Latha Math! (Gaelic for Hello). As Christmas days are approaching it’s time for me to introduce the beautiful country of Ireland to you and the beautiful city of Dublin as well.
While flying home to Germany for Christmas, I reflected about the time I spent in Ireland. From 10th September until the 21st of December 2015 I was in Ireland. I will be there again for twenty days in January 2016. What did I expect from Ireland before I came to Dublin? Guinness comes to mind, the colour green and kind people. All of it is really part of Ireland, I recognized.
There are so many things I enjoyed while I was in Ireland. First of all, the extreme kind and welcoming Irish people. I will remember little things, like the sound of the traffic lights every time we crossed the street. They sound like a Pacman game. Or French fries with salt and vinegar, at first, the most disgusting thing I had ever eaten, but the best food after a night out.
Dublin and Ireland have plenty to offer:
There are the Irish Pubs, all in their own fashion unique, some of them with loud music and people dancing around, some cozy and relaxed, others full of sports fans cheering at their favourite sports team or ranting about the referee. The Leonard’s Corner, a comfortable pub, in the same street as the Griffith College, quickly established as our favourite pub. We met Paul and Gary, the likable barkeepers and had a pint of Guinness (0,568 Litre) every once in a while. I took a step into the Darkey Kelly’s which provides live music every day of the week.
I went inside the famous Temple Bar, which gave a whole district of Dublin its name. The Temple Bar is always overcrowded because it is a tourism hot spot, but it is still a nice place to go. I tried the Temple Bar whisky. It’s expensive, but it tastes awesome. I had a pint of Guinness in the Brazen Head, which is officially the oldest Pub in Dublin. The staff inside the Brazen Head is just relaxed and the pub appears like an Irish beer garden. I took a look on the wall and recognised pictures of celebrities who visited the Brazen Head. For a good night out, we visited the Bleeding Horse or the Hogans.
I traveled around the country to see the beautiful nature of “the green Island”: Howth, a fishing village not far from Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains, beautiful mountains with two big lakes right underneath or the Cliffs of Moher in county Galway, magnificent cliffs washed around by the Atlantic Ocean. A scene of Harry Potter was filmed at the cliffs. Bray, a city at the seaside with around 26 000 inhabitants was worth a visit as well. The view over the sea and the city was just epic.
I made a trip to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Around Christmas time, the Continental Christmas market is magnificent. You can learn everything about the famous RMS Titanic at the Titanic museum and take a ride with the typical UK taxis.
As a sports journalism student, I will remember the fantastic atmosphere in the Croke Park, the third biggest sports stadium in Europe or in the Aviva Stadium. I will remember Gaelic Football, Hurling and Handball as fast. competitive and spectacular sports. I do not understand why these are not famous all around the world. I will remember Rugby fans, screaming their head off to support their team. I will remember the special task of the clubs of the Gaelic Athletic Association to cultivate national pastimes. A lot of fun was the visit of the dog race. The lean, little dogs run so fast. In my opinion, the dog race is good entertainment and the dogs get to do what their like to do (run), so it is basically a win-win situation.
I visited some museums as well. If you want to learn something about the history of Dublin, visit the Dublinia, the museum of the historical origin of Dublin. Irish people invented whisky. I learned everything about the history of Irish whisky at the Irish whisky museum and tasted the best whisky in the world. The Guinness storehouse told me the story of the famous beer brand and I learned how to tap a pint of guinness.
I will never forget the moment Shane Long scored the crucial goal against the German national soccer team and how the crowd in the pub reacted afterwards. Even as a German, you were infected by the celebration of the Irish. I will never forget, how proud the Irish taxi drivers were, even months after the win for the Irish.
I will never forget the sentence of my professor Geraldine McGing: ”Irish people do not have an alcohol problem, their just having a good time” or the warm familiar feeling that dominates every Irish pub. The courses at the Griffith College were similar to those in Germany, so nothing new here, but I found new friends, not only from Ireland but also from other continents. The Griffith College is very international, which makes it fun because you can connect with people from all around the globe. In fact, I will never forget the wonderful time I had during my semester abroad.
