My first geology field trip

LOL I'm cleaning out old drafts of posts and stumbled upon this gem from my first semester in geology.

My GLG 310 (structure) class went on 2 field trips yesterday. We left at 7:30 am and made it back early at 12:30 when I then tried to finish my outdoor lab but gave up after a bit because I could not stand the heat anymore.
The high for today is 108 degrees. I'm pretty sure it was close to that yesterday too. But even through all the sweating yesterday in the burning hot Arizona desert I think I definitely enjoyed myself.
You see, I realized yesterday that I've been a rock nerd for a long long time. I used to collect rocks out in the desert as a kid and study them. I went to the rock museum in Mesa in my youth and I remember it being my favorite museum and I still have the rock collection I got from that. Speak of which I should go take a look now that I know a little bit more about rocks.

We started our trip at a place just North of Northern Ave. in Phoenix called Dreamy Draw Park. For some reason when my professor had talked about this place in class I imagined these lovely light orange colored mountains with white layers running through them. Basically the idea of a creamsicle smothered onto a mountain. Well, it did not look like that. Up close though lots of the rocks did have a creamy orange color with white deposits. And the section of the mountains we spent the most time studying was a section of phyllite that shimmers so it was kind of a magical area.

Spring Break 2010

For a long time now I've wanted to be one of those people who goes on trips with their friends. Where nothing is planned down to the exact second and you simply take off and have fun. I believe it's beginning to happen.

So you read that and think, "oh cute little Manna wants to loosen up and go take a break"

Well, I lied. Kind of.

I tell myself those things but my mind is obsessive. Obsessive! I want times and dates and schedules and math and science and busy busy busy. So for a week I tried this chillaxin stuff and let's just say I learned a few things but structure and schedules are welcome in my life.

I went to the land of California with some of my besties. Brianna, Sarah, Stephannie, anddd now Dana
Yes, Brianna and Stephannie are indeed sisters. In fact, they're twins. Straight up yo. Matching Harkins shirts and all.

Sarah took this lovely picture while flying through the air on the teacups. True Disneyland expression right there folks.

This picture..... it seems just like another cute "Oh I'm at Disneyland on the cute little teacups in the happiest place on the earth" picture. No. Some of us don't really appreciate the teacups as much as other things but this picture was necessary. You see there is this picture on Brianna's parents' fridge of a group of lovely young people sitting in a teacup smiling back at the camera. And then there is this chubby green blob also in the teacup that pierces my dignity each and every time I see it. Needless to say, this picture is for replacing the green blob with a shadowed face although the time when that will take place is not near in the future so I suppose I will have to continue relying on strategically placing magnets on the fridge.

Hello Splash Mountain!!! Probably on my top five list of most enjoyable rides this past trip. The soggy jeans for our remaining hours at Disneyland however were not. At all.

Apparently Sarah counted and we took something like 40 or 50 group pictures like this and the one seen above. Our trip was well facially documented. BTW I'm not sure that last sentence even made sense. But it sounded cool in my head. Another BTW-- That's not Brianna's hand covering her face.

Ever wish you'd stopped eating after your first full plate of food? Yeah.... sometimes I think that too. But having the victory of eating all of Denny's largest breakfast was most certainly worth it. Even if I did go on Tower of Terror directly following this.

As Brianna and Stephannie said, why the heck are we holding hands and why is it documented? That's what you get for bringing a photography major along. But truly, I love it. Just couldn't figure out for a while why I was a foot taller than them. Stupid unlevel sand. Entirely not my fault. Entirely.

An artistic picture by Sarah. Sarah: "Hold still" Me: "Are you taking a picture of my legs?" Sarah: "yeah it's a really cool shot" Me: "Okay." Super dramatic, right?

Brianna volunteered to take the picture 'cause she don't like no sand. Oh... and Dana's initials are forged.

Long day after California Adventure and the beach. Oh yeah. Check out my weirdy in the back. I figure I need to make a couple Brianna comments seeing as how laughing at her is usually how this blog rolls.

