Brandi Dean
University of Cincinnati, Honors Portfolio
Ireland
Sport & Culture
My European Adventure
Personally, I felt that they had the most diverse sport history and culture amongst the three countries. In Ireland sport is engrained into their culture. Sports aren’t something you just do, it is a lifestyle, especially when it comes to Gaelic Games. Ireland is an island that is split into two. Northern Ireland is under the rule of Great Britain while the southern half of the island known as, The Republic of Ireland is an independent sovereign state. The division of the two halves of Ireland is reflected in their sport as well. Nationalists created the Gaelic Games in 1884 when the tensions between the Irish and the British were at an all-time high. Nationalists believed that British sports made them weak, so they needed to create tough Irish sports, thus Gaelic football, hurling, and handball were created. The Gaelic Games took Ireland by storm.
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It was a great experience being able to play the different Gaelic games. Hurling definitely wasn’t for me. I enjoyed Gaelic Football even though Royshunta tried to take me out and I scored a point. My favorite game was Gaelic handball, after a couple of rounds I was finally getting the hang of it and I was on a mini winning streak until it was time to wrap up and play the other games. Although the Gaelic Games were fun, the highlight of my time in Ireland was definitely the Cliffs of Moher. It was such an exhilarating experience. I was terrified and proud of myself at the same time. I am scared of heights and yet I still managed to walk close to the edge and stop and take awesome pictures. Ireland was beautiful and calming. It seemed the most historic and older as far as architecture is concerned. However, they have bad weather. It’s an island so it’s rainy and it doesn’t get that warm or cold; I personally like hot weather.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands sport began in the pub and then developed into club sports. Until the 1980’s sport was considered a hobby and not a sport. In the Netherlands sport organizations are the largest civil society organization. There are 35,000 sports clubs in the Netherlands and 4.5 million people are registered to these clubs. The Dutch value sport for all over funding their elite athletes. Through sport they are able to deal with societal issues, such as childhood obesity by making sport so accessible. Which is the thing I liked most about sport in the Netherlands.
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I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam the most out of the three countries we visited. I loved the atmosphere and it was really beautiful and vibrant there. I think one of the best things about Amsterdam has to be how healthy they are and all the bicycles there. The amount of bikes in Amsterdam easily outnumber the amount of cars there. Riding the bicycles was definitely a fun experience and it was interesting to see how much respect bicycles get. We also had the opportunity to play korfball which was really interesting. It’s weird playing these sports that are so similar to our own. I love basketball, so I really enjoyed playing Korfball however it was challenging throwing out the rules of basketball and trying to adapt the rules of korfball.
Germany
We spent the least amount of time in Germany. However I did learn a few things while I was there. Germans have an interesting history in regards to sport. Germany hosted the Olympics in 1936 in Berlin during the Nazi era. During those games Hitler had to hide his extreme tactics when it came to the Jews and he did not want Jews to compete in the Olympic Games. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and that affected the landscape of European sport and on the understanding of sport doping issues.
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While in Germany we visited the German Sport University and the information I gathered while there brought me to the conclusion that if I want to pursue further education then I need to move to Germany; higher education is free there. I definitely would not have been able to attend the German Sport University as an undergraduate student because of their physical requirements. In order to attend students must successfully complete and pass 19 out of 20 challenging physical tests, which must be completed in one day so maintaining stamina is key. The best thing we did while in Germany was attending the Ice Hockey World Championship Quarterfinal; Team USA vs. Sweden. The fact that we did that as a group minus a few people made it that much more special because it was our last hoo-rah together before returning to the States.