Here's your quiz.....do you know where the country of Belarus is? It looks like this with 6 Provinces:
When we moved to Michigan, I had to admit that my familiarity with where we were in relation to Tennesee, Kentucky, Ohio, etc. were all pretty weak without actually looking at a map. After living there for 5 years and driving around there quite a bit, I feel like I know those states pretty well.
Well - it's the same sort of learning curve here I guess.
Monday night I was invited out for drinks with a friend. There was a man there from a country "somewhere East of here." He made me guess where he was from!
Oh boy. I guessed Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, and realized that my geography of what is "East of here" isn't that fantastic! Then I started guessing..... Greece, Iran, Slovenia.....nothing.
He got a kick out of my frustration, and let me wallow in humiliation for a while. Finally someone made him tell me "Romania." Oh! Of course!
I gotta know these countries man! What if some guy quizzes me again??!
So I looked up a map eagerly when I got home.
And there she is. Belarus.
Am I the only one who hasn't noticed this fairly large country between Europe and Russia???
So now I have a list I need to memorize in case I am asked again to look the fool. Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Lithiuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Czech Republic, Croatia.
(These I've heard of! They are just not on the tip of my tongue. Gotta work on that!)
1 comment:
It is kind of hard when new countries are formed quite often. I remember learning about all the stans.... Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan etc...I was surprised I had never heard of these countries (although they were all formed after the fall of the USSR). I think us Americans are pretty oblivious :) Time for geography lessons. I have heard of Belarus but haven't the slightest where it is :)
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