Pack up your bags!

Well, it's been about thirteen million years since I've posted on this thing and a lot has happened.

Nothing life changing (though I do have a brand new niece and I've finished the coursework portion of my phd work), but I am taking the trip of a mid-life time! The Society for Medical Anthropology meeting was in Tarragona, Spain this year and I used that as an excuse to make myself take advantage of this weird lull between coursework and the start of my dissertation fieldwork.

So I started in Barcelona, went to Tarragona, flew to Rome for five days, took the train to Ancona and an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia where I spent a really relaxing and awesome 5 days. If anyone needs a vacation rental recommendation for Split, the apartment I was in was fantastic. (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/868468). I highly recommend Croatia.

Now I'm in Zagreb awaiting my train tomorrow for Budapest! I'm in the one hostel I'm scheduled to stay at and it is actually really nice! It's a converted house which is huge but paradoxically cozy. The people have been friendly, but I really appreciate having my own space at this age.

After Budapest I'm off to Vienna, Brno, Krakow, Breslau, Prague, and finally ending up in Berlin for another work thing. Then to Seattle to see friends and family before heading to Ketchikan for more family. And after that, I need to get back to Philadelphia so I can study up for my oral exams so I can advance to candidacy.

How is everyone? I do read my friendslist everyday!

My semester is finally over and all grades are in, which is awesome. I really overestimated my capacity for taking classes and teaching at the same time. I made it through and took some freaking awesome classes at Penn and Princeton and they'll be really helpful next year while I'm writing my orals.

As a measure of avoidance from the massive amounts of work, I finally succumbed to the allure of Doctor Who, or rather the new series. Donna is my favorite and her ending hurts so much! The Eleventh Doctor is fairly cool and Rory is amazing.

I tried watching Torchwood, but it is...not very good.

I am taking a short break before I get packing; moving to a new apartment in just a few days!

Hey guys, yes I am still around, but extremely busy about 97% of the time.

I did get a nice break today with a trip up to NYC to see my visiting Aunt and cousin. We went to Porgy and Bess with Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier. The cast was amazing, the music was amazing, the set was amazing and our TKTS provided seats were amazing. Overall, a great, great day trip and it was so nice to see family over here on the east coast. I never get to see anyone!

Also, I shared an atm vestibule with Andrew Garfield. Alas, I did not ask him if he was spiderman or tell him that I really enjoyed that whole Red Riding trilogy; he's doing Death of a Salesman down the street from the Times Square atm.

Now back to work!!!

Hey guys. Believe it or not, I'm still hanging out on LJ pretty frequently. I read every entry. But I've had the busiest summer ever. Really.

I finished my first year of grad school in the beginning of May and immediately went to Anchorage to work for three weeks. It was great while I was there, but I completely overestimated the amount of work I could finish after I left there. Completely my fault.

I left Anchorage, spent one day in Philly and then was off to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a program in museum anthropology. I still couldn't really define what makes museum anthropology much different from art history, but I had literally the best time ever. I met a bunch of other anthro grad students who were all lovely and completely confirmed that I made the best possible choice when I decided to pursue a higher degree in anthropology. Plus, we had free reign of the ethnology collection and National Anthropological Archives. SO, SO, SO COOL.

I didn't really know how this program would connect with my future work on biological samples and institutional research ethics with indigenous communities, but while I was there, I found these baskets that were made by school children in the 1900s for the Department of the Interior's Museum of the Bureau of Education. Not only are the baskets themselves compelling, but it really has a lot to do with how objects circulate and how different meaning are attached to things by different groups like scientists, scholars and communities.

After that program ended, I spent one day back in Philly before hopping on a plane to Berlin. Wow. This was my first trip to Europe and it was fantastically awesome. One of my friends, who works on similar research topics, was doing a fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and I stayed with her in Berlin. So many cool things to see and also, to eat. After a few days, we caught a train to Heidelberg, where we took a summer course at the European Molecular Biology Lab. It was also ridiculously awesome.

The course was called The Human Animal and it brought together lab scientists and social scientists/humanists to discuss things related to the implications of biotechnology on what it means to be a human. I didn't really feel qualified to be there, but I learned a lot and hopefully added a needed perspective from the public side of things.

Then I spent three days in Amsterdam and visited an old friend.

And then finally, back to Philly. For one day before coming to Ketchikan where I am currently. It is so rainy but it is great to be in one place where I am not running around and don't have to do anything but watch tv, sleep, and visit with friends and family.

So it's that sweet spot after the first year where you've finished your comp exams but before I get started on my busy summer plans. I've gone to amusement parks, bbqs, movies, and spent a lot of time sleeping.

My first year of graduate school was...interesting and difficult in many ways. I've learned more than I realized, but the entire year is designed to make you realize just how much you have learned through our comprehensive exams.

Anthropology, in the US at least, traditionally has four sub-fields; biological anthropology (Bones, monkeys, and dna), linguistic anthropology (which is like linguistics, but totally different), archaeology (more bones, pot shards, and material theory), and cultural (my subfield which is completely amorphous but is traditionally what you'd think of when you think of ethnography). During your first year here, you have to take core classes in each discipline with the rest of your cohort which could be made up of people from all different subfields. It's very much an exercise in teambuilding. And then at the end of the year, you take two days of tests on any of the previous eight months of classes which means weeks of marathon studying which culminates in a frenzy of cramming.