As a journalism student, my days in January will be packed with learning for my microeconomics exam, but there is still time to see more, like the famous Jameson whisky distillery or the famous Phoenix Park.
I highly recommend choosing Dublin and Ireland as the place for a semester abroad, because the people are nice and welcoming, nature is beautiful and Dublin as a city is perfect for students. I just love this country and you will definitely too, I promise.
Ghosts, whiches, cobwebs and dust everywhere. Literally. When Halloween approaches not only the United States (where the „Halloween-Hype“ first started to weave its webs in peoples‘ heads), starts to go crazy about this one particular day. London strongly competes with the nation overseas not only regarding trick’or’treaters but also – and especially – Halloween ornaments.
The shops decorate each bit of space with spiders, pumpkins and anything that would remind a potential shopper that it is highly important to do the same, therefore to buy that stuff. But what does a declared Halloween-muffle, just like me, find best about the hype? Right. When it‘s over. Because then – above all here in London, the capital of England and, simultaneously, of Christmas decorations – all vampires, zombies and black cats can make their way right back into the basements and make space for lots of lights, glitter and the anticipation for three particular days. Yes, it finally is time for Christmas.
Right on time, in the wee hours of the 1st November, not only all kinds of shops, but also restaurants and pubs seem to be incapable of holding back their anticipation for the upcoming holiday season and delight themselves in glittering ornaments.
But shop owners aren’t the only ones who gear up their display windows; some students are emulating retail and hanging up the one or other christmas tree ball, tinsel or mistle toe. Looks good and makes the not-so-cosy student accommodation a little more cosy. As to say, a win-win situation. Additionally, a nice way to keep down homesickness and focus on rather urgent things, such as the inescapable test-season, which is unstoppable heading for us.
Not only us students are gradually getting ready for the merry time, but also the town itself is shaping up and boasting with all it has to offer: from a silvery shining London Eye, that inevitably catches your sight as soon as you exit Waterloo Station to an all-over sparkling Oxford Street which leads you right through Christmas-shopping with dangling umbrellas, presents, globes and even peacock-feathers.
Everyone seems to be dwelling in a Winter Wonderland rather than in the real world, which vividly unfolds all its pre-christmas-madness. Actually, when you suddenly find yourself trapped between a swarm of gabbling, constantly selfie-taking tourists and a totally stressed out English Businessman who struggles coming up with an appropriate idea for at least one present, in the middle of an already overcrowded shop, you start doubting that christmas is supposed to be all about love. Capitalism at its finest – and all you can do is either to flow with it or to spread lots of pre-christmas joy yourself.
Latter could be accomplished by a nice stroll through the notorious Hyde Park or, if you fancy some elegance, through “the garden of Her Majesty”, the Green Park (where, admittedly, solitude and seclusion have to wait since the Buckingham Palace happens to be in its direct vicinity, therefore hordes of tourists might appear).
Despite all of glitter, sparkle and “Merry Holidays”-wishes, there is something we need to face: The Semester is slowly but steadily approaching its end and so does the time we have to prepare for tests, writing project papers and other submissions. We all probably still have an echo in our heads saying “Don’t stress yourself just yet!” and “It’s still ages until you ought to worry about the papers!”. But – surprise, surprise – all of a sudden, the time arrived that leaves us startled and swearing that “in the next semester, I’ll start learning sooner!”. Thank god, we have something to look forward to: Christmas!
It seems like we have just arrived, and now it’s almost time to say goodbye. Time passes so fast in such a lively city as London.
It has been almost three months since the beginning of our adventure, but it feels like it has only been two weeks ago since we stepped out of the plane. As much as we are looking forward to Christmas with our families at home, we don’t want to leave. We all met amazing new people and we got to know each other pretty well during the last months.
We definitely had some amazing weeks here. Since our last update in October, many things have happened.
