Happy Blogiversary! Learning about the World for five years now!

It's five years to the day since I published my first blog post on Learning about the World.  As a tribute to the 5th anniversary of this blog, I've coined a new word - blogiversary!

I've learned a lot over the past five years and documenting my learning experience has been incredibly rewarding, not to mention necessary, as otherwise I don't think I would be able to remember everything that I've learned.

To date, I've blogged about 35 countries/places around the world, including four new places since my last blogiversary: Liberia, Maharashtra, Nordrhein-Westfalen and Oaxaca.    Highlights of the past year have included discovering the works of Graham Greene, watching almost 30 hours of Bollywood musicals, falling in love with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and learning to cook a Mexican mole.

Some stats

Worldwide visits to Learning about the World

My blog has had 46,204 page views until just now and more than 10,000 of these have been in the last year.  Actually, August 2014 saw the most page views ever in a single month at 1,784 so Learning about the World is more popular than ever!

Having said that, unique visitor numbers since last September (3,670) are down slightly compared to the previous year, but the number of returning visitors has increased from 18% to 22%.  The average 'session duration' has also increased by 28.72%, which means that visitors are spending more time reading the blog than they used to - always a positive sign!

The top twenty countries in terms of visitors since last year are:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. India
4. Australia
5. Canada
6. Italy
7. Germany
8. Ireland
9. Brazil

10. France
11. Saudi Arabia
12. Cambodia
13. Belgium
14. Barbados
15. Netherlands
16. New Zealand
17. United Arab Emirates
18. Spain
19. Malaysia
20. Indonesia

Whilst the United States still tops the list, the number of US readers has dropped by about 30% since last year, which is interesting and I wonder if it's related to the fact that I haven't blogged about the US during that period? The fact that there are 30% less readers from the US, yet overall visits are only marginally lower this year suggests that the blog has had more international readers than ever before.

India has pushed Australia out of the third place and I've seen a 20% increase in the number of Indian readers, which might, likewise, be due to the fact that I blogged about Maharashtra.

I've lost some countries from the top 20, such as Russia, Sweden and Fiji, but I've gained others, notably Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia!  The biggest increase for one country/place has been Jersey, where my number of readers has quadrupled!

The blog has had visitors from 157 countries in total (11 new countries since last year) and the newest country to appear on my readership list was Andorra in August 2014.

Popular posts

You can see a list of the ten most popular posts of all time below:

And it's interesting to compare this with the ten most popular posts when I blogged about this last year:

Sum total of my learning

Since last September, in my pursuit of learning I have:

Read 22 books
Watched 21 movies
Learned how to cook 4 new dishes
Listened to countless hours of classical music, Bollywood music, Mariachi and Son

I'm looking forward to another year of learning, reading, cooking, movie-watching and blogging - don't forget to join me!

Next up . . . P . . .

Happy Blogday! Four years on!!

I can't believe that I've been writing this blog for four years already - the average lifespan of some of the world's most popular blogs is about 18 months so, 213 blog posts later, I'm quite proud to have exceeded that almost three times over! 

With a full time job and the amount of real-life travelling (as opposed to armchair travelling) that I do, it's difficult to keep the blog going at times, but I get so much out of the experience and it's a great record of my learning journey about this world of ours! 

At this stage, I can't say I remember the detail of everything that I've blogged about, but I'd like to think that I'm building a residual knowledge of the world and experiencing patterns in the way that people in different parts of the world react to the human experience and our societies that have developed in different historical contexts.

A word on the process

Recently, I've been remembering the origin of this blog, which was to record the results of a learning journey that existed before the blog began.  I feel that, increasingly, the blog has become the experience and I'd like go back to a time when the experience was the primary objective and the blog was a record of the experience. 

For that reason, I'm trying to keep my blog posts simpler and less comprehensive - I learn so much when I'm blogging about any particular place that it would be tedious (for you the reader) to put it all in blog posts - what I'm trying to do now is blog about the most interesting aspects of my learning experience and provide pointers to readers interested in exploring the themes in more detail.

Some stats

I've now blogged about 31 places around the world - only 6 of these were in the last year though, so it does feel like I'm slowing down a bit.  According to the stats on my blog - there have been more than 30,000 page views of my blog since the very beginning. 

Visitor numbers

Last year I started Google Analytics on my blog and it shows that there have been 4,027 unique visitors to my blog since last September which, added to previous stats makes about 15,000 visitors in total over the period of four years.

In the past year, there have been almost 11,000 page views, which seems to have increased a lot (ie. individual visitors are now reading more) and this is a third of the total page views over a four-year period. 

