After spending time familiarizing myself with the readings, I am mostly just really excited to have a glimpse into the world of people who lived a life so different from mine. I think until I am on the site I will not be able to fully grasp what it was like to be a person living in the Antiochia Ad Cragum area so long ago. I am looking forward to learning more about the history of the area and trying to place myself into the shoes of people who I seemingly would have nothing in common with other than being human. Every artifact is a work of art, as everything would have been made by hand, so to be able to be so close to such items is almost as close as one could come to interacting with someone who had once inhabited the area we are excavating.
During this internship the main thing I want to explore is Turkish culture. I have never been outside of the United States and I only speak English, so as smart as I think I may be, I have been extremely isolated from cultures other than my own and I am very excited to be able to exist in a place where everyone has a different background than myself. I think being able to have conversations with all of the people I will meet has a lot of potential to really change how I see the world around me. I often fear that my background may limit how I interact with the world. I am very excited to socialize.
I think my role as an archaeologist is to help make history known. There are artifacts that need to be preserved and I am lucky enough to have ended up in a position as to where I can help make that possible. I want to do good work by learning as much as I can from the professionals around me. I think respecting the dig site, the places we visit and the people around is of utmost importance.