The Look of Incredulity

One of the features I recently discovered on Blogger was the "Stats" feature. This section of my blog allows me to see how much traffic my site gets, which posts have been viewed the most, from what countries people are viewing my blog, and - best of all - how people find my blog in the first place.

Does anyone know where the Isle of Man is?

I assumed that the only people who read this blog are my family and friends from back home, who may be interested in my day-to-day doings in a different country. And also maybe some top secret government official whose job it is to ensure that Peace Corps Volunteers write PC...Peace Corps, that is...things.

But the internet is not quite the vast, barren wasteland I took it to be. Vast it is, but it is densely populated enough that wanderers from Serbia to Guatemala have stumbled upon this teeny tiny little site.

How they get here, I do not know. Well...that's not entirely true: One of the best things about the "Stats" section is that you can see phrases people have typed into their search engines, phrases that eventually lead them to your blog. Some of the phrases make sense - for instance, "How to decorate for a kid's birthday party in Ecuador" - I can see how someone who typed that into Google would stumble upon my humble little blog.

Other phrases, while pleasant enough, are not quite as apparent in their connection. Take as an example the poetic "painted green walls in sunlight." Hmm, I think I'll use that someday.

Still others are right out, such as this one: "the look of incredulity." Four different people who typed this phrase into their search engines wound up here, and I seriously doubt if they found whatever they were looking for. This is all I have in the way of appeasing any future incredulity searchers:

And some phrases are simply insulting, such as "I do not recommend" - ouch.

Oh - one phrase that popped up recently, "How to hop a train turnstile," reminded me of something I needed to tell you. Sadly, it is not a tutorial on how to hop a train turnstile; rather, it is a slight correction to an assertion I made previously that all the guards in the Metrovia train stations are armed. They are not armed. They carry batons, but nothing more. I have been informed that the armed guards one sees outside certain businesses, or accompanying the armored trucks that transport cash money around the city, are actually private guards for hire, and that public guards are unarmed.

ANYWAY - back to the search phrases. What these people think upon being directed to this site, I can only imagine. But I hope the picture of the 41oz. bag of Starburst gives them a boost.