Americans remain uneducated in political, retail geography

Cultural or educational critiques of America often cite studies which describe how, for example, only 17% of Americans can find Afghanistan on a world map. The average geographic literacy in this country is quite poor, but a new study points to a more pressing issue: Americans cannot even understand and properly use a mall map. I think the consequences of this problem are clear: if Americans cannot properly access retail outlets and spend money they probably don’t have, how can we expect to grow our economy?

It’s time to reintroduce geography and geographic thinking as a core curriculum in our education systems. Obviously.

Chersonese - as in San Francisco, Seattle, or Iberia

A very interesting word. Essentially, it means peninsular - a strip of land surrounded by water on three sides, or with a small isthmus to the mainland.

Naming the American (Amerigon?) Continents

First of all, sorry for the long delay in writings - thanksgiving and now finals are to blame.

But, the world, and the cartographic history of our world keeps on changing. Most people know that both Amuerican continents are named after Amerigo Vespucci. Most people think he named the continents afte himself. Alas, Vepucci wasn’t that vain. Anyway, check out the above link for a very famous and important map of the Americas. Good stuff

Study Abroad

When I was 18, I moved to Spain and attended the public Universitat de Barcelona. A private company facilitated many of the basics, but it was pretty much all me the rest of the way. Today, I saw this article exploring the standardization and increased popularity of study abroad programs for American undergraduate students. Still today, as a Senior at the University of Washington, it is impressive how much the University pushes students to undertake foreign study, or for that matter, domestic study (state tuition compacts, study exchange). But is it really study abroad to pay your normal school tuition or more, live in american managed islands/sanctuaries in a foreign place, and attend classes in english?

Honestly, I didn’t work that hard at school during my year abroad - apparently some do, some don’t. I thought it funny that on the second page of the nyt article, they mentioned half the students failing in a spanish university. All that aside, I’d just like to say that no matter, do as much as you can when you’re abroad. Get away from what you know and relax with all that newness.

Cuba sets a good example

40 years on, and Cuba is willing to forgive and forget the murder of one of their greatest revolutionary leaders, Che Guevara. This, in contrast to the US gov’t harboring releasing Luis Posada Carriles, a known Cuban terrorist *but he didn’t kill amuricans!*

Does the USA see any irony here?

By the way, I’m back from my vacation in South Africa, which was good, and is a country strangely linked to Cuba, through Angola.

Away on Vacation

For the next three weeks, I’ll be on the other side of the world - South Africa, specifically. Spring will be approaching, lions will be roaring, and I will likely have limited access to the ninernet. I mean internet.

So hold onto your suspenders and wait for updates. Many photos will be posted upon my return.