First of all, we started to settle into the student accommodation life. Almost all of us are living in the halls of residence provided by the University. Some of us stay in flats with flatmates from all over the world and got used to the different customs within the last weeks. Others stay in studios or private housing, but have also met many international people and made friends soon. Of course, the walls are thin and we miss our own beds sometimes, but usually, life in our new homes is pretty funny. It never gets boring.
Being at University never gets boring, because we have lots of different courses. Just like the students, the lecturers are very international and some of them are doing a really great job. There are several differences to studying at home:
We definitely have more deadlines here, but the amount of work is distributed better. In the exams, instead of answering questions, we have to write mini-essays and we are expected to give a critical view on the objectives we have learned. But if you start early enough, it will be easier to get things done and you will have enough free time to explore this wonderful city.
But University life does not only mean being in the lectures and writing exams. There are also many societies, which you can join. Some of us joined the dance society, the football team, the jammin’ society and the University newspaper. The University and the students union also provided some daytrips, for example to Brighton and Canterbury, which some of us attended.
As you probably all know, London is a city where many events take place. In early November, there was The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 Premiere at Leicester Square, where a fellow student of our group went to and she said that it was amazing but also a little bit frightening because of all the screaming teenage girls.
However, we did not only focus on the current films but also on ones that are still present in our minds. Most of us are huge Harry Potter fans and are enjoying the benefits of living here by visiting all the filming locations of the movies. There is the King’s Cross station with platform 9 ¾, but also the Grimmauld Place, the Leaky Cauldron, Gringotts, the entrance to the Ministry of Magic and several other places. However, our personal highlight was a trip to the Warner Bros. Studios, where the Harry Potter movies have been shot.
We have seen the Great Hall from the inside as well as the Gryffindor’s dormitory and Dumbledore’s office. We also had the opportunity to try real Butterbeer for once, but unfortunately it tasted like a really sweet soft drink with a foam of cream, so we all were a little disappointed. But that didn’t last long, because the rest of the tour was as awesome as the beginning and we were very glad we went there.
Right after Halloween, which is a real thing here, Christmas-themed things started to pop up everywhere in the city. You can even hear Christmas songs when you do your grocery shopping at Tesco, which is very funny and there are also chains of lights everywhere in the city, especially the ones at Oxford Street are beautiful. There must be a thousand pictures on Instagram of this special lighting. All in all, it’s very easy to get into the typical pre-Christmas mood and you often have to prevent yourself from buying too many Christmas presents and drinking too much mulled wine, because London has so much of it to offer.
However, almost all of us have less than two weeks left before going home again and we want to make the best of the remaining time: Next week, we are going to have a Christmas party together, going to go to the Southbank Christmas Markets and right now, we are planning several meetings with our old and new friends. One thing is for sure: saying goodbye won’t be easy and we will definitely come back some time.
Welcome to the third article of this “PRoaden your mind” series.
Welcome to the third article of this “PRoaden your mind” series. I am very happy to have the opportunity to share my favourite topic of this term with you today. I heard about it here in London at the University of Westminster and I was immediately wondering about the consequences of these special developments.
Maybe you have heard about it, maybe you have not. I am convinced: You at least read several native ads without knowing it. That is way it is crucial to know about native advertising especially for media users but also for media producers. Here is a short explanation what native advertising actually is: Native advertising describes the most recent changes in the advertising landscape, with very doubtful effects. The most recent change is the advancement from banner that are of course annoying but at least easy to identify as advertising, to ads that are more or less ‘invisible’ because their design matches the design of the websites natural content. Therefore diverse ‘modern’ ads are unidentifiable as advertising for users and get perceived as natural content with the same value as for example real news on the website of a newspaper. Native ads function exactly like natural content. Sometimes they are marked with a small ‘sponsored by’. However, most of the time they are not even marked at all.
These developments bring enormous benefits for media producers, as ads have no discouraging or irritating effect on costumers anymore and it makes it easier for media producer who are depending on the income through advertising to place ads without loosing ad-annoyed readers.
