For those of us who grew up in the United States eating lunch in a cafeteria, the idea of looking at a bunch of trays of school food may be less than compelling. But what's surprisingly interesting, however, is what children from the rest of the world are eating instead. Check out these common lunch dishes from around the globe and let us know they seem accurate.
Mia, Leo, Colin, and Laurent Pelletier pose on top of their camper van in front of adouble rainbow while in Mongolia.
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“Blink,” a new film by National Geographic Documentary Films shows how a family with four children, three of whom are going blind, embraces life in the face of an uncertain future. It’s a testament to the resilience of the Lemay-Pelletier family but also a reminder for all of us to seize the day because all our futures are uncertain.
Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier are the parents of Mia, a 13-year-old girl, and three boys: Léo, 11, Colin, 9, and Laurent, 7. Over the last six years, they’ve learned that Mia and the two youngest boys have retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease in which the cells of the retina slowly die. As the disease progresses, the person develops “tunnel vision” that shrinks until very little vision remains.
The diagnosis devastated the parents. "The hardest part with the diagnosis was inaction. There's nothing they can do about it. There's no treatment,” Edith says in the film.
However, even though the parents couldn’t affect the progress of the disease, they could give their children’s senses an epic experience that would benefit them for a lifetime.
“We don’t know how fast it’s going to go, but we expect them to be completely blind by mid-life,” said the parents. Mia’s impairment advisor suggested they fill her visual memory with pictures from books. “I thought, I’m not going to show her an elephant in a book; I’m going to take her to see a real elephant,” Edith explains in the film. “And I’m going to fill her visual memory with the best, most beautiful images I can.”
The Pelletier family (from left): Mia, Sebastien, Colin, Edith Lemay, Laurent and Leo inKuujjuaq, Canada.via National Geographic/Katie Orlinsky
This realization led to an inspiring year-long journey across 24 countries, during which every family member experienced something on their bucket list. Mia swam with dolphins, Edith rode a hot-air balloon in Cappadocia, and Léo saw elephants on safari.
Colin realized his dream of sleeping on a moving train while Sébastien saw the historic site of Angkor Wat.
“We were focusing on sights,” explains Pelletier. “We were also focusing a lot on fauna and flora. We’ve seen incredible animals in Africa but also elsewhere. So we were really trying to make them see things that they wouldn’t have seen at home and have the most incredible experiences.”
Cameras followed the family for 76 days as they traveled to far-flung locales, including Namibia, Mongolia, Egypt, Laos, Nepal and Turkey. Along the way, the family made friends with local people and wildlife. In a heartbreaking scene, the boys wept as the family had to leave behind a dog named Bella he befriended in the mountains of Nepal.
But the film isn't just about the wonders of nature and family camaraderie. The family's trip becomes a “nightmare” when they are trapped in a cable car suspended hundreds of feet above the Ecuadorian forest for over 10 hours.
Leo, Laurent, Edith, Colin, Mia, and Sebastien look out at the mountains in the Annapurna range.via MRC/Jean-Sébastien Francoeur
As expected, NatGeo’s cinematographers beautifully capture the family's journey, and in the case of “Blink,” this majestic vision is of even greater importance. In some of the film's quietest moments, we see the children taking in the world's wonders, from the vast White Desert in Egypt to a fearless butterfly in Nepal, with the full knowledge that their sight will fail one day.
Along the way, the family took as many pictures as possible to reinforce the memories they made on their adventure. “Maybe they’ll be able to look at the photographs and the pictures and they will bring back those stories, those memories, of the family together,” Edith says.
But the film is about more than travel adventures and the pain of grief; ultimately, it’s about family.
“By balancing [the parents’ grief] with a more innocent and joyous tale of childlike wonder and discovery, we felt we could go beyond a mere catalog of locations and capture something universal,” the directors Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, said in a statement. “Keeping our camera at kid-height and intimately close to the family, we aimed to immerse the audience in the observational realities of their daily life, as well as the subtle relationships between each of them. This is a film built on looks, gestures and tiny details—the very fabric of our relationships with one another.”
Ultimately, “Blink” is a great film to see with your loved ones because it’s a beautiful reminder to appreciate the wonders of our world, the gift of our senses and the beauty of family.
The film will open in over 150 theaters in the U.S. and Canada beginning Oct. 4 and will debut on National Geographic Channel and stream on Disney+ and Hulu later this year. Visit the “Blink” website for more information.
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist known for epic works such as"War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina.” His life experiences—from witnessing war to spiritual quests—profoundly influenced his writings and gave him profound insights into the human soul.
