Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Far Away Friends and a Geography Lesson

The Flag of Macedonia


Despite months of begging him not to, one of my oldest and dearest friends is moving to Macedonia for a year. His hand and arm are featured on a previous post called "Gross!"He's been trying to join the Peace Corps for some time, but was previously thwarted by health problems. Now that he's better, he's been given his assignment.

I don't know much about Macedonia. Embarrassingly, I thought it was a former country, like Ur or Kish. "Are you, serious?" Sir Coolman asked.

"Well...I just thought..."

"This is an excellent moment for you to reflect," he told me.

Rather than put up a fight, I did so.



"I am realizing that...I may not be up-to-date as far as my level of knowledge with geography. If I am uncertain of geographic facts, then I can't expect to teach them to others. Accordingly, I need to increase my level of geographic awareness."


"Very well. Let's do just that." Sir Coolman took me on a lovely virtual trip through the country, revealing that it seems an extremely picturesque region of the world. Its history and heritage are quite interesting as well. For example, it's the home of Mount Olympus of Greek mythology. Which reminds me! I forgot to mention that Greek is the major language. I was really surprised by all that I learned; but the
most interesting thing, to me, was the fact that it was a real, present-day country.




During our searches, I found some informative sites.






Just when I was feeling quite accomplished with my new knowledge, Sir Coolman made me aware of something. "You do realize that this is just one little country to add to your geographic repertoire, correct?"

Actually, I hadn't thought of that. Well...it's a good thing that I LOVE learning!


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1 comment:

yoon see said...

It's great to have some friends stay near and afar...
Your name meaning is "Gather"
That's great, gathering makes us not lonely:)

I too love reading travelogue and I prefer geography to history in school. Theere are so much to explore!

Happy weekends and bye Retinna!