More About Melissa: A Life-Long Love of WORLD CULTURES!

Hello! Hola! Konnichiwa! Bonjour! Tashi delek! Ni hao! Namaste! Salaam!

If you couldn’t tell from my multilingual greetings, I am fascinated with world cultures and foreign languages. My 6 year-old self’s proclamation that “I want to be an anthropologist when I grow up” was met with no shortage of raised eyebrows from skeptical adults. Since then, I have continued with a life of passionate fascination with world cultures. It all started with Ancient Egypt and expanded from there (I tried to teach myself Egyptian heiroglyphics as a first grader...). I just graduated from a rural public high school in Chesterton, Indiana and am taking a gap year (A WHAT? This phenomenon, while I've discovered is virtually unheard of in the Midwest, is popular in other parts of the country and world: basically, taking a year off between high school and college, most often for travel) to travel beyond the Land of Cornfields before attending Indiana University next fall to study International Studies or Cultural Anthropology.

I saw this year as an ideal opportunity to travel and explore different cultures, and what better place to do that than in the Land of Diversity that is India? Many of my greatest memories and learning experiences have been the product of travel, and I’ve been fortunate to have done a homestay in Japan and a study tour in China. I have loved growing up in a community located in the midst of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and 3 blocks away from Lake Michigan—I adore the great outdoors—but now I am eager to see more of the world.

Check out my web postings periodically to see what I’m up to in India. Just to let you know in advance, I have no idea how regularly I’ll have access to the internet while traveling, but I’ll try to update you on my travels as often as I can. I hope you enjoy, and maybe learn something about a different part of the world while your at it!

After all, the world is bigger than a cornfield!!!