Photograph by Reinier Gerritsen, NGM "Togetherness" New York, New York Commuters kvetch about crowded trains

I’ve learned that on most nights there is a single star in the DC sky, which I suspect is truly a planet. I suppose that’s better than none.

I can feel this city changing me. Surrounded by people exercising their right to free speech, I’ve sensed myself becoming more outspoken and unapologetic about issues that are important to me.  I arrived with preconceived notions and assumptions about what life out here would be like.  I thought that living in DC would be “just ok.” I’ve found that I absolutely love it. I thought that finding a healthy, friendly, straight-forward church would be simple and satisfying. Although I’ve been blessed in that area, the search was a tricky one, and surprisingly terrifying! I thought that museum and theater visits would be endless. What I’ve found is that, for me at least, too much of a good thing is, well, boring. But one of the biggest assumptions that has been challenged here is the way I view cities.

The December issue of NatGeo is really great, full of pull-outs and maps. It may be my favorite issue of the year. All year long, NGM has been exploring issues related to population. The last day in October this year, the world’s population reached 7 billion. NGM is exploring what challenges this astronomical population will cause us as well as potential solutions. A population boom remediation I hear people bringing up again and again is urban living.

In “The City Solution: Why cities are the best cure for our planet’s growing pains” author Robert Kunzig says “if what you value is nature, cities look like concentrated piles of damage” (NGM 12/11 p. 133). If I’m being honest, that’s what my views were when I arrived here. Admitting that is uncomfortable; I feel like some sort of wide-open-space elitist. I worry I’m stepping on “town-mouse” toes. But that’s the truth of it. Before living here, I had mixed feelings about cities. On the one hand, I saw them as glittering, fascinating places with good food and good-shopping, hubs for knowledge, fine arts, and sports; and best of all, airports to take you anywhere but there. A good place to spend the day, but certainly not so much time as a week or more! On the other hand, I thought they were constricted, hazy spaces, with too much concrete and not enough green things or common sense. Like most naive notions, that way of thinking was bratty and unfair.

Being a creature of wide open spaces, I’ve found that living in DC has been more liberating than restricting. Can I lay on the grass or go for a hike whenever I’d like? No. But there’s a nice freedom in living within walking distance of everything I could possibly need. I haven’t driven a car in three months! Anytime I have traveled in any way besides walking, I have shared resources with others to do so (rather than riding in a car solo, for example). I think, ultimately, that’s what is so wonderful about cities. You’re forced to share with others. You share your space, your transportation and your open spaces like parks. You sacrifice silence for the sake of a way of living that is, in the long run, perhaps more efficient. For a growing world that’s the goal, isn’t it? For a farm-girl from the Midwest it’s not that bad after all. I don’t think I would choose to live in a city for the rest of my life. Thankfully, I don’t think I’m called to. But… what I’ve learned is that I could. Like most things I’ve learned here in DC, it’s something I was not expecting to learn. But how fun and liberating it is to say, “I never imagined I would do this, but now I know that I can.”

NG City Links:

Check out National Geographic Traveler’s I Heart My City blog 

The City Solution photo gallery from this month’s NGM issue

Read The City Solution full article

NG Special Report “Twelve Car-Free Cities”

A city on my “To Visit” list: Curitiba, Brazil. It has 16 parks and 14 forest areas, “nearly 560 square feet of green space for every one of it’s 2 million residents —one of the highest rates in the world for cities.” That’s my kind of town! Read the NG profile here.

Curitiba, Brazil. Photograph by Ingolf Pompe 25, Alamy

A fascinating video on just how big a number seven billion is and yet how surprisingly little space we take up.

image courtesy WorldWildlife.org

Last week I heard that NGS headquarters would be hosting a conservation symposium sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. And guess what? It was free to attend! Typically, knowledge forums, symposiums, and conferences like this one are pricey, even for students. But once again, DC continues to woo me, offering the gift of free learning. I attended the majority of the sessions on both days of the symposium.

