Population Pyraminds

I chose to compare the population pyramid between Zambia, which is an LDC, and Italy, which is an MDC. There are a lot of factors that contribute to why these two graphs are so different. Since Italy is already developed, they are just not having as many kids. Their Total Fertility Rate is just 1.3 children per woman. That is not even enough children to replace the mother and father after they die. That is why they are worried about their population is diminishing. They have a large population of middle aged people. But those middle age people are not having as many children. In the past, when they were still developing, their pyramid would have looked a lot like Zambia's. They big section in the middle would have been at the bottom, and it would have gotten smaller from there on up. That is where Zambia is right now. They have very few in the age range above the age of 55. From then on down, the pyramid increases greatly. Since the country is still developing, they are having many children. This is for many reasons. Some of those include that the Total Fertility Rate in Zambia is 5.23 children born per woman. That is a very high number. To go along with that, the life expectancy is about 38 years old. So there are a lot of babies being born, and people are not living to be that old at all. Another reason is because of all of the disease that is in Zambia. They have food or water borne illnesses, malaria, plague, water contacts diseases, and rabies from wild animals. All these things cause teenagers and young adults to die because they do not have proper medical equipment. AIDS is another big factor in Zambia. 16.5% of adults have AIDS in Zambia. Each year about 89,000 people die from HIV and AIDS. The population growth rate of Zambia is 1.654% in 2008. Until Zambia become an MDC, these trends will continue to be like this.

Lake of the Ozarks

My favorite place to travel in North America is the Lake of the Ozarks. My grandpa owns a condo down there so we go as much as we can each summer. I love the lake. It is so much fun to just go out and spend the day on the boat. We usually have a day when we take a really long boat ride and pack a lunch. We find a nice quiet cove and anchor our boat down and have lunch and then swim in the lake a little bit to cool down. Lake of the Ozarks is about the only place where I actually find time to do some reading for fun. It is so relaxing down there that I can finish two or three books in a week. I also LOVE tubing behind the boat! My little sister and I are the queens of tubing. We would do it all day if we could! The Lake of the Ozarks area also has a lot of really fun restaurants. There is a huge variety and it is always fun to try new places! I have so many memories of being at the lake. My grandparents used to have a lake house at Capitol Beach in Lincoln, and now they've sold that one and got the one at Lake of the Ozarks. They love it because it is where they can go to watch all of their kids and grandkids have a great time. My grandma was sick with ovarian cancer when they bought the place at the Ozarks so they made sure to get a condo that looked out over the pool and the lake so grandma wouldn't miss anything if she was too sick to come down. There is a screened in porch at our condo. I love to wake up early in the morning and just sit out there and listen to the water and watch people start coming out on boats and jet skis. It's so amazing how smooth the water is so early in the morning compared to 2:00 in the afternoon. I love Lake of the Ozarks simply because it is a great place to relax and have fun with my family. I hope that we will always have a place at Lake of the Ozarks in our family to go to so when I'm older I can take my kids to have the same experiences I've had.

Blogging for Geography 102

I went to class today and found out that for Geography 102 we would have to do a series of blogs throughout the semester. I'm not very technologically inclined, so I thought this could be difficult to set up. It wasn't too bad really, so let's hope i did it right! But the first thing that I've decided to blog about it the location that I have lived in my whole life. I grew up in Auburn, Nebraska. I was born there and lived there until I graduated high school and came to Concordia for college. So this freezing cold weather that we're having right now is nothing new to me. I have dealt with this cold weather my whole life, but in the summer time I have dealt with temperatures well above 100 degrees. I often wonder why I chose to stay in this climate and go to college in Nebraska when I had the opportunity to go anywhere I would have liked to. This is still a puzzle in my mind. Right now I would give anything to be in California on the beach. I guess I sort of enjoy all the different aspects of the weather here in Nebraska. There are hot days where it's unbearable to even go outside, then there's just the opposite, cold days where the wind just bites at you, and here in Nebraska we get rain, snow, sleet, hail, and all sorts of crazy weather. So maybe I've chosen to stay in Nebraska because I enjoy the variety that we get here. Who knows, but since I've decided to stay here, I'll just have to deal with the cold for a few more months!