His understanding of emotions, motivations and moral dilemmas has made his work stand the test of time, and it still resonates with people today.
“The more intelligent a person is, the more he discovers kindness in others,” Tolstoy once wrote. “For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful.”
Intelligent people are kind #intelligent #intelligence #kindness #smart #tolstoy #men #women
De Medeiros boiled down Tolstoy’s thoughts into a simple statement: “Intelligent people are unafraid to be kind.” He then took things a step further by noting that Tolstoy believed in the power of emotional intelligence. "To have emotional intelligence is to see the good in other people, that is what Tolstoy meant, that to be intelligent is to be kind," he added.
It seems that, according to de Medeiros, Tolstoy understood that intelligent people are kind and perceptive of the kindness in others. The intelligent person is conscious of the kindness within themselves and in the world around them.
Through the words of Tolstoy, de Medeiros makes a point that is often overlooked when people talk about intelligence. Truly smart people are as in touch with their hearts as they are with their minds.
Teacher reveals the surprising skills kids need before fifth grade.
Being a teacher is not an easy job, and no one enters the teaching profession because they think they're going to make a lot of money. Most teachers go into the field knowing that they would likely struggle making ends meet but carry a deep desire for shaping young minds.
But because of things like excessive standardized test preparation due to school districts' funds being tied to test scores, teachers don't always have time to teach basic things some students might have missed along the way. This can cause some frustration from everyone involved because in the end a child is not able to receive the proper tools for success. To fill in that gap, teachers rely on parents to help prepare their children to be as successful as possible in school.
Mr. Wilson, who goes by the name Mr. Wilson's Twin Brother on TikTok, shares several things he's noticed about the students entering his fifth grade classroom over the past several years and reveals four skills children need to have before entering the fifth grade. The list may be surprising for some, though judging by the response from teachers, being underprepared is an all too common issue.
For the safety of your child, you HAVE to make sure they have these 4 skills before meeting their fifth grade teacher!!! Not for us, for THEM. #teachersoftiktok #blackeducator #lifeofateacher #5thgrade #maleteachers
Mr. Wilson prefaces the video by saying, "I take it as a point of pride that I make my classroom accessible to all different types of children, but the main goal of a fifth grade classroom is to prepare a child for the increased demands of middle school. And as you know, middle school is a type of place where there are seven different teachers and they don't have the same ethic of care as an elementary school teacher does. Some of them will and some of them try to but due to the structure of middle school it's just not feasible."
The teacher goes on to explain that the children entering middle school need to have a certain level of basic skill, not just for academic purposes, but for safety and survival. These are the things he says are imperative students know before reaching fifth grade classrooms:
Fifth graders need to write their name on every paper.
Photo by Santi Vedrí on Unsplash
1. Consistently and automatically writing their name
Mr. Wilson says, "Those of you who are not teachers may be really, really appalled that this is where the list is starting but when I tell you in each of my five years of teaching I have to give a test the very first week of school to make sure my children can spell their names. And when I tell you that in those five years of teaching that I have never had a class where 100% of those students pass."
Wilson clarifies that he's not speaking about children that have significant intellectual and developmental delays, but those who have somehow been passed along.
2. Reading beyond CVC words
CVC words stand for consonant, vowel, consonant, and Wilson gave the examples of short first words like "cat," "bat," and "run." These are some of the very first words children learn to read in kindergarten. They start with a consonant, have a vowel in the middle and end with another consonant. Wilson explains that some of the fifth graders entering his classroom can't read beyond these simple words, which hinders their progress because the curriculum requires children to read paragraphs.
3. Knowing how to add and subtract simple problems
Wilson shares that math is an area where he tends to give a little more grace to the children because so many students struggle with being confident in math. But he notes that by the fifth grade, math skills crank up several notches so counting on their fingers to solve simple single digit subtraction and addition problems can be an issue. This is because fifth grade is the year that they focus heavily on math skills that build on the knowledge of simple addition and subtraction. Before fifth grade ends, students are expected to master multiplication, multiplication and division of decimals, and more.
4. Easily recalling their address and parents' phone numbers
"If for whatever reason I call your kid over to my classroom phone and say, 'Hey, give me a phone number for mom or dad' and they don't know that number, how are they going to get home if God forbid they're out in the world alone, isolated and somebody comes over to them and says, 'Hey, I want to call your parents to help you get in contact with them,' and they don't know what phone number to call," Wilson asks.
In the end, Wilson shares that he's speaking from an area of concern and not judgment because things have been hard for everyone since Covid. He explains that a lot of the skills are not just things that qualify kids for the fifth grade, but things everyone should be able to do to be safe in the world. Several teachers lent their support for his message by relaying their own stories.
