This was just the beginning of my amazing adventure that I've had so far. On Sunday, I relaxed, got settled into my dorm, and got to visit my lovely friend Allie and her (who I met for the first time) nice boyfriend, Chris. I appreciate them for letting me into their home and making me feel welcome. I also did some grocery shopping on Sunday.
On Monday, I started my week-long class, Geology 560: Geology of the Yellowstone Volcanic Center. Monday was full of direct instruction, which although it wasn't the most exciting thing, I learned a lot and the information was important to have before traveling to Yellowstone. All of my classmates (11 others) had background in geology.. a lot more than I did. I didn't even know Yellowstone was a volcano until I had cracked open my textbook a few weeks before I came. It's pretty ridiculous how large the volcano has erupted in the past, and it is due for an eruption soon (relative to geologic time... like 40,000 years).
On Tuesday we hopped in some vans and went to Yellowstone. I have to say, Yellowstone is THE most humbling place I have ever been to. Some people say scientists don't or can't believe in God because it's contradictory, but I can't see how Yellowstone is even possible without intelligent design. It's such an amazing and beautiful place. Everything is just so... large! Yet, there are some amazing microscopic organisms at work and forces that are underneath the ground we can't even see. We were in Yellowstone for two days. We stayed Tuesday night at Super 8 in Gardiner, MT. I was excited to room with a girl from CWU... she was the only other person from the west side of the Rockies :) and it turns out, we went to Central at the same time. It was cool to have someone to really relate to (and someone who would pronounce Fuca the correct way... not Fooka like everyone east of the Rockies. lol) During the two days, we saw so many great things, including: the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (so unreal looking.. my favorite place in Yellowstone!!), mud and paint pots, geysers GALORE (no, Old Faithful is NOT the only geyser! The tallest geyser in the world, Steamboat Geyser, is in Yellowstone... 4x taller than Old Faithful), I saw Old Faithful erupt, hot springs, a black bear mama and her cub, another black bear, a grizzly bear (oh my!), TONS of bison, deer and elk, a black wolf, a few coyotes, and so much more. Oh, and we also saw quite a few really cool rock formations (I guess that was the main reason we were there, lol!). On Thursday and Friday, we had time to work on a really cool research project.... I made my first Prezi (an amped-up PowerPoint) on my topic.... I researched what would happen to the relationships among nations in the case of the next Yellowstone eruption. I learned some super interesting things about how nations interact after natural disasters.
On Saturday, two new friends (Paula.. a super nice woman who teaches at the school in D.C. where the Obama girls go.... and Amanda... a cool girl who teaches in Ohio, she cracks me up.) and I went on a hike to the College M on the side of a hill, and then went to Norris Hot Springs. It was quite the "swanky" place, as we called it... it was cool to soak in naturally hot water (even though it was 91* out on that day)... to our relief, there were sprinklers giving off cold water over the hot springs. I got to meet some other MSSE students, including a girl that will be in my class next week. After Norris, we came back to Bozeman and went to the Pickle Barrel for some ice cream.. yumm... I went to my dorm to catch up and get ahead on my online course homework, then later in the evening met back up with my new friends at "Shakespeare in the Park." I'm not too keen on Shakespeare, but it was a cool experience. It was mostly just relaxing to sit out on a blanket in the lawn and watch a play.
Today, Sunday... I woke up early and went grocery shopping for next week. Then Paula, Amanda, Stephanie (another new friend I haven't mentioned yet... from Chicago.. she's hilarious and incredibly nice, and reminds me of my teaching friend Kristen...), and myself went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. They were SOOOO amazing!! I learned the history of how they were discovered (no, not by Lewis and Clark) and cool facts about how they were explored early on. I have to admit, my heart was beating quite fast every time I thought about the potential for the caverns to collapse... however, being in the caverns was a really nice, COLD break from the scorching heat outside. There was a fun little natural slide that we got to go down to get from one cavern room to another... there were lots of tight squeezes we had to bend down to get through.... at one point, we were 1 mile high but still below ground, so that was cool. At another point, the tour guide turned off all lights so we could experience TOTAL darkness. I thought it was cool for about 5 seconds and then started panicking inside.. haha
This week, I get to go back to Yellowstone and camp for 2 nights while I take the class: Ecology of Yellowstone Lake. I get to capture microscopic organisms and bring them back to the lab to identify their sex. Sounds fun because we will be wading up to our chests in the lake. The campground is prime grizzly habitat, which I'm a little nervous for (in fact, the trout runs are just finishing up so they JUST opened up the campground figuring the grizzlies will be leaving soon), but I do have my bear spray if I need it!
I almost forgot, I'm really enjoying learning so much about other parts of the US, including the types of animals we don't see west of the Rockies... such as the Uinta ground squirrel (looks like a mini-Prairie dog... they're about as common as our chipmunks and squirrels), and magpies. They are beautiful birds but highly "sqwauky" and they seem to be like our crows.
Overall, I am having such a blast! I'm learning a lot, seeing spectacular sights, and making great friends! Below, I have attached a small selection of my favorite pictures so far...
