And so it’s time to offer up a travel quiz. Or at least time to pose some questions that involve international destinations.

Question No. 1: Where was Mother Teresa born?

Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910, the woman who would become Mother Teresa left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland. A year later, after studying English, she traveled to India.

It was in India that she took her first religious vows (in 1931, solemn vows six year later), choosing to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, who is known as the patron saint of missionaries. India is where Mother Teresa’s life’s work took place, culminating in her founding the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

For her efforts, both in India and internationally, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died at age 87 in 1997 and was made a saint in 2017.

So where was she born? Here’s a clue: She once told an interviewer, “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”

Give up? The answer is Skopje, the city that is now the capital of North Macedonia. The statue in the above photograph is situated in front of the Mother Teresa Memorial House, which opened in 2009.

Question No. 2: What is the name of the Icelandic volcano that erupted in 2010 and disrupted international air travel? And how do you pronounce it?

It was on March 20, 2010, that the volcano first erupted following earthquakes that had been occurring since January. But it was on April 14 that the volcano spewed steam and ash as high as seven miles into the air, causing airlines to cancel as many as 100,000 flights over the next several days.

Though this was the first time the volcano in question had erupted since 1821 (following others in the years 920 and 1612-13), such incidents aren’t uncommon in Iceland. As the website Visit Iceland reports, “On average, a volcano erupts in Iceland erupts every five years. Since 2021, however, the frequency has been closer to every 12 months!”

The town of Grandavik, in fact, was evacuated in March when the volcano Svartsengi – which sits just a couple of miles north of the town – erupted. Residents were warned that, if they returned, it was “at their own risk.”

And the answer to the question? It’s tongue-twister: Eyjafjallajökull. (Go here to see how to pronounce it.)

Question No. 3: Which is taller, St. Louis’ Gateway Arch or the Empire State Building?

More than 30 years ago, I was visiting my daughter in New York City. At the time she was working for the Public Television show “Now with Bill Moyer.”

So one day, while waiting for her to finish work, I decided to walk several blocks to experience a Manhattan landmark I had never before had the chance to see: the Empire State Building.

I went up to the observation deck and was able to view the city from a perspective I’d only read about (or seen in any number of movies, from “An Affair to Remember” to “Sleepless in Seattle”).

Then three years ago, while on a road trip through the Midwest, I saw – again for the first time – St. Louis’ famous Gateway Arch. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as my first glimpse of Sydney’s famous Opera House. But it was close.

That was our first night in St. Louis, and the Arch was bathed in spotlights. The next day was when we visited the site itself, though I nixed any idea of going up to the top because we were still in the midst of the pandemic and I didn’t want to share a confined space with anyone else, masked or not.

And besides, those compartments are small, and I can feel claustrophobia pretty easily. Instead, we visited the museum, learned about its construction, bought a few souvenirs and snapped a bunch of photos.

So I’ve been in and around both monuments. So which is taller? Well, it’s not even close. The top floor of the Empire State Building is 1250 feet tall (1,454 is you measure to the tip of the spire). The Gateway Arch, while being the tallest monument in the National Park Service, is only 630 feet at its height.

So, how’d you do? If you’re like me, you had to look some of this stuff up. I mean, if I hadn’t visited Skopje all those years ago, when I spent six weeks in nearby Pristina, Kosovo, I likely would never have known about Mother Teresa’s birthplace.

And it took me a couple of days before I could pronounce the name Eyjafjallajökull, which I had to write out phonetically (here it is, more or less): A-YA-FYAT-LA-Y0-KOOT-UL. Icelandic seems harder to pronounce than even Welsh (the town name Llanfairpwllgwyngyll being the shortened version of Wales’ longest word).

Such are the random things you pick up when you travel the world. I’ll no doubt be picking up even more soon enough.