Random thoughts and observations

I have a few free minutes, so I'm going to share some random thoughts and occurrences from the last two weeks.

First of all, it's still hot here. Even the Texans are complaining about it being hot! Today the temperature was 101 degrees and there was a heat advisory in effect. I tried to study outside for a bit but only made 15 minutes before I headed back in to the air conditioning. The high for tomorrow is 102.

However, according to the 10-day forecast, relief should come next Tuesday. (Oh, and relief = high temperatures in the low 90's)

I experienced my first Texas thunderstorm earlier this week. Of course it happened at 1am... just as I was about to fall asleep. It was a fairly intense storm with near constant lightening; I actually got out of bed to check the doppler radar, just in case.

The next morning I walked to class with Candice and Martha and we talked about the storm. It was an interesting experience about the differences in regional weather patterns. I mentioned checking the doppler radar, and Candice, who is originally from the Midwest, commented that she did the same thing. But then Martha, who is from California, looked confused and asked us why we had been worried. Candice and I responded in unison, "Because of tornadoes!" Then we all three realized what was happening: tornadoes (or the threat of them) are fairly normal in the Midwest, but not in California.

I also saw my first Texas cockroach this week. It quickly scurried from the ceiling down one of the classroom walls during the middle of a discussion! Yuck! It was disgusting and at least the size of the palm of my hand.

There are security cameras everywhere on this campus! It's so much different from what I'm used to at Goshen. Whenever I'm walking around I feel like I'm being watched.

The funniest moment of class so far was during a group discussion led by the program director. She tends to get pretty excited when she's teaching; when a student makes a strong point, it's not out of the ordinary for her to jump out of her chair or scream "touchdown" while holding her arms up to simulate a goalpost. I find it quite amusing and engaging. Well, anyway, she was leading discussion last week and was responding to a question a student had asked. She started pacing the room while giving some background info for context before she actually answered the question. It was 2-3 minutes of background info with the tone of her voice escalating the whole time -- we knew her answer was going to be something good and we were waiting in suspense. She took one last pause... we knew the answer was coming... and then she said, "Well, shit. I can't remember where I was going with that!"Everyone in the room starting laughing. (Maybe you had to be there, but trust me, it was funny.)

You social science nerds (and possibly others) may be interested in what I'm learning so far. Each day has a theme. Last week was:

• Intro to the program
• Intro to studying culture (anthropology as a science, ethnocentrism, cultural relativity, etc.)
• Intro to ethnography and participant observation
• Turning an interest into a research question (i.e. designing qualitative research)

Then this week:

• Framing research questions
• Race/Ethnicity and methods
• Ethics (moral dilemmas, informed consent, etc.)
  
• Institutional review board applications
  

To be honest, I found the discussions about ethics to be fairly terrifying. A lot of it is ambiguous. We read "One Hundred Dollars and a Dead Man" by Steven Vanderstaay, which is about an anthropologist who got too emotionally/psychologically attached to his research participants. He inadvertently gave money that a teenage research participant used to buy crack and then the teenager killed a man. That's serious stuff. And even though I don't plan to work with high-risk groups of people (e.g. drug addicts), I had an extremely negative experience in previous ethnographic work for a class at Goshen.

Overall, I'm still enjoying what I'm learning... but it's still intense.

On Tuesday we're taking another field trip... we're going to the Lao Buddhist Temple in Fort Worth. It's another trip for us to practice observation and field note writing. I've never been to a Buddhist temple before, so I'm looking forward to it.

I'm a fairly private person, so it's been quite an adjustment living with someone that I barely know. Also, the dorm atmosphere is so much more casual and communal than what I'm used to. I have transitioned a little bit, though... earlier this week I actually walked down the hallway in my pajamas for an evening brainstorming session with the other students! It was completely normal behavior for this context, but it still felt weird to me.

Mom- you asked how I physically get around in Texas... most of the time, I walk! The three male students are all from Texas, though, and they have cars. If I need to go somewhere that's too far to walk, I just ask one of them to give me a ride. They've all three been pretty generous with giving rides. One of them has even offered to drive me to Austin, Texas later in the summer to do some observation.

And I'll leave you with one final random thought... Do you want to know what I hate the most about the University of North Texas? The toilets! Especially the one in my dorm room. I'm very convinced that if I were to flush it while still sitting on the toilet, I would get sucked in. I've never seen toilets so powerful... and loud!