And then we get to jump in the fountain in front of the Penn Museum (which everyone should visit, by the way. It's lovely.) Here is the proof that I am now a second year.

( Proof of my rite of passage as a UPenn anthro grad student.Collapse )

This time next week I will be back in Anchorage for a bit, then to DC for a museum anthropology workshop, then hopefully Germany for a biotechnology and ethics workshop, then to Ketchikan, and then back home to Philly for T.A. training. It's going to go by sooooo fast.

So school is absolutely insane right now, and I can't believe I've almost finished my first year of grad school. I have three papers left to write and then comps at the end of the month. I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, but it's overwhelming and I just caught the crud that's been going around. All I want to do is sleep, but instead I have to write about violence and networks and other things depressing.

On the plus side, things seem to be lining up for me in terms of research interests. I'm super passionate about what I'm being allowed to do.

As a diversion from my hideous workload, I've been rewatching Homicide: Life on the Street and it is my favorite thing ever. I even enjoyed the seventh season. Sort of. There were episodes.

But can we talk about Tim Bayliss and Frank Pempleton? Seriously. Best partnership ever. And how it evolves to that hideous, soul-sucking ending in the movie wrap-up of the series? The arc of Tim Bayliss keeeeeeeeeeeels me. But it makes so much sense, I just...sigh. I watched an episode from the 6th season where Bayliss talks about wanting kids and grandkids and then the next day, I watched the finale. And it's just--it makes sense, it just feels so sad. And like it happened because Frank left.

I wish there was more fanfiction for this show.

Also, there should be a Life/ Homicide: Life on the Streets crossover. With Bayliss and Crews. The two zen detectives.

Hey guys!

So I am still in Philadelphia and still in grad school. Which is awesome and getting really difficult in a good way. It is spring break now. Lovely, lovely spring break. Without all these classes in the way, I can finally get some work done! And possibly clean my apartment.

I wish I had more to say than that, but that's the long and short of it. I could probably talk about social theory or how much I am loving and loathing my classes this semester or how freaked out I am by our impending comprehensive exams, but that all seems rather boring.

We had a formal which was rather...strange, what with the drunken faculty and public hazing of first years, but it was amusing in a weird way to get dressed up and meet most of the people in my department and party in the Lower Egypt gallery of the museum. The afterparty made me feel very old though.

So do people have tumblrs still? I just got one: calendae.tumblr.com. So people should link me to theirs, please. :)

I am still reading every post on my flist.

I had great holidays. A lot of time with family, a lot of time sleeping and a lot of time not thinking about school at all. So yeah, finished my first semester of grad school. It was sort of painful in a two week burst of insane work towards the end of the semester, but somehow everything turned out alright, even in the classes in which I felt completely overwhelmed. I haven't seen my papers yet, but I did get feedback from one professor that complimented my discussion leading skills as extremely good, which means A LOT because that class made me feel like an idiot all the time.

I suppose this is part of what the classwork is for. To help you realize there is a reason you are here and that you'll be able to get through it.

In the interest of having a more productive semester, I'm trying to get on a regular sleep schedule which includes getting up early, since I am one of those hideously chipper morning people if I get up in time. I think I will need this, since I have four reading intensive seminars this semester. Just tons and tons of reading. Luckily, I love the subject matter.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to. I haven't had time to be very fandom-y in any sense, though I rewatched season four of The O.C. during the break and it is still probably my favorite season of TV ever. Taylor Townsend has my heart. Also, Parks and Recreation is back soon, and I'm super overjoyed about that. Leslie Knope is a personal hero.

Also, it is insane how addictive Netflix instant is. So many documentaries, so little time. Maybe I will make video ethnographies. How cool would that be?

I have finished my first semester of graduate school. I literally cannot believe it. Of course, I have no idea where I stand gradewise, but I'm strangely copacetic about that situation. All the feedback I've been given so far has been positive. I do feel I need to work a lot on my paper writing, but I'll get there. I'm getting tons of practice.

A grand total of five papers were finished (by me!) with a page count of 72 double spaced pages. That is the most I've written in forever.

What should I do with my three weeks off? :)

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I really didn't mean to do that, but life has been sort of crazy. I think grad school tends to swallow the rest of your life and you end up doing things like watching season two of Parks and Recreation in a continuous loop when not reading a million books and trying not to sound stupid in class.

By the way, Leslie Knope is my hero for realz. I downloaded the theme song as a ring tone.

So anyway, I spend most of my days trying to be coherent and intellectual-like. Sometimes I am successful, but I'm mostly not. I think that might be the natural state of a graduate student though. I've met great people. I love my apartment. I love what I'm studying. Despite the difficulty adjusting back into academic life, I'm pretty sure I'm exactly where I need to be.

Other things. I was at the rally for sanity last weekend. There was so many people! I thought about trying to meet up with people, but I've been so absent from life lately, I didn't really decide to go until the night before. And despite being a day behind in school work, I enjoyed myself.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Denver for a conference. I'll be even more behind in school, but I enjoy living on the edge!