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New Country Souvenirs coming


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Well good news, intrepid geocaching travelers. Beginning November 16, we’ll announce a new country souvenir each week for five weeks.

 

My vote is for Swaziland.

 

How about Ethiopia? They created artwork for an Ethiopia souvenir several years ago but never used it. And since I'm currently in China, I'd like to see one for China as well. I found caches during a previous visit but DNF'd a cache on the Huanghuacheng section of the great wall today.

 

I'm sure the decision regarding the next five country releases has been made but I would suggest that Lithuania and Estonia have gained near-parity with Latvia in cache density and should be strongly considered.

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Well good news, intrepid geocaching travelers. Beginning November 16, we'll announce a new country souvenir each week for five weeks.

 

My vote is for Swaziland.

 

How about Ethiopia? They created artwork for an Ethiopia souvenir several years ago but never used it. And since I'm currently in China, I'd like to see one for China as well. I found caches during a previous visit but DNF'd a cache on the Huanghuacheng section of the great wall today.

 

I'm sure the decision regarding the next five country releases has been made but I would suggest that Lithuania and Estonia have gained near-parity with Latvia in cache density and should be strongly considered.

 

I suspect that they probably used the same criteria as in the past and we'll see new souvenirs for countries with the highest # for caches. That would include Lithuania and Latvia and three other European countries.

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Well good news, intrepid geocaching travelers. Beginning November 16, we'll announce a new country souvenir each week for five weeks.

 

My vote is for Swaziland.

 

How about Ethiopia? They created artwork for an Ethiopia souvenir several years ago but never used it. And since I'm currently in China, I'd like to see one for China as well. I found caches during a previous visit but DNF'd a cache on the Huanghuacheng section of the great wall today.

 

I'm sure the decision regarding the next five country releases has been made but I would suggest that Lithuania and Estonia have gained near-parity with Latvia in cache density and should be strongly considered.

 

I suspect that they probably used the same criteria as in the past and we'll see new souvenirs for countries with the highest # for caches. That would include Lithuania and Latvia and three other European countries.

 

Latvia is already out there, got it in September:

 

a0618087-2ca4-4abd-aec0-b6594c212e11.png

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Well good news, intrepid geocaching travelers. Beginning November 16, we'll announce a new country souvenir each week for five weeks.

 

My vote is for Swaziland.

 

How about Ethiopia? They created artwork for an Ethiopia souvenir several years ago but never used it. And since I'm currently in China, I'd like to see one for China as well. I found caches during a previous visit but DNF'd a cache on the Huanghuacheng section of the great wall today.

 

I'm sure the decision regarding the next five country releases has been made but I would suggest that Lithuania and Estonia have gained near-parity with Latvia in cache density and should be strongly considered.

 

I suspect that they probably used the same criteria as in the past and we'll see new souvenirs for countries with the highest # for caches. That would include Lithuania and Latvia and three other European countries.

 

Latvia is already out there, got it in September:

 

a0618087-2ca4-4abd-aec0-b6594c212e11.png

 

I knew if I posted a list I would probably include on that already has a souvenir. I agree with the Dolphin that Turkey should get one. I would be nice if all of the new souvenirs were not in Europe. I'd be happy with something like Lithuania, Turkey, China, Costa Rica (or Puerto Rico), and Tanzania (or Egypt). That would give me several new ones. I'd love to have one for Cuba (as I'll be going there in April) but it's probably be awhile before we see one for Cuba.

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[...] I would be nice if all of the new souvenirs were not in Europe. I'd be happy with something like Lithuania, Turkey, [...]

 

Lithuania and the relevant parts of Turkey are Europe. Lithuania is the geographical centre of Europe.

 

Hans

 

You excluded the countries I listed that were *not* part of Europe..and Turkey is actually in Europe and Asia.

 

My suggestion was that if they're going to create 5 souvenirs I would rather see at least a few from continents other than Europe. Europe and North America are already well represented, while Asia only has 3 (South Korea, Japan, and half of Turkey), South America only has one (Brazil) as does Africa (South Africa). There are no souvenirs for any of the countries in Central America or the Caribbean. The announcement also indicated that they would also be creating a "Country" page for every country which leads me to believe that they're trying to promote geocaching in places where it is not already popular.