Further, the job of ad producers has changed fundamentally. Ad producers do not need to create extravagant and outstanding pieces of advertising anymore, their main and only task in native advertising is to camouflage ads so that they look like news – the job gets easier but also more questionable and hypocritical.
Thinking of the ethical consequences of this new invention one can see that native advertising does not only have good sides indeed. With the advancement of native ads the manipulation, confusion and tricking of customers rise. At the same time the value of natural content (real news) lowers as natural content nowadays gets equated with paid content. Further, the overall quality of information available decreases. How can media customers be supposed to differ news and ads if they look exactly the same? And even worse: How can they be supposed to recognize the difference if they do not even know that native ads exist?
As one can see the responsibility of both media and ad producers is big. They have the power to decide what customers experienced reality looks like and what information customers receive. They decide about correctness, quality and presentation of content. One can only hope that they will not use their power in an unethical way in order to follow their own interests.
However, also media users can do something in order to avoid being manipulated. It can be helpful to think further, question and double-check gained information.
Unbelievable developments with huge effects on people’s experience of reality – what do you think about it?
From London with Love,
Helena
PS: Of course I am not only studying here, I also enjoy the wonderful Christmas London with new friends and typical English food as you can see on the pictures below.
This second blog could be useful as a adviser for all macromedia students, who might think about studying in Mexico during their semester abroad, because we share our point of view and the experiences we made here in Mexico.
After living in Monterrey for now five months we found our daily routine, our favorite taco place and close friends.
That obviously makes it harder to leave now than ever before, because we settled our second live here in Latin America, but at the same time we realized that there is a load of experiences still waiting for us in Mexico.
Speaking about the Tecnologic de Monterrey you have to know that studying here has a really different system than you’ll be used to in Germany. Where in Germany quality counts, at Tec quantity of work has priority. Homework every week, which you have to hand in and for which you be graded makes it kind of hard to go traveling during the semester, but weekend trips are possible, and should be done for sure. For these travels you have the choice to organize everything by yourself or you contact the two main organizations, which are present for international students: ISE and Integrate.
We personally recommend Integrate, where we did most of our trips with and made some of the best experiences of our lives. The trips are affordable and give you a great chance to check out the beautiful country while making new friends, internationals as well as Mexicans. Some of our must do’s are: Boca de Iguana, a beach festival on the west coast with a lot of partying. Also, Mexico City and Guanajuato for the Independence Day in September, to get an idea about the history and culture of Mexico. Who is into extreme sports, Matacanes is a must: Canyoning for a whole day with sore muscles guaranteed, but the most beautiful nature possible. Who prefers a relaxed and spiritual experience should check out Real de Catorce. You can rent some horses and ride into waterfall valleys and the dessert, where you will meet shamans and try the traditional cactus.
Traveling with these student organized agencies has another advantage next to the full organization part and the good caring, which isn’t that unimportant in a country like Mexico: Travelling in Mexico is quite expensive. It is mostly in the vacation time affordable for students to travel because you get discounts. But also because the country is so big, the distances between the places are often beyond 6 hours by bus.
There are some misunderstandings about Mexico, we definitely want to clear. Mexico is one of the most friendly and colorful countries, which is sometimes misprized because of bad media. But don’t be afraid of robbery or criminality. Yes it is present, but if you follow some simple rules, nothing’s gonna happen at all. Simply just don’t walk alone during the night. If you carry expensive stuff like a Laptop with you, better take a taxi than walk. Simply take care of your personal belongings, as you would do it in every other place in the world. Be aware, that you probably stay out in public, because of your foreign look.
So, if people come up and talk to you, touch you or your hair, they always mean it in a friendly and complimenting way. Especially the University in Monterrey and the surroundings are very safe. Security guards are positioned at every corner and are very likely to help.
We all agree, there will be some things you’ll not be able to live without anymore, after living in Mexico. The food: Tacos, Guacamole, Chile and Lime are part of nearly every meal and surprisingly, you will be wondering how you could ever enjoy dishes without it before. The style: Probably it’s because there are mostly small, but Mexican women love their high heels. Also the sunny weather makes you wear much more colorful cloths and you’ll be wondering why you brought so much boring cloth from Germany.