The world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. WWF’s unique way of working combines global reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature.  -WWF.com “Who we are” 

This year, the WWF is celebrating its 50th birthday. Like any good party, WWF’s closest friends showed up to celebrate. “Hot-shot” speakers included representatives from the following: USAID, National Science Foundation, Forest Trends, NASA, Google, The Earth Policy Institute, the Nature Conservancy, and NGS CEO John Fahey.  I’m admitting that I was a tiny bit star-struck.

At first I was concerned that the symposium would focus on animal conservation, which is valid and good and something I support, but it’s definitely not my area of learning or something I feel the need to pursue in any future career. However, the WWF reminded me that their organization goes beyond simply advocating for endangered species. As an organization, WWF is impressive in that they recognize connections. Wildlife conservation is directly connected to what we eat for dinner each night, the beauty products we choose, the way we get to work in the morning, the way we cast our vote….the connections go on and on. And so, the talks of the symposium were varied. Jonathan Foley from the University of Minnesota spoke on agricultural sustainability, giving the oversimplified formula more food + less harm = sustainable future. He spoke of dwindling water reserves and reminded us that 70% of water withdrawals are for crops. He spoke of the growing middle-class world-wide, and the increased desire for beef. “It turns out the elephant in the room is actually a cow,” he said as he outlined the reasons why beef is one of the least effective food-products on the market (high energy and caloric input to raise a cow, yet low caloric return).

Another speaker, Brett Jenks, president and CEO of Rare, a U.S.-based conservation group spoke on a topic I find increasingly fascinating — human behavior change. What makes us act the way we do, and how can we encourage habit change? Jenks believes that human behavior change is the least understood and most important aspect of conservation. “How do we boost adoption of sustainable habits?” Jenks asked. This is a question I hear over and over again when discussing sustainability in higher education at SIUC and other institutes. To approach this issue, the folks at Rare have developed “pride campaigns” which focus on encouraging communities to see the value in local resources and nature. By sharing knowledge on the conservation target, changing attitudes, removing conservation barriers (which includes a plethora of factors, such as public perception of the problem, political barriers, funding, etc.),  and reducing threats to the conservation effort, Rare sees results.

A third talk I found very interesting, and also quite practical, was given by Jeff Opperman from the Nature Conservancy. Jeff asked the question, “can hydro-power be sustainable?” Hydro-power accounts for 20% of energy worldwide, and meets 7% of the U.S.’s energy needs. “Hydro-power is the largest renewable energy source we have currently,” said Opperman, “yet it’s not really embraced by environmentalists.” Hydro-power, though powerful, often results in displaced persons and animals due to the damming of rives and the creation of artificial lakes. Opperman studies “the strategic deployment of dams,” seeking to construct dams in the most efficient way possible while protecting river ecology.

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A few weeks ago, a subspecies of Black Rhino, the Western Black Rhino, was declared extinct (for an NPR article on the subject, click here).  Black Rhino populations in Africa are critically endangered, and so in an effort to protect the few remaining and to increase their range, WWF has teamed up with wildlife managers in South Africa to airlift these massive creatures to safety. At the symposium, WWF showed the video below.  It’s an image you’d never imagine you could see, a sleeping rhinoceros flying through the air. I think it shows their fragility, otherwise overlooked in their dinosaur-like appearance. I think it also shows the direness of the situation, as these animals are air-evacuated like war refugees.

The world we live in is terribly fascinating, beautiful, and worth taking care of.

Photograph courtesy Green Renaissance WWF

This week I had a similar experience. Web-pages I have been working on for about seven weeks have finally gone “live” on the NatGeoEd.com site!  I’ve been able to view the pages myself for quite some time now, but they have finally passed Quality Assessment and have been made available to the general public. The process of creating them was similar to that of map-making —at least to a novice like me! The process felt alien (I’ve never in my life created any web content), tedious, detailed, technical, analytical, and yes, boring! But now the content within them is available on the World Wide Web, freely accessible to teachers, students, and families. It’s fun to leave my fingerprints on the NatGeoEd.com website

The content within the pages is pulled from various existing activities and media from the Education site, but my job was to pull it together in new pages to make it more easily accessible (and searchable) to educators and families for use in the classroom or home-learning setting. I was guided on the project by my advisers in the Ed. department, and it was certainly a team effort.

