Tree by UCO
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” (L.M. Montgomery)
This month was filled with adventures both in France and in Spain, exploring new cultures brought to light how different communities functioned and their independent issues relating back to global health. In addition, towards the end of this blog, I present findings from my previously established study about alternative workout cultures and how it relates back to overall health.
Latest Travels and Their Relation to Health
In this month we had multiple excursions, one that stuck out the most to me was traveling to the Château de Chenonceau in Loire-Valley. It was built on the Cher River. The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century. The current château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river. This destination had seen a great deal of aggression and I do not think it’s a stretch to link the history of aggression to a multitude of deaths that occurred in the château (update: I’m going to start calling it a castle because copy and pasting french accents is too time consuming). This castle was seized and transferred on multiple occasions and for a lengthy amount of time was under the instruction of Diane de Poitiers- a mistress of one of the royal members. This castle stood and served a purpose for both WWI and WWII and at one point in time opened its doors to become an army base hospital.
In front of the Château de Chenonceau
Variations of Life in Spain
This month I travelled with Malia Bybee, Katherine Bentley, Matt Merrill, and Maxem Ben to three big cities in the country of Spain. We spent two days in Barcelona, two days in Madrid, and four days in Seville.
Initially we went to Barcelona, which along with Madrid was far more industrial. However, we found refuge in Park Güell. This park was host to some of the largest natural spaces to get away from some of the hustle and bustle of city life. It is “a public park system composed of gardens and architectonic elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona. Carmel Hill belongs to the mountain range of Collserola — the Parc del Carmel is located on the northern face.” (Saudi 2005) This is one of Barcelona’s gems especially due to its noise pollution and In Barcelona, according to geography field work done “the effect of noise is further aggravated by high concentrations of people living together (30,000/km²). The noise pressure comes from road traffic, air traffic, railways and construction activity.” Noise is a measurable factor affecting human health with few action plans proposed to combat the issue.
Post hiking a hill in Barcelona
Look at all Those Chickens
(If you haven’t seen the vine my header is in reference to, please pause grading and google it because it’s fantastic.) In both Madrid and Seville we encountered wildlife that seemed to exemplify modern environmentalism:”a new vision of the human place within nature, a cultural transformation of nearly Copernician proportions: from a world perceived as infinite in its resources, a world for humans to master and put to use without restriction, to a world perceived as finite in both its resources and its resilience, a fragile world requiring from humankind a newfound mentality of self-restraint and even of active protectiveness” (Bess 2003) Spain is one of the countries of the European Union most dedicated to wildlife conservation. In Spain there are many national and natural parks dedicated to the preservation of Spanish wildlife, both flora and fauna. We visited some of these parks in all three Spanish cities.
Finding peacocks in a park in Madrid
Feeding pigeons in Seville
Food Glorious Food
There was obvious diet variances in all the places we visited, in Barcelona there were far more tapas involving sea food and other meats, while in Seville there were more tapas such as cheese with walnuts and honey. Still animal byproducts, but frequency of dishes such as paella was less in our experience.
From what I’ve encountered Europeans embrace a diet that our digestion systems prefer; because the fact is “we evolved to eat a diverse diet that includes fruits, tubers, wild game, seeds, nuts, and other foods that tend to be low in sugar, simple carbohydrates, and salt but high in protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins” (Lieberman 2013)
Workout Survey & Analyses
This month I conducted a study with the hypothesis that the culture of health is far more laidback and exercising is largely transportational based- as in that people rely on walking to get place to place and do not have an additional workout routine. I sent out a survey to our study abroad group with the following questions:
1. Did you workout back home? (If so what, and how often a week on average)
2. Do you workout here? (If so how what, and how often a week on average)
3. Would you say you’re internally motivated to workout outside of walking?
I received 5 responses of which people had worked out 3-5 times a week on average. In response to the second question, everyone had not worked out here more than a handful of occasions, all being occasional jogs. And responding to the third, it was a split half and half on motivation. Someone mentioned, “I think that if I had that push to workout with a buddy, I probably would! Sometimes though I work out outside on my own, but its not the same when you have someone to push you and make you train harder.” this is an interesting commentary on living in an etic lifestyle (outsider perspective). There is not as much push to workout as there’s seemingly no peer pressure from the community or media.
From the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that yes working out is not as emphasized; however, to know more about if it truly exists and is solely home based workout routines or another non-measurable form I would need to interview French students. Which I hopefully will be able to do in the coming weeks.
We discussed during lectures the misperception of viewing someone as fit/healthy. As ”visceral fat cells behave differently from other fat cells, making excessive belly fat a much more serious risk factor than simply being overweight for many diseases associated with obesity.” (Lieberman 2013) Understanding that smaller physical stature and thinness is not synonymous with leading a mindful health conscious existence.
In the next blog I will further examine workout culture by speaking with students in UCO with a French background as well as seeking out ordinary Angers citizens to further develop an emic perspective.
Sources Cited:
Lieberman, Daniel. The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
“Barcelona: Environmental Problems.” Barcelona: Urban Pollution. N.p., 2015. Web. 2015.
“Park Güell by Antoni Gaudí.” Park Güell by Antonio Gaudí. N.p., n.d. Web. Oct. 2015.
Bess, Michael. The Light-Green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000. City of Publication: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Book.
“Wildlife in Spain – Learn More about Spanish Wildlife | Don Quijote.” DonQuijote. N.p., n.d. Web. 2015.