Last month, my friend Tony from Australia came up (way up) for a visit while he was on "holiday" overseas. Being his first trip to the United States, my parents tried to squeeze in as many local(ish) tourist attractions as they could in the few days he was here.
He really amazed me at the St. Louis Arch, as we checked out the heights of other National Monuments. He knew locations and details - While I'd not even heard of some of them.
As many times as I have been to the St. Louis Arch, I felt clueless about it. I didn't even know it was the tallest monument in the United States... I would have assumed the Statue of Liberty was taller, but no... even with the foundation the statue sits on, it is only half as tall as the Gateway Arch.
He knew our presidents, some by name and number. I can't even name the presidents carved in Mount Rushmore, let alone what term they served... and I've been there.
He played along with the trivia game that played in front of the movie we watched about the Arch. With a simple random fact on the screen, he was able to answer the name and location of most of the National Parks. I'd never heard of most of them, though I was able to answer the obvious ones.
I think he knew more about Abe Lincoln than I do, too, and I live an hour away from Springfield. That is a sad thing to learn.
How is it possible that a foreigner knows more about my country than I do?
I've lived here for 23 years - my whole life, and here this was his first time visiting the United States. My high school History teachers would be severely disappointed.
For the record, I'm sure I'm definitely not smarter than a 5th grader, either!
I really should look into going back to college!
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