Geopolitical Aspects of State

This class period was my favorite of the semester as I felt as if I were in the United Nations.  It was great to hear and learn so much about different countries and their current events.  There were many countries that I did not know too much about!  Even though I was sick, I still had the chance to represent Colombia and give my input.  Of course, due to the recent attacks in Paris, much of the emphasis went towards France and its handling against terrorism.

Electoral Geography Voting Systems

Today's lecture on Electoral Geography was awesome as we had the experience to continue learning about the different voting systems.  The question about the 2000 election between Gore and Bush was inevitable and I thought that the opinions were very informative to listen to.  Furthermore, even though I don't agree with many of the rules in the electoral voting system, it was great to learn about it.  "One person, one vote" is something that I do support, however.

Electoral Geography

Elections and politics are always very passionate topics to people.  In this case, I found that learning about voting in the United States was very diverse.  In all honesty, I believe that we should feel very proud that we are the first modern democracy in the world.  I don't agree with Traditionalistic Political Culture as I tend to be more liberal.  All in all, this class discussion was an opportunity for those to learn more about voting, and I found it great that I coincided with my original opinions prior to class.

Colonialism

The topic of Colonialism is always very sensitive, especially in a country where we have so much diversity.  For me, this class period grasped my attention as I enjoy listening to different points of views, especially in regards to difficult subjects.  I believe that we cannot judge many countries that took advantage of exploring and colonizing as it is all part of progress.  There is a lot of resentment towards many countries, including the United States, but I do not believe that it is fair to judge as all countries have to think about self-interest.  Back then, laws were different, and colonization led to our progress in the Americas.

Power

I believe that learning about the different food, soccer, moral, movie, medical, and natural resource powers is very awesome!  Many countries are powers in certain areas, such as Panama with its canal, and this gives these countries a sense of pride.  What I found interesting with the oil powers, particularly Venezuela, is that we have many political differences with them, to the point that the government of Venezuela is against the United States, but we still receive the majority of our oil from there and Canada.  Furthermore, discussing Les Miserables was great as I enjoyed listening to the opinions of my fellow classmates.

Asia and Mid-Term Review

Aside from the Mid-Term, I thought that this class was very interesting as I learned a lot of facts about Asia.  For example, I did not know that Singapore had such serious banking rules and that China continued with its strict child policies.  Politically, I believe that China makes many mistakes, however, I would still like to visit to see the good and the bad that everyone mentions.  North Korea's information was useful but I wanted to learn more as we do not have a lot of public information.  Overall, this was an informative class period.

Middle East (part 2) and Europe

As mentioned in the previous post, we spoke about the Middle East during the last lecture.  Today, I was happy to see a bit more pictures of the region, such as Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, and Israel.  This region is very rich in culture, but it's a shame that the constant fighting has not allowed for peace to dominate.  Later on in the class, we began learning about Europe.  I found it interesting how we as Americans follow the same concept of Eurocentrism, which is that our ideals should be applied elsewhere.  To be very honest, I was not intrigued as much to this region as I have already been there, but it was still nice to see many of the pictures of the region.

Middle East

So far, out of all of the class periods, I have to admit that this was my favorite class period.  I am not Muslim nor have I been to the Middle East, but I think that learning about a region where we are currently so politically involved is very important.  The symbolism of starting the class period with a Lady Gaga video was very awesome!  At first, I did not enjoy it as I am not a fan of her music, however, I later understood why this was done as it showed how liberal we are in comparison to the MIddle East.  Did not know that Morocco was the first country to recognize the US as an independent country from England or what was the meaning of a banana republic.  Overall, great class!

Sub-Saharan Africa

This lecture was very informative to me as I do not have too much knowledge on Africa.  In my opinion, I found this lecture to be somewhat sad as I could not help think that many regions in the continent are hopeless.  Poverty is high, diseases spread rapidly, there is violence, deforestation, and exploitation.  Despite these negative notes, I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of Kenya, South Africa, and all the other countries.  I did not know that Lagos had an emerging automobile landscape, and it was great to see some progress in this region.  I would like to travel to Africa to get to know the culture and landscapes.

Latin America

As a proud Colombian, I was especially excited to listen to the lecture on Latin America.  I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to only hear about the Colombian drug trade, as that it a topic that many Colombians are not proud of and we have many natural resources, technology, and a growing economy.  However, I am also realistic and accept that not everything can always be positive.  On another note, I could not help be intrigued to learn about other Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and even smaller countries such as Guyana.  I thought that the communist and social rising explanations about el Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were on point.  Overall, I found this class period to be very informative.

North America

I am particularly interested in North America as I was born in California.  Since I was born in the States, I was especially interested in learning a bit more about my country and region.  I had no idea that the "yankee" name came from lobster, that Queen Liliuokalani handed over Hawaii after her kids were murdered, and that we had a region called the "Empty Interior."  What further grabbed my attention was the information on Canada since I have a very close friend from there.  She usually gets picked on by others for being from there; however, learning more about this country made me appreciate it much more.  All in all, I think that this class period was very informative and enjoyable.

Thinking Spatially

Today's class was very interesting as we spoke about the art of map making.  I had no idea that many of the maps were hand drawn representations of reality, which of course affected their accuracy.  From my understanding, there was great precision, but great error in area.  I thought that the examples used to explain "Place vs. Space" was also very well said, as they related "place" to the Student Union and "space" to the college area by Alafaya Trail.  I really enjoy learning off examples, and the fact that we were able to learn about toponymes, site, situation, etc by example was very helpful.  It was a very good first day of class!