As promised, in the three weeks since my last post I have enjoyed a good balance between studies and my keen desire for more exploration. Firstly I will discuss my midterms that took place last week, which only consisted of two this quarter since my Spanish class is assessed through essays that I complete every three weeks through the quarter. On Tuesday, my midterm for Hydrology proved to be extremely challenging, to the extent that it was possibly one of the hardest most complex structured exams I have ever taken. Since Professor Lettenmaier is a new professor at UCLA, it has been evident he is understandably out of touch with the ways exams are taken here. The exam was structured into five problems, these didn't relate a lot to knowledge acquired in class but resembled the weekly assignments he has been consistently setting. Despite the structure of the exam being unusual per se, it proved a challenging but interesting deviation from the normal structure of exams and vigorously tested the practical skills that the class aims to teach. My issues with this midterm however were not in the structure of the midterm or the skills it tested, most of which I am comfortable in using. These issues were in the units used throughout the exam. Despite in earlier assignments using the metric system I’m accustomed to, the exam professed to use ‘feet’ instead of 'metres' and 'gallons' instead of 'litres', for example river discharge in cubic feet per second, with the answer requiring units in mm/year. Completely baffled by the units I was unable to do the conversions as none were provided alongside the questions. Interestingly, the homework assignments based on data from USGS required metric units, measuring river discharge in 'cumecs' (USGS, 2015), one can only assume that Professor Lettenmaier is more comfortable using these units in his field of expertise. This did provide me with the most unfortunate and clear difference between hydrology in the US and UK. My issues with this exam continued with the second question as it relied on good knowledge of the geography of the US. Three rivers were given, and in order to answer the question I had to know the climates in each of the regions where these rivers were located. Despite being a geographer I unfortunately do not know the geography of the US in that much detail, thus I suffered on this question. Thankfully the consensus from the other students was that they also found the exam challenging overall and it is likely the results are to be curved.
My second midterm, for political geography contained significantly less surprises with the structure and content of the exam fitting the study guide provided the week before. A similar set up to exams I have taken at UCLA thus far with short answers and mini essays to fill up the 75 minute exam time.
The Friday before my midterms the opportunity to hike the coast of Malibu was presented to me by my friends, an offer I couldn't refuse. On this late afternoon hike I watched the sun set over the west coast in the warm heat before going for a swim in the wonderfully clean waters swashing upon the pristine sands. The sight was magnificent and truly made me realise how fortunate I am to have embarked on such an amazing year abroad. It further made me appreciate the great friends I have made thus far in the US, friendships of which I will take with me back to the UK.
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| Figure 1. Sunset in Malibu |
The following day I then travelled to Santa Barbara with three of the same friends. Despite the weather being overcast and rather rainy, it was nice to see a different area of the west coast of California. Santa Barbara is an idyllic small American coastal town. The clouds were very low lying with the peaks of the mountains overlooking Santa Barbara piercing through them (Figure 2). It was also nice to see how this small location had a pocket of English culture, with a few English food stores, pubs and fish and chip shops evoking nostalgic emotions on my visit. Overall, despite being a short stay it was evidently a lovely place that hopefully I can visit again in the near future on a day where the weather is more welcoming!
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| Figure 2. Day in Santa Barbara |
Until next time…
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