Victory for the Czech Republic Cheezits!

Maps are kind of a gateway drug for those of us addicted to travel. Nothing stirs the wanderlust like pouring over a map, tracing the rivers and borders, and imagining what life is like in Tashkent, or Taipei. So when Dylan came home announcing that her class was having the first-ever Arbor World Geography Bowl, I had to see what feats of geographical knowledge these kids could perform.

It was a tense first match. The Czech Republic Cheezits (Dylan's team) started off ahead of the Manchester Misquitoes, but soon got behind, the third question was a doozy. What was the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. (Answer 23.5 degrees). When the question--Bangkok is the capitol of what country--came up, Dylan had the answer before the question ended. The Cheezits pulled ahead and managed to win the first round by 80 points, even though they did not answer the final question, name at least two countries that were part of the former Yugoslavia. (I had Croatia and Bosnia Herzogovina, but apparantly there are quite a few out there)

The final round was between the Cheezits and the Vicious Himalayan Snow Duckies--a team that sadly had a missing player. (Each student had an area of the world they would study extensively, so this was a serious disadvantage). It was a much closer game between the Snow Duckies and the Cheezits, but the Cheezits managed to pull off a 20 point victory, even without being able to completely answer the final wager round question, actually, the Snow Duckies had a problem with that question as did this reporter. The question: For whatever you want to wager, name the thirteen original US Colonies.