you call she care it's a Korean rice
punch it's one of my favorite drinks
hagiography
so let's do one more episode of
geography more before the year is over
all right shall we so for those of you
new to this channel geography Moore's
basically when we cover the little extra
information that didn't quite make it
into the country episodes now we cover
Belarus Belgium and Belize so for this
episode I actually ask some of you guys
the geography from Belarus Belgium and
Belize to help out so let's jump back to
Eastern Europe and see what Belarus has
up its sleeve so one thing I didn't
really expand too much upon in the
Belarus episode was really explaining
the distinctions between Belarusians and
Russians it's kind of sad because a lot
of Belarusians don't even know how to
speak the Belarusian language since
they're just immersed in Russian since
childhood
now of course Belarusian is a Slavic
language similar to Russian however
there are some word differences here and
there for example in Russian if you want
to say my name is Bob you would say mini
as a vote Bob but in Belarusian you
would say nanny a tweet shoots Bob in
Russian thank you is spasiba
but in Belarusian it's Zack cui in
Russian please especial stop button
Belarusian it's Kelly Baska
in the video I talked a little bit about
Lukashenko which by the way he calls
himself vodka which means daddy
but I didn't really talk too much about
the underlying political scene apart
from his rule whenever there's a protest
in Belarus the protesters typically used
this flag the white red white flag kind
of like an inverted version of the
Austrian flag it was on and off the flag
of Belarus before the standard brush NIC
pad and flag waving this flag in public
can get you in trouble
Belarus also has a lot of unions which
are kind of strange because they're kind
of like Orthodox churches but they
recognize the Pope in Rome Belarus has
gone through a lot of turmoil I mean
Minsk city was kind of destroyed and
burned down like 18 times world war ii
killed off like a quarter of their
population those radioactive crop fields
in the south put a burden on them
economically by the way almost every
city in Belarus has a street named after
Lenin now belarusian cuisine might look
similar to Russian however if you look
close they do have their own distinct
style and process that sets them apart
ever so slightly
first off they love potatoes in fact
they want so much they have like 300
different recipes for potatoes second
traditionally yeast wasn't used in bread
and Belarus they use their own special
type of leaven which is white Belarusian
bread is typically heavier and sour than
other breads some cool Belarusian dishes
include better Pecha which is pancakes
made of peas cachito braised hams
alayalam in
and smoked meats are everywhere Minsk
library probably the most iconic
building in Belarus is huge it's 22
stories tall and has eight and a half
million books by the way they just
changed their currency to the new
Belarusian ruble which looks like this
getting into Belarus is a little bit
easier now since the EU lifted a few
sanctions in 2015 when they said the
presidential election was more
transparent than the other ones this
means trade has boosted too however
sometimes Belarusians will take EU
products and then resell it to the
Russians under the name of Belarusian
product so then suddenly you have things
like Belarusian shrimp
even though Belarus has no access to the
sea finally Belarus has quite a few
heritage sites such at the residential
and cultural complex of the rods II will
fam to come beyond its tower Saint
Nicholas monastery the Brest hit Brest
fortress and the palace and park of
gamma overall Bella Rose is Slavic but
not Russian all right moving on so the
Belgium episode was incredibly complex
and convoluted with a boatload of
political structure info and a lot of
the information that I gave is either
out-of-date or it was just kind of wrong
first of all I mentioned the bhv or the
Wilson I've Eve old totally butchered
that it's really hard to explain but it
wasn't a French administrative area but
rather a boating district where people
in Brussels could vote for
french-speaking candidates which was
deemed unconstitutional and disbanded in
2012 in the video I said Belgium was
generally flat and it is for the most
part but when you go to the South you
hit the ardent knees which are kind of
like hilly I mean we're not talking the
Alps but it is kind of noticeably you
know not flat it's illy highest point
being signal tones which is technically
694 meters tall but then they added a
six metre tall tower on the top to make
it an even 700 the police in Brussels
are federal not regional so I got that
wrong although seriously who would even
take the time to even care about a small
fact like that the Congo was actually a
personal property of King Leopold ii and
it wasn't until later when the Belgian
government kind of put pressure on him
to relinquish his claim and then give it
to the state and overall Belgium isn't
as new as I may have portrayed it in the
video I mean yes the royal family and
the modern generalised construct of
Belgium is kind of new but I mean
Flemish and while Union people have had
distinct cultures and they've been
existing for millennia prior to this
even happening but now some new info I
can't believe I missed this piece of
information because it's so cool and
thank you to geography Ilias for telling
me about this but right along the
try point border with Germany and the
Netherlands lies this little guy neutral
Moors net shaped like a triangle this
place was like a semi quasi micronation
that lasted for like a century the
capital was Kalmus and they have their
own legislative system you can still see
marker stones today on the land area
that it claimed and the coolest thing is
that it was the first community in the
world that tried to introduced Esperanto
as the official language for those who
don't know Esperanto is the world's most
commonly spoken constructed language
made by this guy in the late 19th
century in an attempt to create an easy
to learn language that could be used
universally across the world also fun
side note in 2018 Belgium and the
Netherlands will swap some land due to
the fact that their border lies on the
Neuse River which keeps changing its
direction some cool belgian inventions
include the body mass index scale
mainstream commercialized plastic the
saxophone the JPEG image conversion to
belgian priests were credited to
