Following the Equator

Our 10 Best of 2008

This is the 320th post of 2008 at Following the Equator, and we decided to commemorate our blog's first full calendar year with a top-10 list of favorite posts.

We had a lot of stories, videos, photos, interviews, tips and perspectives about educational travel. We launched some regular weekly features, including our Tip of the Week and Photo of the Week. We debuted Life on Tour, introduced EF on YouTube and EF on Facebook and promoted the EF Tours group on Flickr (above). And, along the way, we encountered a lot of inspiring travelers.

Following the Equator also was nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award and finished fifth out of 1,177 blogs for Best Travel Blog. Thank you to everyone who supported our blog in 2008 by voting, reading, sharing, commenting and subscribing. We're looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

Geography games galore

It's been awhile since we've written about a good global awareness game, but today we hit the jackpot.

Our favorite map blog, Cartophilia: Maps and Map Memorabilia, pointed us to a great gaming site called Sporcle. The site is filled with identification games, including dozens of geography games.

You can try naming all 53 capitals of Africa, all 48 flags of Asia, all 32 counties of Ireland, all 13 bridges of London or even the 25 most populous cities of the world. I tried one of the more popular games— the countries of Europe (above). I named 37 out of the 47.

How about you? Give it a try, and tell us which games you liked
and how you scored in the comments below.

Maple Leaf Monopoly

Montreal is the new Boardwalk.

Monopoly finally revealed the winning cities in its new World Edition this week, and the Canadian city earned the global game's most prestigious position, as we predicted in February.

In fact, Canada monopolizes the new Monopoly board. In addition to Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto also earned spots. The other dominant country is China, which placed Beijing and Shanghai, plus Hong Kong, on the board. Only one U.S. city (New York) made the game.

More than 5.6 million votes were cast to select the 22 cities in the new edition, which goes on sale next week in 50 countries.

FreePoverty: Donate cups of water

We can't resist games that combine global awareness with global causes. Earlier this year, we wrote about FreeRice, which donates grains of rice. Today, we found another addictive online game that donates cups of water.

The wonderful map blog Cartophilia: Maps and Map Memorabilia tipped us off to FreePoverty.com.

FreePoverty is a similar game to the Traveler IQ Challenge that we mentioned in December. You just click on a world map to locate specific sites, which range from "easy" to "super hard." The closer you get to the correct answer, the more cups of water you donate.

Monopoly update

Voting officially ended last night for Monopoly's upcoming Here & Now: The World Edition. But we'll have to wait awhile to find out which 20 world cities make the new edition. The official site says that results will be revealed later this year.

As we wrote previously, it appears that Canada may dominate the new board and that Montreal may earn the coveted Boardwalk space over Paris.

There is still time to weigh in, though, on the two-card cities that will earn the final two spots on the board. Voting began today among the top 20 write-in candidates, and the top two vote-getters will replace the traditional Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue. And Canada could earn yet another spot. According to the leaderboard this afternoon, Quebec is the leading city in early voting, followed by Taipei. Voting on the wild-card cities concludes Sunday, March 9.

Back from Paris

Following the Equator is back in the States after an extended stay in Paris.

We had a hugely successful Paris Orientation, showing a bunch more first-time EF Group Leaders what an EF tour is like and showing them the wondrous City of Light. It's always so great to see teachers eyes light up. Personally, it's also great to renew acquaintances (and make new ones) with some of our experienced group leaders in Paris.

Following Paris Orientation, I was able to spend time in Paris with my wife and young daughter, which was an amazingly rewarding experience. I'll be writing more about Paris in the coming days.

Go, Canada!

Canadians must take their Monopoly pretty seriously. So serious, in fact, that Montreal might become the new Boardwalk.

In the worldwide online voting for Monopoly's upcoming Here & Now: The World Edition, Montreal has surged ahead of Paris for the top spot on the new Monopoly board.

Montreal (4.8 percent) is easily outpacing Paris (3.5 percent), which may have to settle for the Park Place spot. According to today's leaderboard, the rest of the top five includes Cape Town, London and Sydney. New York City currently ranks sixth (aka Marvin Gardens).

But it's Canada that is monopolizing the Monopoly voting, thanks to coordinated online efforts like this.

All three of Canada's nominated cities look like sure bets to be included on the new board, when voting ends at the end of the month. In addition to Montreal (which would earn the Boardwalk space), Vancouver ranks ninth (Illinois Avenue) and Toronto ranks 16th (States Avenue). No other country has even more than one city slated for the board.

Monopoly goes global

It's election season, and it's time to cast your votes. You've got to weigh the candidates' credentials carefully, you have to make difficult decisions based on personal preferences, you have to exercise your civic responsibility as global citizens. It's your duty.

Yes, it's time to vote for the Monopoly world edition.

The makers of Monopoly are conducting a worldwide online vote for its newest version—Here & Now: The World Edition. All of the properties will be cities around the world, and you get to decide which cities make the board.

You can choose from among 68 preselected cities on six continents. You can vote for up to 10 cities every day, so you're encouraged to vote early and vote often.

Amazing Race withdrawal

No Amazing Race last night. What are we supposed to do now?

Like we said before, no TV show captures the thrill of international travel like The Amazing Race. And now we're stuck waiting—like an excruciatingly long layover—for the next adventure to begin.

Apparently, we're not the only ones going through Amazing Race withdrawal. Luckily, Gadling's Jamie Rhein offered some advice last week on a way to cope with the absence of Amazing Race. Exclusive Web Clips on the official website apparently offer some good insight to the show, the contestants and the destinations.

How many countries can you name in five minutes?

Office productivity dropped slightly this afternoon as we competed to identify countries in this online game.

Out of 270 total countries, how many can you name in five minutes?

It's trickier than you may think. You definitely need a good grasp of geography—and especially spelling. You could waste valuable minutes trying to spell the country whose capital is Baku, for example.

For the record, 82 countries seems to be the high score here, so far.

UPDATE: The new high score is a whopping 130! If you like this game, check out our recent post, "Geography games galore," for information on a whole bunch of cool games.