By Chris Cosci

The Summer Olympics are back. Thousands of the world's best athletes are gathered in Athens to compete against each other. Every form of news media is there covering the events. And millions of people are sitting at home, asking themselves, "Where the heck is Vanuatu?"

Vanuatu is one of over 200 countries represented at this year's Summer Olympics. To be honest, I'd be amazed if I could name one hundred countries, let alone two hundred. Although, to be fair, some of these locations aren't technically countries. Some are territories, such as Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Still, the roll call reads like a comprehensive guide to countries both familiar and virtually unknown. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Olympic Committee actually made a few up just to throw us off.

Each of the countries is featured during the traditional opening ceremony as part of a parade of nations. In this parade, one person is designated to carry each country's official flag and the remaining athletes all march behind their respective country's flag. In all, the year's parade consisted of over 10,000 athletes.

This extremely colorful parade is an impressive display that is fascinating and thrilling to watch... for perhaps the first 50 or so countries. After that, the excitement and freshness starts to wear thin, and you spend the next hour and half waiting for it to end so that they can light the giant torch and everybody can go to bed.

But the parade also provides a geography lesson for many of us. I would guess that most people's knowledge of geography is learned in high school or college. However, thanks to the volatile environment of our global society, a lot has changed in a relatively short period of time. For example, because the Soviet nations were all united as one country when I was in school, I still get thrown off when I see names like Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Another thing that throws me is name changes. I was perfectly happy with Zaire. Did they really have to change the name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo? And exactly how many Guineas does this world need? We have Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea. And none of them are home to the guinea pig. What is that all about?

As this year's parade progressed, I felt increasingly uncultured as countries such as Eritrea, Mauritius, and Brunei marched along. The Olympics began to feel like some kind of reunion where you forget everybody's name because you only see them once every four years. And when the Olympics are over, we'll say "it was great to see all of you – we should really see each other more often." Then we'll go our separate ways, only to wait until the next Olympics to be reacquainted.

For me, this tends to be the case with smaller, less populated countries such as Nauru. Nauru is the world's smallest independent republic. An island in the Pacific, roughly 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii, Nauru measures a grand total of eight square miles. For perspective, that is about one tenth the size of Washington D.C.

They may not have room for much, but Nauru obviously has a great workout facility, seeing that it sent three people to Athens this year to compete in weightlifting. Three people may not seem like a lot, but you have to realize that the latest population count for Nauru was 12,809. I think I've seen more people at the mall during holidays.

While most people are concentrating on the sports, the Olympics are inspiring me to take notice of the world around me. If nothing else, just talking about these exotic places really makes me feel like taking a vacation. But where should I start? I hear Vanuatu is beautiful.