Confessions of a Chronic Overachiever

So I am a huge overachiever, which in this case is resulting in daily blog updates and lots of extra reading for those who are following it. I highly doubt the daily updating will continue too much longer...

But for now you will have to suffer through it. Anyway, today in class we finally got to start going over the academic discipline powerpoints that we created a week ago. We got through 3 out of 7 and I have really enjoyed them so far. My group (history) went first. We tried to connect it to science, which we did by comparing writing a paper to using the scientific method (thanks sciencebuddies.org) to do an experiment. I loved the questions people asked us at the end; it indicated to me that everyone got what we were saying and could relate to what people in our field do. Two biology groups went after that, and again, it became really apparent that everyone going on this trip has the same outlook on learning and how to go about studying the world. The subjects, obviously are different, but each is fueled by desire to know what the world is like and why it is that way. We're all doing the same thing. We make an observation, we question it, test it, answer our question, and then move on to a new question/observation. I AM SO EXCITED TO GO TO PANAMA WITH THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE! Everyone seems so passionate about learning.

Some other observations I made from the biology presentations about how it is similar to history are: it was hard for people to pick one particular aspect of their field that was their 'favorite,' biology majors are as clueless about their futures/future occupations as history majors and stereotypes are as prevalent about that subject as about history. It was exciting to see other people's perspectives, and I am looking forward to the rest of the presentations.

Janurary 20, 2010 (what a boring title...)

Despite my threat in my earlier post, I have decided only to update this blog. That will make everyone's life easier. Plus this blog is way better looking than the other one.

Anyway, today we had our second class period for ENVS. Baillie Cloyd came in to talk about service-learning at Truman. I am glad it is something the University considers to be important. I only wish I had know about opportunities like this earlier in my college career.

I am getting more and more excited about our projects as we get closer to leaving. I am really excited about the brochure for El Cano. I realize I was complaining about this two posts ago, but I went to speak with Dr. Amber Johnson (my project advisor), and now I have a better idea of what I will be doing. Plus I have a partner! I will be working with Angie which should be really cool because we determined we're both kind of at the same place as far as this trip goes. We're both graduating in May, taking Bio 100 and working on the same project. Haha, that sounded way more intense as we were walking Barnett than it does written down... Anyway we are meeting with Megan Dowdy at University Publications to get an idea of what this kind of a project will look like. My idea right now is a tri-fold brochure, but we need to figure out how much text and pictures we can put on it. Those kinds of factors will determine what kind of information we need to gather while we are in Panama.

I also had my first science lab since high school today. It vanquished all my doubts about being a humanities major. Not that it wasn't fun; it is just that having to be as precise as one needs to be during an experiment would cause my anxiety levels to raise way more than they need to. I realize that messing up in a 5-person, 100-level Bio class will not result in death, decapitation, zombie apocalypse, or even a lower grade, but I still get very uneasy if things aren't perfect. Hmmm, that sounds like the definition for Neurosis... Perhaps I need a new slice for my identity pie chart. 100% Neurotic.

On a less Freudian note, I am super excited because Courtney (one of the other girls going on the trip) has lots and lots and lots of STAR TREK on her computer that she is going to bring to PANAMA! It almost makes up for the fact that I will be leaving two weeks after LOST starts. Almost.

Identity

So after sitting through 3.5 hours of class, we finally got through everyone's identity pie charts. (Okay, so the entire time was not devoted to that but still. It was a long class...) This class is incredibly diverse. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better.

I am trying to remember not to assume too much about people from this assignment. I know from my own experience that what I actually ended up saying in front of the class didn't always convey exactly what I meant. I also wanted to say a lot more to explain what I did say further.

One thing I wanted to include was how my identity is changing. I touched on it a little when I mentioned the philosophical idea that one never reads the same book twice because you change from reading it. (I think the original argument involved a river, but whatever.) Some of the things I put on my chart are things that I actively want to change and others were things that have changed recently or are in the process of changing. It's hard to explain yourself when you don't have yourself figured out yet. It's always an ongoing process.

El Cano

In order to be as annoying as possible, I am going to try to update both this blog and the wordpress blog. The catch is, I won't put the same information on both blogs so you'll have to keep checking both. That is, if you are actually interested enough to read both :)

Anyway, I have been reading the blogs of other people going to Panama and I feel so far behind in my project! Every seems to have a good idea of what they are doing and how they are going to go about doing it. I have a rough outline of what I want to do, but I don't feel like I have enough background information. My current plan is to create an English language guide for the El Cano archeological dig site. Yo preocupo porque mi espanol no es muy bien y toda la informacion esta en espanol. Puedo leer y escribir en espanol mas or menos pero no puedo oir o comprendar muy bien. Mas personas hablan muy rapido. (I promise I am not trying to show off with my Spanish. Just practicing.)

My worries about the project extend beyond just the practically of my Spanish skills. I am also concerned about the size of the project. It just doesn't seem like a very big project. However, considering the other projects I will be working on (helping with La MICA's advertising, Bio 100 Labs and helping with the other ENVS projects), I am sure it will be just fine. Plus, it isn't like anyone knows what to expect from this experience. This has never been done before so there is nothing to measure success or failure against. I just need to stop worrying, do my best, and go from there.

