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.

The Little Red Ball

Follow the little red ball in this video that Bryan Wojtowicz and students from Bryant University made on their trip to Panama City, the Galápagos Islands and Quito, Ecuador, in January.

As Wojtowicz told us, the concept was to create a promotional video for Bryant's Sophomore International Experience. The coolest thing that the students did with the little red ball—”aside from their famous dodgeball game—was at the Panama Canal.

"We bounced it off the wall from the boat," Wojtowicz said. "We didn't know if we were going to get in trouble by people on the boat, because you aren't supposed to throw anything off the boat. We asked our professors, and they said, 'No, go for it, because that's kind of a creative idea.'"

Dodgeball across the equator, Part II

Whenever we hear something exciting about the equator itself, Following the Equator just has to follow through. After reading about the college students who played dodgeball at the equator, I tracked down the man behind the feat that nearly became a world record.

Bryan Wojtowicz, who just graduated from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, concocted the idea for the impromptu game while filming a student video project during a university trip to Latin America. Bryan was one of about 50 Bryant students who traveled to Panama and Ecuador in January.

At the equator just outside Quito, Ecuador, Bryan (photo above) and teammate Matt Meehan competed against Rob McNell and Chris Walker in what Bryan dubbed "the world's first interhemispherical dodgeball game." Brendan Sysun served as referee and uttered the now-famous line, "Equatorial line infraction! You're out!" Luckily, Raymond Mahoney filmed the game for all to see.