places

When I was four my dad got transferred to England for business. I thought that when we flew to England it was another planet. I thought that all the continents were separate globes. Later my version of the world resembled a map spread flattened out like you would see in a text book. I thought the world was one flat plane and no one knew what was on the other side or if there was another side.

Kai

i didn't know canada was a separate country from the usa until i was about 12... i grew up right by the border of niagara falls ny and niagara falls ontario and thought it was the same city cuz we went there all the time to shop. i think i found out it was a separate country in school, and i just remember being shocked that i was actually an international traveler.

jessica

Up until about fifth or sixth grade, I imagined the United Nations as one big country in south america or whatever, made up of lots of little countries who'd banneded together.

Now, as i know, its far from the truth.

Anon

Up until I was about ten, I thought my local newspaper was distributed around the world. I thought it was just a coincidence that my town was always mentioned. I was in total shock when I saw a different newspaper at my grandma's house. What a life-changing moment.

Newsworthy

I was convinced that there was a city in The Netherlands called Hamsterdam and that was where hamsters came from.

G.B.

I was puzzled for a LONG time after first hearing of the Adriatic Sea. I envisioned that somewhere in the world there was a strange (and probably very large) house with a whole sea in its attic!

Marcia

When I was about five or six,I believed that Las Vegas was its own country. Somehow,when I was seven I thought that it was the capital of California. I was completley confused when I found out that Las Vegas was , in fact , in Nevada.

KC

When I first heard the word 'suburbia' on TV, I thought it was the name of some exotic country in Asia. I was kind of disappointed when my mom told me it was just a term for a part of a city.

Toujin

When I was still in elementary school, there was this big (permanent) chalk drawing of the United States on the pavement near the playground.

During recess when I was in the 1st and 2nd grade, I repeatedly jumped on the drawing. I believed that if I stepped on our state, a giant foot would fly down from the sky and squash everybody on the playground. I was so confused when it didn't happen. Haha.

kirchie

When I asked my Mum if Washington was called Washinton because people washed a lot there, she said yes, that was why. She doesn't admit it to this day... Lucky I never got asked why at school, I would have looked pretty silly.

AllyKat

I used to believe that the whole country was like a huge skyscraper with different floors because when we would go visit my grandparents in New Jersey, my parents would say that we are "going up" to New Jersey and when my grandparents were coming here to Tennessee that they were "coming down."

Chelsea

Since all the things on the TV show starving kids in Ethiopia, I thought that in Ethiopia, a BIG factory was there were they built starving people.

I also thought if I didn't donate, Sally Struthers would come to my house with a starving Ethiopian boy and make me feel very bad about myself.

tommy

I live in a valley.. I used to believe that the entire valley surrounded by hills was the whole earth.. when i look from the terrace i used to think the tall buildings i see is the usa and the one with short houses was japan.. i din know other countries.. :P

akz

i used to believe people lived on both the outside and the inside of the earth. in my mind we lived on the inside and that ment we were really safe because we couldn't get sucked out to space.

Anon

When I was little I used to believe that Disneyland was up on a cloud in the sky because all the commercials on TV had clouds in them. When I found out that DisneyLand was just in California and Florida I was sort of dissapointed.

Anon

I'm a military kid, and when I was little, about 6 years old, my dad was going on tour to Yugoslavia. I didn't know where that was, so I asked him, and he said it was north of some other country. I didn't understand "north", or "south" etc. So I looked up into the sky, and asked, "How do you get up there? Is there a road that goes up there?" thinking you had to drive to the sky. He didn't see me looking into the sky, so he said, "yeah, there's a road that goes up there" as if it was a stupid question, lol. Thankfully, I do understand geography now.

Anon

I am Australian. When I was young I used to get my countries mixed up. I though America was a big jungle with all these dangerous animals like lions, tigers and leopards lived and that American people spoke in Italian accents.

Anonymous

When I was younger, we had a giant satellite photograph of the British Isles hanging in our hallway. There was a small strip of land at the bottom of the photograph (northern France and northen Belgium). One day, I asked my mother what country that bit of land was, and she told me it was France. For years afterwards, I believed that France was a long, thin country, covering pretty much all the coast on the other side of the English channel, and that it was part of the British Isles.

Fern, England

I used to be scared of travelling. Since I live in Canada I thought you were safe. But I was terrified to go to Antartica. Why? I thought you would fall off since it was at the bottom of the globe. And that you would keep falling down in space.

Anna ^-^