After a few days in Pretoria, I traveled south to Johannesburg to work at the University of Witswaters- rand.
Luckily, I took the advise of fellow UI grad student Dan Proctor and stayed with Alison Groves and her family in the suburb of Melville. While Johannesburg is generally widely recognized as one of the less safe places in the world, Melville is really nice with tons of bars and restaurants to choose from, and I never once felt uncomfortable while there. While at Wits I split time working in the P.V. Tobias Fossil Lab and the Raymond Dart Collection. Wits curates some of the most famous fossils in the world, including the Taung child, which I was allowed to see (albeit under constant surveillance). The Dart collection is one of the most extensive collections of African skeletal remains in the world,
and the new curator, Brandon Billings, is steadily turning the collection to a first-class research facility (he is also one of the coolest people I've ever met). Wits also turned out to be a great place to meet fellow anthropologists from around the world. While working with the Dart collection I met fellow researchers from Scotland and Croatia, and even had the opportunity to meet Dr. Liu Wu, with whom I had previously made all my arrangements to visit IVPP in Beijing, China (scheduled for December).
Over the weekend Alison was nice enough to take me out to Sterkfontein so that I could see the caves, it was an absolutely unreal experience to be somewhere I had read so much about! I had a great time in Johannesburg, and hope I can return again in the future.
After a few days in Pretoria, I traveled south to Johannesburg to work at the University of Witswaters- rand. 
Luckily, I took the advise of fellow UI grad student Dan Proctor and stayed with Alison Groves and her family in the suburb of Melville. While Johannesburg is generally widely recognized as one of the less safe places in the world, Melville is really nice with tons of bars and restaurants to choose from, and I never once felt uncomfortable while there. While at Wits I split time working in the P.V. Tobias Fossil Lab and the Raymond Dart Collection. Wits curates some of the most famous fossils in the world, including the Taung child, which I was allowed to see (albeit under constant surveillance). The Dart collection is one of the most extensive collections of African skeletal remains in the world, 
and the new curator, Brandon Billings, is steadily turning the collection to a first-class research facility (he is also one of the coolest people I've ever met). Wits also turned out to be a great place to meet fellow anthropologists from around the world. While working with the Dart collection I met fellow researchers from Scotland and Croatia, and even had the opportunity to meet Dr. Liu Wu, with whom I had previously made all my arrangements to visit IVPP in Beijing, China (scheduled for December). 
Over the weekend Alison was nice enough to take me out to Sterkfontein so that I could see the caves, it was an absolutely unreal experience to be somewhere I had read so much about! I had a great time in Johannesburg, and hope I can return again in the future. 
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