Raja Al-Mereisi

Location/Neighborhood
What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of Texas? The most likely
answer would be, the state where everything is big. In most cases, this is actually known to be
true. The state itself is great in size. Looking at the map of the United States of America from
Houston-iah.airports-guides.com, Texas is the most recognized and the biggest state across the
nation. It is also known to be the state that is the link between the United States and Mexico.
According to Wikipedia, Houston is about 634.0 square miles of land and 22.3 square miles of
water (Wikipedia 2014). Houston also sits on the coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico. The
location gives the city the best of both worlds. The core of the city has the image of New York
and the surrounding outskirts has the country atmosphere. To me this is an important thing
because since I am originally from New York, I miss the bright lights at times. In a situation like
this, I tend to go to the city and enjoy the night life there. When I want to relax however, I go to
Galveston Island and enjoy the beautiful beach along with the farms in the area. Kevin
Middleton, an artist on fineartamerica.com drew a perfect artistic map showing this sort of
landscape layout perfectly.

Physical Environment/Physiography
Climate:
One of the biggest attractions that Houston carries is its climate. It is not too cold that one
feels like they cannot move and not too hot to the point where an advisory is set up to keep
everyone home. According to the website of visithoustontexas.com, they broke down the
weather in a way that I truly remember it being. They stated, Houston averages only 18.0
days per year with temperatures of 32F or less and 99.6 days with high temperatures of 90F

or more. Temperatures rarely reach 100F (visithoustontexas.com 2014). The website also
breaks down the average highs and lows all year round. Luckily for me I never got to
experience a hurricane, but the city known for having hurricane hits over the past few decades.
The land that is closest to the gulf is the parts that usually get struck the worst. The area that I
lived in which is southeast Houston, will usually get a few floods from the effect of the
hurricane. A picture taken by my mother shows flooding that occurred in the apartment
complex that we lived in. I havent seen floods worse than this however.

Geology:
The land scape of Houston is very interesting in the sense that is carries rich soil that has
made the state very rich. Wikipedia explains this in specific detail. The region's geology
developed from river deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains.
These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic marine
matter, that over time, transformed into oil and natural gas. Beneath the layers of sediment is a
water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and
forced upward. As it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into salt
dome formations, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. The
thick, rich, sometimes black, surface soil is suitable for rice farming in suburban outskirts where
the city continues to grow (Wikipedia.com).

Landuse:
The area that I specifically lived in was fairly new. There were certain parts that were still
being built and new towns were emerging. There were many beautiful parks, historical regions
which included NASA! Since I was only 3 miles away from NASA, I was able to experience the

spaceship being moved. To many Texans that I spoke to, this was a huge deal since thats what
they grew up on seeing all the time. Having the sense of being near a historical region really
gives a person an amazing feeling. With new roads and new towns being built, I felt a sense of
security that the economy was just what I expected it to be.

Human Geography
Having the advantages of where Houston stands, the diversity of the city is great in
numbers. Diversity, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary website, is the condition of
having or being composed of differing elements:

VARIETY;

especially: the inclusion of different

types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. The city of
Houston, according to Wikipedia, is a diverse city with a large and growing international
community. I remember going to the University of Houston and finding all different kinds of
faces. I was even able to have the pleasure of meeting and becoming close friends with a foreign
student from Saudi Arabia. The culture there was so different. Cultures such as this made the city
of Houston a diverse and strong united city. This type of diversity has caused what is known to
be in the book of Geography:Realms, Regions and Concepts, by Harm de Blij et al as cultural
landscape. Cultural landscape is the forms and artifacts sequentially placed on the natural
landscape by the activities of various human occupants (deBlij et al., 2014, Intro flashcards).
One of the biggest and longest culture celebrated culture events is the Houston Rodeo. This event
is so big that some schools and some jobs took the initiative of closing down so that people can
enjoy this week long event. The image from texasexploer.com shows just how big this event can
be. Every age groups shows up to this event. This event, if talking to a Texan, will tell you that it
has brought every culture from all over to this celebration. From the gay pride parades to the art

car show where cars are decorated with art and driven around, Houston took initiative to
celebrate human kind.

Family:
From what I was able to get out of everyone, was that family is the number one thing in
everyones life. Every home had a day where they would get together with the family and enjoy
the day off. This helped bond the family and keep them close. Articles such as The Importance
Of Family Bonding Time written by Andrea Miranda from CBS Houston helps give insight on
what its like for an average Houston family. My family and I were able to perform in this
culture and it helped build our relationship stronger. We did things such as going to museums,
going to the beach, playing in the park, or even going for a walk in the city. Characteristics of a
place such as this are what make a geographical location feel like your hometown even if you did
not grow up there. This home then becomes part of a nation and helps build the community
stronger. Harm de Blij et al did a wonderful job explaining the term of what makes up a nation
by stating, A group of tightly knit people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion and
other shared cultural attributes (deBlij et al., 2014, Ch 1 flashcards).

Political System/Geopolitics:
According to Wikipedia, the city of Houston has what is known to be a mayoral
government. This type of government is the most common kind which means that the people of
the city vote for a mayor to help represent them. The current mayor of Houston is Annise Parker.
Mayor Parker is actually one of the first mayors to be openly gay. This was a huge deal in the
eyes of the republicans but a wonder thing in the eyes of her voters. Being able to show the
world that you can still achieve what you want while being who you are set a message not only
to the people of Houston but also to children all over the country.

Another great attribute that authorities tend to reinforce not only in Houston but also all
over Texas is the respect of elders, women, and children. Cursing out in public in Houston can
actually get you arrested. Manners are such a huge deal which I find amazing. This teaches our
younger generations that self-respect comes from respecting others. According to
totallawyers.com, a woman was arresting after dropping the F-bomb in front of her 2 year old
daughter, her mother and a bunch of customers at Wal-Mart.