Belarus

Belarus was our last country of January, though I'm just now getting to the blog today. We were trying to keep up a pace of 17 countries a month, leaving December with a few less to do, what with the holidays and all. But, we only did 15 in January. February is all planned out, with 17. So hopefully we hit our target next month. 

Anyway, on to Belarus! 

Belarus has only been a country since 1990, as it was once part of the USSR. While not part of Russia, it's often confused with it's neighbor to the east, and is even called 'White Russia'. Belarus does have it's challenges. While technically they have 'freedom of speech', the media is still somewhat controlled by the government. That aside, the country has plenty to offer. The green on the flag of Belarus is a nod to the 40% of the country covered in forests. Another 13% of the country is swamp land, and the country is pretty wet in general. If you're feeling soggy, you can head into one of Belarus's traditional bathhouses called Banyas. Of course, after you spend some time taking in the steam of the sauna, you'll have to douse yourself in ice cold water, and then hit yourself with nuches of twigs. 

Other fun Belarus facts: 

CNN offended Belarus in 2014, when they named their ''Courage' monument, honoring WWII, as the ugliest monument in the world. 

They use Vodka for everything from sore throats, to ear aches, to  dandruff! And they down their fair share of it too. 

It's illegal to drive a dirty car in Belgium. 

The national sport is, to nobody's surprise, hockey. 

And their national animal is the Bison. Belarus is one of the few places in Europe you can find them in the wild (they actually went extinct in Europe, thanks to hunting, but have been reintroduced into the wild in a few select places, Belarus's Belovezhskaya National Park being one of them) 

Oh, and in other animal news, Belarus hosts the 'International Cat Show' every year, and people dress up their cats and parade them in front of judges. 

The boys made their post cards. 

And for dinner we had berries, an eggplant and tomato spread along with a few pieces of bread, Belarussian Carrot Salad, Potato Babka, and Kotleta Pokrestyansky. 

The dinner earned one and a half spoons up. 

The pork chops with the mushrooms were fine, nothing really special, and nothing that much different than we had before. Good, but not exciting. 

The potatoes were delicious, but Peyton and Hayden were not fans (this is where the half a spoon comes from, me and Calib were potato babka fans). 

But the carrots- Blah! Asa said 'I don't think they're as bad as you guys do.' (But he didn't say he liked them). I got them all down, for no other reason than I was try to set a good example. All I could taste was vinegar. 

The meal, overall, was fine, but nothing anyone would specifically ask for again. 

So January came to a close with our first 15 countries being completed: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, South Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Bahrain, Barbados, and Belarus. (There's all the links, too, in case you missed any, and you'd like to see them). 

Since we were wrapping up January, we also did our very first Jeopardy at our new house. The boys did very well on the country questions, pretty well on their Spanish questions, but not so great on their 'book work' questions, furthering the credence to my theory that they don't retain or gain much from their books- which is ok, because in February, we're getting back to theme weeks. We're going to deal with the 7 countries with 'travel restrictions'/'bans' (whatever you want to call it), and then we're FINALLY getting to Religion Week. So, our countries will be out of alphabetical order for the next couple weeks. 

Also, I finally got all 193 country info sheets laminated! 

We'll have a few days off, as Asa is in the office, and our next 7 will be a bit sporadic with the Super Bowl, and Hayden's birthday, but I'm sure it'll all come together fine. 

15 countries down, 178 to go! 

Next Up: Sudan