Africa Challenge - South Sudan

South Sudan is located near the center of the African continent. It's capital is Juba.

Fun fact: South Sudan gained it's independence on July 9, 2011 which means that as a country it's newer than this blog.

Africa Challenge - Malawi

Malawi is located between Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia.

It's Capital is Lilongwe.

Africa Challenge - Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo borders Central African Republic, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the South Atlantic Ocean and Republic of the Congo. The capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Kinshasa.

Did you know that the Democratic Rebulic of the Congo used to be known as Zaire?

Africa Challenge - Angola

Angola touches Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Namibia and the South Atlantic Ocean. And it's capital is Luanda.

Africa Challenge - Namibia

Namibia boreders South Africa, the South Atlantic Ocean, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Windhoek is the capital of Nambia.

Africa Challenge - South Africa

South Africa is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and totally surrounds Lesotho.




By the way J.R.R. Tolkien was born in South Africa.

Great game!

Try this for sharpening your world geography skills!

Norway

Norway is a country of barren fields and frozen fjords. 90 percent of all the land is mountain. Yet, people have lived here for over 2000 years. From the invention of skis(yes, skis were first used in Norway) to present day, the Norwegians have developed plenty of methods to farm the land, replant trees and even how to fish better. It seems to adapt to such a barren land would take a strong, unwavering mind and great ingenuity. And so the country of Norway, wild as it was, is now tamed.

Africa Challenge - Lesotho

Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa. It's capital is Maseru.

Africa Challenge - Swaziland

Swaziland is located between Mozambique (East) and South Africa (West). The capital of Swaziland is Mbabane

Kamchatka

My Dad went to Taiwan last month. Here are some pictures he took when he was flying over Kamchatka.



Here is one he took of the tv screen that showed him where they were at the time.


And here is one he took of some scenery in Kamchatka.





Here is a neat map of the Arctic Circle

Christmas Present

My grandmother gave this to me for Christmas--it was fun to put it together!

Iceland

Iceland is a country of extremes. it's amazing how people have come to live here. For instance, the was formed only because it lies on the boundary between two rifting tectonic plates. As a result, a large island in the middle of Atlantic Ocean with plenty of volcanic activity. But the people of Iceland learn to use this to their advantage. In fact, a factory in Iceland was awarded for being the cleanest in the world. That's because Iceland uses geothermal energy as opposed to coal or gas. But this can pose a problem. Iceland is covered in glaciers, the largest of these being Vatnajokull. It literally covers one twelfth of Iceland. In an Icelandic saga, it was said to be 'the mother of all glaciers.' And so, with this strange blend of fire and water, Iceland is a country of extremes.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas (in a few different languages).

圣诞快乐 (Chinese-simp.)
聖誕快樂 (Chinese-trad.)
Vrolijke Kerstmis (Dutch)
Joyeux Noël (French)
Frohe Weihnachten (German)
Καλά Χριστούγεννα (Greek)
Natale allegro (Italian)
メリークリスマス (Japanese)
즐거운 성탄 (Korean)
Christmas Alegre (Portuguese)
Веселое Рождество (Russian)
Feliz Navidad (Spanish)
عيد ميلاد سعيد (Arabic)

Africa Challenge - Madagascar

Madagascar is an island located between the Mozambique Channel and the Indian Ocean. It's capital is Antananarivo.

By the Way we just bought vanilla beans that were grown in Madagascar.

Africa Challenge - Mozambique

The next country to the south of Tanzania is Mozambique. Mozambique is across the Mozambique Channel from Madagascar and also borders the Indian Ocean, Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

Russia

As we all know, Russia is the largest country in the world. However, it doesn't have that much history to tell. The first inhabitants of Russia were nomads and hordes of bandits and raiders. As you can think, they didn't bother to write down what they did. But as the population increased, these people developed a sort of wimpy form of government. The leader was a czar, and ever since those people have started, there hasn't been a nice one. The only one who actually did something instead of killing his own people was Peter the Great, who made the Russia we know today.

Physically Russia makes up half of the coast of the Arctic Ocean, borders the Pacific Ocean, Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. Politically, Russia 13 countries altogether but only 9 in Europe. It shouldn't be that hard to find on an atlas.

Africa Challenge - Tanzania

The next country to the south of Kenya is Tanzania which is right next to the Indian Ocean. Tanzania also borders Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. The Capital of Tanzania is Dar es Salaam.

Mount Kilimanjaro is also located in Tanzania.

Geography Challenge - Kenya

Just south of Ethiopia is Kenya which also borders Somalia, the Indian Ocean, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan. Kenya's Capital is Nairobi.

Once upon a time our family figured out that you could have a Chocolate Cake Farm in southern Kenya.

Germany

Germany is a country of great importance in Europe. Along with its famous food, beer and car industry, Germany is also a country with lots of world history. The cathedral at Cologne and the ruins of the Berlin Wall are both monuments of important times in history. Germany is a great country.