A more detailed introduction to myself

So, a little bit more about myself.

I am originally from New Zealand but my family owns and operates a placer gold mine in Dawson City, Yukon during the summer months. In the winter months my parents return to New Zealand where they brag about all the fishing and hunting and various trips that they go on. I am quite jealous of them. I decided to go to university here because my two best friends in the whole world were on the island. One was in Nanaimo and one here in Victoria. I now don't talk much to either of them much to my disappointment. To make up for that bit of sadness, I got engaged over the Christmas break. I am also a model in the Yukon, and I am a national finalist in this year’s Miss Canada Globe Pageant.

Since I was very little I have wanted to go into forensics. At first I wanted to be like the guys on "CSI" dealing with all the "yucky" stuff. Then I wanted to be like the BAU from "Criminal Minds" and find serial killers. Then I found "Bones". Since then I have known exactly what I want to do. I want to be a forensic anthropologist. I want to "dig up dead people" as my friends would say. Which in a way is true I suppose. I want to find out who they were and how they died. The relatives and friends of the deceased deserve to know what happened to them, and I want to be able to help them with that. Also, I really want to help solve crimes!

I did my first year of my undergrad in Whitehorse at Yukon College. I went to start my second year there and got in a serious car accident that resulted in me having to withdraw from my courses. I started again a year and half later in January 2012 at UVic. In that first semester I took ANTH100 and ANTH250 at the same time. I really enjoyed both courses. I also took GRS200 as an elective; after which I decided that I wanted to do a Greek and Roman studies minor. In ANTH250 I really wanted to look more into nutrition. How diet has evolved and the various effects of different diets on the bones. I was a vegetarian for most of my life and even vegan for a couple of years so I actually know quite a lot about nutrition and I find it really interesting. I loved ANTH100 but I found that it was just so broad and I really wanted to look more in depth at so many different things.

After I finish my undergrad I do want to go to grad school, but I think that I will probably take some time off before I do. I want to go travelling and work for a while before going back to school. As much as I love school I think that it will be good to take a break from it. Especially as I will be getting married I want to take some time off to go off on adventures before truly settling down.

This course interests me the most because I really want to understand how different cultures deal with death. Some shun it and some worship it and I want to find out the reasons behind this. One thing that really interests me is endocannibalism. I know there are a few cultures that have practiced this and it seems for different reasons. It is really fascinating in a slightly morbid way. To most modern cultures this custom appears horrific and extremely disrespectful; I mostly just find it interesting. It is so different from what I know and it makes me want to learn more about it so that I can better understand the custom. I am also interested in the evolution of mummification. I know that it evolved over an extended period of time until the technique was “perfected”. I find it really interesting that they tried many different techniques. I don’t really know that much about the subject but I really want to learn more. There are just so many different funerary customs that I want to learn more about!