Animals in America

Most of my travel time these days takes place in Europe. When I think of traveling, my default setting is packing for an excavation, museum research, and maybe a few days of sightseeing in France. I know what I need, what it will cost, and what I will encounter. It is sometimes a bit of a shock for me when I actually get to travel in my own homeland. The climates, the cultures, the landscapes, the food, vary so much considering we are all part of the same country. One of the most striking contrasts is in nature and wildlife.

Growing up in the U.S., I think we often take for granted how lucky we are to have old forests and diverse species of animals still running around. Our continent has only been inhabited by modern man for about 20,000 years whereas modern man has existed for at least 45,000 years in Europe. The cultures and societies that thrived in both areas differed significantly as well, i.e. the ever-expanding Western world consuming vast quantities of natural resources versus the smaller indigenous societies of the Americas using less and connecting with nature on a different level. The results of these relationships are evident today. We have tons of national parks in America, and within these parks, as well as in less populated areas in the country, we have many thriving animal populations.

As human populations grew, European societies learned domestication from the Mesopotamian world, but still supplemented their diets with wild game. Some of these species were hunted into extinction, or were killed off more recently because they were threats to farmers who raised domesticated animals for their livelihood. In all of my years of travel, the only wild animals I have seen roaming free across the European landscape are red deer (which I saw for the first time last year!), a fox, snakes, squirrels, and a variety of birds.

After my research in Europe this spring, I came back to Michigan to see my family for a few days, returned to Minneapolis for a week, then headed out west on a road trip with Reed to visit my friend Ami and her husband, both of whom are archaeologists. We traveled through South Dakota and stayed in the Black Hills for five days. Our journey continued west as we drove through Nebraska, into Wyoming, and arrived at Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado. During this trip alone, I saw an incredible diversity of wildlife: pronghorn, white tail deer, mule deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, yellow-bellied marmots, prairie dogs, bison, snakes, turkeys, hawks, eagles, squirrels, chipmunks and a huge variety of smaller birds. On a trip to Yellowstone in 2007 I also saw bears, wolf tracks, and a large male moose walking in a stream about ten feet from us. Granted these animals were mostly in national parks, but the fact is you can see these creatures outside of parks as well, such as in northern Minnesota.

Here are a few highlights from my recent trip as well as a few from my trip in 2007.

Reed was either afraid of rattlesnakes, or he was disappointed we didn't see any... (Badlands, SD - 2013)

Deer in Ami's backyard (Custer, SD - 2007)

Prairie Dog! (Custer, SD - 2013)

Bison...I just want to cuddle with one! (Custer, SD - 2013)

Pronghorns -- saw lots of these on both trips. Their butts are white and easy to spot (Custer, SD - 2007)

Wild Asses are apparently a thing (Custer, SD - 2007)

Not-so-fearful Chipmunks on our hike to Harney Peak (Custer State Park, SD - 2013)

Bighorn Sheep owning the road (Custer State Park, SD - 2007)

Funny story, after walking out of the visitor's center I said to my friend Randan, "Wow, their  fake deer look quite real..." And his reply, "...Yeaaahhhh...because they are." (Garden of the Gods, CO - 2007)

Chicaree (Rocky Mountain National Park, CO - 2013)

Reed and I had a surprise visitor show up for breakfast (Rocky Mountain National Park, CO  - 2013)

I named our Elk, Missy.

She even smiled for the camera!

Brown Bear just noming away (Yellowstone, WY - 2007)

This moose came walking down the stream just after we crossed (Yellowstone, WY - 2007)

Seeing such animals in their natural settings is a humbling reminder that we are lucky to have them because they simply do not exist in other parts of the world, and that we must consider their well-being too, and not just our own. Hope you all enjoyed the photos and are inspired to get some nature today!

And be sure to stay tuned, I am heading out in two weeks for the Republic of Georgia for the first time! Yay for someplace new!

Celebrating My Independence in a Most Independent Way

Since turning to a life of archaeology, I have celebrated very few ‘Fourth of Julys’ properly. Properly consists of 1. Being in America; 2. Eating delicious food fresh off the grill, various sorts of salads, and lots of watermelon; 3. Watching fireworks; and 4. Being on the beach or near water. That is what I, as a girl from the water-abundant places in the Midwest, think of as being good ways to celebrate being an American.

Well, it is the Fourth of July once again and once again I am not in America. I have not eaten anything delicious today except for the last of my jelly beans which I brought from the States. There are certainly no fireworks, although I could probably count the lightening we had. And the closest I have come to a beach was the sand that got in between my toes and I hurried through the park on the way back from the museum during a watery downpour. Here I am in France, probably the only American for at least 30km, celebrating my independence to the fullest extent…alone.

