I like to think I am good with geography. I have studied maps and globes since childhood. For fun. At this moment, I own three globes, here in Abu Dhabi, two of them about five inches wide, the third about 10.

One of the little ones, which is quite nice despite its size, sits on my desk at The National, and I drag it out to demonstrate to co-workers where one country is in relation to another. “Farther than you think.” Not that they care all that much, but that’s how we geography people think about things. “Let me show you! I have a globe right here!”

I am not ready to win a National Geographic Bee — though I did get 10 of the 25 final questions listed on the NGB wiki entry. (Given, the Bee is meant for schoolkids.)

But I know a bit about the subject, enough that when I am deeply surprised by geographic realities, they tend to stick in my mind.

Several of which I will include on this list:

1. London is almost directly north of Paris. In my mind, it’s always significantly west of Paris.

2. Tehran is further west than is Abu Dhabi.

3. Including time zones into geography (and I consider them part of it) … St. Petersburg and Sochi are in the same time zone as the UAE.

4. Kenya straddles the equator. In my head, it’s safely north of it.

5. Mumbai, and a big chunk of India, is further south than Abu Dhabi. In my head, nearly all of India is east and a bit north of 0 degrees.

6. The Philippines are closer to Japan than Indonesia. Nope. The Philippines is far further south than Japan.

7. Reno is farther west than is Los Angeles. Even now I’m looking at my map to check it again.

8. Puerto Rica is east of Cuba. Most of my life, I would have bet it was west. Heck, it’s east of Hispaniola, too.

9. Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cape Town, South Africa, are on nearly identical lines of latitude. I have a mental urge to believe Buenos Aires is significantly farther north because, you know, Cape Town is on the tip of Africa.

10. Lagos is no longer the capital of Nigeria. It is Abuja. Still haven’t gotten used to that.

11. Only a tiny bit of Japan is south of Korea. In my mind, the whole of it is.

12. The beach in Long Beach, California, my home town, runs east and west, not north and south. Even now, I have to give that a bit of thought. And Santa Barbara is far more west of Los Angeles than north of it.

Amazing stuff, geography. No matter how much attention you give it, the surprises keep coming.