places

When I was 5 years old and living in Texas, my mom and I flew to Michigan to visit family on a regular basis. I had trouble with the terms "north" and "up there".
At the time I thought that to get to Michigan, the airplane had to fly straight up, like a super elevator taking us to a floor way up on a high rise. I spent some time trying to figure out how far away Michigan really was if each state had it's own layer. I'm now a social studies teacher and have to giggle when I think about my early impressions of US geography.

Christi

i used to believe that spain was on a different planet

shannon cannan

I used to believe the world map was only one half of the planet. One day i said to my brother "when i grow up, im gonna discover the other half! ^_^'

S.O.

I used to think that the third world was a different planet. I imagined what it would be like to travel between the earth and the third world. I could never figure out where the second world was.

the renus

For some strange reason I alays thought Quebec was in Saudi Arabia !!! (I guess I must have mixed it up with Quatar) and I genuinely beliieved this until one day in a French lesson when we were watching a video based in Canada all about food. When they went to Quebec I asked why they were speaing French because they speak Arabic in Quebec ! Everyone looked at me like I was insane and I have never lived it down to this day !!

Sam B

I never knew that people actually lived in Las Vegas. I always thought everybody would just go there on vacation, LOL!
Now I'm married to a Las Vegas native and we contemplate moving there.

Kelly

For a long time I puzzled over why Michigan City, Indiana is so named, being in Indiana and not Michigan. Then one day, looking at a map, I felt kind of stupid, noticing the obvious answer, namely that it is on the shore of Lake Michigan. Soon afterwards I began to discover that there are other cities named for the great lake on whose shore they are located, like Erie, Pennsylvania and Superior, Wisconsin. Then one day, I was perplexed, discovering Huron, South Dakota on a map, quite far from Lake Huron. I asked my sister why it was named that, so far from the great lake by the same name. My sister told me that Lake Huron was once much bigger than it is now and that back then it extended all the way to Huron, South Dakota. As far fetched as that seemed, I believed it for a long time. The day I fanally began to doubt such an explanation was the day I discovered Ontario, California on a map.

Lucy

i used to belive that spain was on a different planet

charley east

that each country was a different planet

Anon

I used to believe that each state of the United States was a living being---like a different breed of animal. I used to think that I might see a Florida walking down the street or a Mississippi driving a car on the interstate.

Madeline

I used to believe lepers came from Ireland. Like leprechauns, only with less body parts.

Anon

I believed that when I was grown up I would go to the 'poor' countries with one cart full of oranges so the poor children could ALL get some vitamines.

Yvonne Welling

I used to believe that each country is on its own Earth. Therefore there were more than one Earths. And to travel internationally meant planet-hopping from one Earth to the other.

Anna Lim

When I was little my parents would always tell me to finish my food because there are starving people out in Euthanasia. So growing up, I thought Euthanasia was a place where hungry people live.

JecNucz

We have a Iot of family in Chicago and when I was young, I thought Chicago was a state.

JecNucz

When I was about 5, my family moved from California to Colorado. While there, I wondered where the beach was. It wasn't until later that I found out that Colorado was a landlocked state.

Toujin

I used to think that Alaska was an island!

Draqula