Monday, January 18, 2010

Down Under

Australia was an incredible country. It may be the smallest continent, but it’s the biggest island in the world. You do not realize the size of a country until you visit it. Being American, a three-hour drive to Iowa is nothing. Even an eight-hour trek to Chicago seems decent. I can hop into my car and drive and drive until the gaslight turns on before I really think about how far apart things are in the States. Being in Europe showed me how fast a country’s border can approach without really feeling like you went very far. New Zealand topped everything with its coastline never being more than 128 kilometers away. That country is tiny in comparison to the “West Island,” which is what Kiwis like to call their monstrous neighbor, Australia.

Being educated in America, which is heard to even call it that at times, but anyway, being ‘educated’ in America has proved to be subpar in geographical standing. No offense to America, its education system or any American geography teacher. It is just known that Americans rarely know where things are. Take that ingenious beauty queen’s infamous map question’s answer. Check it out. Thanks, Miss South Carolina, for proving my point and so much more.

I’ll admit I knew nothing about anything before I, on my own, pulled out a world map and started to study it. I did not realize what a massive piece of land Australia is until I really took the time to compare it to the United States. Although Australia’s size is closely comparable to the United States, Australia only has 7% of the US population. That means millions more people live in the state of Texas than in all of Australia. The population of New York is more comparable. It is one big country and I only touched a bit of it. I can’t wait to go back and explore all that Australia has to offer. G’Day Mate.

Thanks http://www.anbg.gov.au/maps/aust-usa-map.jpg for the visual comparison.


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