Aimee (gonzo1385) told me I should update, so...

A couple of days ago, I was watching Riverdance: Live in New York City, one of my favorite things to watch and one of the DVDs I'm most jazzed about owning, mostly because I just stumbled upon it in FYE. (The next one will be The Middleman - once my DVD set arrives, that is.) Anyway, even though I've seen it about 100 times - many times on VHS on the only TV we had, much to the chagrin of my mom and sisters, who hate it, and my dad, who introduced me to it but only mildly tolerates my fan-ness - I still get a thrill out of watching it.

And then that's when it hit me. I don't know if it's the same way with everybody, but I've discovered that different countries in my ancestry manifest themselves in me in different ways.

First is Germany. I'm roughly half German, all from my Dad's side. Germany gets my mind - German is my second language, and I also have a streak of German stubbornness inside. I took a quiz on Facebook called "What is Your Inner Nationality?" and got German, because I like to have fun, but I have no patience with stupidity.

Next are Norway and Sweden. I'm combining them because my grandma's ancestors come from both countries, so she's the source of my Scandinavian heritage. As weird as it sounds, Scandinavia gets my stomach. Grandma loves to cook up all her old recipes at Christmastime. We always have Swedish meatballs and gravy and lefse, and if she's feeling up to it, we'll get krumkake, Sotsuppe (a fruit soup), and other goodies. Though I usually pass on the Sotsuppe, these are some of my favorite foods - if I knew the recipes, I'd make them a lot more often than Christmas, though I could drive to Ikea, which makes pretty good meatballs.

I think I get my grammar nazi-ness from my French forebears... French is the only language I know of with its own government regulatory body: L'Académie française, which tends to fight the Anglicization of the language. Also from France I get my joie de vivre and love of all things frilly and romantic... :-)

The English have my heart: I'm terribly practical, with a touch of the whimsical, like Queen Victoria having a favorite Shakespearean comedy, and classic yet funky - I love traditional things, but I always do them with a twist, like my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. British humor is my favorite kind (everything from The Importance of Being Earnest to Monty Python to Top Gear - deadpan snarkery is my favorite), and while there really aren't concentrations within the English degree at Liberty, I specialized in British Literature.

I love all these aspects of my personality, but it's the Irish that have my soul. I love almost all kinds of music, but Irish music makes me sing (not literally, I mostly love Irish instrumentals), and nothing calls to me like the beat of the bodhrán and the violin. Tin whistles make everything better. While my room is pretty awesome, I can't help but feel at home within the dark-stained wood walls of the local Irish pub (Shannon and I have an understanding that whenever one of us owes the other money, lunch at P. Wexford's is acceptable payback). I identify with my German heritage the most, but I love being even part Irish. (Of course, I also get the big red blotches on my skin whenever I so much as touch my face or neck, so it's not all a lovefest, but the pros outweigh the cons.)

So there you have it, not that you really needed to know... Maybe all this one-woman multiculturalism is why I like geography...

Mood contemplative Music Midnight Kiss - Gaelic Storm Tags: late night musings, randomness is next to godliness