5 dog meat tacos and 2 smoothies later we were still in Jack-in-the-Crack. Oh and news flash: Jack is married. Don't worry his kid is not an illegit little boy. Ya can't see it but Jack is definitely wearing a gold wedding band in the picture. Something I found very odd.

Dana made fun of me. All I'm gonna say is hummingbird. NEver again.

Rides are so much more fun when you throw your hands up and scream. Or in Stephannie's case laugh obnoxiously until the situation is so stupid that you really are laughing.

Not even sure what this is about. No idea at all.

Car ride to Cali-- Yes that is a Mike and Ike and yes she did eat it afterwards. Yummmmmmm. Let's just say that I'm perfectly content not being in Sarah's car again for a while. Especially not with 4 other people and an ice chest for another million hours.

Touristy cutesy lovey dovey aw ain't that sweet group picture with a letter. And ya.... I am stepping on Dana. LOL

Sunset on the beach that I never got to witness fully. *grumble grumble grumble* Someday people. Someday.

Favorite part of the trip hands down captured in this very picture. Let's just say that Brianna and gerbils don't get along while she is sleeping. And young little Koko has a 6th sense about these things and loaned Brianna her very own hamster to sleep with. Close enough, righT?

Last thing I saw before leaving "The Happiest Place on Earth" (notice the quotations because I am not so agreeable with that statement). Brianna spotted this beauty for me and let's just say I wanted to buy one and loan it out to every guy I ever date again.

THEEEEEE END.

Beaver High Adventure Base

So.... I have spent a long time writing and editing posts from Utah and all that happened this summer. I have finally come to the conclusion that it is simply not something I can write a blog about. I absolutely love working up in Beaver at the scout camp. It is my home. There is no other place where I feel so much at home or am so absolutely happy. I fall in love every day. With the people, the land, my life, the world... It is where I truly find myself dreaming in reality.

Road Trip!

This past weekend (well 2 weekends ago now) Brianna and I ............. went on a road trip up to Cedar City Utah! Experience of a lifetime. If you want to loose your sanity-- plan a long trip where you just sit in a car for hours and hours and hours and hours while listening to the same music over and over and over and over again while eating tons and tons and tons and tons of junk food. I mean, look at us. This is only 3 hours into the trip and we already look a bit more freaky than usual.

So we went on this lovely trip so that I could visit beautiful Cedar and GeOFF and my other palios from camp except I failed because I did not go to see my other friends really.

See these lovely sunglasses? Yes they are Brianna's because I'm not sure I would buy anything so.... Brianna like. Boredom encourages you to do stupid things so I ended up wearing Brianna's sunglasses for a good part of the trip even though it was pitch dark outside. They do help with blinding headlights though.

Another sign of boredom. I began to take random abstract pictures. Yep. I was glad to get out of that car. Really though....... the drive wasn't even bad at all. It seemed really short and quite honestly I wouldn't mind doing it every weekend.
Um one of the nights there we played games. I absolutely love games. I cannot even tell you how content I would be to just sit and play games for a living. Funny story: we were playing Scattergories? (I think) and got a letter O. One of the categories was American president and for the life of me I could not think of a president whose name started with the letter O. Neither could Geoff or Brianna. Then it was Casey's turn to read his answer. Obama. Imagine that.
On the way home through Cedar Canyon (now one of my more favorite places in the world) we stopped at a pull out and looked at Navajo Lake. BEAUTIFUL.
Another car pulled up and both of the people had cameras so naturally I thought, hey here are some people that will be capable of taking a picture for us. So I handed the lady my camera and asked her to take a pic. I discovered shortly after that she most likely did not speak English and I am still trying to figure out why she had a camera because she was obviously an amateur.
We also stopped at this other rest stop where Brianna announced that we would be hiking up this trail in dresses and sandals. Go Brianna.
She showed me this sandstone with names carved in it (including her initials) and I added mine too above hers.
Well, just an A actually.
On the way back Brianna got stuck on a tree. I freaking love her expression.
WE were really hungry. And bored. Imagine that.
I slid down a rail for the first time in my life! So much amazing fun.
Brianna had fun too. I think. Yes. Definitely.
Brianna had to stop and pee again so I took pictures of beautiful Arizona. Yes, I did say beautiful. I'm still trying to completely convince myself.
And my shadow. How nice.
And when I got home..... guess what I found?! I had just dyed my hair a couple of days before we left and there was a love telling me that it loves me. So absolutely tender.
The end. Ya didn't really get any pictures while we were actually in CEdar. Oh well. Great weekend. Once again I was happy. And news flash-- Brianna and I finally realized that we're adults. Wow.

