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Travel Cultures Language

Around the Wacky World of Sister Cities and Twin Towns

by Meredith Mullins on March 22, 2021

Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, with cherry blossoms, a twin town with Rome and one of many sister cities around the world. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Who wouldn’t want to be sisters with Paris, especially in the spring?
© Meredith Mullins

It’s Not a Dull and Boring World

A story that features the words dull and boring can still show promise. We begin with a tale of two cities. Sister cities—Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon.

This particular familial friendship (also called town twinning in Europe) was based on the humorous pairing of their town names. They even added a third city to the clan, creating a celebratory menage à trois. Bland, Australia was invited into the partnership, launching a possible new trend of town tripleting.

Memories of St Patrick’s Day In and Out of Ireland

by Joyce McGreevy on March 15, 2021

Ireland’s blue sky and green meadow in March evoke memories celebrated with cultural authenticity on St Patrick’s Day in Ireland. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Before the pandemic, March was a popular time for travel to Ireland . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

How Real Was My Cultural Authenticity?

What could be more Irish than memories of St Patrick’s Day in Ireland? Picture it: County Limerick, March 17. Sunlight illuminates my boarding school overlooking the banks of the River Shannon. Such cultural authenticity! We’ve the day off from classes. Cue the festivities!

The Dripping of the Green

Ah, but this is 1970s Ireland. St Patrick’s Day is a holy day, not yet a holiday. To “celebrate,” we each pin a clump of sodden shamrocks to the front of our school uniform. At Mass, I watch in dismal fascination as brackish liquid oozes along the wool grain of my personal upholstery.

In the (School) Zone of Different Cultures

by Sheron Long on March 9, 2021

This round cardboard school zone sign from The Gambia with arrow pointing in one direction and 3 kids going in the opposite direction is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Kirszen/iStock

The beeline—Did this school sign from The Gambia presage 2020 education
or where kids wanted to go?
© Kirszen

School Zone Signs of the Times

All over the world in 2020 school traffic stopped and not just in the crosswalks. Now buses are creeping back to school, kids are in the crosswalks again, and our minds at OIC have moved from online education to the lines on school zone signs in different cultures.

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