Here are a couple examples of the pages:

“Camouflage”  and “Lake Turnover”

education.nationalgeographic.com

Across the nation this week geographers and teachers are promoting the field, college Geography Clubs are hosting bake-sales and trivia nights, and students are learning with National Geographic Education activities and maps. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we at headquarters in the Education Division are STRESSED. Intern Julia is heading up the Blog-A-Thon that is keeping her incredibly busy, as well as a staff-led map mural that is being hung in the cafeteria. Staffers decorated 8.5×11″ maps that are a part of the downloadable “mega-map” series on the education website. All of our map “tiles” will be put together to form a map of the entire world by the end of the week. One of my map tiles is below. I had a portion of Alaska and Russia and I couldn’t help putting Alaska’s most notorious citizen on it, as well as a collage of images from a 2011 NatGeo article on Alaska.

"I can see Russia from my house!"

Today four Congresspeople were awarded by NG Education VP Dr. Danny Edelson for being “Geography Legislators of the Year” on Capitol Hill and children from local schools were able to play and learn with a GIANT floor map of South America. Afterwards, I attended a “Geography Education Briefing” panel discussion moderated by Dr. Edelson and hosted by Senator Chochran in the Dirkson Senate Building. The experience was a true gem of the internship. I want quite desperately to go into more detail of the panel and Geography Awareness Week in general but the frantic nature of the week has my work-day booked. More to come SOON. I promise. Look, here’s a sticky-note reminder on my desk for proof.

I will write a new blog, I will write a new blog, I will...

You’ve got to love a job that allows you to take midday-movie breaks, which is exactly what I did today.

On Tuesdays at noon short films are showed in the Grosvenor Auditorium here at NGS for staff and any DC folk who happen to wander in. Today was an hour long film called “Soccer City,” filmed in Alexandra, a township in South Africa’s capital city of Johannesburg. A town-ship is, largely, a slum, although it functions differently than you may think. There are functioning streets in townships (as well as unnamed alleys), electricity, public water pumps, development groups, grocery stores, produce stands, etc. Sewage systems and waste receptacles are varied or nonexistent. Alexandra, nick-named Alex, has a 75% unemployment rate, although many citizens are self-employed by “hawking” items or selling wood, clothing, and food. Like another township in Johannesburg, Soweto (SOuth WEst TOwnship), Alex historically has a reputation for crime and restlessness, driven by hunger and unemployment. This is what is known of Alex, what serves as a common warning to those living or traveling outside of the township. This is how it is perceived. Through this documentary however, filmmaker Nick Fitzhugh seeks to show another, wholly accurate side of Alex, which is a football loving core.

My dad gave me a good piece of advice once (not just once, one of many), to keep track of with whom and where I’ve played soccer over the years. I’ve loved soccer since I was in middle-school, and although I’m barely decent at best, I try not to turn down an opportunity to play. Pick-up games are my favorite; those unofficial matches that take place with two, three, seven on a team, using trees or sweatshirts on the ground to symbolize goals. Geographically, soccer seems as universal as the love for a good meal. Unfortunately here in the U.S. it’s hard to grasp that. As the National Geographic Television staffer who intro’d the film said, “Picture The Superbowl and The World Series combined…the World Cup is bigger than that.” It’s the world’s cheapest sport as well, making it accessible nearly everywhere. Only one piece of equipment is needed, and even that can be fabricated by a home-made “ball” of wrapped up plastic bags (I’ve seen it done). Through traveling around I’ve jumped into casual pick-up games all over the place with young people from all different kinds of backgrounds and nationalities, once even with some children on a street in Alex, South Africa. I once had the privilege to play on a rec. league with a team of international students from Saudi Arabia. I’m ashamed to admit I was nervous about being on their team.  In the beginning it’s hard to say what was more intimidating to me, our cultural differences or how great of players they were. I was the first female to join and I was hesitant about being the only girl. What’s more, men and women do not play together in Saudi Arabia. Female sports are a fairly new phenomena there, and are never played in the presence of males. I was relieved and humbled to learn that the guys on that team not only welcomed my presence, they encouraged it, setting up goals for me, being painfully patient with my fumbles, and coaching me gently. The lesson learned was a valuable one, and the experience was more than just about sports or a game, it became a cultural interaction, as soccer so often does.

