International exchange programs

The most isolated place of Western civilization on Earth is the Hawaiian Islands — 3,700 kilometers from the nearest mainland (U.S. territory). It’s also one of the most remote places in the world. Maybe that’s why Hawaii has the highest life expectancy in the U.S. — 82 years. In Mississippi, by contrast, you might live just as well but for much fewer years — only about 75.

The tallest mountain on the planet is the volcano Mauna Kea if measured from its base (10,203 meters), not from sea level (4,205 meters). Much of the volcano sits underwater. And Mount Waialeale is the wettest place on Earth — it averages 11,684 mm of precipitation a year, with a record 16,916 mm in 1992. By comparison, Riga’s average annual precipitation is just under 700 mm.

Nearby is Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth — it’s only 36 meters shorter than Mauna Kea. In the night of Sunday, November 27, 2022, the volcano awoke for the first time since 1984, flooding its summit caldera with lava. On November 28 lava fountains began erupting along fissures; most were several meters high, while the tallest reached 30–60 m.

Did you know the person on the U.S. $100 bill was never a president? It’s Benjamin Franklin, one of the leaders of the American Revolution — the only Founding Father to sign the three key documents that helped found the United States as an independent nation: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu — the name of a low hill on New Zealand’s North Island, is one of the longest place names in the world.

The name can be translated from Māori as “The summit where Tamatea, the man with big knees who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as the land-eater, played his nose flute to his loved one.” The word has 85 letters and is listed in the Guinness World Records. Locals often just call the hill “Taumata.”

Here are a few curious century-old laws that still exist in some U.S. states. Years have passed, but the laws remain… In Colorado, men are forbidden to kiss sleeping women. In Wisconsin, men are prohibited from shooting at women during their orgasm. In some states — for example Arizona, Indiana, and New York — a visible erection through clothing in public is considered illegal.

You can be fined — and jailed. In one city in Oregon, men are even forbidden to swear while making love…

In Death Valley, the driest and hottest place on Earth, more than 15 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, 44 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians, 13 species of fish and 545 species of plants live.

Four hundred and fifty years before America was ‘discovered’ by the Spaniard Christopher Columbus, the Central Asian scholar and polymath Abu Rayhan al-Biruni in the 11th century confidently predicted the existence of this continent.

Of Australia’s 18 million people, more than 4 million arrived in Australia within the last half-century.