Last night in Scotland

After my trip to Skye I met up with my awesome roomies back at the dorms. We had planned earlier to end the trip with a bang so we went to the third and final Hard Rock Cafe of the British Isles. It. Was. Awesome. Much better than Dublin's Hard Rock Cafe. London definitely won though. Although..... Edinburgh had the best selection of drinks. 

As you can tell it was foggy. I love fog. LOVE LOVE LOVE. EVen if it makes you think that the mountain by your dorm is burning down. 
Aw.... we're so cute. LOVE. Wow so much love in this blog. I think I am tired. And it's only 4:2 1 pm. What the heck?

Scotland Final Weekend

SO.... my dear blog readers (all 2-3 of you?) I admit (as you have most likely noticed) that I have been slacking on my blog lately. For 5 straight weeks I attempted a blog every day and made up for when I didn't. Well, now 2 months later I have decided to catch up on my blogging so I can begin to recount the most recent adventures of my life. 

Want to know what inspired me? A t-shirt. Yes that's right. I went on a spending spree to calm my nerves (but that is another blog) last Thursday and I spotted the most lovely t-shirt. Now normally, I would never buy a shirt like this one but it called to me. Plus, it was a lovely color. 

Yes this is the shirt that inspired me. Now just imagine me sitting here in Institute listening to the hum of a drinking fountain and a teacher "blah blah blah"ing while I am wearing this darling shirt and updating my blog so that I do not advertise falsehoods.

But onto the actual point of this blog- my last trip in SCOTLAND. (And I must say the best part)

Well, I decided that the last weekend I was abroad I wanted to pay for a separate tour group and visit the Isle of Skye. If you are ever in Scotland, don't leave without seeing Skye. It is absolutely beautiful and the experience of a lifetime. 

I started out the day by hopping on this bus right next door to St. Giles' Cathedral. I think there were about 18 or so of us on the tour and I must say that we got along magnificently. 

If I remember correctly this is the Firth Bridge. Incorrect. I am already wrong. I don't remember what this bridge is but it is fairly close to Doune Castle (the castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail). I remember now that we did go over the Firth of Forth Bridge but it was surrounded in fog so there will not be pictures included.

Our first stop was Stirling Castle which I had visited the previous morning but luckily we only stopped for about 10 minutes and were then on our way again.

Our next stop was I believe Glen Coe. Many Scots have a deep love for Glen Coe and I have discovered that I too am very fond of it. If you don't know the story of Glen Coe, look it up. It creates the haunting feeling of Glen Coe and can be most quickly relayed to you in the song Glen Coe. 

I appreciated these flowers. After taking tons of landscape pictures it was nice to add a little flair.

Glen Coe is just..... hauntingly beautiful
Another one of our stops along the road was to get a picture with Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in Scotland.
I have no idea where this is but I loved it. 
Scotland was my favorite place to visit. Not much that I have seen before can beat the Highlands in beauty.
Another somewhere.



Our last stop of the first day of the trip was the Eilean Donan castle. (pronounced alien doh nan) This castle is very popular for films and was in the movie Made of Honor (no I did not spell "Made" wrong) along with several other movies. If you have seen that movie- repent. If you haven't- don't see it. 
Usually there is water under the bridge but the tide was out when we were there.

