For those who don’t know, according to Wikipedia, “Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel.”

A good example of this would be the book “Honeymoon in Purdah” by Alison Wearing. In her novel she details every bit of experience shes had with her travels around Iran. She has proven to hearself that Iran is not so bad after all. Many people have stereotyped Iran as being a poor and have misunderstood their culture.

Wearing has done an excellent job with informing me about Iran and giving me a clear unserstanding of their cultural beliefs. I do not normaly enjoy reading books and often find them boring, but remember what they say “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Unfortunality I did not finish the entire book, but I will very soon!

If I ever do visite these places, I don’t plan to adjust to their way of living. Meaning, I will wear my proper clothes and look like a tourist rather then a traveler like Alison Wearing.

We decided that in order to understand Spain, you must understand this dangerous seven day run called the Running of the Bulls. From this presentation, I myself, learned that Spanish people are fun and crazy.They turn anything into a reason to celebrate! From farmers racing their cattle to the market, from racing bulls down narrow streets for half a mile. Even though the run only lasts four minutes, many injuries and common, but not serious.

This event brings together thousands of people every year and is continuing to grow!

I see myself running with the bulls one day, hopefully I can run with them for the whole half a mile. I wouldn’t mind getting struck by a bull either, it looks fun!It was surprising when I heard only 15 people have died since the start of it, I was expecting to see a large number but I guess I was wrong.

In conclusion, I am very proud that Eddy and I got the chance to tell the class about Spain and The Running of the Bulls. If you have questions about Bull Running, feel free to ask me and I’ll be more then glad to respond!

Adios!

     From the looks of it, girls don’t have many rights in Iran. They aren’t aloud to go anywhere unless there are accompanied by a man, men are always trying to pick them up and they always have to follow the rules, as for a man, people are more lenient towards them. An example of women always having to follow a rule and people being more lenient towards men is towards the end when that lady(prostitute) was about to smoke her cigarette the bus driver screamed “no smoking aloud in the bus”. A couple of minutes later, men started smoking and the bus driver didnt say a word.

     I also feel that Alison Wearing makes Iran sound better then what I saw in “The Circle”. Perhaps it’s because she isn’t a real local so she doesn’t know what it is to be an Iranian women.

     As said in the comic on page 31 of the course pack “with his Canadian-flagged back pack and his smattering of French and Spanish phrases”, here we see how tourists stand out in compared to locals and or even travelers. I would presume that travelers would change their style of dressing when entering another country with different beliefs. In “Honeymoon in Purdah” by Alison Wearing, she goes out shopping for some “taller” clothes so she can travel to holy places. With the help of Hamid and his family, Alison Wearing finds a dress and buys it. Hamid asks “are you satisfied with your purchases, and I tell him yes, all I need now is a new scarf”. Wearing is definitely a traveler because she adjusts herself to their culture and beliefs instead of her own. Most tourists would choose to wear their everyday clothes and ignore the religion behind it all. In “Mean old Man in Training by Joe Ollmann, he says “The modern nomad perceives himself as above these tourists that somehow he will make a true connection and fit in, instead of seeing the people and culture of other lands as strange and exotic” which proves my point about tourists.

      In conclusion, tourists think by buying sombreros and tacos make them experience the life of locals, in this case Mexicans. As for travelers they actually go as far as living the way the locals live and experience what they go through everyday.

     Melody’s oral presentation made me think back to my vacation and I realized that she was right. What we go through and experience on our family vacation is nothing compared to what the locals experience every day.

 This is what I got when searching “The Dominican Republic” on Google. Beautiful isn’t it? After listening to Melody’s oral I can now say that this isn’t the real everyday Dominican Republic.
 This is what I found when I searched “poor Dominican Republic”. Two very different lifestyles in one country all due to the Government.

     In conclusion, we obviously could see that they live a very rough life and visitors are blinded by the false advertisment of resorts. Im glad Melody unfolded my eyes to see the truth behind their government.

    The clearest journey I took through music would have to be the day I listened to Eminem. I am not a fan of rap but when I listened to one of Eminems songs it was like ive been listening to rap my whole life. When I listened to his song, I felt that I was in the same room as him, feeling the same emotions and feeling the same feelings he was.

     Although people pay a sum of money to go see Eminem in concert, I feel that with abit of imagination you could be right beside him everyday. Here I agree with the story of  ”A journey around my room” by Alain de Botton because he said that anyone can travel. Not everyone could see Eminem in concert, but if you just listen to his lyrics im sure it will take you further then seeing him live. 

     Do you agree with me when I say music can take you places?

       When I walk into my room it turns into something that only I could experience. When I walk into my room and look at my trophy stands I remember all the hard work and practice it took to win them. Every time I look at my medals they take me back to the day I won them. The most recent medal is the one my team and I came in 3^rd place at the Canadian Championships in Edmonton. Ill always remember that week, we were treated like professionals. As I turn my head left from the medals, I now find myself in Italy. The shoes I played with in Italy are hung up in my room for memory. My team and I went to Italy to train at a camp and it was a great experience. To the other side of Italy (my shoes) is my bed where I can have endless dreams in. When I wake up from my dreams I see the picture of me and my girlfriend on New Years, what a night it was! As I finally try to make my way out of my room I am taken back to Italy for a couple of minutes. There I remember buying shoes and clothes in Florence. Finally I open my door of endless trips and continue my day as life takes me.

     If you are from another background and living in Montreal then I suggest you become a cultural relativist. Our first language is French, the cuisine is different from anywhere else and our lifestyle has to change due to our cold winter. I don’t think it would be totally possible to move from Italy to Montreal and survive without accepting the conditions of having to change or to be open to a new culture.

     All I’m saying is that we should all do our best in being open to different cultures and beliefs. In the end, if we all respected one another’s beliefs don’t you think we would have a world with no racism/prejudice?

            For starters it took us 15 hours to get to Italy because it wasn’t a direct flight from Montreal to Rome. Once we landed we had to take a voyager bus to Venice, which I did not know would take 2 hours. Once reached the hotel, my room was nothing that I expected. The bathroom had no sections/divisions (the toilet bowl and the shower were not separated, so if you take a shower you’re wetting the whole bathroom). I guess they didn’t show us pictures of the bathroom when they were trying to sell us the tickets. 

            Even though the hotels weren’t the best we still managed to have fun. Every night when the teachers thought their innocent students were in bed, we were actually cracking jokes and talking to the Spanish students who were on the same trip as us.

            I would have to say it wasn’t all negative. When partnering up for rooms I chose to be with my best friend Matthew. We knew it had to be 4 people per room so we did not know who we were going to be paired up with. We got paired up with two other boys named Mauro and Massimo. We never stayed or spoke to them at school; we barely even knew each other, but it didn’t take long before we got to know each other and before you know it we were laughing. Till this day I still speak to Mauro and Massimo.

             Even though the trip did not live up to my expectations I did not get disappointed, I always made the best out of it. Now I know for the next time to leave my house with no expectations and just live with what life puts in front of me.