I was always bad at world geography in grade school. Don’t know why. But my mom would make study questions for me and even then I was extremely elated and grateful for a low ‘B’. Never had a problem with US geography – maybe living in the middle of the country made it somehow more accessible. I also was not great at world history – waaaay too much of it and I couldn’t keep straight all the kings with the same names and the constant wars and the dates and blah blah blah blah blah. My eyes would glaze over. US history was a favorite subject, so no problem. Only less than 200 years to keep track of. I got this.
Now that world travel is on the horizon I bought a world atlas and I cannot believe how awful my sense of geography is.
It’s embarrassing really. If I had a better visual grasp of world history perhaps it wouldn’t have shocked me that I don’t have to go far from Denmark to hit Russia. What? Russia is RIGHT THERE? (Cue Al – “Mary, the world wars?”). I guess I always did wonder why the Germans and the Russians were fighting when they were so far away from each other. Why would they bother with th harsh winter thing. Oh, now I get it. But isn’t Russia over near China? (The answer, Mary, is “yes, that too.”)
My friend who is of Armenian descent? Hmmm, I don’t see it anywhere here near Greece where I thought it was. I had to look in the index. It’s WHERE? Just north of IRAN AND IRAQ? Okaaaaay…..
This is the worst and what prompted this blog: I honest to God thought the Galápagos Islands were near Antarctica. As in SOUTH of South America.
They are not. They are just southwest of Central America. I am stunned. Maybe I will get there after all. How could I be so oblivious to where stuff is in the world?
I know that Americans have a reputation for not knowing world geography – to be fair, how many Armenians know where Illinois might be and how it is the greatest state in the union – but I seem to be way off the bell curve for someone with my level of education and general awareness of what is going on around me.
Well, I have my trusty world atlas now. So maybe, like scuba diving and singing, it’s never too late, especially since I won’t have to make maps colored with crayons and then try to label over the crayon-ing the principal seaport and then draw little pictures of cows or manufacturing plants or whatever is the main industry of the country. It all turned out to be a such a fucked up mess – my maps were never hung up on the classroom walls, I guarantee you that. I tried using colored pencils but it wasn’t much better. I DID like making relief maps of the US though – making those Rocky Mountains and coloring the rivers, now that’s right up this miniaturist’s alley.
The Galapagos near Antarctica, though. Jeez.
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So if we were all honest, I think you would find people like me who aced those futile coloring activities and STILL did not truly commit the information to memory! Think about it…we learned the world in little square sheets of paper. A section at a time. No clue how it all went together. We also learned it with zero information about the countries we were coloring in. So, I will boldly tell you that I also have to hunt for a map to figure out where something is in relation to the bigger picture. My favorite thing to do is to learn about someone I find interesting from wherever I am going to. As you read about then you will start to see how other parts of the world influenced their life. Kids stories and fables are great for this too. Then when you visit you have context to connect what you are seeing and experiencing to make your visit that more meaningful. Ok…truth time… I had to do that when visiting Cape Town, South Africa, to get a sense of how SA and it’s history fit in with the rest of the continent. Just being honest. Paper knowledge is flat and boring. Add in a cool character and it changes everything! Good luck on your voyage!
I’m awful at geography, too, if it makes you feel any better. I nearly failed geography in 6th grade (it’s the only class I’ve nearly failed). I think it’s more difficult for us as Americans since our country is so large and only bordered by two others; we don’t have very many neighbors to get to know. Atlases are great, though. You should ask my mom whether Germany is split in the atlas I used for reference when I was a child…maybe that’s why I nearly failed geography.