Since I have already gotten ahead of myself, let me go back and explain how this semester is going to work for those who don't know. Truman State University is trying out a new service learning opportunity. The way it works is that those of us who are going on this trip are all enrolled in a set group of classes. Everyone is enrolled in ENVS Selected Topic: Panama Experience and JINS Race and Ethnicity. 4 of the 22 (including myself) are enrolled in Biology 100 while the rest of the class is in a Latin American History class. All of us are also getting credit for another class, in my case Anthropology: Archeology in Panama. We are all doing a group project as part of our ENVS class and an individual project for whatever extra class we are getting credit for. My ENVS project will be working with a group of girls to help with advertising and fund raising for La MICA, the biology research station where we will be staying while in Panama. (Check out the website at http://www.lamica.org/). My individual project is the one I was complaining about two paragraphs ago.

Anyway, this semester will be frustrating because I am working without precedents to follow, but I will be learning to step outside my comfort zone. Which is exactly what this semester is about :)

June 5

(Picture of my friend Amy and I at the Pub)

Not such a good day. Called home in the morning, but didn’t get a hold of my parents. I was having a really hard time with the phone card, but finally got through to my mom’s cell phone. At that point I was no longer able to deny that I had missed grandpa’s funeral because I was out of the country. I asked mom why they weren’t at home, and she said, “We’re in Kirksville, sweetie.” I had figured out that might have happened but had done a pretty good job of telling myself that perhaps it hadn’t. Oh well. So it goes.
So that was not a particularly good start to my day. After that, I slid down the wall of our dig site, Elizabeth stepped on my hand and some kid dropped a rock on my foot. I was also a little afraid that Rami was going to move me to a different site. Laura and Michaela had been moved because their locus wasn’t yielding anything. Nick from Truman got moved. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of work that day since I wasn’t feeling very good about life. I was mostly standing around taking buckets from the diggers to the sifters and back again. (Nic and Lauren had taken over sifting for the day.) So, I wasn’t in a very good mood, and a few people picked up on it. Nic did and tried to make me feel better, but it didn’t work very well. I really just didn’t want to be around people so during breakfast I went down and weeded the Nebraska chapel area.
I got annoyed again later on because we had to clean up early and go around to all the other dig loci for show and tell. Each group told us what they were doing at their sites and what they had found. I did not want to go. I walked with Lauren and Nic who were calling me Hannah Montana, but I walked quietly enough with my “I am going to be patient with you and you had better appreciate it” look. They did try to cheer me up, which was as successful as possible considering the circumstances.
After digging that day I went swimming in the Sea of Galilee and then sat around talking to people for a while. Since my day had been pretty crappy, I wasn’t too surprised that my head felt terrible during dinner. I took a short nap before we all headed over the Kibbutz Pub. That was definitely an interesting experience. I don’t really like drinking too much so I wasn’t there for the alcohol. I was hoping to dance, but when we first got there, nobody really wanted to do much other than sit around and drink. Eventually Amber got Nic to swing dance with her, and when she was finished, I danced with him a little bit. I taught him how to waltz. To a rap song. That was interesting… We had to be up early to go site-seeing the next day, so I left with the first group who headed out

June 4 (Israel)

Another day at the dig. Ate breakfast with Hanan, Nic, Elizabeth and Dr. Appold. Hanan asked what my name was and I told him it was Hanna. He said, “That’s not Japanese.” I said, “no, it’s Hebrew.” He tried teaching me Japanese again and said I should know the language of my heritage. I told him I was mostly German. He told me the Japanese genes show through and turns to Elizabeth and says “Isn’t she beautiful?” to which Elizabeth replied, “well of course she is beautiful. And intelligent and hard working.” And Dr. Appold chimes in with, “I can attest to that.” It was nice ego-boosting experience.
By this time, Lauren and I were being made fun of for not having found Q yet. One of the Loci (5714) on our site was closed because they weren’t finding much. Our other Locus (5715) was split into two loci because the dirt was different colors. The lighter dirt was more ancient, according to Rami. We found a Roman pin that day which supposedly came from my bucket. Elizabeth had quite an interesting story about what the Roman soldier was doing with the woman whose bead we found in locus 5714…
We took a field trip down to a small chapel area. It was really pretty. It was donated to area by the Archdiocese of Nebraska. It had been built around the same time as the chapel area donated by the Vatican so it was not used as much. It was also off the beaten track so people didn’t know it was there. It was made because once there was a group of blind pilgrims that came to visit Bethsaida (because that is where Jesus healed the blind man on the outskirts of town.) The Israeli tour guides, however, did not allow the people to pray at the site. This story reached the ears of some higher ups in the Catholic Church so they did something about it. The chapel area is pretty cool because you have to walk past a Syrian bunker to get down there. (Goes along with all the sardine cans we kept finding.) Elizabeth was not happy because there were lots of weeds, and no one ever did anything about it.
So, on this trip there was a little boy named Finn whom I shall take this opportunity to talk about. He was pretty much adorable, and everyone loved him. Mostly because he was the only person under 18, and he had everyone wrapped around his little finger. He had this huge sombrero that he wore all the time so he looked like a little Mexican running around (except that he had blond hair and blue eyes. At this point in the trip, he was pretty quiet, but that would change all too soon…
Despite the fact that pottery reading was optional, I decided to go that day anyway. I ended up with a job. I turned the light for the photo box on and off for Hanan. Nic ran the pieces to the other side of the table for bagging. It was good times.

A New Post

While I am in Panama I am required to update my blog weekly, so I will be better about letting everyone know what I am doing. If you would like to read it, go to http://air.truman.edu/panama/ and click on my name in the list on the right.