Nick's Writing Journal

     I have previously discussed my major here (Human Geography and Global Studies) which is of a prime interest to me, as I enjoy all things human and development. But there is another huge aspect of geography that I don't think many people are well aware of. That is GIS- Geographic Information Systems . It's a bit complicated, but one can think of it as the computer programming side of the discipline. Basically, you are able to use software to display data in a spatial form. So instead of presenting a spreadsheet of the number of Ostriches per country, I could make a map where the more Ostriches, the darker the color filling the borders.     I am by no means an expert in GIS. Far from it. There are many students in Geography where this is all they do and they are amazing at it. I, on the other hand, have let it take a bit of a back seat as I study more within my emphasis. But as the pandemic continues, and I am stuck inside with less and less to do (come fall ...

After long consideration I have decided that it is only right for me to discuss my Swiss heritage, given today's date. Many of you may not know it but today is Swiss National Day - essentially Independence Day for Switzerland. I have come to know, through your blog and discussion posts, that many of you have much closer and probably more interesting ties to where you and your families are from. But, being Swiss, even if I was not born there, is still very important to my identity. Even if it is just another way of saying that I'm white. I'm actually half-Swiss, my Mom was born there, but I still get to have dual citizenship. My Mom grew up in Bern, the capital of the country, and almost all of my family lives in the surrounding area as a result. Bern is in what can be thought of as the "Swiss-German" quarter of the country. The other quarters, split along language and neighboring country lines, are French, Italian and Romansch. This means that the German I am lear...