And of course the music: Reggyaeton. Once you hear it you sing it, move it, feel it – love it.
To sum up our semester abroad in Mexico we have to say that it has been a pleasure to be in this country. Besides the fact that the work for the university is super exhausting and it therefore often puts a spoke in your wheel in terms of travelling plans we had a great time with awesome people. In the end we just have to say that requirements for being in Mexico are: drinking tequila and mezcal, being polite and not shy to ask in case you need help, and very important: learn Spanish – otherwise you will figure out that you are lost beyond the fences of the university.
I guess every new post around this time starts with: ‘Oh gosh, when has all the time passed by?’ On one hand: Yes, it is crazy and shocking where all the time has gone! On the other, it shows us how much we have enjoyed surfing, travelling and living here in San Diego. Oh, and of course studying … It is quite difficult to sum up the last five months of our lives as we have done so much different stuff.
The chilled and laid back lifestyle faded on every one of us. Waking up in the morning by the sun like nearly every day is an awesome feeling. You do not have to plan trips nearby in advance, because most of the time you can trust the San Diego weather with its warm and sunny days and be spontaneous to go just anywhere. There has been the time where we all just could not get enough of the beaches in summer. Summer officially ends on the first weekend in September but I’ll tell you a little secret: It really doesn’t.
It can get a little colder at night from October to December but during the day it stays mostly sunny and warm. Sometimes it does start to rain but this is nothing compared to what we are used to in Germany. Especially if you are from Hamburg you can leave your raincoat at home. You won’t need it! However, California is more than this. Even the ‘winter’ is beautiful. If you do a 2.5 hours trip up north, you get to see a beautiful winter location named Big Bear Lake. For those who love skiing and snowboarding, that’s the perfect place for you. But enough said about the weather.
A totally different experience was to visit Mexico. In only about 30 minutes you reach the Mexican border. Of course it depends on where you live in San Diego but it is easy to get there from nearly everywhere. Make sure you bring your passport and your I-20 with you; otherwise you could get in trouble reentering the border to the United States again. Mexico is definitely an experience by itself. Right behind the border you will recognize that Mexico is still a developing country, even if it is that close to the United States.
The road and driving conditions are worse than in San Diego and I thought that is hard to overcome! All over the place you will see rubbish and bad living conditions. However, you will enjoy the friendly Mexican hospitality while eating the best tacos and drinking the yummiest margaritas you have ever had. But still be careful that you will not walk alone in Mexico, especially not at night. If you decided to go to Mexico by car, make sure you will get in the right lane to come back to the United States. It can happen easily, that your GPS tells you a way to get to the border, where you automatically end up in a wrong lane.
Once, it happened to my friends and me that we got stuck in the fast track lane, where you have to register in advance and show various documents from the last six months of your income, health status etc. Luckily, we did not get in trouble because the border patrol are used to strangers, who cross the border by car the first time. The only thing is if you end up going through this special fast track lane by accident, that you will end up in a kind of special control, where we had to wait at least three hours to get back to the United States. Our luck was that one of the officers did not make a big deal about it and let us go after 40 minutes.
Resuming the last months, we had a blast. It’s just the kind of lifestyle in San Diego, which got us right away. ‘Worry less, surf more, travel often and enjoy every single moment of it’, is the kind of motto we have followed. Soon it is time to say good bye but I am glad that I have made so many different experiences, met so many great people that makes saying good bye so hard. Cheers to an unforgettable and indescribable time of our lives!
It is time for the next blog article that is showing you what we are experiencing here in London and even more important what we are learning here in PR and Advertising at the University of Westminster.
In the light of recent events I am going to focus on the question ‘Are we living in a society of fear?’ today.
