically, I have five more essays to write by April 2nd. It also doesn’t help that I’m running out of things to say in the blog. Early on it was easy—look around me and write about the closest thing I see, pretty much. Now that I’m adjusting and getting used to everything, it’s harder. These two factors—more schoolwork and less to say—will probably make me write less for awhile.

On an unrelated note, I just heard back from the Willamette Valley REU program. They want to me do the REU at Willamette! Yay! It looks like I’ll be at WU this summer, doing math research. To top it off with even more awesome, pretty much everyone I know is applying to be a summer RA with TIUA. If even half of them get the position it’ll be a good summer. Yeah, we’ll be working full time jobs, but that might actually mean we have more time to hang out than we do during the school year! (In large part because we’re working at the same time, unlike during the school year where our hours are staggered). I’m really excited.

I just need to last until April 2nd.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The most important thing to know about the Troubles in Northern Ireland is that it wasn’t a religious conflict. It wasn’t theological in nature. Yes, must of the time we talk about the Catholics fighting the Protestants, but that’s because it’s convenient, not because it’s true. The conflict was never about religion, and if the entire IRA had converted to Protestantism, it would not have ended the fighting. The fighting was over identity and freedom—it was a political struggle at its core.

“I can’t believe the news today,
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away,
How long…
How long must we sing this song?”
--U2, Sunday, Bloody Sunday

So, I’m back, alive, and not exploded. I thought people would be happy to hear that. I also have a lot of really cool photos that I’ll try and post tomorrow while procrastinating on my five essays. In my defense, some of them aren’t due for two months! I just don’t want to do them while in Spain…

I feel like I should talk about Northern Ireland, what with what happened this weekend and all…And I’m not just talking about my trip there.

For those of you who don’t know, two soldiers were shot dead by IRA militants last Saturday. This is the first event of its kind in the past 15 or so years. I remember, on the way up, they said that 15 years is an important milestone in the peace process—either it sets in for real at that point, or it all falls apart. I’m hoping that this gets dealt with quickly and peacefully, and that the problems don’t escalate again.

The most important thing to know about the Troubles in Northern Ireland is that it wasn’t a religious conflict. It wasn’t theological in nature. Yes, must of the time we talk about the Catholics fighting the Protestants, but that’s because it’s convenient, not because it’s true. The conflict was never about religion, and if the entire IRA had converted to Protestantism, it would not have ended the fighting. The fighting was over identity and freedom—it was a political struggle at its core. Essentially, one group wanted to break away from England and reunite with Ireland, while the other group was loyal to Britain. It just…escalated. The IRA was waging a guerrilla war trying to force the British soldiers out, and the British soldiers were trying to keep the peace. I’m not going to make any obvious parallels.

I’m not going to talk about the specific history of what happened. You can read about that on Wikipedia easily enough (Bloody Sunday, internment and the hunger strikes are perhaps the most relevant). What I am going to talk about is the peace process. This is a region that is still healing. Though it’s on its way, it still bears the scars of what happened. It almost seems as if people are holding there breath, waiting to see if it will last, waiting for the next bomb or gun shot that will end it all. The area is safe, life is moving on, but at the same time just under the surface you can tell that something is wrong; something is there, dormant. People are trying to put it behind them, no one wants the fighting to renew, but you can tell there’s still tension.

One of the really cool things in Northern Ireland was the wall murals. These are giant murals depicting events of the Troubles—Bloody Sunday, or commemorating individual people who died—or just other incredible scenes. These seem to be an important part of the healing process. The events being discussed are obvious and visible. The memory is there, plainly and in sight. You have to try to avoid it.

And yet, in many ways they represent hope. While they depict what happened during the Troubles, they also seem to be encouraging people to move on, to push forward. They almost make an honest statement, pleading to stop the fighting. By seeing the faces of the dead, we remember them, and suddenly the fighting seems a lot…worse. The faces on those walls beg us to end the fighting.

