posted
I was just wondering if anyone knows where Croatia is?! Coz i'm form there and when im ention that in a conversation no one knows where it is. so i was just wondering if you guys know
------------------ *I hate it when you make me laugh, Even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, And the fact you didn't call. But mostly i hate the way i don't hate you. Not even close...not even at all...*
Posts: 31 | From: Far away | Registered: Oct 2000
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Croatia is between Slovenia and Bosnia/Herzegovina on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, all of which are just west of Serbia, north of Greece, and south of Austria and Hungary in Eastern Europe.
Posts: 63425 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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New Zealand is a so-called "island nation" that actually has two primary islands, the North Island and the South Island. Geographically, it is slightly south and west of Australia -- draw a line going right from Sydney and you'll more or less hit the North Island.
Much of New Zealand is mountainous, with lots of volcanic mountains and remnants of its exciting (!!) tectonic and geothermal past, and it has fabulous fjords. The valleys are very fertile, in general, and there is a very extensive dairy and sheep industry in New Zealand, as well as a lot of agricultural farming.
As for critters, New Zealand has some really interesting and weird ones -- the kea, an endangered flightless parrot with an alarmingly strong beak, kiwi birds, which are the national mascot (New Zealanders are often called Kiwis), and fairy penguins, which are wee tiny *blue* penguins (cute as hell but noisy), are some of the creatures you can find there.
The indigenous New Zealanders -- not of European descent -- are the Maoris. Maori culture is a rich one, with lavish decorative arts and a really impressive military culture and history, and a language I think (from what limited exposure I've had to it) is very beautiful. I seem to remember that the Maori name for the country is "land of the long white cloud," but I can't remember what the Maori word is for the life of me.
Auckland is the biggest city on the North Island, followed by Wellington, and Christchurch is the biggest city on the South Island. The two islands are separated by the Cook Strait. Mt. Cook, on the South Island, is, if memory serves, the tallest mountain in the Southern Alps, the mountain chain that runs down the western side of the South Island.
I think that just about exhausts my ready factual info about New Zealand. To get more I'd have to crack a book, and that wouldn't be strictly fair, now, would it?
Aotearoa is the Maori name of New Zealand. I hope I spelled that right.
Wellington is the capital city.
New Zealand was annexed by the British Empire in the early 19th century -- I want to say sometime in the 1840's -- and did not become a completely independent nation until the 1940's (1947 sounds right to me but I may be hallucinating), despite the fact that New Zealand was pretty much self-contained and self-administering during the time that it was under British political control. Like Canada, however, New Zealand has adopted the Statute of Westminster and is thus part of the Commonwealth.
Gee, I'd add more but my uber-geeky friend Hanne had to get here first (and to be plain, I'd have thought of *maybe* half the things she did...if I'd had a whole lotta coffee and a history book).
Posts: 63425 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I just visited NZ, and I must say you Kiwi's have a beautiful country. I have relatives there and I traveled from Auckland to Invercargill with many stops in between. My favourite Kiwi place name is "Te Whakarewarewa" because people here find it impressive that I can pronounce it. I must say I know more about NZ then about Croatia (almost nothing) but that's partly cause of the relative thing and partly cause I just visited NZ.
I found everyone so friendly there! It was such a good trip and now whenever I think about it I get all bubbly inside. Thanks for bringing back the memories
posted
Darn. Hanne, absolutely brilliantly correct, however I think you cheated and used a book.. hmmm..
We *do* have sexy accents, I have 1/8th Maori blood, and other famous Kiwis include Russell Crowe, Peter Jackson, Anna Paquin, Sir Edmond Hillary and David "The Terminator" Tua..
We also have a female primeminister (Helen Clarke), a rastafarian MP (Nandor Tackzos) and the worlds first transexual MP (Georgina Beyer), and some of the most widepread cannibas use in the world...
That's about it.. and you're all welcome to come visit me in our lovely Nuke-Free capital city
entropie
[This message has been edited by entropie (edited 09-25-2002).]
posted
And New Zealand also has the most sheep per capita of any nation in the world. Posts: 2710 | From: Australia | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I used to compete in the National Geography Bee. I was in the top 100 in California, one of 3 girls. The last time I competed was the day they found Kurt Cobain's body and i was really distraught about it during the ride home. cripes, i'm getting old.
