Culture Days

The Culture Days are over and I have to say that I really liked the presentations. 

I watched the following presentations: 

• GAA outside Ireland
• Willie Daly - Matchmaker 
• Gaelic and its use in Northern Ireland 
• Driving habits in the U.S.
• Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse: how a mouse conquered the world)
• Oprah Winfrey: perhaps the most influential woman in America
• Basketball 
• The big four: Sports in the USA
• Why on earth would anyone live in Tornado Alley?!
• Painted America: American culture represented in paintings

In general I really liked them all. I chose to see these 10 because I thought they sounded interesting. And I have to say they were really good. I learned new things about Ireland. Before I saw the presentations for example, I had never heard about the fact that there is a profession called matchmaker. I am not a really big sports fan, nevertheless I also liked them and in addition I know more about sports in the States and Ireland now. 

The five topics I would like to be tested on in the KGP are: 

• Driving habits in the U.S. 
• Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse: how a mouse conquered the world) 
• Oprah Winfrey: perhaps the most influential woman in America
• Why in earth would anyone live in Tornado Alley?!
• Painted America: American culture represented in paintings

I chose these topics for my final exam, because I have heard about them before, but I didn't really know much about them. I always thought, for example that many more people own a car in the States, or that Mickey's original name was Mortimer mouse. As the topics were really appealing and well presented and I wanted to know more about them, I thought it would be a good idea to choose them for my final exam, because it is easier to memorize things you are interested in. 

Good people still exist

http://mihaelaterzieva.deviantart.com/art/Saint-Dobry-327114414

I recently came across an article about a 98-year-old man from Bulgaria. Dobri Dobrev is one out a very small amount of people who does something most people are not able to do – not only think about himself. This man who is said to have lost most of his hearing during WWII as a shell fell nearby him, has travelled for decades 25 km from the village he lives in to Sofia in order to raise money for the restoration of churches and monasteries throughout Bulgaria. In this vein, over the years, he has collected almost 40,000 lev (approximately 20,000 euro). He didn‘t spend one cent for himself. All Dobri needs for a living, he produces himself. His clothes, for example, are homemade, as well as his leather shoes. Until recently he did the 25 km a day on foot. But due to his old age he can‘t rely on his legs anymore. Nevertheless he didn‘t give up and now he covers the distance by bus. As almost all people in Bulgaria have heard or read about Dobri and know what he is doing, he usually doesn‘t have to pay for the tickets, though. Despite this, many other people from Soria and other parts of Bulgaria that know him give him food or other things he might need. A nice gesture in a big cold word. Or as Elin Pelin, a famous Bulgarian writer, would put it: “It is my native village, it is good but very poor.”