 

Tomorrow morning I will be spending a couple of hours at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing with a student from the university I have been working at this week. He was with me when I DNFd a cache on a section of the Great Wall on Wednesday and finds the game interesting. I will suggest that he download the basic app so that he can find some of the caches during our walk tomorrow and perhaps he'll be interested in continuing to play the game and help promote it in China.

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Do Country Souvenirs get back-dated? i.e. I found some geocaches in Slovenia a few years back, will I get the Slovenia Country souvenir, or do I have to go back to Slovenia and find a new cache to get it?

 

Would be kind of nice if they were back-dated as the souvenirs then provide you with a nice 'souvenir' of all the countries you've cached in.

 

Al.

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Do Country Souvenirs get back-dated? i.e. I found some geocaches in Slovenia a few years back, will I get the Slovenia Country souvenir, or do I have to go back to Slovenia and find a new cache to get it?

 

Would be kind of nice if they were back-dated as the souvenirs then provide you with a nice 'souvenir' of all the countries you've cached in.

 

Al.

 

Just answering my own question after reading the New Years Eve email from Groundspeak which states:

 

"If you’ve already found a geocache in any of these countries, you’ll automatically receive the souvenir on your profile after all of the new souvenirs have been announced. "

 

So, yes, they will be back-dated.... Nice!! :)

 

Al.

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[...] will I get the Slovenia Country souvenir, or do I have to go back to Slovenia and find a new cache to get it?

[...]

A short look into your profile will answer this question immediately and with no doubt. ;-)

 

 

Not immediately - he/she would have to wait for December when relying on the method you suggest. The new souvenirs are not awarded immediately.

Edited by cezanne
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http://www.geocaching.com/blog/2015/11/i-feel-slovenia-brand-new-geocaching-country-souvenir-for-slovenia/

 

We’ll unveil one new souvenir every week until all FIVE are officially released and awarded by mid December.

 

Souvenirs that are currently available can be found here. A list of currently available geocaching souvenirs and even the ones you’ve already earned can be found on Geocaching.com.

 

And, if you’ve already found a geocache in Slovenia, we will retroactively add this souvenir to your profile after all five country souvenirs are announced.

 

B.

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[...] will I get the Slovenia Country souvenir, or do I have to go back to Slovenia and find a new cache to get it?

[...]

A short look into your profile will answer this question immediately and with no doubt. ;-)

 

Not immediately - he/she would have to wait for December when relying on the method you suggest. The new souvenirs are not awarded immediately.

http://www.geocaching.com/blog/2015/11/i-feel-slovenia-brand-new-geocaching-country-souvenir-for-slovenia/

 

We’ll unveil one new souvenir every week until all FIVE are officially released and awarded by mid December.

 

Souvenirs that are currently available can be found here. A list of currently available geocaching souvenirs and even the ones you’ve already earned can be found on Geocaching.com.

 

And, if you’ve already found a geocache in Slovenia, we will retroactively add this souvenir to your profile after all five country souvenirs are announced.

 

B.

To be clear, retroactive awarding won't happen until mid-December. However, if you submit a new "Found it" log for a cache in Slovenia, you will receive the souvenir immediately. Here's a random example of a user who has already received the souvenir by logging finds yesterday and today.

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I suspect that they probably used the same criteria as in the past and we'll see new souvenirs for countries with the highest # for caches. That would include Lithuania and Latvia and three other European countries.

Going on this assumption, the five countries would be:

  • Lithuania
  • Slovenia
  • Romania
  • Estonia
  • Hong Kong

That would take us through the top 38 countries by number of caches, plus Iceland in 53rd.

 

If they keep going at this rate and using this pattern, it'll be many years before I get a souvenir for the Vatican. :laughing:

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Odd that they are only awarding souvenirs for previous finds after all five are announced. They used to come out when the souvenir was announced. But I assume that they only want to run whatever check is done to retroactively award the souvenirs once, rather than five times. Guess I'll have to wait; while I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Slovenia in September 2008, I don't think I'll be able to return for some time.

 

Of the 37 countries we've cached, the only ones that don't have a souvenir now are Ukraine, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City, and Jersey (I know, not a country, but it's listed separately from the UK on the site). First two have a pretty good chance of getting a souvenir eventually, well, Ukraine once the war dies down. I'm interested to see the next four to be released.

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Odd that they are only awarding souvenirs for previous finds after all five are announced. They used to come out when the souvenir was announced. But I assume that they only want to run whatever check is done to retroactively award the souvenirs once, rather than five times. Guess I'll have to wait; while I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Slovenia in September 2008, I don't think I'll be able to return for some time.

