Sunday, January 28, 2007

just a quick picture blog

I have a few minutes and a chance to post some pictures! so I will do that now. To see them, click on the link labeled "pictures" to the right. These are from my little adventure with the senior Geology majors. The ones with the beach are in Kaikoura. There is a lot of faulting and tectonic activity there. The penguin is called a "blue penguin." There are fur seals and some random sea life. don't forget to go the my PICTURES link on the upper right hand side. there will be some more pictures there. The big mountain pictures and pictures with clouds are south of Kaikoura. The mountains are the Southern Alps. Some of the pictures are of Mount Cook--a huge cloudy mountain that is about as hard to climb as Mnt. Denali. The lake is Lake Pukaki. The water is so absolutely gorgeous and blue. This bluish green color comes from glaciers. There are still a lot of glaciers in New Zealand. They feed into these lakes and rivers and make them that beautiful color.
I have to go to dinner with my crew now! We are eating at the "Dux de Lux," a well known restaurant in Christchurch. There are only about 10 of us! This is really exciting. They seem to be really nice and down to earth. The man I am working with is a lot nicer and smilier than my professor, Chris, described. Gotta run!

REAL FAST!

This post is going to have to be pretty fast. I have quite a few updates though. I don't have time to put up pictures right now, and truthfully now that I have learned more about what my experience will be like, I might never get to put up pictures. I might have to put them up after I get back to the states. I have been tromping around the southern island in New Zealand for awhile. If you look back at the map I linked earlier, you may see Christchurch, Kaikoura, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo, the Southern Alps, etc. I went to all of those places and learned about the geology there with the senior geology class.
There may be a change in my accessibility to the internet on the boat. What might happen is I will only be able to post once a week. We will see. The internet will be somewhat different there than I expected. It probably can't load as much data as needed for me to post on my blog. Anyway, we will work things out. If I am unable to post to my blog often enough, I will send a big email.
That's all i have time for now. The ocean is beautiful and the colors are outrageious here! So beautiful. There are some grasses that turn yellow and red just like at home in walsenburg. I never expected that! There is also a little bit of a communication issue here, eventhough I and everyone born in this country are native english speakers. Those kiwis are hard to understand. (Kiwi is a nickname for New Zealanders.) Now I am off to get my cold weather gear and get ready to leave on a C-17 tomorrow between 4 and 10am.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

PANIC!!!



Tomorrow is the day. I have been in panic mode for a few days now. I am sure it seems like I am exaggerating, but I feel like I haven't slept in days. The woman who is in charge of my plane tickets is somewhat of a flake. She is really hard to get a hold of, and I never know what is going to happen with her. I wasn't sure about my plane tickets until just this morning! Tuesday! The DAY before I leave. No wonder I am in panic mode. Yesterday I had to drive to Colorado Springs from Denver to get my ticket packet to be able to get on the plane, into New Zealand, and into and out of Chile. There is a letter in this packet that tells the country of New Zealand that I am allowed to be there. I had no idea that I needed something like that! It freaks me out to have so much dependent on a little piece of paper.

I will be flying alone. Travelling for days alone. I think being alone and somehow losing something are my biggest fears for this trip. On Sunday my aunt Edna had a going away party for me, and everyone was telling me how brave I was to be willing to go so far away with people I don't know; proud of me for being on a ship for two months straight. I am truthfully not afraid of any of those things. I am just afraid that somehow I will forget something really important that will not allow me to travel. I am sure all will be fine but WOW! I really can't sleep.

It is time for me to say my good byes. Up until this point I wasn't sad. I wasn't worried. There were no issues. Now that I have realized that I am leaving tomorrow, I am a little melancholy. This will be an experience of a lifetime. Hopefully I will cultivate a better understanding about what I can do with geology. Tomorrow will begin an opportunity on 500,000 people have had.

I will be visiting Christchurch and Kaikoura while I am there. Kaikoura is a little north east of Christchurch. Kaikoura is on the beach and is well known for its whale watching sites. I am meeting up with Christine Siddoway and the senior geology majors in Kaikoura. Hopefully I will learn something about the fascinating geology of New Zealand from them!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The wait continues....