------------------ Maurice! Bring in the albinos! muwahahahahaha!!!
Posts: 12677 | From: Los Angeles, CA ... somewhere off the 10 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
ummm...moving away from the new zealand topic......and replying to the original one... i know EXACTLY how u feel, im from bosnia (near croatia, used to be part of the same country actually) and i have to give a little geography lesson to half the ppl i meet when im explaining where im from.
------------------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everybody's free!!!!....so act like it!
posted
umm...moving away from those topics and onto the original one.....CharmeD, i feel your pain. im from bosnia (next to croatia) and have to practically give a geography lesson to anyone new i meet to explain where im from. it sux, eh?
------------------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everybody's free!!!!....so act like it!
posted
No, actually, I didn't cheat... but I *do* have an extremely good old friend who is a New Zealander by birth (currently living in Canada), who has a Maori dad and a Christchurch anglo mum. Around their dinner table, I was often made to feel quite ignorant for not knowing enough about New Zealand, so I learned. When in Rome, and all that.
The fact that my friend's dad is a history professor didn't hurt. I used to know quite a lot more, even, about the history of New Zealand, including when it was discovered by Europeans, when it was first settled by whites, and all that other stuff. He'd probably be horrified to find out how much I've forgotten...
posted
Re: NZ.....and the most beautiful place in that wonderful, green, nuke free place called Aotearoa is Punakaiki on the South Islands West Coast.
Re: Croatia - A good friend of mine from school has a Croatian mom and a Serbian dad and when the war first started in Yugoslavia back in 92(?) she told me a lot about Croatia (because that's where most of her relatives live) and the ethnic & social conflicts in what used to be Yugoslavia. What I have seen from Croatia is very pretty.....the adriatic coast and the small islands and everything.
------------------ Just a regular lunatic. Go inside Alaska's head....Alaska’s OpenDiary
posted
Hmhmhm......i'm surprised that most of you were right about Croatia! And one more thing: silver_chick: where exactly are you from?!
------------------ *I hate it when you make me laugh, Even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, And the fact you didn't call. But mostly i hate the way i don't hate you. Not even close...not even at all...*
Posts: 31 | From: Far away | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Sorry for morphing the topic Just wait until Lord Of The Rings comes out.. bet tourism's going up after that... Since the Olympics was a dead loss..!
entropie
[This message has been edited by entropie (edited 09-25-2002).]
posted
just by me reading this topic i learned alot....see what the internet does.....it could revolutionize the way we learn and instead of going to school we can go on our computers and browse the internet and find endless information about whatever we want....i'd call the internet free schooling especially sites like this.
------------------ If you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life!
Posts: 86 | From: CA, USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
One caveat about learning online, though -- not all sources (no matter where you go) are reliable, and you shouldn't ever believe everything you read, even from trusted sources. People, even when they mean well, make mistakes, and people, even when they mean well, often put their own personal slant on information.
If anyone cares, I wrote an article for my students (when I was teaching college writing classes) about evaluating online sources. I think it might make useful reading for some of you who use the 'net for school, as well as for your own information-gathering. Here's where to find the article: http://stanley.feldberg.brandeis.edu/~blank/writeweb/admin/rant.htm
posted
Tourists=bad. Maybe when Lord of the Rings comes out you can take them all off our hands.
I can't wait until the movie comes out though- from everything I've read about it, they're being very true to the books, and it looks like it'll be brilliant.
posted
New Zealand...isn't that the place that's about 20 years behind Australia?
Kind of like America and Canada...hehehe
Actually, as far as the Croatian ethnicity thing goes, it seems to me they really screwed up with that 50 odd years ago. A pity so many horrors had to happen because someone messed up something as basic as geography...
------------------ "A woman's body is made up of three parts: her head, her elbows, and some other bits. Now, class...lets move on to algebra."
Posts: 915 | From: Australia | Registered: Aug 2000
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