My Past

            I always like to hear stories my mother and grandmother tells me about their childhood and how my family got to America.  They always amaze me even though I've heard them so many times.
            First, my mother's side.  My mom was born in, Newark, NJ.  To Ann and Jim Travers, my grandparents.   She had two older brothers.  They grew up Bloomfield, NJ.  My grandma was born in the United States, however most of her family was born in Ireland.  She had four other brothers and sisters, three of which were born in Ireland.  The came to New York on a boat from County Kerry Ireland where they had little food.  They weren't very wealthy so they were in the low deck of the ship.  The children would cry every morning.  One day the captain of the ship came to their door and said
        "Why do your children always cry?"
        "Well, their hungry." she said.  And every morning after that,  the captain brought down food for them so they wouldn't cry anymore.  That was always my favorite story.  My grandfather was born here but his parents were from Ireland.  They were wealthier than my grandmother's family and had a much more comfortable trip.  He met my grandmother when they were thirteen years old.
             Now, my father's side.  My father was born in Hemsteade, NY, to Walter and Elizabeth Wolfarth. He had one brother.  My grandfather, who I called Opa, was born in Stuttgart, Germany.  He came to America in 1950 on a ship.  When he got to America he was drafted into the army.  My Oma was born in Scotland (we're not sure where in Scotland).  She also came here on a ship, but she was just a baby.  She went to school in New York and then met my Opa, who we already talked about.  I don't know much about my father's side.  My Opa and Oma died when I was six and seven years old.  I know, when my Opa still lived in Germany he was in Hitler Youth, and my great grandfather was in World War II, but thats all I really know.
      

In Ten Years..

         In ten years hopefully I will be done with college and doing something productive.  My dream is to be a nurse, I've known that since I was eight.  Truth is, I like it in America and I don't think I would want to live anywhere else.  If I had to though, I would want to live in Switzerland. Random? I know, let me explain.
         Switzerland is a good place to live because it is a neutral country.  It hasn't  partaking in any kind of war since 1815.  Also, it has a very good health care system.  Switzerland is known to be one of the richest countries in the world.  It has a very good and stable economy.  People say its one of the most competitive economies in the world.  3.8 million people have jobs in Switzerland. Their unemployment rate is 4.4%.  Their population below the poverty line is 7.4%.  Switzerland's life expectancy is an average of 80.85 years.  Two more years than America.  It has freedom of speech and freedom of religion  Also, I would want to move to Switzerland because of its beautiful scenery.  The only bad thing I have found is that Switzerland is a very expensive country, especially its real estate.  Also it is a landlocked country.  I feel like that would annoy me.  But, other than that, it just seems like a nice place to live
          The other place I would like to move to is Canada.  Canada also has a good health care system, and all around, Canadians just live healthier.  Canada is also one of the wealthiest nations, and is one of the worlds top ten trading nations.  Its unemployment rate is 8.6%.  Not the best but not the worst either.  Also, Canada has freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  Its life expectancy is 81.3 years. pretty good.  I couldn't really find anything bad about Canada.  it seems like a really nice place to live.

Population pop quiz

We had our first pop quiz.  It was pretty easy because we could use our notes.  I think I did pretty good on it.  Well.. I hope anyway.

10/7/10

• pull factor pulls you in, push factor wants you out.(ex. sarah has been pulled into america.)
• net migration rate-immigrants-in, emigrants-out.
• learned about population pyramid. and baby booms

10/6/10

• Kenya has a low life expectancy because of bad health care 
• Afghanastan is the lowest because of wars a bad healthcare system
• China and France has a good life expectancy because of good lifestyle habits
• crude birthrate just means strait, raw numbers
• etheopia is growing in population
• crude death rate in ethiopia 8
• death rate in japan 9
• african families have more kids in hopes that some will live

Population studies: defining our terms

life expectancy- estiamted number of years a person will live.   definition here
Japan- 79(male) 83(female)
France-81
Kenya-57.86
Cuba-77
U.S-78
Afagahnastan-44
crude birth rate- births per 1,000 people per year.  definition here
Japan-7.64/1,000
Kenya-36.64/1,000
Ethiopia-43.66/1,000
U.S-13.83/1,000
Germany-8.18/1,000
crude death rate- deaths per year per 1,000 people.  definition here
Afghanistan-17.83/1,000
Kenya-9.72/1,000
U.S-8.38/1,000
Japan-9.48/1,000
Mexico-4.8/1,00
RNI- crude birth rate minus crude death rate.  definition here
TFR- average number of children that would be born to a women over her lifetime. definition here
Niger-7.68
Afghanastan-5.5
Japan-1.2
U.S-2.06
Germany-1.42
net migration rate- the difference between immigrants and emigrants of an area in a period of time devidied by 1,000 inhabitants. definition here
population pyramid- shows the distubution of different age groups in an illistration. definition here