July 29, 2006

And once again, greetings!

The summer, which I was hoping would prove to be relaxing and full of exciting projects like creating a website and maybe some art, has turned into a rather full but rewarding adventure.  After returning from Utah and celebrating my birthday, I headed off to spend another month at the Earth Science department’s annual field camp.  Camp is held out in Deep Springs Valley, east of the Sierras and across the White/Inyo mountain range.  The basic outline of the class involves figuring out the history and structural geology of a rather complicated geologic area called the Poleta Fold Belt. I LOVE it out in the desert.  The camp has quite a setup- nice base camp situated at ~7,000 feet on a lovely mountain pass amidst old juniper and cedar trees.  We saw numerous jackrabbits, ground squirrels, lizards and ravens and could hear owls and coyotes at night.  We even found a scorpion and observed its green glow under ultraviolet light.  Really unreal. In the past, it would get ridiculously hot out in Deep Springs Valley (I’m talking over 110 degrees). However, this year, it was surprisingly pleasant.  We had impressive thunder storms almost daily and even had a night of hail.  We did not spend our entire time out at Poleta.  We also spent some time on field trips to places like Pine Creek Mine – a huge Tungsten mine in the eastern Sierras and old ghost towns in western Nevada – complete with haunted hotels. Hilde, our professor, Maya, her daughter, Tim, my fellow TA, and I also took a morning to hike White Mountain, a marvelous 14 thousand foot peak (well, at least most of it).  Check out the photos to get an idea of what we got to see.

Now, I am getting my act together, trying to put together a poster for a conference in Ireland I have in a few weeks.  After the conference, Matt and I will be able to travel for a bit.  I’m looking forward to a trip to Europe.  I need a vacation.  My brother is coming to visit and I look forward to spending time with him too.  Time to play tourist in Santa Cruz again.  I also just found out I will be able to do some field work in Madagascar this fall  - three weeks after I return from Europe.  So, I need to work out logistics for that trip as well.  Jeepers.  This trip will be big for me.  My first actual true blue field expedition for MY research.  I’m excited and I’m scared.  I have to do things like remember how to speak French, figure out how to hire a car and driver to take me on a two-day drive out to a reserve on a dirt road that “might be fixed by now,” and I need to learn a thing or two about anthropology field work.  For example, how does one trap a mouse lemur and what does one do with it once it’s trapped?  Luckily, I will be interacting with some great researchers who have done this before.  Thank goodness.  So, that’s that.  My plate’s full right now.  I hope that everyone’s summers are going well.  Mine sure is.  Ok, you’ll be hearing from me again after I come back from Europe.    

Bubye!

Brooke