South Dakota here we come…

right back where we started from!

I sang that the whole way back from our Wyoming trip.  It was lovely and all, but I was over living out of my bag.  So we started our trip at Devils Tower which is a very rare phonolite rock that shows columnar jointing.  Amazing.

The Pennsylvania girls at Devils Tower.

We stayed a night in Tensleep, Wy. which is really adorable.  We went out for dinner and made friends with this guy named Wes and he took us for a suprise the next day!!!

DINOSAURS!!!!  It was the BEST suprise ever!  And it gets better.  Wes, the guy who took us out the the site, mentioned they get sent to Pennsylvania to be assembled and I figured they went to the maybe the Franklin, The Wagner, or Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.  I thought this would be really cool because I’m taking Vertabrate Paleontology next semester  and I might get a behind the sceenes look at them in the museum.  So I’m like, “Hey Wes, where in Pa do these dinosaurs go?” and he was like, “Sunbury” and I almost fainted (Sunbury’s my home town).  So now I have a little scout mission to do in Sunbury next week  : )

Me and a femur.

Wes and I for proof : )

And then we went and learned lots of geology stuff that is far too much to type up here but if you ever see me and are interested just ask.  But here’s lots of pictures!!!

Bear Tooth Mountains

Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

At a coal mine.

At the Stillwater Mine (this one was underground, thus the attire)

A mapping spot.

Temple ladies!! We're going to send this to our structural geology professor.

Lecture stop. I was scared out of my mind.

The Grand Tetons!!

Emily at Suprise Lake while hiking the Grand Teton!

View from the top!

Some of us at the top. We were the middle group up.

Us with the Grand Teton in the back!

And it was Mandy's birthday so we had a birthday dinner!!

And this was right by our one mapping project of glaciers so there was a lake right there (Fremont) and I went swimming there and it was freezing but it was great!!!  I really wish I had pictures, it was fabulous.  And I had water in my ears for days!

Here’s the Lake!

Teddy and Sprinkles on the top of Independence Rock!! You would not believe how hard it is to climb in converse!

So Melissa is Teddy because she was going to be Theodore if she were a boy and I’m Sprinkles because one day Janelle said, “Make up your minds, people,” and I was like, “Did you just call me sprinkles??”  Happy fourth!

hi hi hi!!

Hi!  So I’m at field camp and it is a BLAST!!  Right now I’m packing for Wyoming and doing a terrible job of it.  So this is going to be mostly pictures and captions so enjoy!!!

Ashley, Emily and I in Champaign, Il.

Melissa, our new friend from Pitt!! I LOVE this girl!

I just really like this one : )

At Wall Drug, riding the Jackaloupe.

The girls from Pennsylvania!

And then we got Black Hill University and got to work.

Our first project!! We were so high up!!

Briadal View Falls! It's in a phonolite intrusion.

At the pegmatite!

Sundog in the Badlands.

Reppin' Temple in the Badlands!!

Me jumping over a big hole into poison ivy. I like Britten laughing at me : )

A cataclastic dike and Katie for scale.

The Badlands <3

Taking some notes on the rocks.

Melissa's in for a nasty suprise : )

Emily and I hugging.

I was scared out of my mind.

Group picture!

Mountain Goat!

Jill (my roommate) and I found the chert!!

...& then it hailed.

Homestake Mine

On a train at the Homestake

Wharf Gold mine.

Pegmatite!

Being attentive...

At the pegmatite!

Mt. Rushmore!!!

I love this one because of Dr. Chesner in the back : )

Alfredo and I heading out to map some unconformities.

On the Deadwood.

In the car...we make friends fast : )

On a free day we went to the Paleontology Museum and I cried at this Eurypterid.

So that’s that.  Can you believe I get credit to do this!??!  Hahah.  So we leave for Wyoming tomorrow and there’s only a few weeks left  : (   We’re already talking about reunions.  In Wyoming we go to Yellowstone and the Stillwater mine and somewhere that I can buy cowboy boots.  Get pumped!!!

Hi Hi!!  So I’ve been away for quite a while doing some really cool things.  First is I went home for my niece’s birthday party!  She was turning the big 6.  Her party was at Knoebles in Elysburg, Pa.  Now one thing that most people at Temple can relate to is Knoebels.  People will ask me where I am from and I tell them and get a blank stare in response.  So then I saw by Knoebels and then I get an, “Oh yeah!”

