Okay so it is getting to be the time of year of Kristkindl Markt.  I took German for 7 years in middle/high school and a few classes at TU so I am SUPER excited!!  Maybe I should tell you what it is though, yeah?

So Philly plays host to a holiday themed market right outside of City Hall (also known as Dilworth Plaza).  It runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve so there is plenty of time to make it there.  They have over 50 booths that form an authentic representation of an actual German market.  They sell European food, candy, and drinks as well as gifts.  Last year I got my Frau a little pickle to put on her tree but she moved so I never got to give it to her…So Frau Main, leave me a comment if you want your pickle!

It’s about the most adorable thing ever.  Last year Morris and I went to it and it was a blast!

Here’s some pictures from last year!

I love nutcrackers.

Oh boy I’m so excited!!!

But I’m also getting really excited for my school work!!  I have a physics test and a paper due on Friday.  I really have gotten passionate about physics, like yesterday when I was reading I was just so into it!  Four years ago when I was a social work major I would have imagined it.  And next week is really easy.  I don’t think I have anything due.  On the 30th (I volunteered to go first so I would have it done by my birthday) I have a presentation in my geochemistry class on banded iron formations and we’re doing a really cool project in vert paleo!   I’m going actually going to dedicate a whole paragraph to it.

So normally for vert paleo we look at about 20 bones and decide what happened from them.  Last week we had a really cool project where we split into groups and we could ask ten questions about our bone quarry.  From that we had to make our analysis of what happened.  I thought that was pretty fabulous.  My professor called it CSI: Mesozoic.  Kind of cute  : )  This project is a 3 week taphonomy project.  She gave us a data set of about 900 bones and we have to go through and do all of the classifying and data work.  I really like it because I’ve become and excel whiz from doing my research so I cannot wait to work on it again!  We’re also doing a lot of statistics work which I’ve been doing in geochem so I am more than  ready to get started!!

Then the last day of class is December 9th, study days are the 10th and 11th, and then finals start on Monday!  I have physics and yoga on the 14th and then t wo take home finals for geochem and vert paleo.  For me there are only 13 days left of class and less than a month before I’m done finals.

But on a much happier note, this weekend I have work on Saturday and then Sunday my friends and I are going to see New Moon and shop at King of Prussia.  I’ve been wanting to go to Sephora for so long! I love their holiday collections and they are so cheap!

So that’s about it.  I certainly will not update until Monday at the soonest so have a lovely weekend!

So the Geological Society of Temple University (or Geoclub) had a bake sale last Thursday and it was a hit! We made about $100.  There was this one really memorable customer that LOVED our poster.  It was a t-rex with a cookie and Petrie from Land Before Time trying to steal the cookie.  We also put “No!  They be stealing muh cookie!”  like the lolrus.    So he loved it and told us.  He also took a copy and put it on his fridge.  So if you want us to make you a poster, leave a comment.

This is from the end when we ran out of stuff.

And here’s Xerces, because he’s adorable.

Hi!  So I’m going to share a fun little service Temple offers:  Computer Recycling Center (CRC).  It’s kind of like the All Dogs Go to Heaven of computers at Temple.  My computer has been a bit on the fritz lately and everyone talks about their mac and I get kind of jealous.  So I was just on the CRC website and they had a mac for sale!  I’m completely computer illiterate so based on the macs that I have used at Temple, it’ll be pretty fantastic.  The computers do not have any software but they do come with the basic operating system.  Temple is also part of a program that offers reduced prices for software for students.  Here’s a screen shot so you get an idea:

Pretty good deals, yeah?  Students (and employees!) can also buy Symantec antivirus for $8 with free upgrades.  Does this get any better?!

So moral of the story:  if you need a nice cheep computer, talk to CRC.

Hello!  So this has quite possibly been my busiest weekend this semester.  Friday night I decided to play the role of the studious student.  I went to see my physics professor and we talked about some homework, GREs and grad school.  I went to see him a lot last semester and he remembered my name (including last, which is really impressive with a class of 150ish and tons of Amandas).  So we talked about some problems and he was like, ‘You haven’t been doing so well on your quizzes,” and I was like, “You better look again,” and he did and I’m doing just fine.  He was just thinking of a different student.  He did m that the one quiz I bombed was when I took the GREs though (I wrote him a note not to expect much because I had just taken the GREs the day previous) so then we got into other things.  It’s really nice to have professors that care  : )
So I got home and wrote a paper about Ludwig Boltzmann.  And that was Friday.  Then Saturday I had work, followed by some homework.  Then it was girls night!   I went to my friend Amanda’s house and we watched Transformers 2.  That was something else.  And soon enough it was 11:00 p.m.  and I had a trip the Smithsonian the next day so I headed home to get some sleep.

