Never know who you’re going to meet while walking your dogs along Bayshore Boulevard. Having cute Peek-a-poos in tow is often an inducement for some friendly, passer-by chatter. Early Saturday evening it was two female students from the University of Tampa. They were from Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
Two points.
I candidly know little about either country, but I do have a savant’s frame of reference for world capitals and major cities. I nodded upon hearing where they were from and mentioned Colombo and Dar-es-Salaam, respectively. They were taken aback and flattered that I knew. Sad commentary, actually. Americans are beyond notorious for being world-geography challenged. So, knowing the barest minimum was enough to impress.
Second, how cool is it to have a downtown university that’s such an international draw? Tanzania and Sri Lanka are just two of the 122 countries represented on the UT campus. The top five are Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Kuwait and Bahamas. Altogether, UT has 750 international students (out of a total enrollment of 6,700). A decade ago, that foreign figure was 267.