On October 15th me and some other members of IA met in the basement of Steeb Hall to watch the Democratic Debate that was being hosted at Otterbein University. We all gathered around the TV and watched devotedly yet often breaking focus to discuss the issues the candidates were and our opinions on each candidate. One of the things that I have found to be a recurring truth of IA is that we can disagree all manner of topics and still be friends. The discussions we had on the debate were the perfect balance of jovial and serious, it is a serious topic but we were still having a good time. The only issue of these discussion is that all the people there were ideologically left leaning or supporters of the Democratic Party. I hope that if we had a more politically diverse audience we could still have the constructive conversations. I believe that when we talk to people have views that contrast our own we should keep a level head and be civil in discourse. I would like for the next debate we try to have a larger audience that can maintain a calm and constructive energy so we can see what conclusions we reach as a group.

Back in September I went to the Education Abroad Expo in the Union with Naman to look into study abroad opportunities. My personal goal was to get as much information about study abroad opportunities that related to anthropology and German. I talked to and got the phone number of the coordinator of the German language study abroad programs which is the program I’m most interested in when it comes to studying abroad. It was all a little overwhelming with all the booths in one place vying for my attention so I went to the OSU study abroad website in order to calmly peruse all my options. This is one of the reasons I love Ohio State is there is seemingly endless opportunity for me to push my personal frontiers. Studying abroad interests both my academic and professional. It allows me to interact with different cultures and thereby apply the practices of modern anthropological thought. Professionally, it allows me to make one on one connections all over the world. In the future this can provide friends and associates that might just be the connections I need to land the job of my dreams. I can’t wait to see where all these resources take me in life and how I will grow as an individual because of them.