So then at 8:00 I was back at Temple to go to the Smithsonian with my Vertebrate Paleontology class and it was a BLAST!  The drive down was great.  We didn’t hit traffic, I was sleeping, it was great.   We spent the whole day there and I took plenty of pictures so get pumped!!

This is an eurypterid and they are my FAVORITE!

A cartoon eurypterid with a tie and moustache? Yes!

Petrified wood!

Look at his neural spine! Unbelievable!

It's an allosaur! He's got belly ribs. Crazy.

Swimming eurypterids!! So cute!

A giant sloth from the ice age. I can't normally handle sloths nowadays because of how cute they are. Imagine looking at this guy!

Emily, Ashley, and I! The field camp ladies!

A seal.

A giraffe! I took this for my co-worker Abby S! She was a giraffe for Halloween : )

And now for the rocks!

Banded iron!

Komatiite! This rock is actually extinct because the earth has cooled too much for it to crystallize on the surface.

This is fluorite and the craziest sample I ever saw of it.

These are all the same mineral. Again, crazy.

Turquoise, my favorite mineral.

Topaz, my birthstone.

A collage I made on my phone on the way back. I know, I'm adorable : )

Leaving the museum.

I took this picture because half the class got stuck crossing the street.

So now I’m all nostalgic!  Freshman year my RA had a trip to DC and I went with my bff Tomi K.  So here’s a little contrast!

It was raining pretty bad!

This is my favorite picture of the day! We spent all day looking for the mall which I knew was a grass mall, he thought it was a shopping mall. Best time ever!

I like Tomi's caption: First stop, Art Museum. Really boring, so we left.

The Hope Diamond. This time I didn't even look for it.

I like this one because Tomi tagged this guy as me Oh he's such a kidder!

I don't think this guy was there this time...

Oh geez.  That was a fun post.  Hope you made it through!

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and got a 1260!!!  I was so nervous.  I am a pleased little lady.  My goal for October was to take the GREs with a sufficient score to get into grad school and November is figuring out where I’ll spend my next 2 years.

This weekend I’m going home for my nephews birthday party.  It should be a killer time partying with Juicy Juice and pin the tail on the donkey.

Hello Hello!!  Well much has happened since you last heard from me.  Mostly academics, like study for the GREs I’m taking tomorrow(yikes!), research, tests, and getting my grad school dreams crushed, but some fun stuff has happened!

Okay really, I don’t have time for fun stuff. So here’s a general timeline of events.

October 12th-17th:  I got really sick.  In all actuality, I think it was just a really nasty reaction to this cranberry juice I had but I felt terrible.  There was also a sulfur gas leak in Beury Hall so that added on some nice little side affects. In other Beury news, there is a hawk that hangs out in this tree right outside.  I don’t know if anyone has told him, but we’re the Temple Owls.  He’s got a ways to go if he thinks he’s at Saint Joe’s.  He’s the blob in the middle of the picture.

That Friday I went to see Where the Wild Things Are (and cried most of the movie) and then went to the King of Prussia mall.  And there wasn’t even anything fabulous so it was kind of depressing. There was a really sweet Bakugan tournament though!

October 18th-24th:  This was the week of GSA so many of the faculty were gone from the EES department.  That meant I didn’t have geochem one Monday and Thursday.  And because that’s my only class on Thursday, I had a free day!!  I started like this:

I thought the steam was really neat.   So I took a break and watched The Office for a bit.  Then I cracked open the GRE book and had a very long day studying.  I’m actually doing really well.  I get around 650 for the math section and then around 550 verbal so I’m not too worked up about it.  But I’m still worked up : )

Other than the trip to KOP, the most exciting thing I’ve been doing is walking the dogs.  There’s this little park down by were I walk them on Frankford and they have a bunch of scarecrows out.  This one is my favorite!!

And this one is my least favorite:

I don’t like this guy because he looks like this guy:

This guy is from Maniac Mansion, a game for Nintendo.  When I was little I used to go to my grandparents house on the rare occasion that I got sent to my room.  We shared half a double and my room had the door to the attic so I would just sneak upstairs and go over to their house and play games and this was my favorite/least favorite.  I loved playing it but it scared the crap out of my when I got caught by this guy!  I still get frantic when it happens.  The first thing you do is go to the kitchen to get a soda so you can get by this plant (you have to feed it wax fruit too) and the mom comes down and catches you and you have to run but I get so scared I can’t function.  Then I have to stop because I’m so worked up.  I’m a million times worse with scary movies  : )

And back on topic, this weekend I am heading home!  It’s my nephew Jake’s  birthday party so I’m really excited for that.  He’s turning the big four.  I was talking to him on the phone the other day and he said, “Where are you?  I can’t see you.”  Cutest thing ever!  I really like when the dogs paws get wet and they leave a footprint on the cement because Jake screams “A CLUE!!” and he’s so dang proud of himself.  So here’s Leonidas hanging out of the window.

