Travelers in Belize this month may get some royal company. Seems that Britain's Prince William is joining the Welsh Guards this month in Belize, part of his yearlong "gap" before starting university. Here's a Reuters story with more details:
^Prince William to attend St Andrews after gap
[email protected]LONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William will
study at St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university, after taking
a year off, his father's office said on Thursday.
The 18-year-old prince, son of heir-to-the-throne Prince
Charles and the late Princess Diana, will start a four-year
course for a degree in art history in the autumn of 2001.
``Prince William has been accepted to attend the university
of his first choice, the University of St Andrews,'' St James's
Palace said in a statement.
``Prince William has now left the country for the first stage
of his gap year.''
First stop is Belize in Central America, where Britain's
future king is joining exercises with the Welsh Guards -- in
which his father is a colonel -- until the end of August. After
that he will spend a few weeks on what the palace called an
``educational project.''
The palace said details of the next part of the prince's
year off would be released in late September, but it reminded
the media to respect his privacy in keeping with the stern
warning recently issued by the Press Complaints Commission.
On Wednesday, the Daily Express newspaper said William would
spend some of his time travelling in Australia.
William had been awaiting the results of his school-leaving
exams before picking his university. He got an A in geography, a
B in history of art and a C in biology.
``I know how hard William worked to achieve these excellent
results and I am very proud that he has done so well,'' Prince
Charles said in the statement.
Tall, handsome and regal, William will undoubtedly turn
heads when he joins the 5,000 students at St Andrews, set in the
mediaeval seaside town an hour north of Edinburgh that is
already famous as the home of golf.
Steeped in tradition, the university's many private dinner
parties afford it the reputation as a home away from home for
London's young socialites.
The prince can look forward to a social whirl that peaks at
the annual May Ball put on by the all-male Kate Kennedy club,
which was founded in honour of the first woman to attend the
university.
As I speak Prince William, the future king of Belize, is
preparing to bed down for the night somewhere in the jungles of the
Mountain Pine Ridge, Chiquibul Forest or perhaps the Sibun Gorge. The
prince is here as the guest of the British Army Training Support Unit,
BATSUB, and is learning the art of jungle warfare with the Welsh Guards
Regiment as part of Operation Native Trail. The British tabloid press is
clamouring for a photo of the world's most eligible bachelor, preferably
dressed in camouflage and crawling through the mud, but most loyal
Belizean subjects are content to give William his space and privacy. We are happy to welcome him to Belize, wherever he may
be and suggest that if he gets tired of the jungle there's always the
Costa Maya Festival at San Pedro.
[This message has been edited by Marty (edited 08-19-2000).]