Reflections
Emotions Map for the trip to Harlaxton
Biking
Why do you ride a bike? How do you feel when you ride a bike? Do you feel safe when riding a bike?
I ride a bike for enjoyment. Biking around where I live isn't the easiest thing because there is not biking allowed on the side walks and I live near a very busy street. So if I ride a bike it has to be at the park near my house or my dad and I have to go drive the bikes over to a larger park/biking area. I feel very free when riding bikes, its a fun way of exercising and it allows me to pay attention to nature and what is around me while riding in a car I don't really pay attention to the scenery because I am too focused on the road. I normally feel pretty safe when riding my bike but that's because I only ride it in parks.
Park Quest
Our park quest was a little rough to start, there was confusion with the difference between the tube and the train station and our group jumped on a train at first. We had to get help from one of the people who worked at the train station so she could point us in the right direction. Once we found the tube it was pretty easy to navigate because of the Tube Map app. The app shows us what tube we were going to be on and how many stops we were on it for. Then it also told us when there was a switch. We also noticed that the deeper in the ground the tubes are the older they are. So, the newer trains we had to walk further down to get to. Another nice thing about the tubes were the electronic signs on some of them at told the next stop that was coming up. We had a tube that was going to stop running so the sign told us where to diverge to in order to get to our final destination.
The park was extremely nice with a lot of different types of trees, families, and stuff to do. There were gates around all of the walking pads and signs block off the streets so people couldn’t drive there. They had nice-looking benches and a lot of trash bins and people picking up trash so the park was very well kept. There was a vast amount of things to do at the park including bikes, children’s zoo, café, dear enclosures places for bands to play, boats, fields for sports, a gym, gazebos, and some open fields. There were many different types of people there including families, couples, people with dogs, school children, and older people. It was a very busy park.
5/23
Embankment: The embankment has shaped the relationship between the city and the river. The embankment made it, so the Thames was able to be used. The Thames was to become more than just a dumping site for trash and waste. After the embankment and the new sewage systems the area was cleaner therefore able to be used. people could then use the Thames to transport goods and get places. The Embankment also allowed for better use of space. People were now able to walk around and have use of the spaces that were previously taken over by filth. It also allowed for people to get from one end of the river to another. It connected the East and West ends of the city. People could go to the oppsote side of the city easily which gave the opprotunity for the rich to visit plays and activities on the West end easier.
Boat Ride: Thames River and what London needs are deeply connected. Previously the river was used for transportation of goods. There were warehouses surrounding the river so merchants can sell/store/weigh goods. Today what were warehouses are now mainly housing and restaurants therefore the river is used more recreationally. It is used for people to get around via water taxi and so people can take tours and see the city.
Docklands story vs today: The museum was previously the number 1 warehouse on the west India docks, now used as a museum to show not only that building particular history but also the history of the surrounding areas and trade. The docklands we visited were busy with people going to work and people being tourists. The doc lands depicted in the museum had more hard labor uses. The docklands are industrially used now versus now where they are used for recreationally. I liked how the museum showed not only the progression of how the docks were used but also trade in general throughout time. I think the museum was interesting because you could see the progression of that warehouse and how it was used to originally packaged goods and then from how it was going to packaging and weighing to see how it was used how trade was used so not only did it tell the story of this building but it also gave us ideas on how other buildings were used.
Olympia park
Olympia park was designed for the Olympics but it was also made to be used after. Many Olympics parks are just designed to be used for the games and not after. The athlete housing was turned into student housing that is affordable. Students can sign leases that will take them up through their entire time at university. The location also gives the people access to recreational places such as tennis courts, pools, and any other activities going on around the park. The students are also able to decorate the hosing units so there is art everywhere. The hosing structures were made of concrete so it was cheaper to buil but also durable. The Olympic swimming pools are now used recreationally to the public, people can buy day passes and Munich citizens are able to use them for free. The park very a walkable area with a lot of food stands and free bathrooms for people to used. There are local flowers that are meant to be picked to spread the flowers. Comparing this to England where the parks/flowers were made to be more privatized and the flowers were placed in a certain arrangement to look a certain way, the flowers used in England were more exotic and not common to the area. There were also two memorials and original memorial that just had the names of the people who died and then another memorial that told their stories their background. The stories were told in both English and German so an array of people could read them. The newer memorial highlighted the victims careers and their early life. Many of the stories also highlighted how each person was effected by the Holocaust and that they were survivors. The park relates to my project because my group is focusing on parks and how they are used. We are researching how to make them more accessible to the public and for people to actually use them.
