Hello everybody! My name is Fay and I would just like to begin this introduction by stating how I know absolutely NOTHING about Ireland, its history, political background, or writing style. A few interesting things about myself are that I am a licensed EMT going to college to become a surgeon. I am also a combat medic in the United States Army, and I am fluent in basic American Sign Language. Besides the obvious reasons, I took this course because, though I lack any knowledge of Irish writing, I love English and was looking for a way to expand my knowledge of literature and thought that a class on Irish literature would be a good place to start. My favorite novel of all time is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. After discovering the novel my sophomore year of high school it has always been the book that I come back to year after year. Something about the main character Howard Roark and his passion and drive to continue fighting for what he believes in, even when the whole world is against him, always inspires and comforts me. Although I try not to fixate on a certain type of writing, I tend to gravitate towards fiction. I find that when I open a book I hope to find in it something that leaves me feeling inspired and a little bit wiser for it.
Unfortunately I have not taken an English class since my senior year of high school when I took AP English, so my experience is a little lacking in the English department. My knowledge of literature is geared more towards classical, however I am an avid reader of all forms of literature, except apparently Irish. This being an entirely online English class I am unsure of how it will work, and am especially curious as to how the class will come together to discuss these novels. As I said earlier, I know nothing about Ireland, so I will be little help to the class in that aspect. Nonetheless, my mother was born and raised in England and her European history is much better than mine so I am hoping for her to shed light on any questions I have regarding its history.
It may come as a shock to everybody, but I am not, nor have I ever belonged to any online community. I guess you could say that I am antisocial. I have never understood the interest in these communities, so it is fair to say that I am highly inexperienced when it comes to online communities. Having said that, it should not come as a shock to hear that I am a little anxious to see how this blog will go.
In my life I have traveled to many places throughout the world, but the most amazing place that I have visited has to be Petra, Jordan. Putting the blistering heat aside, being able to ride through the city of stone that has so much history behind it was absolutely incredible. I’m not going to lie, I felt a little like Indiana Jones riding through Petra on a camel and seeing the amazing structures, minus all the Nazis. (This picture, nor any others that I found, do Petra justice).
I know that it is not very original, but not being a very computer dependent person, the site that I frequent the most often, besides my email, is www.youtube.com. Although I mostly visit the site for entertainment purposes, it is also my good source for current events and news.
I came across this Irish commercial awhile back and no matter how many times I watch this video I cannot help but laugh at how ridiculous it is. I just hope that the form of entertainment the Irish use in their toy industry is not mirrored in their writing style.J