 

Of the 37 countries we've cached, the only ones that don't have a souvenir now are Ukraine, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City, and Jersey (I know, not a country, but it's listed separately from the UK on the site). First two have a pretty good chance of getting a souvenir eventually, well, Ukraine once the war dies down. I'm interested to see the next four to be released.

 

I also thought it was odd that they're not retroactively awarding each new souvenir as it comes out. I've cache in fewer countries but have more countries for which a souvenir is not available (and I'm not optimistic that I'll get any more this batch). I have found caches in, but don't have souvenirs for Malaysia, Singapore, Costa Rica, Vatican City, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. In April I'll probably add 2-3 countries but at most 1 new souvenir. I'll be going to Cuba, which likely will be one of the last to get a souvenir and will be traveling through either Mexico (Cancun and/or Mexico City), the Bahamas, or Panama.

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They went slightly off-the-board with the new country released today: Turkey. Turkey is #41 by the number of caches. It'll be interesting to see what the 5th country will be next week, because it could be anything now that they've made a departure from the pattern it seemed like they were using.

 

Glad to see Turkey get one (at least I'll get one new souvenir this time). My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

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My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

While I agree with your earlier post that it would be nice to see another Asian souvenir, I fully expect Romania will be the fifth. There are already 6 countries that have fewer caches (Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iceland) that have received souvenirs.

 

If they do release Romania in this batch, it does bode well for some interesting releases if they do any future batches. The major European countries will all have been released already, and we'd be getting into countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Taiwan, China, Puerto Rico, and Argentina, which all have at least 1000 caches. It would be great to see them go way off-the-board for at least one or two souvenirs in a batch so we can get ones like Vatican City, Monaco, or any of the African or island countries. Otherwise, that one cacher that has found the one cache in Wallis and Futuna Islands will have to wait a very long time! :laughing:

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My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

It would be great to see them go way off-the-board for at least one or two souvenirs in a batch so we can get ones like Vatican City, Monaco, or any of the African or island countries.

 

Agreed. It would be a good way to promote geocaching in many places where there isn't a lot of geocaching. I've thought that a few Caribbean islands would be good choices for souvenirs. While countries like the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda don't have a ton of caches, they're considered vacation destinations for many the U.S. Similarly, places like the Isle of Man or Jersey may not have a lot of caches but the're close to places which have a lot of geocachers. Of course, as I have finds in three African countries that don't have a souvenir I wouldn't mind seeing a few of those either.

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My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

While I agree with your earlier post that it would be nice to see another Asian souvenir, I fully expect Romania will be the fifth. There are already 6 countries that have fewer caches (Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iceland) that have received souvenirs.

 

If they do release Romania in this batch, it does bode well for some interesting releases if they do any future batches. The major European countries will all have been released already, and we'd be getting into countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Taiwan, China, Puerto Rico, and Argentina, which all have at least 1000 caches. It would be great to see them go way off-the-board for at least one or two souvenirs in a batch so we can get ones like Vatican City, Monaco, or any of the African or island countries. Otherwise, that one cacher that has found the one cache in Wallis and Futuna Islands will have to wait a very long time! :laughing:

And here I was thinking that they already had.

 

Was this one of the souvenir designs that was floating around and just never got pushed? I could swear I remember seeing one a while back.

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I didn't read all the threads, but the ones I read, I did not see anyone request RUSSIA. I live in California and have more Russian Caches than Canada or Mexico, combined! Talk about a fun place to cache, you really get the 'suspicious eye' when you go poking around in the bushes!

 

I vote for Russia to.

 

Scientific Moscow

 

We hired a couple young Russian girls (a friend of friend thing) to take us around Moscow for the day. Including a ride on the Moscow Metro during rush hour.

 

67d7fe38-8a92-4ffa-9d20-877c1632fe95.jpg

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My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

While I agree with your earlier post that it would be nice to see another Asian souvenir, I fully expect Romania will be the fifth. There are already 6 countries that have fewer caches (Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iceland) that have received souvenirs.

 

If they do release Romania in this batch, it does bode well for some interesting releases if they do any future batches. The major European countries will all have been released already, and we'd be getting into countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Taiwan, China, Puerto Rico, and Argentina, which all have at least 1000 caches. It would be great to see them go way off-the-board for at least one or two souvenirs in a batch so we can get ones like Vatican City, Monaco, or any of the African or island countries. Otherwise, that one cacher that has found the one cache in Wallis and Futuna Islands will have to wait a very long time! :laughing:

And here I was thinking that they already had.

