I went to Ireland because I felt like I had to, for some unknown reason. I’ve come to the conclusion that there were many reasons why I had to go and why I had to go then and not a year from now. I needed to test something, push myself to the limit, travel to another country for the first time alone. I wanted to see how I would react, and almost (as cheesy as this sounds) see myself. It started out in a way, as a study in sociology and psychology, and ended up (because of the recession) a look at how much the United States affects the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world doesn’t affect the U.S., but you’d be surprised.
I went to Ireland not long after Obama was inaugurated. Boy do they love him in Europe. Everyone I spoke to (the Irish talk a lot), had something to say about how Obama was going to change the world. I wonder what they would have told me if I had taken this trip after Bush was elected for his second term…. While I was there, I wanted to interview people and film their responses to “What do you think of Obama?” Too bad I didn’t have enough time to do that.