I know, I am in France!, but the Fourth of July is my second favorite holiday (Thanksgiving will always take the pie!) and while I am here alone in this dark and abandoned dormitory (yes, the very same one from last year), it makes me miss home and the few traditions I still enjoy. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to recount some of my favorite July 4^th celebrations that took place outside of the U.S.A.

2011

Last year I was in the city of Chatillon-sur-Seine, France having arrived the day or so before from Dijon. I did have someone ask ‘Oh, isn’t this your country’s birthday? Happy Birthday!’ This made me smile a bit. Nothing else that exciting happened. Ten days later though, I was back in Dijon and they were celebrating their country’s Bastille Day complete with some spectacular fireworks! (See this post for photos). I silently pretended they were for America. 

2009

I was a week into excavations at Alalakh in southern Turkey. The heat was unbearable most days, but the evenings were rather comfortable. There were a fair number of Americans at the site, so we all knew what the day should hold in store. The Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, which meant we had both Friday and Saturday to celebrate since it was still early in the season. We grilled like we did every weekend and at some delicious, delicious food! There was music, dancing, and lots of alcohol to go around. It was a beautiful night for sleeping on the roof and watching the stars pass through the night sky.

2007

After a day of excavating at the coastal site of Kenchreai, we headed back to our hotel in ancient Corinth, Greece. We were an American run excavation and there were about fifty of us. There was no way we were not going to celebrate the Fourth of July! I remember I packed party hats and noisemakers for the event! I think there may have even been a birthday or two that we decided to celebrate as well. Before we even began, we were told by our project leader that we should not draw attention to ourselves or be loud (this was at about the height of the world hating us). We said we would move our cocktail party to the back porch instead of the roof and celebrate there; a fair compromise it seemed to us. Well, the noise makers did not go over well with the project director and we were told to ‘shush!’. It did not matter though because even though the noise makers went away, the party hats stayed as did all of our cocktail attire and joyful spirits! We even had sparklers! It was a fantastic celebration with a wonderful, laid back group of people with whom I shared some of the greatest memories and conversations of my excavation career.

2006

And finally, probably my favorite Fourth of July celebration away from home. I was near Batman, Turkey in the southeast excavating with local residents and ‘the Italians’. As per usual in that part of Turkey, it was hot. There were four American students (including myself and my soon-to-be-best-friend, Ami), and our professor from GVSU. I seem to remember the students discussing what we should do for the Fourth of July, if anything at all. We all seemed to be a bit disappointed that we would miss it. When we arrived back at the hut that night, we found that while the Italians were at the market, they found a form of sausage that is about as close as one can get to a hotdog in a foreign land. We had all the proper fixings for our ‘hotdogs’ on the grill and tons of watermelon! I believe there was some mild drinking involved as well. This was by far the most special Fourth of July for me because there was a tender extension of consideration and respect for our traditions. Buying hotdogs may seem like a simple and silly thing to gush over, but at that time with so much of the world despising us, it made me see that some people could recognize that we were people too and that we did not need to be ashamed of who we were.

That wonderful hotdog...

After remembering these past Fourth of July celebrations, I come to see that you do not need to be in America to celebrate the Fourth of July, but it does work best if there are other Americans to celebrate with you! Hope you all celebrate the crap out of today for me!

Just a Quick Update...

Short, but sweet this week.

My best friend, Ami (I'm sure you all remember her name from our trip to Europe), came out to visit me this weekend all the way from Custer, South Dakota! We haven't seen each other in 5 months! Far too long!

She got into town just in time to go to my FUTBOL game. I play with other Anthropology TAs on a club/inter-mural team called "The Four Fields." We lost miserably, but it was great fun running around and doing something physical for a change. I'm thankful I spent the $9 extra on some shin-guards...it was a pretty physical-contact-intense game!

Friday, once I got home from school/teaching we hung out for a good part of the day, got lunch, then I took Ami to Ikea because she has never been. I ate too many of their cookies while I was there...tummy-ache.

Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and went to the Farmer's Market. It was a great weekend for it! All the fall veggies and such are coming in and were pretty cheap compared to the summer produce. I have a lot of cooking planned for this week. (I may cauliflower gratin tonight, delish!)

That night, we made a trip to a place called Nye's, a Polish polka bar! It was great fun! I actually recognized the place from my trip in 2007 with my mom, we walked past it and I remembered seeing a sign that said "Voted Best Bar by Maxim Magazine." It could very well be! The polka band members are pretty old, I think the youngest guy was in his 60s. The oldest member, Ruth, was well over 90 and rocked an accordion like none I've ever seen! :)

Ami left Sunday morning. Sad now. She's coming back out for my birthday in November, yay!!!

Other than that, I have a really busy week ahead of me with a rough draft due and tons of reading, so I'm done writing for now. Hope all is well with everyone!