Leonidas on the way home!

Haley and I on the train.

Haley riding the Phoenix for the first time : )

Mike and Jake! How cute are they?!?

Then during finals my geogirls and I decided to make some iron on t-shirts.  Here they are finished!  Amanda and I also made physics ones for our final.  It has our professors face on the front and on the back it has the Mexican wave with some Loris’s doing the wave.  So here’s the story behind that:

One day Tsankov (our professor) writes 1986 on the board and Mexican wave and goes into this story about 1986 being the year he came to America and was watching a football game (he later clarified soccer) and the people in the stands started doing the wave and he was going on about kinetic and potential energy.  Long story short, I almost died laughing.  If you’re taking physics at Temple, go with Tsankov.

So we also like this video:

But here’s the ladies with our shirts!  We actually made them on study days so it was a nice break from studying  : )

Emily, me, Amanda & Sarah. We really like paleo things : )

Matt's design!

And then we went to the zoo!!

Emily and I... this pretty much describes our relationship.

Look at how he's sleeping!!

And then Kim, Morris, Sean (the housemate), and I met in Chinatown for some dinner.  Kim and I went shopping first and I got two gorgeous dressed for under $20 (thanks Ross!) and it was really nice.  I like how Philly is nice and compact so you can walk mostly everywhere.  On our walk to the restaurant from the shopping we saw a crab scuttle down the street.  I thought that was pretty fun  : )

Kim and I at the restaurant.

My artsy picture facing west from Center City.

And then there was a geology party in Manyunk.  It was a really nice time to chill after classes were over and barbeque.

Matt and Sam! (Matt's wearing his shirt he made)

Some of the group...with some of the group paying attention.

And then the geogirls!

Emily, Amanda, me, and Sarah.

Then I went home for a bit because I’ll be at field camp for most of the summer!  It’s a requirement for my major and Emily, Ashley (a girl from my structure class), and I are going together.  I’m so worked up!  But I’ll be there until mid July, then I take my nephew and niece for a week in Philly, and then it’s time for work 9-5!!  An exciting summer for sure!

I do have pictures from home but they’re all the way downstairs and I’m upstairs and it’s nice and cold up here…maybe I’ll update at the airport.

Xoxox & take care!

Hey Hey!

So I’ve been up to all sorts of fun since the last post.  There have been a lot of school trips and just busy times so this is going to be a monster of a post updating on the last month.

My petrology class went to Ringing Rocks which was a BLAST!!  Ringing rocks is a field of big diabase bolders about an hour away from Philly that ring when struck.  Yeah, a geologists dream.  It’s unknown why they do this.  Some say transport from glaciation caused it, others say aliens.  Pick your favorite.

Some of us at the field.

Ringing some rocks and excited about it.

Amanda and I dipping our feet. I was pretty serious about getting those boots off!

Emily and I at the top of the waterfall...before I waterfell! hahah oh my.

the waterfall

So that was a one day joy.  But this past weekend was even better!!  We went to the Catskills, NY.  We left on Thursday and got back Sunday and it was a blast.  Now 3 geology classes go:  Structure (the capstone), Paleontology and Stratigraphy, and Soils.  I was with Structure.  Now structure is pretty intense, but the trip was insanely fun!  My professor was so chill.  He was climbing outcrops with his coffee cup.  And there was a lot of people so a lot of people to mingle with.

Nick (my professor) and I playing basketball. Can you believe he used to terrify me?!

& then he let me teach!! I know it looks like a crazy smiley face, but it's really a sycline. I was drawing a parasitic fold that was inside a parasitic fold inside a syncline! Mindblowing!

The ride there. It was 5 hours of nonstop fun. This is Sarah, Emily, and I.

Our structure group at the campfire! This is Neil, Emily and I and we never stop fighting.

So there’s a really popular fossil called the trilobite and we never find one anywhere we go.  The 3 classes go different places and there were text message rumors that a trilobite had been found.  Emily captioned this picture and I think it’s just fabulous:  “Amanda says “Emily, I found a trilobite!” I look over and this is what I see.”

This is what they really look like:

I think they look alike.

