Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Europe!

Okay. I'm not an expert on Europe,to be honest, mostly just Ireland for me. But ask me a question about Ireland-- I'll answer it. Mythology, the Vikings, their history, religion... sure, I know it. My parents are both medievalists, and my mom specializes in Ireland. Plus, they teach about this as well.

But is anyone else a Europe geek/is European? For me, this is most definitely so... my family comes from all over, but I think it's mostly German and Italian (my last name is Italian, in fact, although my first name is Irish [I think]). I'm trying to learn Irish from a book and failing miserably, most likely, although my mom is fluent so maybe I can ask her to help. 

Also, you may be thinking, "Hey, this looks a lot like Air's thread!" Yep, it does. I felt a little awkward in that thread because really, I know very little about Asia in general. But I know so much more about Europe (particularly Ireland and Greece) and I've always wanted to talk about it, so now I will.

I'm going to kick-start some discussions with two things:
1) A kid in my class is really proud of his German heritage. But the problem is, he's got blond hair and blue eyes, so at one point kids were teasing him about being a Nazi, which really ticked me off. I'm pretty much exactly the same, as well, so it got me slightly worried.

2) We've been learning about Greece in Social Studies and it's been ticking me off, because the people who write the textbooks and make the videos obviously don't know what they're talking about. I have not heard the fact that Poseidon is the god of earthquakes mentioned even once! And, I mean, "Apollo was the god of the sun and music." Particularly the lyre. And poetry. And youth. And a million other things you've decided no one needs to know while simultaniously ruining Greek culture for a bunch of unknowing kids.

So... let's talk!