Samuel Garfield

I’d probably go to Beijing and visit David.

Maybe I can go up on the 9th of June and make up for that Girl Talk show I missed last quarter?

I almost didn’t put this on my list…but how could I not? Egypt is another place packed with so much human history that it’s almost unbelievable. It’s almost hard to believe given how barren and lifeless a lot of it is, which is an interesting contrast. Maybe some day I will go on a trip to follow in the steps of one of my (anti)heros, Alexander of Macedon. I can’t help but imagine going down to Alexandria would be my second favorite part, right after Greece. Mmm.

Soooooo much history here that I could easily die of information overload trying to internalize very much of it at once. I might as well go, too, because I can get a free trip with Birthright. I don’t know when I will go, exactly, though. Maybe in a summer or two.

Ive got a free credit with Amtrak, so I am gonna go up to Vancouver for a day. I really like that city a lot. It makes me feel small, but in a good way.

I need to email my uncle…because he is offering to fly me out to NYC for free! It should be great, because my family out there is awesome (especially my uncle, who is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met), and the city is really fun.

I love Japanese culture and language. Once again, Japan is another nation whose political system and social culture I understand very well for one who has never set foot in the country. Japanese people, language, food, culture (mostly), TV, animation, technology, music, everything…= <3. I missed my chance to go with the Levy family this summer, but hopefully I will get another chance to go there some time before I finish school. After school I might go and live in Japan and get paid by the government to teach english for a year or two. Man, that would be sweet...

A scandinavian liberal paradise, as nationstates called it. Norway is in many ways probably my dream nation…socialist policies, high tax rates, political freedom, governmental fiscal responsibility, artists getting paid by the government…mmm. <3

England…another nation whose politics and culture I am maybe a little too familiar with for some one who has never been. But no worries. If I do go to London, I have to see if I can tour Whitehall, go to question time at the House of Commons, go to cool british night clubs that play awesome music, and try and meet some real geezers if I can. I’ll also have to take at least one or two jaunts into the countryside, but I think I will mostly stay in London.

Spain…mmm, I don’t know nearly as much about Spain’s history as I would like. Visiting might be an excellent chance to learn, though, eh? Spain is also just supposed to be spectacularly pretty, the locals very nice, and the weather very pleasant. It would also be a great place to get some practice with my spanish.

fun fact: Phoenecia was an trading empire based in modern-day Lebanon that stretched all along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and which also spawned many colonies as far away as the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain/Portugal), including the colony of Carthage, which was located in modern day Morocco. Eventually Carthage became an empire in its own right and challenged the Romans, who conquered their progenitors, the Phoenecians. Carthage spread into the Iberian Peninsula, and its influence can still be felt today… For example: the city of Barcelona is named after the Barcas, the ruling family of Carthage, the most famous being Hannibal Barca who took his armies from northern africa up across the Strait of Girbralter, along the coasts of modern day Spain and France, through the Alps, and all the way into the italian peninsula…at which point his army was too weak to directly attack Rome itself, so he just kind of caroused about there until he died if I remember correctly. Anyway, sorry for the tangent, but it’s just fascinating how an ancient empire on the opposite end of the Mediterranean sea had effects on Spain that can still be seen and felt today.

Okay, I think that proves that I am a history nerd.