My favorite is the eurypterid though.  It’s supposed to be the state fossil of NY but I never see them.  Kind of like how the trilobite is PA’s state fossil but they’re only in Swatara Park.   Look how cute eurypterids are though!!!

darling!!

So one night we went to the campfire and we saw an island in the middle of the river and Mike (my TA), Kevin (a fellow student that I lived with in 1300 freshman year), and Emily (…Emily), and I forded the river to the island in the dark.  I decided I wanted to walk on this log but we had to go through all this brush so Kevin went with me because he had a head lamp (of course!) and off we went.  Well, his light fell on the most beautiful breccia I ever saw!  We tried to move it at least to the campfire but it was too heavy so we waited until daylight.  Meanwhile, we’re all hype about this rock and Mike is telling Nick about how cool this is because there’s a matrix inside the matrix and we’re telling EVERYONE (and their mother) about this.  When we got back that day we run down to the island to get this rock and as we’re tieing it up to pull it out of the river, I noticed a metal rod coming out of it.  Emily captioned this one well too:  “Eff Urbanite!”

After realizing it was urbanite...

Colin modeling the safety gear.

Sigmasoidal gashes show a rotation!

It took me 2 seconds to make this and everyone joked that I'm really a dragon.

& here's that picture of Nick climbing with his coffee. Is he for real?

Before the day starts we gather and find out what everyone’s doing.  One day it was announced that Paleo and Soils got to go for a hike and and structure was going to work.  Bummerrrrr.  But when it came time to go to our second stop that day, Nick couldn’t find it.   It was hysterical.  We were going up and down the same road, seeing the same things, driving up peoples driveways, hitting dead ends, it was just fabulous.  So then we go to the stop that was schedule for the next day and we’re all like, “really Nick, can’t we just go for a hike?,” but no, we stayed at that outcrop.  So then the next day we were all over the place some more and then we drive down to a river and start walking the cutbank with no rocks in sight.  I figured they were further down so we did this crazy obstacle course through mud and rock, over trees, through bushes, etc.  And we get to the end, like nowhere to go & still no rocks.  He took us for a walk!  And we got to sit on the Kalkberg formation and eat lunch!  It was WONDERFUL.  But the Kalkberg has a chert signature and I sat on some and broke my camera.  At least it was at the end of the trip  : )

Emily and I on the Kalkberg!

The End  : )

Midterms are FINALLY over for me : )

…so I finally got to have some fun!!

But first we have to rewind a bit.  Last Sunday Morris and I were on craigslist.com.  First of all, I love this site for many reasons:  housing, free stuff, and missed connections.  It just so happens that I found the most beautiful bike!  Now I already did have a bike, Sunshine Kimberly (more on S.S. Kimberly here: http://owlamanda.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/the-ss-kimberly ), but she is a beast to ride!  The gears don’t change and she’s a monster, not at all like who she’s named after.  So I decided it was time for a new bike so Morris and I were passively looking until we saw Brittany.  I called the phone number and drove to Willow Hill to pick her up.  I got lost a little, but it was nothing too serious.  And I really like that area going out there!  I know a lot of people from Abbington and after driving through, I just want to go back and walk around.

Back to Brittany, she is a beaut!  She got her name because that’s the make and I can go up this hill at school now without a problem!  And even better, I’ve been riding on the hardest setting!  I just went to campus today and I barely pedalled.  Not great for a workout, but fantastic for not being a mess once I get to school.  So that’s Brittany.

So yesterday was the first day of spring so that meant free Rita’s!!  My last class on Friday is Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology so after that a whole bunch of us from the class went to the Rita’s on campus.  I got sweet tea and it is so good.

Emily, Amanda, JinXing, and Tom at Rita's

And then after that Kim, not as in Sunshine Kimberly but old housemate Kim, and I went to Plaza Pizza for dinner, got more free Rita’s, and then went to the Reel to see Benjamin Buttons.  The Reel is a movie theatre on campus that has $2 movie tickets.  It’s perfect for my budget 

And then today Kim, her friend Cassie, and I went to the zoo!!  Now I really was going to ride the balloon.  I have a very intense fear of hot air balloons.  Something about floating around in a wicker basket with a flame…doesn’t seem to smart to me.  But it’s not a hot air balloon, but the shape and size still terrifies me.  I was in line and everything.  But then it was 3:30 and they were closing in 1.5 hours.  We had only seen half the zoo and we would have spent the rest of the time in line.  So we didn’t ride it.  And I’m a little bummed.

