Culture, food and why I'm a vulture

I had a strong, intense feeling the other day of just exactly how much of a "culture vulture" I've become - although I'd like to think it's more from a learning standpoint than exploitative. I was sitting in a falafel shop discussing with [Львица] the merits and disadvantages of becoming a vegetarian. I love talking about food. It's one of the few things that combines nearly all aspects of my education in one facet - sciences, health, history, language, labor, economy... the list goes on. Then I begin thinking about all the things that interest me. And how I want to study everything.

And while we continued eating our hummus and falafel, we began having this huge intellectual conversation about GLBT issues and then back to vegetarianism (and how apparently [novel killer] wants to try to follow Ramadan, so religion eventually came up too). Then I end up with this huge mental web of all this stuff tying together, not just because of how the conversations link but because everything DOES link together. I know I might be seen as a sort of flaky eccentric who likes trying everything, but I like to try different stuff, to experience things that I can't understand. I love trying different foods like falafel and curry dishes and sushi that fifty years ago were nonexistent in American cuisine. And I like how so many differences can still connect to so many similarities. Take food for instance again, because it's a great example and the easiest to work with. So many cultures have a version of dumplings, but they're all a bit different - there's actual dumplings in several different forms, gnocchi, ravioli, wantons, spatzle, pierogi, empanadas... the list goes on and on and ON. All these versions of dumplings are different - but it's the same basic idea.

One of my classes this semester, the only Cultural Studies course I'm in this fall, keeps mentioning how aspects of our culture, especially the university system, presses too much for separate disciplines. And when everything relates to everything, that may not be the best way of going about things. Being anti-disciplinary isn't easy... but it sure makes things a lot more interesting :D