inventing neoprene synthetic rubber and
discovering the big bang some Belgian
American inventors include Professor J
De Smet who invented asphalt in Corel
van de poele who invented the electric
tramway Waterloo the battle that pretty
much crushed Napoleon was in Belgium
some notable Belgians include Audrey
Hepburn jean-claude Van Damme loved that
guy artist Yan Vanek peter paul rubens
and rene magritte loved that guy too
fashion designers Liz Clairborne
composer and singer Jacques well not
French and writer George Simmons
language wise the French spoken in wal
dunya is different from the French
spoken in France and of course Flemish
is a little different from Dutch the
biggest difference for the French in
Belgium is the counting system if you're
learning French you guys will know how
difficult it can get when you go past
sixty seventy becomes Wasel D 80 becomes
cut down and ninety becomes Kat Von D in
Wallonia they just abbreviate it to cept
on and no not although they still use
cat vault for 80 fun little side note in
Switzerland they use octal to 480 which
I personally believe makes things so
much easier now for Flemish the Dutch
kind of think that Flemish sounds a
little too old-fashioned and the Flemish
think that the Dutch sounds too rude the
G is hit a lot harder in Dutch so you
would say something like Gouda more in
Belgium you would say who tomorrow also
in Belgium the W reverts from a V sound
back to a W sound so in the Netherlands
you would say something like have L dick
but in Belgium you would say something
like how well they're all so Flemish has
a little bit of a French influence in it
you can kind of hear it for example in
words like jam and then
ruins jam is just jam but in Flemish
it's comfy tulle derives from the French
word comfy - which means Jam nonetheless
they all understand each other they both
poking fun at each other anyway moving
on now looking back the believes episode
there's a lot of cool info wasn't there
remember the black Mennonites however
there are a few things that I missed out
that I kind of want to elaborate a
little further first of all of course
English is the official language however
most people speak English Spanish and
belizean Creole which is not too hard to
pick up for most English speakers you
can probably guess what good man and and
mean name de means but then you get some
heavy thick words like weight broke down
bridge born
dinosaur died nearly soul as mentioned
in the video the Mayan language is
spoken especially in the south where
they have about thirty my indulges in
the Toledo district right by Punta Gorda
or the point of the fat one these
villages are kind of hard to get to I
mean the whole country only has like
four main highways and the villages
still have fats roof houses and women
that cook fresh corn tortillas on a hot
plate just like their ancestors did it's
a little touristy but they even offer
home stays where you can experience
Mayan life the Toledo district is also
known as the Forgotten land as it is the
most untouched heavily forested area
many parts of the forest haven't even
been explored yet home to many cat
species like Jaguar hoondi Pumas Ocelot
and margays now of course as mentioned
in the video doing business in Belize is
very easy but also so is real estate
this why Belize is one of the top
retirement destinations in the world
especially for Americans and Brits
orchid bay and northern Belize is known
for being a retirement haven most real
estate agents aren't even licensed they
just sell houses because the industry is
booming houses are cheap and relatively
safe quiet calm neighborhoods and nice
beautiful tropical areas the exchange
rate is always fixed at a two to one
ratio for the American dollar I mean you
may have to deal with the occasional
hurricane here and there but otherwise
life is easy and it's good fun little
side note you can get close to nurse
sharks and stingrays at shark reali
and you can witness whale sharks at
plastun ec there were 500 different
species of birds found in the forest
like the jabiru stork which is the
largest one in all of North America as
well as 500 different species of orchids
Belize is also home to a few mythical
legendary characters like el seesi Mito
or the Belizean version of Sasquatch or
Bigfoot this guy has no knees his feet
are on backwards and he eats people
there's also a Duende a 1 meter tall
evil dwarf with no thumbs and punishes
kids who kills animals in the forest I
didn't really talk too much about the
English influence
on Belize I mean the Spanish did try to
kind of take over but they didn't really
hold on to it very well as Belize was
kind of seen as like the back regions
and then the English pirates came in
that just kind of made things even worse
for the Spanish it wasn't until the 18th
century that the English came in and
officially annexed the area for
themselves calling it British Honduras
you can still kind of see the English
influence a little bit in the country
though like an architecture with houses
that have open gable roofs and railed
balconies or in cuisine they love meat
pies and the typical English breakfast
is not hard to find nonetheless most
food is influenced by Caribbean and
Latin American cuisine beans and rice
with coconut milk fried Jack's Lobster
and plain Taine's are never in short
supply
if you come to bellies though try to
find the local delicacy get nut or the
most prized game animal kitna is a
jungle rodent also known as the royal
rat because it was once served to Queen
Elizabeth Spring of which there are
virtually no fast-food chains in Belize
no McDonald's Burger King Starbucks KFC
none of that thumb locking is a somewhat
common greeting in Belize and finally
every island off the coast whether
inhabited or not has a government
appointed official Watchmen that stays
at a post depending on your views and
solidarity it could be probably the most
fun or boring job in the world so there
you go Belarus Belgium and Belize three
wonderfully unique countries that we
haven't even scratched the surface on
I'm sure there's a lot of information I
missed out even in this video so if you
know something about these three
countries that I didn't mention feel
free to write it in the comments and
teach everybody that's what we're all
about here on geography now okay we
teach each other so write something down
if you know something that I didn't
mention now if you'll excuse me I have
some country episodes that I got to work
on so until then i'll see you in 2017
stay cool