Winter quarter came to a close with my final examinations in Political Geography and Hydrology. The busy period began with a Spanish oral presentation on the economic situation of Columbia in the 1970s and 80s, and how that affected their ability to exercise sovereignty over their territory. My 10-minute presentation analysed the effects of drug cartels such as Cartel Medellin, the largest and most notorious, on the Colombian government’s inability to have influence over its people. This is a topic that has interested me for a long time, I have been reading a book published in the 80s on the economic trials of Columbia in the decades leading up to publication, it talks about economic development and the struggles to thrive in an increasingly globalised world (Jimenez, 1985). My abilities in Spanish now enable me to read books like this and look at the world through the lens of Spanish speaking geographers, economists and policy makers. My presentation and linguistic abilities were acknowledged by being graded an A. On top of this, on the Monday of finals week the other form of assessment, a 2000 word essay on a topic relating to the oral presentation had to be submitted. In this essay on the assimilation of indigenous cultures of the Amazon rainforest due to gold miners in the 1980s, I also managed to attain a high A grade.
My Political Geography final examination which was the first of my rapid succession of finals was rather straight forward, much more simple than the midterm that Professor Agnew set. The study guide fitted the format of the exam, so good preparation of the guide would be enough to get a good grade. As it turned out, the preparation I made managed to get my 96/100, a result I was very pleased with.
As I emphasised through much of this quarter, the most challenging class by far had been hydrology, this was the last exam I sat before spring break. The structure of the exam was similar to the previous two Professor Lettenmaier set, but included all information that we learnt over the duration of the course. Despite the earlier worries I had about being able to succeed in the class, I managed to rank high in the class and finish with a solid B, a result I’m very much pleased with.
Overall I would regard this quarter as another successful period of time for me personally and academically. I feel I have explored more, enjoyed more and thrived more in Los Angeles, something I felt was important for me to do at the end of the first quarter. Looking ahead, I aim to set more personal goals for me to achieve and reflect on once I’m back in the UK. Firstly I’m setting out to complete a half marathon on Huntington Beach in Orange County in May, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and finally feel physically able to do. In addition to this, I want to balance my studies here in the US with those in the UK, focussing more on work that I will be completing for my last year at UCL. In the upcoming quarter I am going to commit a significant portion of time to working on my dissertation and making significant progress to relieve the workload for when I’m back. Hopefully in 10 weeks time, when I write my post on final reflections before returning to the UK, I will have achieved all these goals enabling me to leave the US with good memories, and feeling like I have made the most of my experience developing significantly as an individual.
Up next… Spring Break!
Jimenez, M (1985) Historia Del Desarollo Regional en Colombia, CIDER: Universidad de los Andes.
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