 

Was this one of the souvenir designs that was floating around and just never got pushed? I could swear I remember seeing one a while back.

 

I don't recall ever seeing one for China. Geocaching has grown a lot in China the last few years. When I was there in 2011 there were very few in Beijing. When I went back a few weeks ago, one of the parks which only had 2 caches in 2011 now has a 22. In 2011 Olympic Forest Park didn't have any and now it has 39.

 

There *was* souvenir artwork done for Ethiopia though. It is on a geocaching flickr account and was nicely done. I think there was also some artwork for England, Wales, and Scotland but they're not even included as distinct countries.

 

 

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There *was* souvenir artwork done for Ethiopia though. It is on a geocaching flickr account and was nicely done. I think there was also some artwork for England, Wales, and Scotland but they're not even included as distinct countries.

Yep, you remember correctly. I put those in a separate section of my list. IIRC, the British souvenirs were briefly being awarded, but they were quickly pulled and replaced by the UK one.

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There *was* souvenir artwork done for Ethiopia though. It is on a geocaching flickr account and was nicely done. I think there was also some artwork for England, Wales, and Scotland but they're not even included as distinct countries.

Yep, you remember correctly. I put those in a separate section of my list. IIRC, the British souvenirs were briefly being awarded, but they were quickly pulled and replaced by the UK one.

 

I wonder how they were awarded. England, Wales, and Scotland don't have a unique country or "state" ID so there wouldn't be a way to keep track which caches qualified for those souvenirs.

 

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There *was* souvenir artwork done for Ethiopia though. It is on a geocaching flickr account and was nicely done. I think there was also some artwork for England, Wales, and Scotland but they're not even included as distinct countries.

Yep, you remember correctly. I put those in a separate section of my list. IIRC, the British souvenirs were briefly being awarded, but they were quickly pulled and replaced by the UK one.

 

I wonder how they were awarded. England, Wales, and Scotland don't have a unique country or "state" ID so there wouldn't be a way to keep track which caches qualified for those souvenirs.

 

I don't think they were awarded. I live in England and have cached regularly since 2008 and never received anything but the UK one.

 

It could be done as the Groundspeak regions ("states") map to the countries, though it is N to 1, not 1 to 1. There are 2 regions for Wales, 2 for Scotland, and I think 10 for England. So if you find a cache in either North Wales or South Wales you could get a Wales souvenir (if such a thing existed).

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My prediction is for Romania but I wouldn't be surprised if the last souvenir in this batch is for Hong Kong.

While I agree with your earlier post that it would be nice to see another Asian souvenir, I fully expect Romania will be the fifth. There are already 6 countries that have fewer caches (Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iceland) that have received souvenirs.

 

If they do release Romania in this batch, it does bode well for some interesting releases if they do any future batches. The major European countries will all have been released already, and we'd be getting into countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Taiwan, China, Puerto Rico, and Argentina, which all have at least 1000 caches. It would be great to see them go way off-the-board for at least one or two souvenirs in a batch so we can get ones like Vatican City, Monaco, or any of the African or island countries. Otherwise, that one cacher that has found the one cache in Wallis and Futuna Islands will have to wait a very long time! :laughing:

And here I was thinking that they already had.

 

Was this one of the souvenir designs that was floating around and just never got pushed? I could swear I remember seeing one a while back.

 

I don't recall ever seeing one for China.

Hmm. Maybe I am thinking of the one for Iceland. I was thinking red background with a dragon and yellow lettering, and that kind of fits the Icelandic souvenir.

 

So: Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Turkey. One more to go...

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IIRC, the British souvenirs were briefly being awarded, but they were quickly pulled and replaced by the UK one.

I wonder how they were awarded. England, Wales, and Scotland don't have a unique country or "state" ID so there wouldn't be a way to keep track which caches qualified for those souvenirs.

I don't think they were awarded. I live in England and have cached regularly since 2008 and never received anything but the UK one.

Trust me, they were. I did some searching in the forums and found where I posted about them:

Okay, I've just finished going through them all. Here are the new ones I've found:

-Australia - All provinces and territories except the Australian Capital Territory

-Ireland - Connacht and Dublin, but not Leinster, Munster, or Ulster

-United Kingdom - England and Scotland, but not Wales

-Austria

-Norway

-South Africa

-South Korea

-Spain

-Sweden

-Switzerland

 

I've also noticed that these are only being awarded for new logs. None have been awarded retroactively yet.

