OK Go!

That's 35 Countries I've Been To...

Botswana's Miss Marple? I just began, on audiobook, "The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency," the first in the beloved series starring the eminently sensible and delightfully cunning Precious Ramotswe's exploits in Gaborone, Botswana. One chapter down, it sounds promissing.

Correction: That's 35 countries I've been to now that I've spent an evening in Ireland, not 34.

These countries, for anyone who cares, are as follows, with the # of visits in parentheses: Argentina (14), Austria (1), Belgium (4), Brazil (18), Cambodia (1), Canada (6), Chile (4), China (1), Colombia (1), France (11), Germany (4), Holland (5), Iceland (1), India (2), India (2), Indonesia (3), Ireland (1), Israel (1), Italy (4), Kenya (1), Mexico (17), Morocco (2), Nepal (1), Norway (1), Paraguay (1), Peru (2), Russia (1), Singapore (1), Spain (2), Sweden (1), Switzerland (5), Thailand (1), Turkey (1), UK (9), Uruguay (3), and Venezuela (1). This does not include three countries where I have only seen the airport: Ecuador, Panama, and Japan.

Now, for a masterful geek trivia touch: I have been to countries beginning with 16 different letters: A B C F G H I K M N P R S T U V W. The 10 letters I have not encountered are : D E J L O Q X Y Z. I hope one day to see Denmark, Egypt, Japan and Jamaica, Luxembourg, and Zimbabwe. Less likely are Oman, Qatar, Yemen. There are no countries beginning with X or W, though there are four territories beginning with W: West Bank, Wake Island, Wallis and Fortuna, and Western Sahara, controlled by Israel, the US, France, and Morocco respectively...