Herrmannsdorfer Farm
Food Systems: Where our food comes from and how we consume it is something I haven't really thought about deeply before this trip. Going to this organic animal farm it really made me thing about where my food is coming from what I can do better.
Organic vs Industry:
Before food comes to our table it lives a life, dies and gets processed. In industry this life process is a lot shorter than from an organic farm. Not only are the animals treated differently in their life but also in how they are processed. The animals (specifically pigs) cannot be fed meat in their lifetime, they can have cereal and potatoes and clover grass, some peas etc. Organic pigs can only have 1 antibiotic within a year before being slaughtered. These rules are not necessarily held up in industry. In industry if pig is sick, they just kill it. In industry pigs are also slaughtered at a younger age so they have a shorter life and not as good life. When looking at the chickens it was explained that people only wamt to eat chicken breast, this cause farmers to try and breed so the chickens have bigger breasts, this can cause the chickens to walk in an unnatural way. When the chickens are slaughtered it is also harder to sell the other parts of the chiken, such as the wings. These less desirable parts of the chicken are then sold to other countries for cheap. This causes these countries farmers to go out of business, ruining their easier access to food.
In terms of cheese when it’s made organically the milk is delivered freshly everyday, then it is put directly into copper vat (distribute heat evenly). The milk is heated and milk coagulated, cut based on grain and labeled. It sits for about 4 hours and is turned so it loses water. Then cheese is cured. Then for next 3 months it’s taken to a sweating chamber where is cured at a higher temperature, so it sweats out fat to form crust it’s done over a year. It takes longer to cure at the organic farm because its hand cured. This process takes industry about 3 days.
Thoughts: The tour guide expressed how much meat Germans consume on a daily basis, 3 times a day. She then processes to explain how this isn't possible to sustain, animals need space to live or they get aggravated, farms can only house so many animals, this is why industry tends to make more. They can produce more because they don't care as much about the animals and how they are treated. The current state of food industry is not ethical, but it is currently seen as okay because it is the only way for people to maintain the sheer amount of meat that is being consumed. People need to assess how much they are consuming so there can be a more sustainable option for how food is made. The selling of "undesirable" parts of certain animals should also be regulated in order to allow for farming businesses in other countries to be maintained. People need to buy less, and buy organically in order to have a chance of changing the current food system.
Cycling - June 02
Cycling in Munich is very different than that of other countries, especially the US. Cycling in Munich is used in 3 main ways; for leisure, comminating, and for sport. There are traffic lights specifically for those who are cycling and walking, there are bike lanes most everywhere, and bikes in certain places are treated as a part of cars/traffic. They are even working on a cycling highway to make cyclin even more accessibly and safe. It was a little nerve searching starting to bike with cars and people but by the end of the day I was very comfortable changing bike lanes and biking with cars. Cycling in Cincinnati is much harder. There are rarely bike paths, bikes have to ride in the streets most the time and cars are not very cautious around the bikers. It is also very inconvenient to bike in Cincinnati, people mainly just bike there for recreational uses. Some people bike occasionally to jobs but not often. There are also not many places to put bikes in Cincinnati.
To improve biking experiences in Munich: to improv ethe biking experiences here I think there should be more places to park bikes. Finding places to tie up bikes where they were not in the way of paths or people was difficult. The bike paths should also be highlighted in a different color or should have a small barrier in order to keep pedestrians out of the bike paths. It became an issue in a couple places where people were walking on bike paths, this causes a lot of starting and stopping which is strenuous towards the cyclist. It can also cause harm to the pedestrian if the cyclist is unable to stop in time.