On Thursday and Friday I found out that I was finally "PQ-ed" (physically qualified) to go to Antarctica, and I got a preliminary intinerary for my trip. Unlike what I told the Gardner students on Wednesday, I am actually flying over the Pacific Ocean to get to New Zealand. Last time I had talked to anyone about flying to or from Australia or anywhere like that, they said that they had to fly from New York and east instead of just flying west. I guess things have changed, or I was just wrong. So far they think I will be flying from Denver, to Las Angeles, to Auckland, New Zealand, and finally to Christchurch, New Zealand. I will get there at 10:20 am on Friday January 26th after leaving on Wednesday January 24th (don't forget that I have to cross the International Date Line). I will be in Christchurch for a few days, but then I will be taking another plane trip to McMurdo Station.

McMurdo Station was developed by the National Science Foundation for the United States science research trips to the Antarctic. McMurdo isn't actually on the continent of Antarctica. It is on a volcanic island just off the coast of Antarctica, but these two pieces of land are connected by an ice sheet. I'm pretty excited to get to McMurdo. I have a friend who has been there since October, and she will have plenty to tell me about live in Antarctica (or very near). I know that about 1000 people or so live there during the year, and I was actually thinking about (yet not very seriously) maybe working there when I get out of college. Who knows though. I am sure I would be doing a lot of manual labor. It also depends on how much money they offer me. ^_^

I am rambling. I don't really have much information to offer today other than the fact that I will be flying over the Pacific Ocean instead of the Atlantic, unlike I previously thought. In addition, after my boat trip is over. I will go to Punta Arenas then Puerto Montt, to Santiago, and then finally to Dallas and Denver. It will be a SUPER long trip. My arrival in the states will happen about March 27th or so. I can't wait until I leave!

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

pretrip

Well, I believe I have 3 weeks left. In just a few hours I will be down to 20 days. I didn't think this would ever come so close. I don't know if I can imagine myself thousands of miles south of here is less than a month. There have been quite a few mishaps and misadventures along the way. Actually, I am still dealing with one. My deadline for being "PQ-ed" as they call it, which is just an acronym for "physically qualified," is January 5th. That is...FRIDAY! I am all set to go except I have two cavities to fill. I had a dentist appointment yesterday that was cancelled due to an unbelievable amount of snow in Trinidad. Supposedly, this is the biggest snow storm in Trinidad history. I would say they had at least 3 feet there. Well, unfortunately, that put my "PQ-ing" off until further notice.

I am beginning to panic now. What if I don't make qualification in time? What if I forgot something? What if I am not prepared enough? I really think that I might be capable of surviving this trip without much damage. (Doesn't that sound self assured?) Tomorrow I will hopefully be speeding to Trinidad to get my weak teeth filled, and then I will be ready to go!

Another thing I am hoping for is a chance to leave a couple of days earlier than the rest of the crew so I can see Christine Siddoway. She is the mentor I have had since my freshman year at Colorado College. She is the only reason I am going on this trip. I took my first geology class from her. When I found out that she did research in the Wet Mountains, I got really excited. For those of who don't know where or what the Wet Mountains are here's a clue: Greenhorn Mountain, Colorado. Greenhorn is one of my favorite places, and hearing that she spent a lot of time studying there really got me excited about geology. Anyway, back to the trip. I would like to meet Christine in New Zealand while she is there with the Colorado College senior geology majors. I think that would be great! Plus, if I go early, I get to peruse around a new country for free! When do you ever get a chance to do that?

I have just a few more preparational things on my list of to-dos. For one, I would love to write an article for the La Veta local newspaper called "The Signature." I think it would be a good inspiration for the people there. While that sounds like a very conceited thing to say, I know the folks in Walsenburg, and I am sure they all need a little push in understanding their own capabilities. If I were still a student in Walsenburg, hearing someone say they got to do research in Antarctica would make me want to try harder to be able to get to do that kind of thing. Luckily for me, I did hear a lot of inspirational stories about kids from Walsenburg who actually got out and made something of themselves, that is why I am where I am today.

Well, this was the first post, and I am sure all of you will be reading more. Maybe a few before I leave again. Now I am off to search for links to sites that will give you more "scientific" information than I am capable of at 11 pm.