The culture of youth in Alex is soccer. More than that, it’s a way of life. It’s an escape from the day-to-day stresses of living in poverty, from drugs, from crime, and for a select few, it can mean an “escape” from the township or even the country its self. Youth play all day everyday in Alex. In the street, in parking lots, on a dirt or grass pitch. There are official and unofficial teams. There is a male and female league. The guys there play “unofficial”, and the cramped quarters and at times uneven or rocky terrain forces you to focus on ball control; dribbling, short passes, defense, quick footwork. Things that suburban players playing on a grass-pitch know less of. Several Alex youth have gone on to play semi-professionally or professionally for the South African national team [this is a big deal. Think of a youth in the poorest community in the U.S. going on to play in the NFL or NBA. In South Africa, the jump is even larger]. In fact, one national player in the documentary goes back to Alex from time to time, “which he probably shouldn’t do,” explains his coach, simply to challenge himself and stay on form because the guys who play there are that good. Can you imagine a pro basketball player going back to the Bronx to shoot some hoops simply to challenge himself by the guys playing there?

The documentary was excellent. It was unpolished, dark at times, a bit raw; just like Alex. I spent the day in Alex a couple years ago so it was neat to see the township represented as a whole. By telling the story of youth playing in Alex as well as former professionals, the director did a great job of showing what soccer means not only to Alex, but to South Africa as a country, and even to the world.  He reminds us how monumental it was for an African nation to host the 2010 World Cup (which took place during filming), especially a country like South Africa, which continues to emerge from it’s socially and politically tumultuous past as a symbol of hope and leadership for the continent. If you’re interested in seeing the movie, check out the website for the film, find the film on iTunes, or catch it on ESPN Classic.

Nancy from "Soccer City." Photo by Pete Muller, courtesy soccer-city.tv. Click photo for original source.

On the 6th I had my first 12 hour work day here. Early in the morning I met some other interns at NGS headquarters to handout brochures for the NG Live! events to local metro stops. The weather and the commuters were both cold and dreary. Early-morning DC is a busy, bustling place and commuters don’t want anything between them and their destination. Except, perhaps, a Starbucks or Caribou Coffee. So we weren’t exactly greeted with smiles or praise. But, that’s life, and I think it was good for us to experience some “grunt work” in an otherwise easy-going internship.

That evening found me with another first, attending and helping at my first NG Live! event. These events include talks, movies, concerts, exhibits, tastings, etc. to bring snippets of international culture to DC and to promote the work and adventure of NG Explorers. Last Thursday was a concert by a tradtional Italian group from the “boot-heel” of Italy. The performers were fantastic, using bagpipes, a recorder, clarinet, guitars, violin, symbols, even a bag of rocks they tossed about to make lovely music. For two hours I was in a crowded Italian street, witnessing street musicians play and dance.

Hanging out on the National Mall

I received my first DC visitor! My boyfriend Steven spent his long fall break here the 7th-11th. What a treat. To say he is a history “buff” would be a severe misnomer. Steven (who had never been to DC)  arrived with a knowledge of the region I hadn’t managed to acquire in my first seven weeks here, and led the way on a whirl-wind tour of some of the best history lessons the city has to offer. We visited Ford’s Theatre and Peterson House, The National Archives (ok, I admit that I didn’t want to go. I thought it would be a drag. Not at all! We saw the Declaration of Independence, original Bill of Rights, and other “national treasures”), The Holocaust Museum,  Arlington National Cemetery, The Newseum, and other sites. Photos to come.

I was also knocked out by my first cold of the season. I think a combination of a long weekend  site-seeing and using public transportation everyday wore me out and made me vulnerable to the hazards of urban living. It lasted a week and put me behind in work but I’m back to 98% and ready to take on NGS again!