"My 8th grade students legitimately struggle to write their names consistently and their handwriting is atrocious," a fellow teacher admits.
"I've had 5th graders that didn't know their birthday," another says.
"In my experience 5th grade is the hardest elementary grade to teach because the academic leap is so wide," someone else shares.
Wilson and others offered some tips to help get the kids who need these skills back on track. Working with the kids at home is a recurring theme in the comments. One parent suggested changing the WiFi password to the parent's phone number to help with memorizing. Wilson shares that if a parent is concerned that their child is missing these skills then one of the most helpful things to do is to ask the school to hold the child back. He explains that this will give the child more time to catch up on the skills they're missing and build maturity needed to succeed in the next grade.
While the message may be harsh for parents and caregivers to hear, it sounds like Wilson isn't simply complaining but making parents aware of an issue they may not know they need to check for. Hopefully sharing this honest message with others will help children excel in fifth grade and beyond.
Gen Zer asks how people got around without GPS, Gen X responds
It's easy to forget what life was like before cell phones fit in your pocket and Google could tell you the meaning of life in less than .2 seconds. Gen Z is the first generation to be born after technology began to move faster than most people can blink. They never had to deal with the slow speeds and loud noises of dial up internet.
In fact, most people that fall in the Gen Z category have no idea that their parents burned music on a CD thinking that was peak mix tape technology. Oh, how wrong they were. Now songs live in a cloud but somehow come out of your phone without having to purchase the entire album or wait until the radio station plays the song so you can record it.
But Gen Z has never lived that struggle so the idea of things they consider to be basic parts of life not existing are baffling to them. One self professed Gen Zer, Aneisha, took to social media to ask a question that has been burning on her mind–how did people travel before GPS?
Now, if you're older than Gen Z–whose oldest members are just 27 years old–then you likely know the answer to the young whippersnapper's question. But even some Millennials had trouble answering Aneisha's question as several people matter of factly pointed to Mapquest. A service that requires–you guessed it, the internet.
Aneisha asks in her video, "Okay, serious question. How did people get around before the GPS? Like, did you guys actually pull a map and like draw lines to your destination? But then how does that work when you're driving by yourself, trying to hold up the map and drive? I know it's Gen Z of me but I kind of want to know."
These are legitimate questions for someone who has never known life without GPS. Even when most Millennials were starting to drive, they had some form of internet to download turn-by-turn directions, so it makes sense that the cohort between Gen Z and Gen X would direct Aneisha to Mapquest. But there was a time before imaginary tiny pirates lived inside of computer screens to point you in the right direction and tales from those times are reserved for Gen X.
The generation known for practically raising themselves chimed in, not only to sarcastically tell Millennials to sit down but to set the record straight on what travel was like before the invention of the internet. Someone clearly unamused by younger folks' suggestion shares, "The people saying mapquest. There was a time before the internet kids."
Others are a little more helpful, like one person who writes, "You mentally note landmarks, intersections. Pretty easy actually," they continue. "stop at a gas station, open map in the store, ($4.99), put it back (free)."
"Believe it or not, yes we did use maps back then. We look at it before we leave, then take small glances to see what exits to take," someone says, which leaves Aneisha in disbelief, replying, "That's crazyy, I can't even read a map."
"Pulled over and asked the guy at the gas station," one person writes as another chimes in under the comment, "and then ask the guy down the street to make sure you told me right."
Imagine being a gas station attendant in the 90s while also being directionally challenged. Was that part of the hiring process, memorizing directions for when customers came in angry or crying because they were lost? Not knowing where you were going before the invention of the internet was also a bit of a brain exercise laced with exposure therapy for those with anxiety. There were no cell phones so if you were lost no one who cared about you would know until you could find a payphone to check in.
The world is so overly connected today that the idea of not being able to simply share your location with loved ones and "Ask Siri" when you've gotten turned around on your route seems dystopian. But in actuality, if you took a few teens from 1993 and plopped them into 2024 they'd think they were living inside of a sci-fi movie awaiting aliens to invade.
Technology has made our lives infinitely easier and nearly unrecognizable from the future most could've imagined before the year 2000, so it's not Gen Z's fault that they're unaware of how the "before times" were. They're simply a product of their generation.
Justus Stroup is starting to realize her baby's name isn't that common.
One of the many surprises that come with parenthood is how the world reacts to your child’s name. It’s less of a surprise if your child has a common name like John, Mohammed, or Lisa. But if you give your child a non-traditional name that’s gender-neutral, you’re going to throw a lot of folks off-guard and mispronunciations are going to be an issue.
