We Americans come from a big, powerful and influential country, to say the least. As if being a big (No. 3 in population) and wealthy (No. 1 economy) weren't enough, we've also managed to have a disproportionately large world influence culturally. It’s like Goliath becoming the planet’s most popular TV-show host.
It's long been too easy for us Americans to be content to gaze a bit too admiringly at our own navels when it comes to our world view; this dulls our appreciation of how much of our everyday lives is provided to us by other countries that are often half a world away.
As part of the 2009 Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon, hosted by National Geographic's My Wonderful World Campaign, this blog post required us to boil down, to a list of just 10, the things that Americans should know about their world. It seems to us that the best use of these 10 is to help close the gaps we may have in fully appreciating our daily interdependence with the wider world.
Have you ever done the wave inside the Colosseum? At the top of the Eiffel Tower? On the Great Wall? Or in a Costa Rican rainforest?
Now's your chance, because you can be a part of the largest human wave ever: The Wave Around the World.
The Wave Around the World is looking for travelers—students, teachers, adults, anyone—to videotape themselves and their friends doing the wave in destinations across the globe. It's a perfect group activity for students traveling on educational tours this summer.
EF's Global Citizens become world travelers next week.
Ten inspiring U.S. high school students were selected to receive tour scholarships through EF's annual Global Citizens essay contest. These outstanding Global Citizens depart this weekend on an incredible educational tour to Berlin, Prague, Munich and Lucerne.
The best part is that you can follow along on Twitter. Each day on
tour, a different Global Citizen will tweet about their experiences. You can follow them at twitter.com/efglobalcitizen.
EF Tour Director Alex Luther—a Germany native and good friend of Following the Equator—may occasionally be tweeting during the tour, as well. You can follow Alex at twitter.com/AlexLuther.
Cookie Monster's got it right: Global awareness is key to the success of students in the 21st century.
Global awareness is just one of several 21st century skills that students need to compete in today's interconnected world. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills—of which EF Education First is a board member—works with education, business and legislative leaders to infuse those skills into an educational framework.
The Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills—which will be held online from June 1 to 12—is a way for everyone across the nation, including educators, administrators, business people, policy makers and parents, to learn and interact to advance the 21st century skills movement. Most importantly, the cyber summit gives all of us a voice in the future of our students' education.
Today is the March equinox—the moment that the sun passes directly overhead the equator and the official beginning of spring.
In fact, the precise moment came at 11:44 UTC (7:44 a.m. on the East Coast) today, when, according to EarthSky, the sun was over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the west coast of equatorial Africa—south of Nigeria and west of Gabon.
The World Sunlight Map above depicts the position of the sun at the equinox this morning.
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.
Cities all around the world celebrate the holidays with different traditions, but there's one illuminating similarity: impressive light displays.
Travel + Leisure magazine recently highlighted 10 of the World's Best Holiday Light Displays with a collection of videos. One of our favorites is the Christmas Eve lights-and-fireworks show over the Palacio de Comunicaciones in Madrid. Check it out:
Which is your favorite? Have you seen other grand displays around the world? Let us know in the comments below.
Someone asked me recently what all those flags are doing in the sidebar of our blog? Well, those are the countries that have visited Following the Equator.
The flags come from Flagcounter.com, which reports that visitors from 126 countries have found Following the Equator since we first started counting earlier this year.
Obviously, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are our most popular countries, but we've also received visitors everywhere from Albania to Zimbabwe.
If you click on the flags, you'll get the complete list. Plus, Flagcounter also includes basic background information on every country.
You know something is a huge Internet hit when you hear about it repeatedly from your friends before reading about it in the New York Times.
That's the case with this hugely popular video—simply titled, "Dancing"—of Matt Harding doing a silly dance in locations all around the world:
You probably didn't see it here first. The catchy video has been viewed nearly 5 million times on YouTube alone. That doesn't even account for the viewings on other sites, including the creator/dancer's own website, wherethehellismatt.com.
The French Open recently wrapped up, and Wimbledon crowns its champs this weekend. The famed Palio di Siena was held today, and Pamplona's legendary Running of the Bulls is Monday. The Tour de France starts Saturday, and the British Open begins July 17. Plus, the Beijing Summer Olympics will be held next month with the Opening Ceremony slated for 8:08:08 p.m. CST on 8/8/08.
This spectacular sports schedule got me thinking about the top international sports events, so I decided to take a swing at compiling a Top 20 list. I didn't include any competitions regularly held in the United States (no Super Bowl, no World Series) even if they draw international attention (no Kentucky Derby, no Indianapolis 500).
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