So we've been asked to write informal journals of some sort, for one of the new units at uni - The Tourism Experience. It's not going to be read by anyone at the uni, but basically I think it's just for our own sake, to record our thought processes, and any important themes or issues we may have picked up on in the seminars.
I really liked today's one. It was on the anthropology of tourism, though I think anthropology in general really interests me... For anyone who doesn't know, anthropology literally means the study of mankind. Basically it's all about why people do the things they do, what motivates and influences their decisions etc. It's fascinating how there can be so many areas to study on the one person or people, and how in-depth anthropologists go just to find out a tiny detail that can help them understand the human race.
Some of the key issues today that we were asked to think about included the difference between a tourist and a traveller, as well as the difference between tourism and travel.
The way I thought of it was that a tourist generally wants to see one or two main sites or destinations when they journey somewhere, while a traveller wants to see everything along the way, and will keep travelling indefinitely. Someone else said that tourism is seen as the mass form of people moving from place to place, while travellers are more likely to be adventure seekers, and will want to visit places more 'off the beaten track'; likely to travel alone or in small groups, rather than sticking with the mass crowds that generate tourism. It's sort of hard to express what I'm thinking of in actual words, but I suppose I'd better get used to at least trying to do it effectively!
The first assessment task for the masters course is due on Monday. It's already so different, with the amount of reading needed to be done before even starting to search for information relevant to the actual topic. It's also very much left to us to sort of make our own judgement on a lot of things, which scares me a little as I generally need a bit of guidance to help me on my way. But it's something else to learn, I guess.
I'm not sure if this is what Gary wanted when he said to keep a journal, but it'll do for now. I probably will appreciate that I've done this, at the end of the year, so I can look back and see how far I've come (if I last the whole time, that is!)
And now, off to bed.