Terrorist attacks in Paris and related actual events did change a lot – not only in politics but also in our society. Everyday life in Europe is not the same anymore. Especially in big cities like London the worry about further attacks in Europe characterizes the general emotional state. The fact that ISIS has claimed the UK as its next main target even intensifies this feeling of fear among the British population. People in London seem to be both nervous and restless. Driving with a full underground line even strengthens this impression of insecurity. Everybody is checking their smartphones even if the train is just stopping for a few seconds, a underground line station is closed or a road is blocked. This unknown atmosphere even changed our behaviour here in London. Especially in the first week after the Paris attacks we tried to avoid big events or big crowds. Thus, we rescheduled our everyday lives in order to avoid rush hours and the busiest days. Of course there are certain reasons to be careful! However, is it really reasonable to let these current events influence our lives in such an extent? Is terrorism indeed such a great threat? Or isn’t what media coverage makes out of these events the real problem? Is the anxiety of terrorism in Europe an entitled and real fear or a created and unknowingly media-caused fear?
Fear has always been part of human life due to the fact of our bodies’ vulnerability and thus to the fundamental fear of death. Some experts even claim fear as the leading motive of any social action. Anxiety is seen as a strong driving force of our society. As in earlier ages people feared the plague, the devil or war, nowadays society fears a large amount of threats for instance terrorism, climate change, refugee crisis or nuclear power. This massive growth of fear is directly proportional to the advancement of technology, therefore the development of mass media. Or in Bourke’s (the author of ‘Fear: A Cultural History’) words “mass media take a prominent role in inciting panic”. Today it is possible to experience terrible scenes over and over again, especially through the evolution of mass media. Our everyday life is full of repeating (terrible or shocking) scenes. Decades ago you could only imagine them. Today, besides economic struggling and the fear of what is to come, the rising effect of mass media, makes causing fear even easier, as the presentation of bad news becomes continuingly more realistic. The modern society is surrounded by bad news, scandals of disaster and death. People are “overdosed on reality”. On the one hand this fact causes fearful or depressing emotions, on the other hand makes it people aware of what is going on around them, makes them even feel responsible for things that are happening to their fellow humans, makes them feel sympathy. Of course media are manipulating society’s experience of reality and make bad news even worse with the aim shocking the public. Otherwise mass media give their audiences the opportunity to share feelings and opinions on a frightening event and helps them handling fearing situations. It gives people the feeling of not being alone. Highly optimistic seen one can say: as a consequence mass media make our society to a caring society.
To conclude this article nothing else remains to be done than to outline that we should see current on-goings as a chance of forming a new European wide society of solidarity and charity, in order to counter terrorists together and with strength. We should not allow ourselves to be intimidated by current threats.
From London with Love,
Helena
London. Over the last few weeks I was thinking about what students back in Germany want to know about studying abroad.
You have heard enough about how great this city is and how many different possibilities you have to spend your leisure time in London. I am sure it doesn’t need more good reasons to persuade you of this liveable metropolis. However, one important component is missing in reporting and that is what we are actually learning here and how studying at the University of Westminster and especially the module PR and Advertising improves our skills and knowledge in order to prepare us for our future careers.
I am very happy to have the opportunity to share my studying experiences here at the University of Westminster with all my fellow students and hopefully with many future Westminster students. In the next few weeks I am trying to give you a little insight in what the contents here at this University in London be like. Further, I would love to give you little impulses that are worth thinking about. You can follow my experiences here at the Macromedia 6+1 Blog.
So, lets start with the first, in my view very interesting, topic: Is Google Making Us Stupid?
And the answer is: YES! Everybody knows, the development of new technologies and, therefore the advancement of new or mass media have a huge impact on different aspects of our society.
These new framing conditions do not only influence economics and politics, but also our culture. In other words, the human behaviour and human interaction changes in many ways.
The most interesting and at the same time most doubtful development in this context is the influence of Google (or other search engines) not only on our behaviour or interaction, but also on human ways of thinking like Nicholas Carr outlines in his article ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’. Surveys revealed that the enormous varieties of content available online changes not only our way of thinking, but also our way of reading:
Isn’t that crazy? Let me know what you think about this!
From London with Love
Helena
