I shouldn't have been nearly so relieved to be done with interviewing Monte Bennett for my anthropology paper. I'm supposed to be an anthropologist. I believe very strongly that archaeology shouldn't be about just intellectual curiosity -- there should be real engagement with real people. So I ought to be able to make a half-hour phone call to a fellow archaeologist. But I could feel myself reaching for any excuse to put off arranging it, and then to put off making the call. There was a definite nervousness when I read him the informed consent spiel. And then when it was over, it was a huge weight off me (since I was deliberately ignoring the fact that I still have to set up an interview with Dixie Henry).

This doesn't bode well for my Fulbright/Watson project, which is basically this paper going on for a year in New Zealand. Then again, chances are I won't get either of those fellowships.