Motivation Monday - Epcot "World Showcase" - National Pride Abounds

(Germany pavilion of Epcot - picture taken 5/12/15 by myself)

I was trying to think how I could infuse my recent vacation in relation to this blog and the world of genealogy, and as I was editing photos from our first day at Epcot in Disney World, I found the perfect inspiration!

Firstly, a little background. I had never been to Disney World or Florida, for that matter, up until a few weeks ago, so it was going to be a very new experience for me. However, since I live only within hours of Disneyland, Disney World felt very different yet other parts felt very much as they do here at home. Epcot and Animal Kingdom felt the most unique, where as Magic Kingdom felt similar to Disneyland Park and Hollywood Studios felt similar to Disney's California Adventure (DCA, as it's known).

Epcot was our first stop at Disney World. I am glad we chose it as our first stop. It seemed to fit our mood for the day. Being that we took a red eye flight out of San Francisco and had basically just gotten from the Orlando airport, gotten our room at Port Orleans - Riverside and hopped onto a bus to Epcot, we were really running on fumes, but I think the excitement of being there is what kept us going. We didn't return to our hotel until nearly midnight. You can imagine how tired we were! But, we were glad we didn't use up a whole day to get rest. It really never got to us (until now - I have literally spent half of my Memorial day weekend hibernating and recovering from all we did!)

So, what is the connection here? Well, Epcot, as some of you may be familiar with, has the beautiful "World Showcase" portion of their park - which is devoted to 11 different countries and showcases the highlights of what each country offers - surrounded by a lagoon - there is food, shopping, historical and scenic films in Circle-Vision (basically, a room with a 360 degree projected movie - pretty awesome!), and some live entertainment to add to the authenticity of each country. Also, almost all cast members are of that country or speak the language. It's a very immersive experience. Some may not appreciate Disney for all they do to make this feel like a unique experience, but I surely did!

There were several pavilions I felt the strongest connections to - I guess it is no surprise that France, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada and even the American Adventure portion - all made me feel quite at home. Italy and Morocco were both very beautiful and loved the theming of these two areas, too.

I think for those of us who are looking for some motivation and inspiration for our work, can come out of the World Showcase feeling a strong connection to some of our home countries. Being that I've never been to any of the countries that my ancestors are from, getting a sneak peek in this format was a great little teaser and left me wanting more. However, I know the "Disney" version is generally a little more people friendly, but it definitely sparks some interest for those who may have a heritage in some or many of the countries represented.

I hope in coming years they can squeeze in a few more countries that were missed. I'd like to see what they can come up with. It would be really nice if they could honor Native Americans more.

So, with this said - if you've been to World Showcase at Epcot - did you also have a bit of sense of pride for the countries that you toured that are in your heritage? Did anything turn you away or not feel authentic enough? Did any country that was not within your heritage also spark interest? Did visiting these pavilions motivate you more to want to research certain lineages of your family?

(Genealogy) New Year's Resolutions

So, a new year is here. 2014 seemed to come and go so much faster than years before. I have a feeling 2015 will not be any less forgiving - darn, we're already going into our 2nd week of the year.

With that, I do have some genealogy related New Year's resolutions - ones that I hope I can stick to. Also, I feel having an itemized list will be beneficial for me - i.e. if I feel like I am running dry on blogging ideas or just need a little inspiration, I can always come back to this post to see what my hopes were for genealogical reasons (and blogging reasons, too)!

So, here's a go at it  -

1) My Irish Ancestors - I feel I am really neglecting this side of my roots, and I have quite a few tales to tell. Fact of the matter is, I need to hunker down and get more research done on my Irish ancestors. Things can often run dry in that area since many Irish records are still becoming digitized, but I will make it an aim to delve in this area a little more throughout the year!

2) My Father's Side - Recently, my Dad's sister has been writing me beautifully written accounts of her childhood (with memories of my Dad and the other siblings) and what she remembers of our grandparents and her parents and so on. These are priceless and I am protecting them like gold. They are all hand written, which to me, makes them even more special. I need to firstly digitize them so if they ever do get lost, I will always have a digital copy. Then, I would like to transcribe them into a word document. As for my blog, I would like to share more of my father's side. There is much to be revealed.

3) Use more Writing Prompts - I'd like to use more writing prompts to spice things up on here a bit more. I see quite a few websites that do a very good job of this and share their prompts with you. I aim to try some out and see what I can unearth in the process!

4) Network - I want to do a little more blog networking. I aim to give more comments on people's blogs or write a note of thanks for their knowledge. I'd like to see my blog in the future as a resource, in some ways, on certain genres of genealogy, especially the Black Sea Germans, which I feel my most comfortable with and have the most background in (which is why you see many related articles on them on here now and sure to see more in the future) - I am hoping my blog will bring in more Black Sea German researchers who are looking to share their memories or thoughts on the topic.

5) Noticing Interesting Patterns Interweave - Sometimes I find some interesting patterns during the migration of my ancestor's.  I'd like to focus more on these patterns and similarities as it's fun to point them out and make interesting connections. Some that I will focus on are two different waves of German colonization my ancestors were involved in - The Black Sea Germans to North Dakota and the Germanna Colonization in Virginia.

This is all for now - but maybe a year from now, I will be glad to have seen I met all of these goals.

Happy New Year to you all!