What Are "Eastern Orthodox Churches"?

I Don't understand what they are, and every website I looked at are so confusing, I don't understand what they're trying to say.

Like, are they part of Christianity? or are they separate..
And if they are part of Christianity, how come I've never heard of them and I'm a Christian? how come my schools never talked about this until now..
No, it's just.. I'm trying to do a report. And I can't if I don't understand it.

There is nothing about orthodox church that should interest you. They are something like the catholic church based on tradition and icons instead of the bible.

Churches that think the dogma of western churches is wrong.

The reason you've never heard of them is because their orthodoxy is different than your church's. Of course they would try to keep you in the dark be case 1. if you ask questions about another church you might want to join and 2. if you ask question about another church, you might start asking questions about your own church. Just remember that the poison apple was the fruit of knowledge - do not touch knowledge is Christianity's cry.

Those are Churches that broke away from the Catholic Church in 1054. Yes, they are Christian.

The Eastern Orthodox Church can trace their history back to when the Apostles received the Spirit at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Church that grew out of that can be considered the first Orthodox Church congregation. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the Church eventually had differences in the Western part (which had the Bishop of Rome or the Pope as the leader) and the Eastern half around Constantinople. The differences were mostly political and cultural, as well as theological. For instance, the West said the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and Son, while East taught that the Spirit proceeded from the Father only. Also, the West had a Latin liturgy and the East had a Greek liturgy. Eventually, in 1054, a schism between the Eastern and Western halves of the Church developed (mostly for political reason) when the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other. Today, the Orthodox Church is prominent in Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Armenia, the Balkans and the Middle East. No doubt if you live close to one of these communities in North America, you would encounter an Orthodox Church. The doctrines and liturgies are similar to the Catholic Church (which make sense since they were the same church for 1000 years). As to why you never heard of it, probably because Americans don't generally have a world-view.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
http://www.oca.org/OCIndex.asp?SID=2