I think it worked so far. The fighting ended, life is resuming, and people are moving on. Something’s underneath it all, but I like to imagine it’s fading. I like to imagine the tension is ending, and the generation growing up right now won’t carry it with them.

But then I hear about those two soldiers who were shot, and I don’t know what will happen…

“Hear it every Christmas time,
But hope and history won’t rhyme.
So what’s it worth,
This peace on Earth?”
--U2, Peace on Earth

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tom just beat Final Fantasy 3!

I've just beaten Final Fantasy 3 for the DS. This means I've beaten eight of the 12 currently released numbered Final Fantasy games. Perhaps the best part of the game came during the ending sequence, though. Here's the dialog, almost verbatim:

Main Character: I saved the world!
Mom: I'm proud of you!

Perhaps the most bland response to the most impressive thing I could say. Like...the only way that response makes sense is if she thinks I imagined the whole thing with my chums and is saying "I'm proud of you, now go wash up for dinner! I made prime rib."

If I ever save the world--and all existence as we know it--I hope my mom says something less bland...

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

On a completely unrelated note, I was hired as Editor in Chief for the Collegian next year! I think I mentioned that already on this blog. Anyway, there’s a lot of cool stuff that entails, but it’ll also be a lot of work, as I’m finding out already. On the bright side, I’ll learn a lot. One lesson I’ve learned: hiring a staff sucks.

I’ll try and be fast today. If I finish quickly I might be able to beat Final Fantasy III tonight! Then I’ll have beaten eight of the 12 numbered Final Fantasy games. For those of you keeping track at home, I still need to beat one, two, eight and nine, and I own three of those. Also, I don’t count Final Fantasy XI as a real game and in its place count Final Fantasy X-2…which also shouldn’t be considered a real game…

So I’m going to Northern Ireland tomorrow. The fighting has died down significantly and it seems to be safe now. I’ve been told that there is still tension, and don’t talk about politics or the IRA, but in general it’s safe so I’m not too worried. I think it’ll be interesting to see a country on the way through the healing process, only a decade or so outside of heavy tension. I know I’ll have a lot more to say about it when we get back, and probably another 60+ photos to post and write captions for. We’ll be gone from Friday morning to Monday night, so I’ll try to get something up quickly on Monday night, but it’ll probably short with a full description of the trip on Tuesday. I plan on brining my laptop, though, in case you need to contact me.

On a completely unrelated note, I was hired as Editor in Chief for the Collegian next year! I think I mentioned that already on this blog. Anyway, there’s a lot of cool stuff that entails, but it’ll also be a lot of work, as I’m finding out already. On the bright side, I’ll learn a lot. One lesson I’ve learned: hiring a staff sucks.

Well, okay, hiring the staff itself seems like it’ll be fun. I get to make a lot of people happy and excited for next year. The part that sucks is everything else involved with that process. I have 15 available positions (not counting designers; I don’t deal with that because I would have no idea what I’m doing). I have 41 applications. And I think three or four people said they’d be turning in applications late. So, there’s a good chance I’ll have three times as many applications as positions.

This creates two problems. First, I don’t really want to read all of those applications. I’m lazy, more than anything else, but I’m also a little concerned that there might be a lot of very formulaic responses that would make reading applications getting boring fast. That’s not even my biggest problem, though. What I really dislike is that I have to tell 26 people, minimum, that they didn’t get a job. It sucks. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to have to send out those e-mails saying “I’m sorry, but you didn’t get it.”

It’s made worse by the fact that I actually know a lot of the people applying, and I know they’re qualified. I have something like four good, qualified candidates going for one position. How do I choose between that? How do I deal with that? I don’t even know where to begin. No matter what, it’s going to be a hard choice, and I’m going to lose some good people. Add in the fact that I need to be careful of people going abroad and working around them…It’s hard, no question.

That said, some interesting facts from my giant application spreadsheet I just built:

--The most sought after positions are Reviews Editor, Opinions Editor, and Copy Editor. I can understand the first two, those seem like the easiest and most fun editor positions, but Copy Editor? Do people love meticulously editing things that much?

