This region of central Asia remains undiscovered for an alarming number of people that I've met. As someone who was born in Kazakhstan, at first I was discouraged by the fact that I had to explain my ethnicity to everyone. Now, my reaction to someone saying they've never heard of my birth country is -- "Yeah, I'm used to it." I have learned to start my introductions with "I'm from a post-soviet country in Central Asia." So here I am with a list of things that will hopefully help prevent giving history lessons in the future.

1. It's the 9th biggest country in the world.

I'm still shocked that this huge chunk of land is unknown to so many people.

2. It's the largest landlocked country in the world.

Seriously, it's huge.

3. A large percentage of those who live in Kazakhstan are bilingual because of two official languages -- Russian and Kazakh.

4. Ethnic Kazakhs only make up about 60 percent of the population. The country serves as a home to people of Russian, Ukranian, Uzbek, and Korean descent, etc.

5. Alcoholic milk is a national drink, called Kumis.

6. Horse meat is a must at the dinner table.

7. The Republic of Kazakhstan is only 25 years old.

8. And it's only had one president.

9. Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in Kazakhstan. It's the world's first and largest space launch facility.

10. Apples presumably originated in Kazakhstan.

11. Islam is the most widely practiced religion.