#1: Monday, January 1, 2024

 I have made this blog for a few reasons:

1) To document my upcoming semester-long study abroad trip to Santiago, Chile, my last full time semester as an undergraduate student.

2) To gather my thoughts as I continue my study in environmental history.

3) To exercise my writing muscles in a variety of ways.

I am not certain what the length and regularity of these posts will be--when I get settled in Santiago (trip beginning the 10th) I will get a better idea of what is feasible/desirable to do. For now I'll just say that they would ideally be somewhat regular, perhaps once a week, and preferably at least five hundred words or so.

So, what is going on right now? Well, it is a new year. I am moving stuff out of my room, and getting close to being essentially ready to go. I am deciding which books I can bring and which I must leave at home. This is proving difficult. Beyond that, I am doing some information gathering about Santiago. I will confess that I am nervous as my Spanish has not progressed beyond my (even then limited) high school abilities. I try and remind myself of the long game here, and that it is ok to struggle to communicate as long as you are trying your best. I feel that once I secure a metro card, get to my housing, and find a grocery store, my nervousness will dissipate. 

As far as my study in history goes, I am at an interesting time. I just finished my undergraduate thesis, which was about Iowa City's 2008 flood, and about a century of events leading up and through the event--floodplain development, flood control measures, land use change...then the flood itself and responses to it, which were infrastructural, cultural, and procedural. All centered around a particular relationship between the river and the city growing around (and through) it, and how this relationship changed through one hundred years of flooding.

Having "completed" this work, I now have the opportunity to assess what I am doing more broadly, and explore further different geographical areas, time periods, methods and methodologies. A naturally following progression might suggest I begin to focus on the Midwest as an integrated region of study, or something along those lines. Maybe the history of rivers, incorporating industrialized agriculture, something about waste, or a broader history of disasters (My thesis advisor, Dr. Robert Rouphail studies tropical cyclones in his work on Mauritius. A faculty member once told me jovially that he is the university's "master of disaster".)  Or, I could study Latin American history. Or some integration of the Americas as a coherent geographical area of study? Not sure...but I have some time to figure it all out.

I also want to improve my writing in addition to these things mentioned above. I had a fairly excruciating time at many points during my thesis writing. I understand that the difficulties, mistakes, imperfections, and deep sense of self loathing seem to be a natural result of this process, but I nonetheless feel that if I improve my ability to express myself, the process may go smoother (famous last words, I know.) I might also try less academic and more, I don't know, expressive writing. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. See you next week.