Education was so very different then (and before then)...I was reading up on our town history...over a hundred years ago our population was in the 1000 people range, and there were twelve schoolhouses in town. The only way people got around in those days was by horse, and with all the distance, snow, mud, etc, they just put up schools where people happened to live...
Peru has more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes. This came as a shock to me during a trip there.
The world is a big, surprising place if you let it be. I can’t go to an American grocery store and look at the aisles of russets and Yukon golds without feeling cheated.
Not really related, but . . . my great-grandmother graduated from Bridgewater College (Virginia) in 1896. They were Brethren, a very conservative denomination, but they believed in educating their daughters. My great-great grandfather was on the Board of BC around that time. She was one of about nine in a brand-new English program there. My second cousins were going through boxes of old family stuff and found her BC diploma. One of my cousins noted that she graduated from Bridgewater C. in 1996, 100 years after our great-grandmother. I thought that was really cool. They also found my grandmother's Bridgewater High School diploma from 1922. I have it framed in my office at home and am working to get her Johns Hopkins diploma framed as well.
We did a trip and Inca Trail hike to MP with some of my best friends and their SOs from Duke, actually. It was a lot of fun; I'm going to see if I can convince them to do Kilimanjaro at some point in our 40s but we all have young families so could be tough. I have my wife's approval though. She knows I have to scratch the travel itch every once in a while.
Too many places left on the list and I get antsy thinking about it because times a ticking. I've got a few trips to central and south America in the bank; have 47/50 U.S. states + lots of Canada and Mexico; plenty of Europe; one trip to the Middle East, and; several to Australia and New Zealand.
My cousin did her PeaceCorps in Ghana. Heck of an experience.
Top 3 next places I want to go next:
-Alaska (#50, next summer!)
-Mongolia
-Italy & Greece
Top 2 places I want to return to:
-Tanzania
-Japan
One time, long ago, when I was still in my 20s, I visited Durham when my brother was hosting his buddies for a poker night at my parents' house because they had more room. I grew up around this group of buddies. They saw me as easy pickins' and convinced me to play. I had to ask if a straight beats a flush. What a patsy! In the greatest example of beginner's luck, I was far and away the big winner of the night including the infamous hand of 7 card stud where I bluffed my way to the pot with, quite literally, nothing in my hand. Nothing. I wasn't even ace high. I didn't know that you didn't have to show your cards when you bluffed and won. So the group insisted I show my hand. They all lost it. "You bluffed with nothing!!! Who does that!?!" Obviously, a beginner. I've never played again. Quitting while I'm ahead with a great story to tell for a lifetime.
(For aimo: Barton and Kip and Shawn were there that night, unusual enough first names that I'm guessing you might know who I am talking about.)
I used to go down to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun once a month when I lived in Danvers and play at the tables there. I usually played the small dollar tables. It was pretty easy to spot the beginners and those were profitable evenings for me. It was also easy for me to spot those with much more skill than I and I quickly moved on from those tables.
Why should you never fight a dinosaur?
Because you'd get jurasskicked.