The Internship (and the Mystery!) Begins

I thought it might be awkward to kick off the blog by saying "Hi, I'm AJ, and WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I'm interning at the American Museum of Natural History this summer, and through this blog you're going to experience it with me! We're going to be detectives."
I don't know, it just seemed too sudden to me, like there was no transition. That's why I made the first post. But really, that post has nothing to do with the immediate purpose of the blog. I mean, sure, a little background is good (thumbs-up for contextualizing! Although I suppose an "About" section could achieve this just as well...) but this blog isn't just going to be composed of a series of posts featuring me talking about my life.
Au contraire. This blog is a man with a plan.
And yes, this plan has to deal with my summer internship in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. Here, I'm conducting research with the curator emeritus of South American Ethnology. Now, because he's retired (hence the "emeritus," apparently) he had asked if I would be game for a more independent internship design so that he could still do what he wanted to do with his retirement. Of course, I was thrilled for any internship opportunity at the AMNH, so this was not a problem at all. Plus, this guy has definitely earned it--he held his curatorial position here almost longer than my parents had been alive. Really, he's a legend!
But this blog also isn't going to be just a series of posts telling you about what I'm doing. Oh no. It's going to be a detective case! I'll tell you about my research assignment--the case--and what I have to be able to explain by the end of my internship (the last week of July)--the mystery. Then we'll form a hypothesis or two that we'll test throughout the research process--the investigation!
So if the shadowy unknown of the jungles of the Amazon Rainforest, the (as-of-yet) unexplained presence of deep crevices in the ground, and a tribe with an ancient--yet undeciphered--past make you curious, (which they definitely should!) make sure you stay "in the know" and follow my blog!