Also in the last two weeks I’ve been glued to the St. Louis Cardinals Division Title race. Last night the Cinderella-story, wild-card team came through! So now for the first time in my life, I will have the experience of being the minority sports fan. I’ve never been one to be terribly homesick,  but with the Cardinals on a wild run, harvest time back home, and Saluki Homecoming (my last one, as a senior) I felt a bit of an ache for the Midwest this weekend. Which brings up the concept of “the geography of place.” Isn’t it interesting how different regions have different personalities and offer different experiences? Something I’m musing this Monday…

This weekend I did something I haven’t done in years. I read a book cover to cover in the span of two days. Late Friday afternoon I went into Barnes and Noble looking for one specific book. I exited with that one book, as well as two additional novels, a handful of greeting cards, and coffee. But isn’t that how it always goes? By Sunday evening, I had finished one of my purchases Water for Elephants, and was left with that post-reading feeling of “now what?” and reminded of the best thing about libraries – they’re free. Not that it wasn’t a great novel. It’s just the span between buying it and finishing it was so short, I felt a bit slighted.

I have read (somewhat ironically) in my Washington DC guides, that DC has the highest number of readers per capita. And in 2010, DC was ranked the most literate city in the U.S. The study, according to a January 2011 article by USA Today, “look[ed] at measures for six items — newspapers, bookstores, magazines, education, libraries and the Internet — to determine what resources are available in each city and the extent to which its inhabitants take advantage of them.”

Judging by my observances on city buses and lunchtime cafes, Washingtonians are definitely taking advantage of those source.

Each morning and afternoon on my work commute I see Washingtonians reading newspapers, magazines, books, Kindles, articles on their Smartphones, anything and everything from the Washington Post to the Onion, to academic papers or novels (although, I have yet to see a commuter reading a NatGeo publication..tsk tsk). It certainly looks as though everyone is reading. I’m curious about “the geography of habits” as well as the personality of this city, and so I did some investigating to see why this may be. What makes this city a city of readers?

Well, I have a hypothesis. This city is full of informed decision makers, so it makes sense that they would be continually reading and gaining information, right? Well that could be part of it. But according to the USA Today article, Washington’s gain may be due to other cities’ losses. For example, recently Seattle newspapers– home of the former “most literate” title– have been failing as consumers are opting for free online articles rather than purchased print. New Orleans, also a city of readers, has experienced population loss in recent years, attributed to Hurricane Katrina and resulting in skewed demographic statistics.  Contrasting USA Today’s findings, in May of this year Amazon.com released their own literacy list, ranking DC as the 14th “Most Well-Read City in America.” DC suburbs Alexandria and Arlington ranked 2nd and 10th, respectively. Amazon’s results were based on “data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.” As with all polls and national rankings, I think it’s fairly impossible to calculate how accurately these lists represent the average citizen.

At any rate, I continue to read as those around me do. I’ve always been a reader, but delving into “science world” as I call it has led to headier, dryer class and research material, so I haven’t had as much time for the “fun stuff” during my college career. A perk to working instead of attending class is that you don’t have to take your work home with you, and so I have time for reading again. Because I love lists, here’s one of my own.

What I’m currently working on: (yes, I read more than one book at a time.)

Best American Science and Nature Writing 2010- Ed. Freeman Dyson. It’s a collection of the best nature and science essays of the year. I’ve been working on this one for exactly a year now. Because the articles are short, it’s a good book to pick up and put down in your spare time. The articles range from those published in National Geographic to GQ to The New York Times. It’s a great way for me to learn about science in current events, in topics that I might not otherwise be keen to reading about. A great series.

The Celebration of Discipline -Richard Foster. I’m trying to become more disciplined. Aren’t we all? I’m starting it this week.

The Nature of College - Jim Farrell. Another book I pick up and put down a chapter at a time. The book’s byline is “How an understanding of campus life can change the world” and discusses how we can seek sustainability and simplicity in our day-to-day life. Great concept, easy to read book, I recommend this to students and educators especially.

Systematic Theology – Wayne Grudem. It’s heady so I only read a chapter about every other week. It’s one of those you never quite finish, and is always on the shelf to reference. Like a cookbook

And finally, the book of Isaiah.

Next up: The Poisonwood Bible — Barbara Kingsolver, definitely one of my favorite living authors. Also on my radar, The Kaplan GRE Study Book…maybe… possibly… ok probably not.

