A few days ago, I was thrilled at how things were progressing here. I had scored a few helpful interviews, found a few restaurants with decent vegetarian food, and—most importantly—progressed in my Spanish enough to be able to make my self understood, albeit in a broken and grammatically incorrect fashion. Half a week later, not… Continue reading Bilingual Blues
There was a time, I imagine, when doing field work in developing countries was legitimately scary. Anthropologists studying remote islands or indigenous tribes might be cut off from contact with their home countries for years. Without the internet or television, their immersion in their place of study was total and non-stop, even in the worst… Continue reading Sink or Swim
Well, I finally did it: I had a proper spring break trip. Never mind that I waited until I was a graduate student to do it, or that I wound up in Barcelona, not Cancun, and that it barely got above sixty degrees. All the parts were in place: there were messy nights at overcrowded… Continue reading Americans Abroad
I don’t want to believe that my life is ever going to “peak,” and I especially don’t want to believe that it “peaked” one year ago today. I should state upfront, as a disclaimer, that this is a very self-involved post. Talking about an award I received a year ago is a bit pathetic, but… Continue reading Frauds and Peaks
Hey sports fans. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but it would seem that my life is decidedly less interesting when I’m no longer in mind-blowingly messed-up third world countries. Looking over my old journal and the blog I kept in high school, I’ve realized that I used to share practically everything with the… Continue reading Going back
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 