This exact situation happened with TikTok user Justus Stroup, who recently had her second child, but there’s a twist: she isn’t quite sure how to pronounce her child’s name either.
"I may have named my daughter a name I can't even pronounce," Stroup opens the video. "Now, I think I can pronounce it, but I've told a couple of people her name and there are two people who thought I said the same exact thing. So, I don't know that I know how to [pronounce] her name correctly."
Just when you think you name your child something normal! #2under2mom #postpartum #newborn #momsoftiktok #uniquenames #babyname #babygirl #sahm #momhumor
Stroup’s daughter is named Sutton and the big problem is how people around her pronounce the Ts. Stroup tends to gloss over the Ts, so it sounds like Suh-en. However, some people go hard on the Ts and call her “Sut-ton.”
"I'm not gonna enunciate the 'Ts' like that. It drives me absolutely nuts," she noted in her TikTok video. "I told a friend her name one time, and she goes, 'Oh, that's cute.' And then she repeated the name back to me and I was like, 'No, that is not what I said.'"
Stroup also had a problem with her 2-year-old son’s speech therapist, who thought the baby’s name was Sun and that there weren’t any Ts in the name at all. "My speech therapist, when I corrected her and spelled it out, she goes, 'You know, living out in California, I have friends who named their kids River and Ocean, so I didn't think it was that far off.'"
Stroup told People that she got the name from a TV show called “The Lying Game,” which she used to watch in high school. "Truthfully, this was never a name on my list before finding out I was pregnant with a girl, but after finding out the gender, it was a name I mentioned and my husband fell in love with," says Stroup. "I still love the name. I honestly thought I was picking a strong yet still unique name. I still find it to be a pretty name, and I love that it is gender neutral as those are the type of names I love for girls."
The mother could choose the name because her husband named their son Greyson.
The commenters thought Stroup should tell people it’s Sutton, pronounced like a button. “I hear it correctly! Sutton like Button. I would pronounce it like you, too!” Amanda wrote.
“My daughter’s name is Sutton. I say it the same way as you. When people struggle with her name, I say it’s Button but with a S. That normally immediately gets them to pronounce it correctly,” Megan added.
After the video went viral, Stroup heard from people named Hunter and Peyton, who are dealing with a similar situation. “I've also noticed the two most common names who run into the same issue are Hunter (people pronouncing it as Hunner or HUNT-ER) and Payton (pronounced Pey-Ton or Pey-tin, most prefer it as Pey-tin),” she told Upworthy.
“Another person commented saying her name is Susan and people always think it is Season or Steven,” Stroup told Upworthy. After having her second child, she learned that people mix up even the simplest names. “No name is safe at this point,” she joked.
The whole situation has Stroup rethinking how she pronounces her daughter’s name. Hopefully, she got some advance on how to tell people how to pronounce it, or else she’ll have years of correcting people in front of her. "Good lord, I did not think this was going to be my issue with this name," she said.
One very fun thing about living in a vast, multicultural world is getting to discover how certain ways of life that you find completely ordinary are actually quite baffling to those outside of those customs.
Americans, for instance, might have no idea how strange things like being able to substitute things in restaurants or having toilets with a TON of water in them can seem to non-Americans.
Recently, Redditorrickyjones75asked, "Non-Americans who have been to the US: "What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?" And man, the responses were just too good not to share.
One thing that soooo many people mentioned, which might come as a surprise, was just how friendly Americans are.
Our social skills are apparently second to none—be it striking up random conversation or just being polite and kind to strangers.
As u/Muter put it, “Yall can strike a conversation with a tree. You literally don’t need anyone to respond and you’ll yabber away relentlessly,” adding, “I love it, I’m a fairly quiet dude - New Zealand’s a fairly reserved place, so just being able to stream your consciousness out like that is just something truly remarkable..”
u/Guycg also wrote, “Americans can strike up a sincere conversation and not be weird about it. No one precedes a question with 'Sorry to be weird'. They don't feel embarrassed if they don't know something. They can listen to you tell a story without jumping in to tell a vaguely similar story related to them.”
“I went there for university and honestly Americans just do a lot of little things that are generally nice. Holding the door open, smiling if you make eye contact while walking, randomly saying a quick greeting, etc. Random compliments too, and I never got the vibe that people were just making them up,” shared u/faeriefountain_
u/Bungle_bogs also noted how Americans are so “enamored you are with British culture and people.”
