Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

EF Teacher Convention Tours

Imagine celebrating New Year's with the Moai on Easter Island or floating in the Dead Sea or snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.

Many of EF's experienced group leaders won't just be imagining those dream travel experiences in 2010, they'll be living them.

EF's Teacher Convention Tours—offered through our Global Rewards program—give experienced EF Group Leaders unprecedented opportunities to explore the world's most amazing destinations with fellow educators.

There is still plenty of time for EF Group Leaders* to enroll on our 2010 convention tours. There are 10 different tours, including three over this New Year's, one in January and six next July:

Friday Fun Fact: World's largest swimming pool

It's 3,323 feet long. It's 115 feet deep at one end. And it holds 66 million gallons of water.

It's the Saltwater Lagoon at the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Algarrobo, Chile. And it's the world's largest swimming pool, according to Guinness World Records.

The lagoon sits right on Chile's Pacific Coast and circulates clean seawater from the ocean. The water is crystal clear and warms to 78 degrees.

Read more about the pool and see more photos in London's Daily Mail.

Band abandons Antarctica gig

American rock band Fall Out Boy was thwarted in its attempt to be the premier globe-trotting rock band.

Fall Out Boy was forced to cancel a concert last week in Antarctica, which would have earned a spot in the Guinness Book of Records as the first band to play on all seven continents in less than nine months.

The band played a concert in Santiago, Chile, on March 23, but bad weather—and presumably not the falling chucks of continent— prevented the band from flying to Antarctica for its scheduled gig Friday at a gymnasium at Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva on King George Island.

Education around the world

The February issue of Edutopia magazine is out. It's especially worthwhile because the theme is global education.

The cover story, "As the World Learns: Education as a Vital Global Marketplace Represents the Future," is particularly interesting with reports on how students are taught in Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden and Uganda. There's also a report on Room to Read, a global nonprofit that builds schools and libraries in developing countries. Plus, there are additional global education resources.

The other cool thing in this issue is the Sage Advice page, which asks, "How do you prepare your students to be citizens of the world?" Some good responses that are worth reading.

Edutopia is the website of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that celebrates and encourages innovation in schools. The monthly magazine is free to qualified subscribers. You can even get the ultracool digital version, which looks and reads just like the printed version.

The other side of the world

It's nearly every American kid's belief that China is on the exact opposite side of the world. That's what we were told, right? Dig a hole straight through, and you'd arrive in China.

But like a lot of things we grew up believing, that's just not so. This map proves it. From anywhere in the continental United States, the exact opposite is somewhere in the Indian Ocean—between Australia and Africa.

The map superimposes the inverse globe on top of itself to illustrate antipodes—the diametrically opposite point from any place on Earth. Most of Earth's land mass is opposite water—no big surprise considering water covers 70 percent of the surface.

Gadling's Aaron Hotfelder directed our attention to the antipodal map and an even more precise, interactive map that can plot exact opposite points around the globe.

For the record, the exact opposite of Xi'an, China, is Rinconada de Parral—a city about 60 miles outside Santiago, Chile.