As much as I may shake my head at Budgor, I know exactly why I chose to do my research project in Yorkin: I thought it’d be a good experience to have down, make a good story to tell when I got back.  I could impress my friends,terrify my parents, and guarantee myself an admissions essay topic for any future applications, all for a month’s worth of half-assed research.

My host family knew it, I think.  Bilmar would grin and ask, “Hey Mary, are you going to write about this in your research?  Are you going to tell all the other white people about the crazy Indians?”