About
As an American who's been living in rural Wales since September, several Welsh people - including the estate agent, the butcher, Air B&B hosts, bankers, and grocery store workers - have kindly asked me, "What the hell are you doing here?"
It's a good question.
Not a surprising one, since on the other side of the Atlantic, 99% of the non-State Department employed Americans we told we were moving to Wales inevitably later asked me when we were leaving for Scotland. Because, frankly, we as a people have no idea where Wales is. We generally have a vague idea where England is, and on a good day we know England is one of several parts of the UK, and so Wales goes into that part of our brains reserved for 'other parts of the UK I have heard of that are not England' - in other words, Scotland.
So what am I doing here? Well, first and foremost I've been a hiker since I was little and I was carried up parts of Mt. Katahdin in a backpack, and I learned recently Wales has some fabulous walks. [2017 EDIT: My parents have kindly informed me that, at 4 years old and in my school shoes, I actually hiked that entire mountain, to the chagrin of all the adults at the summit's sense of accomplishment. My father only carried me over one, fairly dangerous, rock formation]. But I'm also a recovering corporate attorney, an international human rights lawyer, a city-dweller and a diplomat, who quit her all-consuming job this summer when my partner decided to go back to school for his PhD in Wales. I retired for a few months to a small New England island with no potable water and where my main occupation was rowing empty beer cans to the mainland for recycling - but now I live in a fisherman's cottage in a Welsh town in a National Park on the Irish Sea whose name I'm not entirely sure I'm pronouncing correctly, with the aforementioned gentleman.
But mostly, I'm someone who's preparing herself for walking the entire Wales Coast Path and Offas Dyke Path this summer... the entire 1000+ mile Welsh border. Getting ready for that means lots of practice walks to Iron Age hill forts, druid standing stones, nature preserves, Roman ruins, hippy-filled tee pee colonies, small gauge railway lines, mountain tops, an eco-friendly alternative technology settlement, a reconstructed Italianate sea side village, 19th century slate quarries and windswept dunes along Victorian-age beaches (still waiting for someone to explain what a 'camera obscura' is, and why they're at beaches here).
Luckily all that and more's within 30 minutes, so I'll have plenty to prepare myself with!