I wouldn't expect non-Americans to know more than a handful of states, but it did kind of surprise me that a lot of the people I met in England didn't know which coast fairly major cities were on. People would discover I was from Philadelphia, dating someone from Seattle, and ask if they were anywhere near each other.

Fairness forces me to admit that when I got word a few months before my trip that I'd be working in Bristol, I had to look it up on a map. However, if someone had told me it was near Bath, I would've known exactly where to look. Before I lived there, my knowledge of British geography was deeply colored by my leisure reading choices.

Vermont doesn't border the ocean. I remember this because I remember when some Vermont politicians were trying to get Lake Champlain classified as a Great Lake, because there's some sort of federal waterways fund or something that gives money to states bordering the ocean or a Great Lake.

Heh.

I know where the places I've been are.

The rest are all squiggles on a page. My home state is large and distinct. Those tiny things you call states back east confuse me.

I spent a long part of my childhood thinking that Britain was vast, because it took days to get from here to there. (You know, I knew they were riding horses, but somehow I assumed that horses and cars went the same speed.) I was very disappointed when I discovered that the English and the Scots had been fighting over a football-field's worth of territory for several hundred years. I mean, for crying out loud.

Also, there was the part about all the different languages and dialects and accents in that one tiny island. I mean, surely people had to be thousands and thousands of miles apart to talk so differently in the same country!

And I think I'm hatching a theory.

moonlit, are you bursting into song, then?

I remember this because I remember when some Vermont politicians were trying to get Lake Champlain classified as a Great Lake, because there's some sort of federal waterways fund or something that gives money to states bordering the ocean or a Great Lake.

It was classified as a Great Lake for a little while-- long enough to be the final answer on a friend's college Jeopardy appearance, not long enough to stay the correct answer by the time of broadcast.

Vermont's the one with maple syrup and civil unions, New Hampshire's got libertarians and maple syrup.

Missisissippi's named after the big river, so you just have to figure out what side it's on....

I can never ever get my head around the size of the USA. As far as I'm concerned the 2 coasts are about 10 hours drive apart. Any further than that is, to my mind, Abroad.

Heh. In high school, one year one of my friends was an exchange student from Germany. I mentioned one day at lunch how the summer before, I'd gone on a trip to Wyoming (from Indiana) that involved driving for 36 hours straight. She looked at me, and said "If I drove for 36 hours straight, I'd fall off the continent!"

technically, I suppose if she'd driven toward Russia/Chinawards, she wouldn't have, but still

Jim, I live in Austin, which is Center-East of Texas. Last week, we drove to Big Bend, which is West-South, near Mexico but roughly due West of Austin. All in all, the drive is near eight hours, and we never left Texas.

moonlit, did you see yesterday's Thomas Friedman column? He's got a theory on reordering of the world that he plays from a focus on NATO.

(and I'm loving reading your posts!)