Continuing Mary-Kate and Ashley's foreign adventures. All the good kids they left back home in the US of A will be reassured to learn that on their travels, they dedicated more time to visiting LA than they do the entire southern hemisphere.
England:
Mary Kate and Ashley in action: episode 01: SPF 5000: In which an eccentric villain triggers a global eclipse of the sun. Mary-Kate and Ashley must use their special agent skills and their recent astronomy homework to defeat him. We learn that:
* The original London Bridge was disassembled and is now in Arizona
* "London, England burnt down due to a mattress fire"
* The largest "prehistoric" monument in England is not Stonehenge but the Avebury Circles nearby
* Randomly, we also learn that Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.
Mary Kate and Ashley in action: episode 23: Bad hair day: In which a villain causes a worldwide bad hair day which immobilizes everyone on the planet. Mary-Kate and Ashley join forces with another villain to get their hairstyles back. In a particularly informative episode, we learn that:
* In England, slang for 'girls' is 'birds'
* The Bank of England is also known as 'the old lady of Threadneedle Street'
Winning London: (2001) Mary-Kate and Ashley went to England as they participate in their high school's Model UN competition. (It is never explained why they did not do this in the gymnasium like every other school.) The box says, "Once on British soil, adventure ensues." They went sight-seeing. This was filmed, allowing you to look at them looking at such exciting places as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Given the limited nature of the plotline, the box removed all suprise for me by priniting that Mary-Kate and Ashley "meet some guys and learn that -- ultimately -- winning isn't everything." Overall, a heartwarming moralistic and informative tale: 7/10.
Germany:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 06: Puppy Love: In which Mary-Kate an Ashley are morally outraged when Germans begin neglecting their dogs in favor of their new robotic dogs marketed as "better than a real dog." Being set in Germany allows the villain to be humourously named Fritz Doberman. We learn that:
* Germany is about as big as the state of Montana
* Until 1990, Germany was separated into two sections: East Germany and West Germany
* Germany is bordered by 9 countries
* The population of Germany is approximately 83,029,536
* The "long name" for Germany is the Federal Republic of Germany
The Bermuda Triangle:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 05: Operation evaporation: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley must prevent a villain from gaining control of all of the world's water. We learn that:
* The Bermuda Triangle is an area of the Caribbean Sea in which many ships and plans have mysteriously disappeared
* The Bermuda Triangle is also known as 'the Devil's Triangle'
* The points of the triangle are Bermuda, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico
* The first time this region was referred to as 'the Bermuda Triangle' was in February 1964
* The Gulf Stream is thought to be to blame for the majority of the disappearances
Egypt:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 08: The cat's meow: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley's dog investigates when the world's largest cat show is disrupted by theft of cats. We learn that:
* The population of Egypt is estimated at 57.6 million
* The official language is Arabic
* The official religion is Islam
* Children must attend school between the ages of 6 and 12
* Most Egyptians are mixed race
* The country's staple food is fuul, a kind of broad bean
New Zealand:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 11: Snow much fun: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley attend a summit of the world's most talented teens, which is disrupted when the teens inexplicably lose their special abilities. We learn that:
* New Zealand has a parliamentary government
* The prominent languages are English and Maori
* 81% of New Zealanders are Christian
* The population is estimated at 3,343,000
* The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington
Monte Carlo:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 12: In a lather: In which professional clowns attending an international circus convention are suddenly bickering with one another. Mary-Kate and Ashley go undercover as trapeze artists, and trace the mysterious personality change to the soap being used at the convention. We learn that:
* It was almost called Charlesville or Albertville after the heir to Prince Charles III
* Monte Carlo means 'Mount Charles'
Switzerland:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 13: Pants on fire: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley become personal trainers for the unfit villains they do battle against in the rest of the series, who promise to go straight if the girls help them climb K2. We learn that:
* There are a lot of lakes in Switzerland
* In December 1999, there are only 7.164 million people in Switzerland
* A new president of Switzerland is elected every year
* The president of Switzerland for 1999 was a Jewish woman
* The four official languages are German, French, Italian, and Romanch
The Amazon:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 15: Big trouble: In which elephants worldwide disappear by magic. We learn that:
* The Amazon is the largest volume river in the world
* The Amazon is the second longest river in the world, to the Nile
* The Amazon collects water from about 40% of South America's land area along over 1000 tributaries
* The Amazon River is 6280km long
* Its source is in Calillona, Peru
* Its mouth is in NE Brazil
The Galapagos Islands:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 16: Catch a wave: In which the rick kids go on a field trip to the Galapagos Islands, wehere they meet sea monsters. We learn that:
* The Galapagos Islands have penguins on the equator!
* The Galapagos Islands are in Ecuador
* There are only two seasons in the Galapagos Islands
Costa Rica:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 17: Up in the air: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley enter a vintage plane race when planes begin mysteriously disappearing. They can only solve the mystery by disappearing with their plane. We learn that:
* The Republic of Fiji crosses the International Date Line
* Fiji is often referred to as the crossroads of the Pacific
* The Fiji archipelago has over 300 islands across 200,000 square miles of ocean
Costa Rica:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 18: Boy stuff: In which a villain who is always foiled by Mary-Kate and Ashley kidnaps their male friends, thinking the girls will "fall apart" without them. Mary-Kate and Ashley must save them quickly as they are due to hold a dinner party that evening! We learn that:
* Antarctica is the highest, driest, coldest, and windiest continent on earth
* 70% of the world's fresh water is frozen in Antarctic ice
* Only 0.4% of Antarctica is not covered in ice
* Antarctica has an absolute humidity lower than that of the Sahara Desert
Costa Rica:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 19: Bug off: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley must rescue a kidnapped TV star before his captor wrecks the fragile ecosystem of the Costa Rican rainforest (in which they are hiding) by swatting all the insects that bite him. We learn that:
* Costa Rica is located in Central America
* It borders the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean
* It is situated between Nicaragua and Panama
* Costa Rica has four volcanoes, two of them active
* Costa Rica has 35,000 species of insects
The Orient:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 20: Dog gone: In which Mary-Kate and Ashley ride on the Orient Express, despite its closure in 1977. Their dog is stolen by a man in drag. Seriously, an actual man in drag, not just an manly woman. We learn that:
* The Orient Express is also called the Simplon Orient Express
* It runs from Paris to Constantinople
* "Its name comes from Orient, another word for east"
Mexico:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 24: Can you dig it?: This episode contained more offensive state-mandated "Colombus didn't kill the natives, they shared their land with him at the first Thanksgiving" propaganda than I can stand to write about. Go to hell, Olsen twins.
Russia:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 24: Rave reviews: In which a girl band, 'The Butterflie Girls', mysteriously go missing during a battle of the bands cometition, so Mary-Kate and Ashley look for them in Moscow. We learn that:
* Red Square is more than 500,000 square feet of open land
* The Gum department store is a famous clothing store located in Red Square
* Red Square along the eastern wall of the Kremlin
* It was first called Krasnaya Ploschad in 1650, 'krasnaya' meaning both 'beautiful' and 'red'
China:
Mary-Kate and Ashley in action: episode 26: Tourist traps: In which rogue skateboarders "the Shred Squad" are triggering earthquakes to make skateboarding more interesting. Earthquakes are widely known to damage things like the Great Wall of China, so Mary-Kate and Ashley visit. We learn that:
* China has 104,000 types of animal
* The capital of China is Beijing
* China has a typical monsoon climate
