Geography Lessons
Conversation one evening while home in the states (not telling which city . . .)
Setting: Local nightclub hot spot
Me: Hey Mary*, so great to see you!
Mary: Alisha! OMG! I haven't seen you forever! Where have you been?
Me: Yeah, I've been out of the US for awhile. I'm living and working in Dubai.
Mary: Super confused head tilt, Oh, really . . . uh, that's great!!
Me: Asked in the most kindest, unsarcastic way possible -- with extreme effort, You don't know where Dubai is do you?
Mary: Hmmm, (AND I PROMISE YOU, THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATED OR FABRICATED STORY) uh, Germany?
Me: Confused look, waiting for the punch line, realize it's not coming No . . . Dubai is in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia? Iraq? Asia? waiting for anytype of confirmation . . .
Mary: Smile Oh
Me: So what are you doing these days?
Mary: I just finished my second year of Med School on the East Coast
NO JOKE!!!
*names have been changed, more to keep me from getting hate emails rather than protecting the uninformed...
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As a result of this discussion I had a huge realization of the poorness of my nation's geography education. It was a call to action for me, Alisha, to spread the word to my fellow Americans where exactly Dubai was located, and once and for all end this myth of Dubai being located in Germany.
Below, a map of the United Arab Emirates; a nation made up of seven emirates including the Emirate of Dubai. It is located in the Middle East neighbored by such countries as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar.
3 Comments:
Through out my years in North America I never heard of this Germany myth!
The myth that I kept on facing in the US was that alot thought that Dubai was a country not a city in a country!
Yet alot didn't know where Dubai was until I mentioned Saudi Arabia!
hahahaha...
Obviously it was Seattle...the only question is if it was in a Kirkland bar or downtown bar. I'm guessing the first.
btw this is Brian, sorry I was so dead when you were in town. what's all this about changing the world. it sounds like a lot of work.
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