Day Trip to Another Country

One of the privileges of my schedule this term has been my free Wednesdays to get
things done as well as explore the greater UK area. One of those weeks consisted of a relaxing
Megabus trip to Wales for the day. One major difference between the Europe,
particularly the UK, and the United States is that it’s a lot less common to take roadtrips here.
Being in the car for a few hours just for a day trip is rare. However, this road-trip enthusiast was
up for a day in Cardiff, Wales, a town recommended to me by a dear friend. The bus was
about 3 hours but the beauty of the road is seeing the shifting distinct change between city
streets and London museums to field of sheep, goats, greenery, and blue skies.
It was a beautiful fall day so we took our time walking through a park, past Cardiff Castle,
through some Welsh neighborhoods to a nice brunch restaurant. Afterwards, we hopped a bus
to go to the bay and be by the water, one of my favorite places to be. Along the shore, there
are different signs telling you about the wildlife within the water and a small maritime museum.

                                                        

While I do enjoy museums, maritime isn’t exactly a subject I find particularly interesting, however, they had a special exhibition on display that caught my interest. Temporarily displayed there is an exhibit called “Young, Migrant, and Welsch” which tells the stories of recent immigrant students who have come to Wales and their views of being accepted, or lack thereof, within the community of Cardiff. Many of them view London as desirable in terms of its diversity and multicultural acceptance (but if you speak with some of my London-local classmates, they’ll tell you otherwise about the segregation and racism that occurs in the city). By comparison, however, Cardiff is a lot less diverse and many of the students shared quotes of stereotypes they have heard about them as well as their personal journeys coming to Wales. This exhibition resonated with me for several reasons. The first is that this past summer I worked on a show called My Family Came for This which was based on student writing of Milwaukee immigrants telling their stories of coming to America. The exhibition in Wales even had a quote from our show that comes from a poem by Warsan Shire, a British-Somali poet, that says “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”. The second reason this exhibit resonated with me was because just the day before, my Applied Theatre course was discussing migrants and their experiences coming to London. So to see this the very next day was fate, like putting the pieces together of the puzzle of my work here.

                                                   
The day in Cardiff ended by walking among the arcades, through a Christmas market, riding a carousel in the middle of the shopping street, and seeing the castle one last time. The townspeople were just beginning to put up the Christmas tree and lights and the quaintness of the town lied in the decorations.