North West Pacific Coast, US: As an Anthropology major in the Archaeology discipline there is a tremendous amount of pressure to try to decide what area of study you want to do before you get to graduate school. Most graduate schools for Archaeology are specialized in two or three areas, so it can be tricky to decide where to go. Last year I fell in love with the area along the NW coast of the US known as the Pacific North West. This December I am applying for some graduate schools in the Pacific NW and I am excited to get started on my next path after undergrad!
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| Mt. Rainier from Stevens Canyon Road (louelke) |
Tel Aviv & Jerusalem, Israel: This summer I had the opportunity to travel to Israel for an archaeological dig in northern part of Israel known as the Jezreel Valley. While there, I was able to explore the world around me for the first time. I have never had the opportunity to be free and independent like I was in Israel. During my time there I was able to affirm my love for anthropology and archaeology. I spent a lot of my time in my two new favorite cities Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I loved both of these cities for different reasons. Jerusalem is a conservative city with a crazy amount of diversity packed into a seemingly small area. We walked around the Old City and went from the Christian quarter to Jewish quarter to the Muslim and Armenian quarters. Tel Aviv is a modern and more secular city. I made it to Israel in time for Tel Aviv gay pride, the largest gay pride parade in the Middle East and certainly a pride parade the compares in size to New York city’s Pride Parades, in both size and celebration! Tel Aviv is a beach city and makes for a great vacation destination. Both cities are beautiful from top to bottom!
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| Jerusalem City Streets (Personal Photo) |
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| Jerusalem City (Personal Photo) |
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| Tel Aviv Gay Pride Collage (Personal Photo) |
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| Photo of myself at the Legio Archaeological Dig Site (Personal Photo) |
As you can see, I worked backwards through the comments here, so now I am here at your first post, Christian! Anyway, I am excited you are still thinking about focusing on the Pacific Northwest: as you already know, I think that is such a beautiful part of the world, and so many great cultures to study. And that is SO COOL that you got to go on a dig in Israel... and on a Gay Pride march in Tel Aviv. Fabulous!!! With this Indian Epics class, you will get a chance to keep on traveling (virtually speaking), and read a lot of great stories along with some powerful cultural concepts like Karma and Dharma. Those will be ideas you can add to your cultural repertoire as you have more anthropological adventures in a world of so many cultures!
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