This turtle was eating a banana whole, and I thought it was hysterical

Some really old bikes...I would have loved to ride one!!

These guys were cuddling and so cute!

And he was just rolling on the ground

Look at how big his head is!!

Kim!!! I don't know where I was standing here, I'm the same height as Kim...

Trying to impress the ladies...

Me!

And Cassie! This poor girl...first she lost her earring then her wallet. On our way back to the car I found her earring in the grass and her wallet was in her car.

Birthday Cake: the zoo was celebrating it's 150th birthday.

The balloon! One day I won't be so terrified of this.

William Penn's grandson's house.

She kept walking in front of us!! She was showing off : )

Aardvarks! How cute are they?! I think they're adorable.

And I didn’t get to see the anteaters but I did get rock candy and I have a terrible headache from the sugar.  So I’m going to sleep it off now.  Take care, everyone!

Oh, Tyler.

This is probably the funniest thing that will happen all day.  Imagine what UArts thought when this showed up at their doors….

http://www.philebrity.com/2009/03/18/update-tyler-art-school-war-is-oh-so-real/#more-20460

Want to know what’s really cool?

The work I’m doing right now.  I’m working with one of my T.A.’s, who is such an amazing person by the way, to make thin sections for her research.  I had no idea what she was doing, I was just cutting, epoxying, and polishing like it was no ones business.
So today she bought us pizza and we were talking about what exactly she was doing.  She has 4.4 billion year old chert and is looking for the oldest carbon EVER in these rocks.  She has to have it in thin section which is a realllllly thin piece of rock that light can pass through so she can look at it under a microscope.  How cool is that?

Look what you can do at Temple  : )

Spring Break!

So it is spring break here at Temple and it came just in time!  I had just come off of a 3 streak test and was super stressed out.  I don’t have any plans for the rest of break except to work for a geology grad student.  And I just want to stress how much I love spring break; I woke up at 8, took the dogs for an hour walk, napped with them until 2, and have been watch How the Earth Was Made since then.  Now we’re on Krakatoa!!  I’m such a nerd.

So home is always an interesting time.  The store where my mom works, Hurr’s Dairy, just reopened and are having crazy busy days.  So my sister decided she would work which left us with most of her kids!  And I think they’re about the cutest things ever so I have to put up some pictures of them.

Morris had the great idea to go to Fort Discovery so here are pictures of that!

Jacob!

Abby and my mom

Going down the slide! (Abby just got the boot off from me coming down!)

The other two were off playing with friends so I didn’t get pictures of them.

So time for some fun stories from the park!  We started off playing wiffle ball and Mike threw the ball to me right as Haley was running in front on me and the ball hit her right in the head and ricocheted off.  Her reaction was to just stand there and make a funny face.   I almost died laughing!

Then I took charge of Abby and we were running around and I lifted her onto the higher level and started to climb up.  Well by the time I got up she was already down the slide so when I went to look for her I couldn’t find her.  Then I hear this “help!” and it’s not panicked or flustered, it’s a demand.  So I walk over to where I got up at and there she is with her hands in the air.  And this girl is so shy.  If you talk to her she stops what she’s doing and drops her head (like below, but I took this picture from in front of her so just imagine being taller than her).  I was very shocked.

Abby being shy after I complimented her shoes.

Jake with his pretty earrings.

And a family picture taken by Haley. When I asked her how it looked she said pretty.

And then on Saturday my mom and sister went to work and my brother-in-law took the two babies so Morris and I took the older two bowling. Boy was that an experience!  They both really liked it but Haley was just terrible.  The lightest ball they have is 6 lbs and the girl is only 40 lbs so she could barely do anything.  This one time it took so long for the ball to get to the pins that the machine lifted the pins as if the ball had already gone by.  Hysterical.  Ironically she got a strike.

Mikey and his bowling ball

Then on Sunday my parents took Morris, the older two, and I to the Row of Shoppes is Lewisburg.  It was amazing!  There was so much!  Anyone from central Pa needs to get themselves there.  Morris found me a piece of Alexandrite!!  It’s this mineral that is really expensive because in different light, the mineral color changes.  It’s so beautiful and I got it for $5!  And there is a bunch of antiques that are all fabulous looking. There were so many German Steins!  Like huge steins that are very expensive anywhere else.  I was so tempted because they were so cheap, but there was way too much to pick from. And of course, pictures!