At that time, Groundspeak was planning to release a bunch of souvenirs to celebrate the 2,000,000th hide, and inadvertently flipped a switch early. I spent time going through the list of countries looking for ones that people were getting souvenirs for, and I personally saw some profiles with the England and Scotland souvenirs. You needed to log a find in one of those regions during this brief period (I think it was less than a day) to get one of these souvenirs, so not many people would have gotten it. I believe those who did receive the England or Scotland souvenir had it taken away when Groundspeak started formally releasing the new souvenirs, but I'm not positive. For all I know, there may still be a bunch of people out there with those. I'll have to do some searching sometime.

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IIRC, the British souvenirs were briefly being awarded, but they were quickly pulled and replaced by the UK one.

I wonder how they were awarded. England, Wales, and Scotland don't have a unique country or "state" ID so there wouldn't be a way to keep track which caches qualified for those souvenirs.

I don't think they were awarded. I live in England and have cached regularly since 2008 and never received anything but the UK one.

Trust me, they were. I did some searching in the forums and found where I posted about them:

Okay, I've just finished going through them all. Here are the new ones I've found:

-Australia - All provinces and territories except the Australian Capital Territory

-Ireland - Connacht and Dublin, but not Leinster, Munster, or Ulster

-United Kingdom - England and Scotland, but not Wales

-Austria

-Norway

-South Africa

-South Korea

-Spain

-Sweden

-Switzerland

 

I've also noticed that these are only being awarded for new logs. None have been awarded retroactively yet.

At that time, Groundspeak was planning to release a bunch of souvenirs to celebrate the 2,000,000th hide, and inadvertently flipped a switch early. I spent time going through the list of countries looking for ones that people were getting souvenirs for, and I personally saw some profiles with the England and Scotland souvenirs. You needed to log a find in one of those regions during this brief period (I think it was less than a day) to get one of these souvenirs, so not many people would have gotten it. I believe those who did receive the England or Scotland souvenir had it taken away when Groundspeak started formally releasing the new souvenirs, but I'm not positive. For all I know, there may still be a bunch of people out there with those. I'll have to do some searching sometime.

 

Oh, I believe that you saw some souvenirs for England and Scotland. My point was that England, Scotland, and Wales are listed as specific regions (they're not in the UN Geopolitical ontology either). The United Kingdom has these sub-regions:

 

East Midlands

Eastern England

London

North Wales

Northeast England

Northern Scotland

Northwest England

South East England

South Wales

South West England

Southern England

Southern Scotland

West Midlands

Yorkshire

 

I suppose they might have awarded a souvenir for Scotland if one find a cache in Northern Scotland or Southern Scotand, and an England souvenir for another of the other sub-regions (except North/South Wales) though. Personally, I thought that GS should have created souvenirs for each of the regions in the UK instead of creating them for the counties in Ireland. The UK is fourth on the list of # caches per country with over 180K. Ireland only has a bit over 8K. Eastern England, as a region of the UK has over 24K caches.

 

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Anyone got any idea when the retrospective souvenirs will be issued? I've still not got my Turkey one yet have qualified for it

They will all retroactively award once the final souvenir has been announced. Still waiting on the last one, which should be announced Wednesday based on the previous blog posts.

Edited by hzoi
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Anyone got any idea when the retrospective souvenirs will be issued? I've still not got my Turkey one yet have qualified for it

They will all retroactively award once the final souvenir has been announced. Still waiting on the last one, which should be announced Wednesday based on the previous blog posts.

 

Interestingly, that link takes me to a blog post that announces the final souvenir to be THAILAND! And, checking my souvenirs the 4 new ones I qualified for now show on my profile!

Edited by TwoNomadicBrits
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Anyone got any idea when the retrospective souvenirs will be issued? I've still not got my Turkey one yet have qualified for it

They will all retroactively award once the final souvenir has been announced. Still waiting on the last one, which should be announced Wednesday based on the previous blog posts.

 

Interestingly, that link takes me to a blog post that announces the final souvenir to be THAILAND! And, checking my souvenirs the 4 new ones I qualified for now show on my profile!

 

I wouldn't have guessed that we'd get one for Thailand. I'm seeing the Turkey souvenir in my profile now as well (it's the only new one I've qualified for).

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