Ely trip and Lake Superior Geology Conference
Back home! Yay!
Not going to write a big summary cause a whole bunch of stuff happened and I'm lazy like that. I will however give bullet points.
* Ely is pretty. Now I know where these mysterious "Boundary Waters" I've heard so much about are.
* Ely is rather far north; this means that it snowed yesterday. All day. No, seriously. Which is of course the only day we were outside from 8 am to 7 pm. I got very very chilled and ended up hiding in the van for the last three stops.
* Soudan Mine is *awesome*. And freaking *HUGE*! We were a half a mile under ground and they had a room bigger than my parents house, which is, by the way, a full-sized farm house with two stories, a basement and an attic. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if two of my parents houses fit in that sucker. Big Honking Room was also the home of their underground physics lab, so it was extremely well lit and modernized. They are studying neutrinos. And cosmic rays. And other cool stuff.
* Minerals and the processes of rock formations are pretty much completely over my head, so yesterday when we were out doing the Greenstone Belt field trip (which involved driving around looking at rock faces. In the snow. All freaking day) I did not have a good time, not even a little bit (though I will admit that the last rock face we looked at was pretty cool). I did, however, find a pretty agate, so it wasn't a complete failure.
* Listened to lectures most of the day Thursday. Some of them were pretty cool; most of them were, again, completely over my head. I did, however, still kind of enjoy Thursday because I actually like listening to lectures and taking notes and stuff.
* Our hotel room was spiffy. Very rustic-looking with a really big bathroom compared to most hotel rooms.
Over all, I think the trip was worth it. Could've done without standing in the cold freezing my butt off listening to some geologists talk about stuff I really didn't care about, but otherwise, it was a really good experience. And it will look good on my resume, which is always good.
Not going to write a big summary cause a whole bunch of stuff happened and I'm lazy like that. I will however give bullet points.
* Ely is pretty. Now I know where these mysterious "Boundary Waters" I've heard so much about are.
* Ely is rather far north; this means that it snowed yesterday. All day. No, seriously. Which is of course the only day we were outside from 8 am to 7 pm. I got very very chilled and ended up hiding in the van for the last three stops.
* Soudan Mine is *awesome*. And freaking *HUGE*! We were a half a mile under ground and they had a room bigger than my parents house, which is, by the way, a full-sized farm house with two stories, a basement and an attic. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if two of my parents houses fit in that sucker. Big Honking Room was also the home of their underground physics lab, so it was extremely well lit and modernized. They are studying neutrinos. And cosmic rays. And other cool stuff.
* Minerals and the processes of rock formations are pretty much completely over my head, so yesterday when we were out doing the Greenstone Belt field trip (which involved driving around looking at rock faces. In the snow. All freaking day) I did not have a good time, not even a little bit (though I will admit that the last rock face we looked at was pretty cool). I did, however, find a pretty agate, so it wasn't a complete failure.
* Listened to lectures most of the day Thursday. Some of them were pretty cool; most of them were, again, completely over my head. I did, however, still kind of enjoy Thursday because I actually like listening to lectures and taking notes and stuff.
* Our hotel room was spiffy. Very rustic-looking with a really big bathroom compared to most hotel rooms.
Over all, I think the trip was worth it. Could've done without standing in the cold freezing my butt off listening to some geologists talk about stuff I really didn't care about, but otherwise, it was a really good experience. And it will look good on my resume, which is always good.