If I'd given it any thought, I might have expected that Turkish people would find my home's name really funny sounding. But over the years I've forgotten that "Walla Walla" isn't a standard [European] way to name a place.
Instead, the real surprise for me was that my estadounidense coworkers find this to be a ridiculous, fanciful name. A number of them even asked me if Walla Walla was a real place. [I'm just going to note here that most of them are from the East Coast. So perhaps there's less familiarity there with names like Walla Walla, Puyallup, or Medicine Hat (Alberta-- I'm lookin' at you, Thomas).]
Two of my favorites have turned out to be from Coon Rapids, Minnesota and Cheyenne, Wyoming. A couple of us (Billy, Wyatt, Ruby, and...?) are holding it down for the Left Coast.
Quite a number of people have said that you become more proud to be an American after you leave the country or when you spend time in a place that might be contentious about "American" perspectives. I can't really speak to "being an American" right now-- there are some really strange and scary things going on in the world (Anti-American Protests Over Film Enter Fourth Day), and I want to do more research on all of it. But I can speak to my pride in Walla Walla.
It's geography and weather, vegetation, animals and people.
Walla Walla exists at 46.0647° N, 118.3419° W. The climate and dirt contribute to thriving industries in sweet onions, wheat, and wine grapes. It's two degrees north of France's Bordeaux's coordinates, which makes it an ideal location for biodynamic French winemakers to experiment with familiar varietals in different terroir.
So, mineral and vegetable briefly addressed. Animal next time.
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