Haley talking to her new doll

This place had the most AMAZING boots!! Unfortunately they were not my glass slipper and I was not Cinderella.

My mom and Mikey

So there’s another really funny story.  After bowling Morris and I took the kids out to eat and to the mall.   Haley has the nickname “Lazy Daisy” so she was already annoyed enough about the mall. Then we had to stop by the grocery store before we went home for the night and as we were leaving I said, “Haley, do you want carried?” and she stops,  makes this terrible face and goes, “Carrots!?”  And we went to a store in the mall and we both got some body spray and lotion and she told the cashier that she wanted a separate bag.  So she gets this bag with pretty tissue paper and a sample and mine is just the bag.  I told my mom about this when we got home and Haley goes, “That’s because little girls are special.”  This girl is too much.

So that was my exciting weekend!  Next week I have a paper, presentation, and test so I’m going to get an early start on that!  Take care!

So February ended….

and I haven’t been very active here.  I just came off of a terrible academic week.  I had 4 midterms scheduled in 3 days which covered over 500 pages of material.  My one professor had a baby so one got pushed back until after spring break  : )

So my social life has been about as eventful as finding lint in your belly button (thanks to Morris for that comparison).  The last real thing I did was the Ludo concert and that we two weeks ago.  Morris and I got there right as Ludo was going on and it was just lovely.  The Troc is in Chinatown so you can probably guess where we went before!! That’s right, Singapore vegetarian!  I can’t talk about it too much or else I’ll get hungry  : )

So here’s some pictures!

And then just yesterday there was a ribbon cutting ceremony for Beury Hall!!  This is what I learned from the ceremony:

• The renovation was a $25 million project.
• Ann Weaver Hart has two geologists in her family.
• Geologists are more opportunistic than chemists, as seen in the refreshment line and line to get Beury mugs.
• The Geology department was meant to have our own building.

Oh the dreams we had.  Ann winked at me.  I’m pretty sure it was to me because when she said bullet number 2 I clapped the loudest and it was in my direction.  So here’s some pictures:

Ann Weaver Hart, president of Temple.

Oh, and here’s Dr.  Grandstaff, better known as G!  The guy behind G, the dean of the College of Science and Technology, made a joke about how this was the first time he’s ever seen G in a tie and it only took $25 million. But we all know real scientists don’t wear ties because of safety issues.  For example, G is a geochemist.  Imagine that on a hot plate!

And here’s the sign.  Silly, I know, but meaningful.

Dr. Myer!!  He’s a trip.

Some geo ladies!

The side of Ann Weaver Hart.  I didn’t want to be too obvi  : )

And Hooter and I!

And now it’s spring break time!!  I’m actually doing some lab work with a grad student and getting paid.  It’s making this sections of rock.  Super fun.  I’m so pumped  : )

This past weekend Morris took me to South Street to do some dinning and shopping.  We went to this Alyan’s which is just off South at 4th Street and it was delicious! We decided to go there just from online reviews and it was great!  So it was a little small but they have this back area that has a sun roof and is windows on all sides.  It was so cute!  And they have real flowers at the table.  I’m not sure if that was for Valentine’s of if that is normal, but again, cute.  And the food was delicious!  I got falafel and hummus and I forget what Morris got but it looked pretty fantastic.  We also got their fries with onions and jalapeno pepper that we saw in all of the reviews and I’m a big fan!

So here’s the restaurant from the outside:

Here’s my falafel:

And Morris’:

And Morris bought me some jewelry too!  We went to Mineralistic because my friend Sarah works there.  He picked me out pink spectrolite earrings and a garnet ring.  That store is awesome.  To be quite honest, some of the statues are a little bizarre but the minerals and fossils they have are AMAZING!  I highly recommend it for some unique jewelry.

And then I got this little surprise!

Justin Nozuka is going to be playing at the TLA!!  And I’m definitely going  : )

And then we were just walking around a bit and we stumbled upon this little treasure:

And from another angle:

I thought this was hysterical because it says, “A man full of trouble” and has a man with a woman, a parrot, and a monkey and is from 1759.