Next post should be more fun.  After I take the GREs I only have a physics test left to knock out before finals so I should have some free time.

Hello hello!!  So I have two big tests coming up so I haven’t done anything too exciting.  On Saturday  I studied Yoga with my friend Emily and then we went into the city for some Cosi.  Sunday I worked from 6:45 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and was then in a state of comatose for the rest of the day.  Monday was class 8-6 and then Tuesday I went grocery shopping!

Now normally I would never talk about grocery shopping but this time was kind of exciting.  There was the CUTEST fall display with acorn balloons.  You can see my excitement:

Really. This was too exciting for me. I need to get out more.

And here’s Morris outside Trader Joe’s.  I like Trader Joe’s because they have a lot of premade stuff which means I don’t have to be creative with my menus.  And they have free samples too!

I like that we have the same facial expression here.

But moving right along, my vertebrate paleontology class has been meeting at the Academy of Natural Science lately to look at the collections.  This past week was a lot of fun because I got to work with people that were on the same level as me.  And we totally rocked it.  Except there was this one bone that I said was a finger and the one guy said it was a tibia and then we had a long battle to which I conceded (I was outnumbered) and I was right in the end.  There goes two points I’ll never see again.

The field camp ladies in front of a mastadon.

And then because we were already in the city, Emily (girl on the right) and I decided to go to Cosi again.  I’m absolutely addicted.  Then we just meandered a bit and took in the sights of the city.  It was a lovely time.

A sight, particularly that of the Comcast building.

And then I studied physics all night long!

So here are some more pictures!

While setting up tents we found a frog. Really going for a kiss here, but it looks like I'm blowing on his butt. Later I slipped in mud going into the pond trying to catch another.

Future of geology!

Silly faces!

Inside a mine.

Inside the mine.

Some serious folding...and students.

Broad Street Ballers! I have no idea if that is the right spelling of the right baller...but you get it.

I like this one because I look like I'm concentrating.

Cooking...

& eating : )

The End  : )

This weekend EES (Earth and environmental Science) had our department trip and this year it was to New York for the New York State Geological Association Field Trip.  We left Friday and came back Sunday.  Rundown of events:

Friday:  driving to NY, ate at my professors parent’s house.  How fun is that?!

Saturday:  We looked at an area with regional folding that allowed for the deposition of magnetite mineralization.  This was really cool because the guy leading us went to Buffalo for undergrad and that’s one of the places I’m thinking of going for my grad work.  But West Virginia is high up there too  : )  We also had a big dinner at the camp fire of vegetarian chilli, cheese, and chips, grapes, cookies, and some beano.  Our professors really know how to watch out for us.  And I’m pretty sure I gained some weight.

Sunday:  We drove around looking at a classical Barovian sequence of metamorphism.  We were pretty cranky because of rain and we were sick so we kind of skipped out a bit early.  Plus you couldn’t see any of the minerals in hand sample and the rocks were covered in poison ivy so it was a bit boring.

I only have a few pictures from my phone but when otheres put some up I’ll post more   : )

One of the caverns left from mining the magnetite. Of course the Temple kids picked up the biggest rock available and threw it in.

View from in one of the caves left from mining.

Amanda, Allison, and Mike!

So it’s Wednesday which starts the slowing of my academic week.  On Wednesdays I only have 2 classes (yoga and physics) and then Thursday I only have Geochem and then Friday is the same as Wednesday.  I’m really pumped to get some sleep  : )

But yesterday was a lot of fun in an academic sense.  I mentioned my vert paleo class was going to the Wagner Museum and we did and it was a blast!  I’m starting to really understand the stuff we’re talking about and being able to recognize and understand the bones of skeletons so that’s a nice feeling.  You’re not allowed to take pictures inside the Wagner so here’s a link to their website!

http://www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org/

It’s free, it’s fun, and they sell fake mustaches in their gift shop.  Everything is original so it’s kind of like time traveling. It’s a natural science museum so they have skeletons, animals that have been stuffed, minerals, fossils, insects, dinosaur legs, just all sorts of  fun stuff  : )