“I was invited to a BBQ, in a public place, by someone that I met because he liked the t-shirt I was wearing. I felt like some sort of celebrity! I’m an average guy, but everyone wanted to chat to me,” they said, adding, “I’ve traveled extensively and have met many other nationalities, whilst in their country. I’ve been made to feel welcome in almost all, but how I was treated once my accent was heard in the US was on another level.”
Also, it’s not just America’s tipping culture that leaves non-Americans scratching their heads. Here’s what a few folks had to say.
“The options when ordering food, I thought it was a TV joke! I feel naughty asking to swap chips for mash but you guys can request pretty much anything!” -Bizzle_B
“Weirdest thing for me, visiting Madison, Wisconsin, was the absolute top cheese curd selection and cheap and delicious local beer.” -u/Throwawaythisoneplz
“My friend from the Netherlands described his visit to the US as the 'land of endless choices' which is how Americans like it.” -u/RedSolez
“The restaurants expect you to NOT finish the food and take it home. My mother finds taking home leftovers from a restaurant to be embarrassing and will not do it. But American restaurants have portion sizes that seem to expect this.” -u/Repulsive_Tear4528
Aaaaand we also might have a caffeine problem (masking a productivity problem, of course).
“Coffee in the states is a ‘to go’ thing while in the rest of the world it's a ‘sit and relax’ thing,” said u/vivalaroja2010
"Coffee all the time. I got a tattoo in Barcelona and was completely embarrassed when I asked the artist if he wanted a coffee from next door. He told me, 'Oh no, I have to keep working.' He thought I wanted to go sit with him for a while."—u/MattSk87
America’s signature love of diversity in many forms also manifests itself in our lawmaking, which can be baffling to an outsider.
“Radically different laws for each state? like you could be illegal in one, then travel a few miles, then boom you're safe?” asks u/Frequent_Print7915
u/omnipresent_sailfish might have hit the nail on the head when they quipped, "The United States is not so much a single country as it is 50 raccoons in a trench coat."
Driving around in America seems to feel very odd as well.
“The gigantic open spaces everywhere. SO.MUCH.SPACE.” -u/Murmurmira
“The billboards on the interstates.... 'Only 20 miles to....,' 'Only 15 miles to....' and some chain or business. Oh, and fireworks... everywhere…” -u/Iracing_Muskoka
On a related note…"Driving through rural Oregon on US26 and seeing billboards proclaiming Hillary Clinton to be the anti-Christ who wants to steal your guns and eat babies."—u/ConstableBlimeyChips
“Tailgating on highway (even people complaining about tailgaters were themselves often tailgating).” - u/bolyai
"The car dependency. I was in LA, and when I said I was walking to places, people looked at me like I was out of my mind."—u/VisibleElephant
“You advertise antidepressants on the TV. 🤯”-u/Melonpan78
And then some that totally caught us off guard:
"The taste of apples. I've tried ones in Turkey, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, and China, and they all taste pretty much the same. American apples, on the other hand, are like frozen French fries with all the sweetness sucked out and replaced purely by weird sourness. My German, French, and Japanese friends also agreed with me."—u/PassakornKarn
"Measuring distance in time. (ex: 'I'm two hours away from you')."—u/sss100100
Dorito chips and Cheetos have like ten times the amount of orange powder. Everything is so sweet and tastes 'heavy' for some reason." —u/Bman1465 (Hmm, maybe this one isn't so much of a surprise…)
"Using paper towels to wipe things in and out of their homes. ESPECIALLY if they are inside the house." —u/passionate_milf
"I find military people boarding airplanes first strange."—u/MrChicken23
"Chips with everything; if you invite Americans to a party, definitely bring chips. Even if it's a romantic dinner, be prepared for chips." —u/Exotic_Second2734
"I was there on Valentine's Day. Random wait staff and hotel staff wished me a happy Valentine's Day and gave me roses. It was so weird. In Australia, it's a thing for couples only." —u/harrywho23
Lastly, our favorite: “They have those angry sinks that chop sh_t.” -u/Mind_Extract
Bet you’ve never thought of a garbage disposal that way. And you’ll never think about it the same way again.
The Pelletier family (from left): Mia, Sebastien, Colin, Edith Lemay, Laurent and Leo inKuujjuaq, Canada.via National Geographic/Katie Orlinsky
Leo, Laurent, Edith, Colin, Mia, and Sebastien look out at the mountains in the Annapurna range.via MRC/Jean-Sébastien Francoeur
Fifth graders need to write their name on every paper.
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They need to read beyond "Hop on Pop."
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boy sitting on concrete stairs
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