model theory or proof theory

my prof wanna work in proof theory but me in model theory he says proof theory of arithmetic but I find cut-elimination and normalization very very syntactic is my intuition of model theory being meaty correct? or am i just not compatible/flexible? I love topology also .. is proof theory of arithmetic all about cut-elimination and proof normalization? why does buss's chapter on it look quite non-syntactic compared to takeuti ? but yeah anyways proof theory of arithmetic has connections to complexity so it would be easier for phd applications?? my background is cs