--The least sought after position so far is Subscription Manger. I don’t think I included the part about waking up at 5:00 once a week in the description…

Well, I’ll be gone for a few days. Hope you guys enjoy, and I’ll be back soon!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Shortly after getting back, I wrote a blog post about how I found the Ireland I was “looking for” the one I “wanted to find,” of the stereotypical green rolling hills and rock walls and such. I was frustrated I hadn’t experienced that yet, and I was glad to finally find it. I’ve been a little frustrated with that post since I wrote it, because it is so absurdly stupid

Let’s keep with my theme of talking about somewhat heady and complex issues. I mentioned last time that there was a topic I wanted to write about since Carraroe, so let’s get on that.

Shortly after getting back, I wrote a blog post about how I found the Ireland I was “looking for” the one I “wanted to find,” of the stereotypical green rolling hills and rock walls and such. I was frustrated I hadn’t experienced that yet, and I was glad to finally find it.

I’ve been a little frustrated with that post since I wrote it, because it is so absurdly stupid. There’s something pretty horribly and clearly long with it: I came to Ireland expecting it to be one way, and I was confused and frustrated when my preconceived notions were wrong. That’s sort of the point of going abroad…

It made me think, though. I have this stereotypical image of Ireland, and I’ve seen it to some degree, but it’s clearly not the “real” Ireland, if that sort of description can even exist. The real Ireland, as I said last time, is much more complex and caught in a web of Irish, American, and British cultures. Yet, it took me a long time to see this, because at the beginning I had the mental block of what I wanted Ireland to be like. I was frustrated that it wasn’t Ireland. It’s like the woman who likes Chinese food, so she travels to China. She writes home later saying she can’t wait to come back to eat proper Chinese food—these people don’t know what they’re doing at all! (Thank you, Neil Gaiman). I was missing the authentic experience for the one I wanted to create.

This is, obviously, something that I should be trying to fix. And I’ve been working on it for about a month now, fighting my preconceived notions to see life as it is. This is also a skill that will help greatly in the real world, even outside of studying abroad. I remember taking the Putnam (a super awesome and ridiculously hard math test) and actually figuring out everything I needed for to prove the question, but because I was so sure I had to do it by contradiction, I wasn’t able to solve it. If I had taken a step back and questioned that basic idea, I might have been able to earn points on that question. Maybe. It is the Putnam after all.

I also am thinking of the Irish flat mates I live with. Often times we’ll be watching American TV and they’ll ask me if it’s real (as in if it’s an accurate representation of America…not if Clark Kent and Rory Gilmore are real people). I had to explain to them that no one lives like the people in The Hills and I’ve never seen anything like Gilmore Girls in reality. My roommate had to explain to them that not all frat members were football players, and not all sorority members were blond. They asked us if it was like Mean Girls.

They have these preconceived notions of what America is like, in large part based off of the media, just as I had about Ireland even a month ago. It’s something we all do. We get these ideas when we don’t really have experience with the topic on hand, and that’s not really a bad thing. The bad thing is not adjusting these ideas when we get experience, not revising our preconceived notions when we have new evidence.

That’s what growth is, and that’s why I came abroad. To have my assumptions challenged, to change them, and to grow as a person.

I hope it worked.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The thing about Ireland, though, is it exists in an odd place culturally. It wants so hard to be America—my flat mates spend a lot of time watching shows like The Hills and asking me if that’s what America is really like. It’s trying so desperately to emulate America. Most people I’ve talked to have even visited a couple of times. On the other hand, based on its history and proximity, British culture still has a strong influence here. Thus, Ireland is in an odd nexus, almost caught between two cultures, both of which seem to be infringing on an “Irish culture.”

Let’s see. Today we’re talking about globalization. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll finally write about the last topic that I’ve wanted to write about for several months. Let me put it this way, I’ve had some of these ideas since I was in Carraroe. Yeah, way back then.