Only 19% of visitors are returning visitors - which is quite low, but hardly surprising, as I don't have a lot of time to publicise my blog or build up a regular readership.  Still, I sense that the number of returning visitors is slowly increasing each year! 

Which countries

According to flagcounter.com - the blog has had visits from 146 different countries - the newest country being Uruguay in August 2013.

The top twenty countries in terms of visitors in the past year have been:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. India
5. Canada
6. Germany
7. France
8. Ireland
9. Saudi Arabia
10. Netherlands
11. Belgium

12. Italy
13. Malaysia
14. Russia
15. Sweden
16. Barbados
17. New Zealand
18. United Arab Emirates
19. Spain
20. Fiji

It's interesting to compare this to the same data as last year  - according to my third blogday post!

Most popular posts

The ten most popular posts in the past four years have been:

1. Togo - Chicken Groundnut Soup with Fufu
2. Yemen - How I made Saltah
3. Barbados - Cromwell, Red Legs and the ethnic cleansing of Ireland
4. Saudi Arabia - Birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad
5. Rajasthan - Gayatri Devi, the Last Maharani of Jaipur
6. Wisconsin - Bucky Badger and the World's most fearless animal
7. Saudi Arabia - Chicken Kabsa
8. Zanzibar - How I cooked Octopus!
9. Urals Federal District - Dr Zhivago
10. Zanzibar - Gurnah's Paradise

Least popular pages

Some of the least popular posts were the ones written in the early days, as I didn't know how to promote the blog then (eg. on Facebook or Twitter) - if you'd like to help me boost my stats a bit, why not check out the following (older) blog posts :-)

1. Kiribati - Part 2 (it might seem hard to believe now, but in the beginning it wasn't obvious to me that blog posts should have a proper title!)
2. Lesotho - The Ampleforth Connection
3. Mongolia - Education and Ethnicity in Western Mongolia
4. Netherlands - Een Hart van Steen - A Gothic tale from Haarlem
5. Oklahoma - Route 66

Tools for research

In the past year, as part of my research I have blogged about Fiji, Guangdong, Honduras, Indiana, Jersey and Korea. 

I have read around 25 books, watched 25 movies and listened to all kinds of music, from the Jackson 5 (Indiana) to Black Rose (Fiji) to Leslie Cheung (Guangdong).  Not to mention, culinary experiments with Palusami, Jersey Wonders, Enchiladas and Naengmyun. 

It's been a wonderful experience and here's to another year of learning about the world!

Happy Birthday Blog - Two Years on!!

It's now two years since I started this blog - 19 countries and 133 blog posts later, Learning about the World has been visited by 4,348 unique visitors from all over the world!
 

To celebrate another year of Learning about the World, I thought I would use this blogpost to remind myself (and you, my loyal readers) of the things that I have read, cooked, listened to and watched with the express purpose of increasing my understanding of this amazing world we live in :-)

This time round, I can't list everything I've read, cooked, watched and listened to (as there is so much!) but here is a sample of the learning adventure I've been on

The Books

The President by Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala)
An Insular Possession by Timonthy Mo (Hong Kong)
Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)

History of Jamaica by Clinton V Black (Jamaica)

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost (Kiribati)

Singing Away the Hunger by Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya (Lesotho)
Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia by Louisa Waugh (Mongolia)
A Heart of Stone by Renate Dorrestein (Netherlands)

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (Oklahoma)
(part of) I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (Queensland)
A Princess Remembers by Gayatri Devi (Rajasthan)
Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif (Saudi Arabia)
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (Togo)
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Urals Federal District)
Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers (Veneto)
The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (Wisconsin)
Wild West China by Christian Tyler (Xinjiang/Uyghuristan)
The Hostage by Zayd Mutee' Dammaj (Yemen)

The Food:


Tapado (Guatemala)
Sweet and Sour Pork Hong Kong style (Hong Kong)
Liffrarbuff and Plokkfiskur (Iceland)

Jerk Chicken (Jamaica)
Palu Sami (Kiribati)
Chakalaka and Pap (Lesotho)
Tsuivan (Mongolia)
Stamppot and Limburg Beef Stew with Apples (Netherlands)

Cornbread, Choctaw Catfish and Fried Okra (Oklahoma)
Sopa paraguayana and Zoo-Tosopy (Paraguay)
Kangaroo Fillets with Mushroom sauce (Queensland)
Daal Baati (Rajasthan)
Chicken Kabsa (Saudi Arabia)
Chicken Groundnut Soup with Fufu (Togo)
Beef Stroganoff (Urals Federal Region)
Risi e Bisi (Veneto)
Bratwurst and Blue Ribbon Chilli (Wisconsin)
Da pan ji (Xinjiang/Uyghuristan)
Saltah (Yemen)

The movies:

