What am I doing with archaeology?

So, I'm going through a little bit of science withdrawal. I thought that once I finished my grant proposals I'd be thrilled to be able to take a break from thinking about nerve cells and chemical reactions. But I'm not! I miss it! Well, maybe not the chemical reactions, I was never very good at mechanisms... But yeah, my archaeology class, the most relevant class to be taking here in Greece is not thrilling me. Reading about ancient Mycenaean tombs sooo does not appeal. I enjoy our on-site lectures a lot. The professor gives the artifacts in the museums the context, and therefore relevance, that I can never manage to muster up myself when I'm there on my own reading the little information cards. I get that much closer to imagining the people of these ancient times as they lived. But to what end? Just to fulfill intellectual curiosity? Or is there a wider social implication of this work that I'm missing? I'm hesitant to to makes thoughts like this public, I know I look like a huge science elitist. I've definitely come off as one before (please let's not have the "is psychology a science" debate). That's part of why I came here I think. Pomona is a liberal arts college. As such, it should be exposing me to different methods of inquiry all the time. It has in the sense that I've taken at least one non-science class every semester. But I usually end up viewing them as little more than a diversion from what I'm legitimately studying. I chose my two English classes (one on science fiction and one on food studies!) so that I could read books that I thought looked interesting without feeling guilty, and I only threw together literary analysis when forced. I haven't taken non-scientific methods of inquiry very seriously (well, I tried with philosophy, but that definitely failed).

Being here is all about expanding my horizons, trying to immerse myself in a new culture, a new language, new ways of academic thinking. And its not really happening... I need controlled experimentation! I need biological pathways! Or something. I feel so narrow-minded. But at the same time I feel relieved. I'm not just studying neuroscience because of a potentially dishonest life plan I came up with to get in to college. I really like this stuff! So I've been searching out science on my own, namely through blogs. Research Blogging is totally the love of my life right now. (http://www.researchblogging.org/) It's a compilation of posts by science writers that reference peer-reviewed research articles. I love it. I'm hoping that by paying attention to what I'm most interested in there, and other blogs etc. I might start to realize what it actually is I want to do with neuro. Medicine? Research? Clinical research? Ahhhhh my future is stressful!

I'm sorry, I know that wasn't really an appropriate travel-type post. But hopefully its better than nothing? I'll get something up about my real-world experiences soon too. Wine festival this weekend anyone?