I went to bed last night early at 10:00pm and, since I seem incapable of sleeping more than 4-5 hours each night, woke up at 2:30am this morning. The blogosphere was relatively quiet (with the sad exception of even more catastrophic death tolls from the tsunamis) and I didn't have a book to read, so I was left with nothing to do. I'd like to get some work done, but I'm useless for anything requiring much thought this early, so that's not going to happen. After surfing a list of new Mac software, I came across "World of Where" which is a program to help learn all the various countries of the world and their capitals (also available for you Window sufferers). It costs $10 to get an unlock key, but Europe is free, so I thought "time to prove how smart I am" and downloaded it.
Only to find out I am not quite so smart as I thought I was.
I started out doing well, zipping through countries with ease (though I always seem to mix up Estonia and Latvia, which is really stupid considering the Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania trio is in alphabetical order). Yes, everything was going swimmingly until...
San Marino?
What the heck is a San Marino? That's a country?!? I've never heard of it before. It sounds like an island, so I start clicking like mad off the coasts of Italy and Spain, all to no avail. WTF? How can there be a country I've never heard of before? Is this new? Did they make up a country while I wasn't looking? And that's when I notice a small area within Italy that, at first glance, I ridiculously assumed was Vatican City (only to realize it's completely in the wrong place, as it's nowhere even remotely near Rome). Could it be?? Sure enough. And once I had finished filling in the map, this small country stood out like a beacon of my ignorance, mocking me...
Obsessed with all things San Marino, I head over to Wikipedia and learn a few things:
I am still reeling from the fact that I was so blissfully unaware that an entire country existed. Certainly I must have heard of it before, but perhaps I just thought it was a city or something? How many other countries are out there that I am ignorant of? I guess I'm going to have to register "World of Where" so I can find out.
Bleh. Just when you think you know everything...
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Don’t feel bad. I LIVE in Europe and never heard of it either. Maybe I should add it to my list of “places to go in 2005”. Better yet, it should be my goal to go to all the “places that are small enough to carpet”. Many of them are in Europe, so that should be easy.
I wonder if Ryan Air flies there.
heh, san marino I’ve heard of, although I’m hopeless with the baltic states .. they all came into being in their own right long after I finished studying geography 🙂
Darn you and your sleeping-patterns.!
🙁
Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to survive on 5 hours of sleep.
But perhaps more importantly, you need a book!
I remember the famous commentary prior to a San Marino vs England game in 1994.
“England need to win by 7 clear goals to stand any chance of progressing to the World Cup”………
Less then 10 seconds later (YES 10 SECONDS) San Marino scored!
Can you imagine if San Marino DID decide to carpet the entire country? How funny would that be?
Memorizing the Baltic states is easy because there’s a trick to it. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what that trick is? 🙁
In other news of things I didn’t know, Ben has a blog? But comments aren’t turned on!!
Somebody should have warned England that the entirety of San Marino’s football team used to be part of the military until peace broke out with Sweden in 1996.
Any relation to DAN Marino?
I knew about San Marino because there’s a Forumla One Grand Prix named after it (although it’s actually held in Italy). My downfall would be the former Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia – which country ended up where throws me every time.
San Marino has a top level domain of .sm?
San Marino now has a *third* source of income!!
How do you make those graphics of yours Dave?
Dan Marino is actually a better name for a country.
I am able to remember the Czech Republic because it’s the one between Germany and Poland. Then Slovakia, which is right next door is easy to remember because if you run them together you get Czechoslovakia! 🙂
.sm for all those S&M sites then??
All the graphics for my blog are made in Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes I import the result into Photoshop for tweaking, but it’s mostly just Illustrator.
San Marino is worth a visit. As is the Czech republic 🙂
I have heard of San Marino thanks to my geography nerdiness. One day in middle school I was flipping through a book and was looking at all the countries I didn’t know and tried to figure out the smallest countries in the world. All this while the others were figuring out how to make out with the opposite sex.
I had a similar experience lately when I discovered a new province of Canada, Nunavut. I wrote about it on my blog…click on my name to read more. Of course it isn’t as detailed as yours but still it blew my mind.
If I were to ever get a chance to visit San Marino, I would absolutely do that!
National Geographic had a big article on Nunavut once the terriroty was created, and I found it absolutely fascinating. I don’t think it was widely publicised in the Lower 48, so it’s not surprising that people are still finding out about it.
And before I forget… you would think that having such vast, geeky, geographic nerdiness would be a real hit with the ladies! I remain dumbfounded. 🙂
I find your geography geekiness ultra-sexy!!!!
Hah! That’s a first.
Thanks for giving geography nerds of the world new hope!
I have been in San Marino… Maybe I know it just because I live in Italy :p
Consider a visit to San Marino 🙂
Dude, I found your blog while googling San Marino! Same shock of “how the f*ck have I lived this long, have a degree, turn 30 and not know of San Marino?” travelled through my blood when I learned the existence of this tiny country a few days ago. Although bbc.co.uk has it listed as the 2nd smallest country. I’m intrigued about living in a country that small. Is there poverty? What’s the education like? And so on… Lovely blog, love the drawings.
Hi,
greetings from the Most Serene Republic of San Marino.
It is easy to reach San Marino by plane at Rimini-San Marino Airport which is within a few minutes from San Marino borders.
P.S. San Marino postage stamps are valid for sending mail from here to anywhere in the world.
the official State Company for selling coins (extremely valuable), stamps and telephone cards is at http://www.aasfn.sm
International San Marino telephone cards can be found at http://www.digicard.sm with yearly collectors issues.
Ciao
Luciano