A note on our destination - we went to a region called the Caucasus, which has nothing to do with presidential primaries. It's the three countries of Georgia (not the state), Armenia and Azerbaijan, all formerly part of the Soviet Union. It's bordered by Turkey and the Black Sea to the west and Iran to the south, and named after the Caucasus mountain range which divides these countries from Russia. We didn't make a complete Caucasus tour, because the visa for Azerbaijan was too difficult and expensive.
The word Caucasus does have something to do with the label for white people. The pale among us check the box for Caucasian on various forms and surveys, but don't really know why. Around the year 1800, German anthropologist Francis Blumenbach divided humanity into five races based on color, skull shape and other really objective (ha!) characteristics. He found the people from the Caucasus to have a very representative skull shape and therefore all people from Eurasia got lumped in with them. There are many loud, angry bells going off in my head, no matter its shape, about this concept. We all know that skull measuring (as a scientific basis for racism) has only gotten mankind into trouble throughout history. Regardless, the people of the Caucasus, who are rather tan and swarthy, are the namesake for all of us whiteys.
The other question - which continent were we traveling to, exactly? Was it Europe? Asia? Eurasia? The Near East? There's no good answer to that question. It all depends where you draw the imaginary line.
So, with imaginary classifications and imaginary lines out of the way, I'll tell you about our journey.
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About Me
- Julia
- Thanks for coming to my blog. It started as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, and now has become an ongoing project. I'm an American living in Germany and trying to travel whenever I can. I write about my experiences as an expatriate (the interesting ones and the embarrassing ones), and about my travels. There are some recurring characters in this blog, particularly my husband Brian and several of our friends. The title comes from the idea that living in a foreign country means making a lot of mistakes. So the things you used to do easily you now have to try over and over again. Hopefully, like me, you can laugh at how idiotic it feels. If you have happened upon my blog, then welcome. Knowing that people are reading what I write makes me keep going. Feel free to write comments or suggestions for future posts.
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