"Well," I told him, "We're surrounded by some of the best colleges in the United States, if not the world. And because of that, there are lots of really smart people from all over the world here."
"Roro," replied Flat Stanley. "What's college?"
"You know how Aly is in kindergarten? Well, after kindergarten is elementary school. And after that is middle school. And after that is high school. And then, after all that, is college."
"Phew. That's a lot of school!" exclaimed Flat Stanley. I decided that he should take a tour of Cambridge's finest schools. First stop, Harvard. To get there, we took the T, which is the oldest subway in the United States. And Flat Stanley had his own T pass.
"Roro, who is this flat guy on my T pass?" asked Flat Stanley.
"That is Charlie," I explained. "Like you, he's flat so he can go lots of places. Because he's on the T pass, everyone carries him in their wallets and purses and pockets. So he gets to travel the subways and buses of Boston all the time." By the time we were done talking about Charlie, we were in Harvard Square.
We quickly looked at the map to figure out where to go and then headed on our way.
Flat Stanley asked me, "Roro, why do people want to go to college at Harvard?"
"Well, Flat Stanley. It has a really good reputation. People all over the world know it's a good school. So really smart people come here to study to become doctors and lawyers and even Presidents!"
We went to Harvard Yard to see the statue of John Harvard, for whom the college was named. There we did what all the tourists do - touched his foot.
When we left Harvard Yard, Flat Stanley squealed with joy.
"Look, Roro!" yelled Flat Stanley. "It's Curious George!"
"Where?" I asked.
"Here!" replied Flat Stanley. We went inside and found Dr. Curious George and Flat Stanley whispered to me, "He's a doctor so he must have gone to Harvard."
We asked Dr. Curious George if he wanted to come with us to MIT and he said, "Sure thing," as he grabbed his doctor bag and doctor coat and followed us out the door.
"Roro, what is MIT?" asked Flat Stanley.
"It's the Massachusetts Institute of Technology," answered Dr. Curious George. "Really smart students from all over the world come here to learn about math and science and making all sorts of things like buildings..."
"...and robots..."
"...and space ships...and"
"Hold on a second, Dr. Curious George," said Flat Stanley.
"What about this building? It doesn't look like someone really smart built this!"
"Hmm," said Dr. Curious George. "Maybe the person who built that didn't go to MIT."
"It is a silly looking building," I said. "Let's go see another silly thing that MIT students did. The Smoots on the bridge."
"What's a Smoot?" asked Flat Stanley.
"You know how you can measure things in feet or inches?" I responded.
"Yes," replied Flat Stanley. "I am 9 and 7/8 inches tall."
"Well, a few students who were studying how to measure things decided that instead of measuring the bridge in feet or inches, they would use their friend, Oliver Smoot. So they had old Smoot lay down on the bridge and they'd mark where the top of his head was. Then he'd get up and lay back down so that his feet were where the top of his head was and his friends would mark where his head was. Then he'd get up and do it again. Until he'd laid down and got up just over 364 times!"
"They measured this whole bridge!!!" yelled Flat Stanley in disbelief. Then he thought for a moment and laid down on the bridge.
"Let's measure the bridge with me!"
Then Dr. Curious George laid down on the bridge, too.
"Me, too, Roro! Me, too!"
So now we know that the bridge over the Charles River that connects MIT to Boston is not only 364.4 Smoots, but also 2,472.4 Flat Stanleys, and 2,219.5 Dr. Curious Georges.