So, Dingle. I never really wrote about it, and outside of the fact it smelled heavily of fish there isn’t much to say. However, for dinner one night we wandered into a restaurant that was a jazz inspired pizza place, and the waiter was a funny/rude French person (it depends on if he was talking to you or someone else). Think about that for a second. We were served Italian food by a French person in an American inspired restaurant in Ireland. If that’s not the heart of globalization, I don’t know what is.

The thing about Ireland, though, is it exists in an odd place culturally. It wants so hard to be America—my flat mates spend a lot of time watching shows like The Hills and asking me if that’s what America is really like. It’s trying so desperately to emulate America. Most people I’ve talked to have even visited a couple of times. On the other hand, based on its history and proximity, British culture still has a strong influence here. Thus, Ireland is in an odd nexus, almost caught between two cultures, both of which seem to be infringing on an “Irish culture.”

As the world becomes more and more interconnected, I see this situation happening more and more. Through things like the internet and satellites projecting TV all over the world, it’s easier for a clash of cultures, for the mingling of cultures. We’re forced, more and more, to deal with people on the other side of the world, in a variety of different countries. Anyone who has spent a fair amount of time on a forum can attest to this: users from all over the world will log on, debate and discuss and you’re forced to deal with this. You have to interact with people all over the world (or, at least the parts that have internet easily available and the ability to learn English).

There’s a certain element that seems cool here. The idea of a unified global culture, a human culture. Or at least the basis for one that’s repeatedly redefined and reinterpreted in each society. The interconnectivity, though, seems really exciting, and the idea that parts of multiple cultures can be borrowed and used to create something new just seems awesome. I think of the Metal Gear Solid video game series, created by a Japanese company but heavily inspired by American action movies, or of manga based on an American franchise. Both use another culture to redefine there work, and in doing so create something that is fully a part of neither culture.

Of course, there are some clear problems with this. Most obviously, as this occurs large parts of other cultures will be destroyed under the behemoths of the most powerful countries. America, Japan, China and Europe will all have an inordinate sway over culture, while places like South America and Africa will have there cultures slowly eroded. This is already happening, obviously, and I see it in Ireland.

People don’t adopt the Irish language because English is more practical (and easier!). People don’t practice the traditional form of Irish dance—clubs are based on the American style. Irish traditions are being destroyed and it’s slowly becoming a proxy America. Sure, people are fighting the change, but the fact you need an active group to preserve the culture is already a warning sign about its health.

It’s tragic. I’ve fallen in love with this place, and I don’t want to see it become “America Lite,” but at the same time it’s not possible to cut it off from everything else. I fear for Ireland, to a degree. The British couldn’t wipe out its culture when it was a colony, but perhaps America will by accident.

Globalization is happening, and it has some benefits and cool aspects, but it also has some very negative qualities. I just hope that as cultures meet and reshape, they don’t eliminate everything in between.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, London…it was pretty nice, but honestly I was a little disappointed with the whole experience, but I did still enjoy myself and saw a lot of really awesome things.

Well, I’m back from London.

I took a fair amount of photos. They should be up soon. I’m going to try and post them tomorrow when I’m chilling in the library for a bit since the internet is too slow in my room to post them while here. Internet’s back, but it’s pretty slow and doesn’t like Facebook much. It does, fortunately, like Last Days of Foxhound.

So, London…it was pretty nice, but honestly I was a little disappointed with the whole experience. The thing is, I’m fairly introverted, and sort of a loner. I like hanging out with a couple of people, but never too many, and I actually get sort of a thrill of traveling by myself and feeling that independence. Being with a large group just gets frustrating. If it’s a large group where I barely know most of the people, and don’t have any firm connections with them, it’s even worse. If I go on a trip with a lot of my close friends, I can deal with that, but if I barely know them it’s a lot harder on me.