Reykjavik 101 (Iceland)
Dancehall Queen (Jamaica)
The Fourth Man (Netherlands)
Gunfight at the OK Corral (Oklahoma)
The Mission (Paraguay)Swimming Upstream (Queensland)
Dor (Rajasthan)
Lawrence of Arabia (Saudi Arabia)
The Merchant of Venice (Veneto)
The Last Kiss (Wisconsin)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Xinjiang/Uyghuristan)
Solomon and Sheba (Yemen)

The music:

Sammi Cheng (Hong Kong)
Sigur Ros (Iceland)
Phyllis Dillon (Jamaica)
Egschiglen (Mongolia)
Bettie Serveert (The Netherlands)
Woody Guthrie (Oklahoma)

Savage Garden (Queensland)
Jagjit Singh (Rajasthan)
Mohammed Abdu (Saudi Arabia)
Yawo (Togo)
Smyslovye gallyutsinatsii (Urals Federal District)
Negramaro (Veneto)
Violent Femmes (Wisconsin)
Mohamad al-Harithi (Yemen)


Some Stats

I use a couple of different tools to keep an eye on who's reading my blog, which countries they come from etc.  It's always exciting to get the first 'hit' on my blog from the place I'm blogging about.  With the exception of Guatemala and Kiribati, I've had hits from all of the places I've blogged about!

The blog has had visitors from 91 countries worldwide.  The top ten countries that read this blog are:

1. UK
2. USA

3. India
4. Australia
5. Canada
6. Russia
7. Ireland

8. France
9. Netherlands
10. Germany

It gets an average of 12 unique visitors per day, which is around 144 unique visitors per month.

One of the reasons I started this blog was so I would read, watch, listen to and taste things that I wouldn't otherwise have read, watched, listened to or tasted.  Two years down the line, I feel incredibly enriched by the cultural experiences I've had through my 'armchair' travelling - I look forward to another year and all the learning it will bring.

In the languages of some of the countries I've blogged about:

Happy Birthday!  Feliz cumpleaños! Sun yat fai lok! Til hamingju með afmælið! Letsatsi le monate la tswalo! Tєрсєн єдрийн баяр хvргэе! Vy-Apave Nde Arambotyre! जन्मदिन पर हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं! Janam ghaanth ri badhai, khoob jeeyo! كل عام وأنتم بخير! Medzi dzigbe njkeke nyuie no wo! С днем рождения! Bon compleano! Tughulghan kuningzga mobarak bolsun!

Welcome to Learning about the World

As an avid traveller, I find those long weeks and months between trips frustrating. So I’ve decided to go on a ‘learning journey’ around the world, taking in every country, some that I’ve been to, many that I haven’t. I want to read a book by their most famous author, listen to some of their music, cook one of their most famous dishes.

I’m already on my fifth country, so in this introduction blog, I’m just going to give a summary of the journey I’ve been on until now.

Here is the story so far:


(All the images of flags on this blog were downloaded from http://www.33ff.com/ - they will let you do the same if you visit their site)


GUATEMALA



Quite randomly, the first country I started with was Guatemala.
I read The President by Miguel Angel Asturias. A really interesting read and quite claustrophobic in its study of a Latin American dictatorship.


I listened to Marimba music which, despite the fact I’m a big world music fan, I did find it hard to get into it!

I also cooked Tapado, a Guatemalan seafood soup, which was dee-lish! I’ll definitely be having that again.

It sounds like a really fascinating country and I haven't met a lot of people who've been there. Would love to go and visit the Mayan sites and the people are rumoured to be amongst the friendliest in the world!



HONG KONG


Not an independent country as such, I started my exploration of Hong Kong by reading An Insular Possession by Timothy Mo. It's a long book and written in a style that would have made the Victorians proud. What's more, the book isn't so much about Hong Kong, as about everything that happened in the region, Opium wars etc., that ultimately brought Hong Kong into existence. The really exciting thing about this book is, I found out at the end, that the characters were based on real-life people. It must have taken years of research to pull everything together and, although it's not a book for the beach, I take my hat off to Mo's stylistics and sheer willpower.


I've never had the pleasure of visiting Hong Kong (well, not yet anyway, on my 'to do' list) but listening to metroradio via the Internet had me in a taxi driving along the South China sea, with the mountains of Hong Kong Island in the distance. I don't know a lot about Cantopop, but this following track My Left Eye sees Ghosts by Cantopop princess Sammi Cheng appeals to me on some unexplained level.



One thing that really struck me about the history of Hong Kong was how recently the city came into being. Neighbouring Macau has been around a lot longer, yet Hong Kong has surged forward with an energy all of its own.


Keep reading for another two countries tomorrow!