We reached Skye the first night of our trip and I stayed at a B&B called Saucy Mary's which is right on the edge of Skye. History of the name-- ships used to said through the gap between Skye and Scotland (Skye is an island in case you have not realized that) and that was basically the only income that the people on Skye got from the outside world so for an added fee the wife of the man collecting ship fees would lift up her shirt and flash the crew. Hence Saucy Mary. How quaint. 
This is the area that we stayed in for the night. You can see the bridge into Skye outlined by the sky.

This is our attempt at a group picture. We sat the camera on a car and obviously the car was not level with the ground. I do like the arrow on the rode though with the tilted picture. It gives it some personality. Anyways these are the people I hung out with on the 3-day trip. In the back row is Brandon, Shekhar, me, and Goutham. In the front are Danielle and Ines. (left to right.) Shekhar and Goutham were in London to go to school and are from India. Brandon and Danielle are from New Mexico. Ines was going to school in Leeds and went on this trip before she went home to Germany.

We were visiting the harbor right across the street from Saucy Mary's and we found jellyfish in the water
After visiting the harbor we decided to hike over to the castle ruins behind me in the distance. We never figured out what the place was because the sign was all scratched up and ruined.
A view of the edge of Skye from the castle ruins
I just love the silhouette of the cross against the sunset.
Do you think they have enough lawn decor? 
Bridge into Skye.

This picture was taken at exactly midnight. It doesn't get dark in Skye in the summer. It is awesome.

The next day Paul (our awesome bus driver) asked us if we wanted to get some pictures of a waterfall. Everyone said yes so we pulled over. Well it turns out that we were supposed to just take a picture and get back in. Well we went exploring for at least half and hour. Paul told us we were like little kids. He was really laid back though so the trip was enjoyable and we got to stop and lots of awesome places along the road.

See this cute picture? I look happy...................... well that was only a temporary smile on my face. When I left my lovely seat among all of those nettles I began to hurt. A lot. You see, I did not realize that when I got up I pressed my hand against a lovely nettle plant. I don't think I will miss that again.
See the hives on my hand??????!! That was only after they started going away. Imagine that times 3
This was one of the most beautiful places I went to. It is known as Kilt Rock. Between the waterfall and steep cliffs, tropical blue water, and lush green land, I was completely won over. 
The cliffs next to Kilt Rock
We drove to the top of this hill/mountain which tours don't usually do but since it was abnormally clear outside we decided to go for it. BTW, Isle of Skye means Island of Mist so it is supposed to always be raining and foggy. But not for my trip. Blue skies all the way. But since when is that different from the ENTIRE study abroad trip? Not that I'm really complaining... :)
Shekhar, me, Ines, and Goutham. 

See the huts? Yeah that is a museum that was closed for the day. I was so happy. I got so tired of museums

The second night we stayed right next to Loch Ness. We had dinner at the main building where we were staying. It was delicious. I had this chicken noodle stuff that had some weird name that I have never heard of but apparently it is a common thing in Europe.

The next morning we went Nessie hunting out on Loch Ness and this picture has Urquart Castle in the background

Me, Ines, and Goutham on the boat out on Loch Ness

My group. SO.... I just counted and there are 19 tourists and 1 bus driver. I guess I was pretty close with the 18.

This is a place similar to Stonehenge that is not recognized for it's importance. It is about as old as Stonehenge and they are still trying to figure out the meaning of all of it. This place was not a location that we were planning on going to. We were going to go to Culloden battlefield but it was closed for a couple hours for "security" problems. We found out later that the Queen was visiting. Sheesh she was everywhere just following me around.

The last stop before we got home was on a bridge overlooking River Garry. Beautiful view.

Here ya go-

See..... people actually recycle some places in the world. The U.S. makes me want to cry for their poor recycling habits. Every time I get a plastic bag with my one item purchase at Walmart I want to slap the cashier's hand for wasting bags.

This is Paul my amazing bus driver. 

Then I went back to my dorm. The End.