In London there were nine of us and I’m not nearly as close with them as I am with the group from home. This created a somewhat hard experience for me. Add in the fact that I often felt dragged to places I had little interest in (Tate Museum of Modern Art) and felt like the things I was interested in were somewhat neglected, I got frustrated. Then add the lack of sleep and it’s easy to understand why the weekend wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I think I’d like to go back, someday, by myself or with a couple of people (James and Anna seem like a fun choice).

I don’t want to make it sound like I hated the experience, though. I did enjoy myself, and we saw a lot of cool things. The first day we walked past Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Parliament building before going to Westminster Abbey. Then we hang out and ate lunch before heading to the British Museum. That night a few of us went and saw Les Miserables. It was actually a pretty awesome day, except for the fact we didn’t spend enough time at the British Museum (I’m pretty sure you need several days for that).

Two comments about this. First, the British Museum was awesome. I see no reason to go to any other museum ever at this point. When I post my photos you’ll sort of understand why…but even then the photos don’t do it justice. The incredible number of artifacts—and the incredible state they’re in—is just unparalleled. I was astonished as I looked at this stuff that was so preserved and how many there were. Plus, the first thing we saw when we walked in? The Rosetta Stone. We could have left right then and still had an incredible experience.

Of course, just enjoying the museum makes me feel dirty. I want to cover it in more detail, but this post is already pretty long, so I’ll be brief. That museum is the direct result of colonization, and most of the artifacts weren’t donated but plundered. Almost everything in there is, in some way, covered in blood and it’s essentially stealing the culture of another society. On the other hand, the museum has many beneficial qualities. The artifacts are in incredible shape—probably better taken care of than if they were in any other museum. Plus, having so many artifacts in a central location is helpful for study. You get to easily contrast Egyptian, Greek and Roman art because they’re all so close. Also it makes it easy for people who are interested in these artifacts to see them all. I was only there for an hour, but if all of the artifacts were still in there home country, I would have to travel to Italy, Egypt, Rome and Greece to see what I saw. Having those centrally located is a huge blessing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the museum is free. If these were spread in a series of smaller museums across the world, that probably wouldn’t be the case, and thus less people would be able to see these objects. So, it’s an odd contrast. These objects are here because of colonization, and all of the moral issues that entails, but it could easily be argued that it’s better this way, and there are many good points. I liked the museum a lot, and it’s is definitely worth going to—it’s incredible—but I still feel a little tingling at the back of my mind about it.

Yep, that’s me being brief, apparently.

The other comment is about the show. Pretty much, it was excellent. They have shows on par with Broadway in London, with some pretty cheap tickets. We were only able to see one, unfortunately. That said, we had a pretty great choice, including Wicked, Hairspray, Chicago, Lion King, and Phantom of the Opera. Also, there was a play called Three Days of Rain staring James McAvoy, from the movie Wanted. That was pretty awesome. We almost saw the play, but decided against it.

Highlights of the second day include the Globe Theater, which was unfortunately closed or way too much for a tour, and the best place ever. Let me describe that second one in more detail. We found this giant toy store that was five stories high, plus a basement. I wandered down to the basement which was labeled “interactive.” I figured I like interactive things, so I decided to check it out.

A third of the basement was the video game section, including three TVs with nice couches to play demos, and a fourth TV showing video game ads. It was actually nicer than most game stores I’ve been in and had an incredible selection. I was impressed. I wandered away from this after a bit and came across the small section for Magic cards. It wasn’t big, but it was decent enough. Then I wandered further back and came to the Lego section. A third of the basement was devoted to Legos and they had all sorts of awesome. Apparently Legos got good again, and this stuff was just amazing—plus there was just so much of it. Apparently this floor was one third video games, one third Lego, and one third other, including Magic cards. As I was standing there reveling in the severe awesome of my surroundings, “Breaking Free” from High School Musical started playing. If I could marry a location, I would marry the basement of this toy store.

One final note. As we flew into Galway, I looked down at the grassy green fields of Ireland and had a thought: “why did I ever leave?” London was pretty great—probably more awesome if I had been with a few people I’m really close to—but Ireland just feels right. Take that as you will.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)