W - Wales

Wales: place

I did study-abroad at the University of North Wales, Bangor in the fall of 1999. I chose Wales for two reasons. One was due to ancestry, the other was that no one ever thinks of Wales. At least not that much in the USA. Everyone knows England, and Ireland and Scotland have been romanticized and commodified to death, but Wales is kind of the forgotten underdog, and I liked that. I took 3 Welsh history classes, two music classes and a Welsh language class.

Wales, at least the northern part, had every shade of Green and Grey imaginable. It also has some of the coolest castles (Though historically they were built by the English to trap the Welsh in the mountains).

One of the things that helped me make my decision to move to Maryland was that the School I work at used the Welsh Flag as their emblem (despite having a Scottish Name), though I was disappointed recently when our new mascot costume was unveiled (a cartoony version of Y Ddraig Goch) and it was introduced as having "just flown in from Scotland".

S - South Africa

South Africa: place

I used to know a lot about South Africa's history and music. Okay, maybe not a lot, but a decent amount. I became interested in South African history during the very first class I took in college (Survey of Southern African History) which I decided to take because I had recently re-discovered Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. I ended up taking more classes in college and writing my Senior Seminar research paper on protest implications of music in South Africa. I've forgotten a lot of what I used to know, as I didn't pursue it much after graduation, but recently I've decided to relearn what I can.

I have never been to South Africa. Since it's in Africa one probably needs many shots to travel there.


SEE ALSO: Graceland, college, guitar