Truthfully, I was tempted to title this entry Kittens, Inspired By Kittens (remember that ridiculous video that went viral a couple years ago?). But I refrained.

This week NatGeo headquarters hosted a Big Cats Educators Conference for about 50 teachers, curriculum builders and educators from across the US. I helped with various tasks from informational binder stuffing to breakout session coordination.

Gosh, I love teachers. Really. I love everything about them. I love the way they talk (I call it teacher lingo), I love their selflessness, I love how intelligent they are, I love how they balance passion with practicality. Because of all of this, I was excited to get to hang out with some especially great ones this week. The purpose of the conference was to  link NatGeo with these educators and promote one of National Geographic’s largest initiatives, The Big Cat Initiative.  The initiative serves as a way to promote the work of the research grantees and photographers who study big cats, promote the fragility of big cats populations world wide, and to give educators practical tools to incorporate big cat conservation lessons in their curriculum….wait for it…while still meeting state and national test standards. It’s a good deal for everyone involved.

I learned so much this week. I learned that unfortunately, because teachers are pressured to meet test standards and classroom goals, they usually don’t have the liberty to narrow in on specific subjects like this, even if it’s a topic area that needs to be covered. I learned that there are more tigers in captivity in North America than exist in the wild. I learned that female cougars (mountain lions) cover animal carcasses with snow because they like fresh meat, and that they require foreplay to release an egg (which begs the question, does romance exist in the wild?). I learned that, tragically, African Lions, those animals children idolize and hunters covet, could very well be extinct in the wild by 2020. That’s nearly eight years away. Will my children only know of lions from pictures, an antique Lion King DVD, and bedtime stories their mother tells them from a summer spent in South Africa? Am I the only one who thinks this is terrifying? Will African ecosystems collapse with the lack of predation keeping herbivore levels down? The what ifs are endless.

Some highlights of the 2.5 day conference included getting to hear a lecture by National Geographic Magazine Editor in Chief Chris Johns (can we just soak this in?), listening in to the teacher break-out sessions and hearing the blessings and curses of their districts, and getting to chat with teachers one on one at the conference reception.

To hear more, or to get involved, visit the NatGeo Education site, or check out the neato activities on the master site. This fall kids can trick-or-treat for big cats to raise money and awareness. Do you have a little cat at home? Upload its picture to NatGeo and donate $5 to the cause. Another interesting thing I learned is that the palm oil industry is contributing to deforestation and Asian Big Cat habitat loss more than anything else. So check out the ingredient list in your food and beauty products and choose products that don’t contain palm oil. More info on palm-oil can be found here.  It’s a small step to take, and it allows you to vote with your dollar.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”

Earlier in the week some of the interns sat down and had lunch with Danny Edelson, the VP of NGEP (the experience was much more casual than it may sound).

We had lots of questions for Danny and in turn, he had a plethora of questions for us. Danny wanted to know how we got here. Not at National Geographic, but into what he calls the “minority of geographic thinkers.” He wanted to hear our stories.

As we shared our experiences with choosing geography as a major, most of us lean back in our chairs and look off into our memories, trying to recall what is was, exactly that brought us from there to here. For most of us, the decision wasn’t made that long ago, but the events that preceded it are detailed and many, and began when we were young. We all came by various routes to the same explanations. “It just happened,” and, “it just made sense.” We come from rural backgrounds, families of map readers, are children of adventurous parents, and were lucky to travel well as young people. We were fascinated by open space and travel, the environment, and culture. When we learned that this discipline called geography existed and that it caused you to think critically about all of those interests, it just seemed like the natural next step in the learning adventure. Decision making is tough, and worrisome. But as we reminisced to four, five, and six years ago, I think we were comforted by the realization that we had made the right choice. Even better, it brought us to an organization we admire,  one which holds unparalleled standards. What began as adventurous kids thumbing through a magazine and pouring over maps has resulted in a snapshot of life within NGS. For many of us, this internship serves as a way to “live the life we’ve imagined.”

We’re excited to see where “geographical thinking” takes us next.