Entry #9

Downtown Ft. Myers!

For my final field trip, I went to downtown Ft. Myers. It was raining the whole time, but I made the best of it. I cruised around and checked out the buildings and the environment. One building I found particularly interesting was the Imaginarium (see my picture!). We had an attraction similar to this one in my hometown, and as kids we always had a blast at it. The Imaginarium has so many exhibits that is fun for the whole family. They have a dinosaur bone dig, an animal lab, and the hurricane experience, just to name a few. Some other businesses I noticed was the daily news (see picture), the fire station (which had a very antique look to the outside), and a multi-story SunTrust bank.

In addition to the thriving businesses, I also noticed some deserted buildings. One of which I took a picture of. The building in the picture is part of a restoration project, called the McCollum Hall Restoration Project. On the side of the building, they had a picture taken of the building as is, and a picture of what they want it to look like after the restoration has been completed.

As for wildlife, I didn't really see too much. The only animals I saw while I was there were black crows and seagulls. The plant and tree life looked great. Down almost every street there looked to be newly planted trees and flowers. The plant life really makes the town look classier.

As far as living quarters go, most of the neighborhoods are right outside downtown. There are a few high rise hotels on the water, but the permanent living arrangements look to be lower-income housing outside the town.

While being downtown, I did not feel very safe. There were a lot of older cars, run down buildings, homeless people riding bikes, and minorities. Downtown Ft. Myers is not a place that I would feel comfortable walking around alone in, day or night. Also, if I was a tourist, it is not a place I would choose to visit.

Parking is definatly an issue. Just trying to find a place to park at 7:00 PM was a hassle. I can't imagine what it must be like during the work week. There didn't seem to be any parking along the road. I finally ended up parking in a general parking lot in the middle of downtown.

My visit to downtown Ft. Myers reminded me a lot of downtown back home in Bradenton. They had several similar characteristics. I was not really impressed by the city and it would not be somewhere I would go again.

Entry #10

When I first enrolled in University Colloquium, my thought was "eh it's just another requirement," but to my surprise, it has turned out to be extremely beneficial to my future career as a nurse, and also just for my own knowledge base. Environmental health is a huge part of nursing, as there are so many things in the community that can be detrimental to a person's health. For example, pollen, toxins, and climate can affect a patients' health in many different ways. By understanding the environment and how the ecosystem works will help me to treat my clients in a much more educated and knowledgable way.
In the short term, this class has enabled me to understand more fully what is going on with the climate and the whole "global warming" fiasco. I've always known there was an issue, but until I took this class, I was unaware just how urgent and pressing the problem actually is.
A highpoint that I enjoyed about this class was the field trips. Although I missed the target on a few of them, it was still an excellent learning experience and allowed me to get outside and enjoy environments that I had never been to before. Sanibel was absolutely beautiful. Kayaking on the Estero River was also a lot of fun; definatly something I will be continuing in the near future. The field trips also forced me away from my studying and homework and made me have some fun- which is something that rarely happens while school is in session.
I didn't really find anything overly difficult about the class, it was just a lot of work all at once, which is to be expected with summer classes. One thing I did have trouble with was the reading. I think for future classes, the reading should be more up to date; something that we can follow and relate to. With all of the environmental issues arising in today's society, I can imagine there are some great works out there from writers who are more then credible. That would be my only suggestion and difficulty I encountered with this class.