Everything came from rocks

I have a lot of, well, stuff.  In an ongoing quest to not have so much of this stuff, a few weeks ago I went through the 8 boxes of pretty much everything I did ever in school, from kindergarten all the way though college, and recycled a large mass of papers.  For some reason, at one point in time, I felt it necessary to hold onto the following things:

• AP Chemistry tests.  These are tests from a class I was failing and dropped out of in high school.  Needless to say, most of these tests read something to the effect of 43/80 or D+ at the top; why I had wanted to ever be reminded of this class is beyond me.
• Mostly illegible french notes, as if one day I'd want to relearn french from some smeary, scribbled pages ripped from a notebook.
• Acceptance/rejection letters from colleges I didn't go to.
• Pretty much every worksheet I ever filled out in elementary school.  I mean, I enjoy seeing some of my original art projects, but I don't think I need to keep proof I could do basic addition or connect-the-dots in grade school.

I also kept a myriad of notes and handouts from various classes, vocab workbooks, spelling tests, scrap paper I drew smiley faces all over, and this list I entitled "Rocks" and wrote on May 27 of an unknown year (I left in my spelling errors):

• Everything came from rocks
• 3,000 (a little over) minirals 14,000 names
• 9 classafacations witch minirals are grouped in
• 3 groups: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic
• 9 common Elements: O, Si, Al, Fe, CA, NA, K, Mg, Ti
• 250 named rocks
• Eat rocks for breakfeast, lunch, and dinner
• Glass comes from quarts
• pencil lead = carbon
• kitty litter is made of a rock called Vesicular Tuff because it was absurbant.

As far as I can tell in the context where I found this list, it wasn't actually for a class.  I guess there was a little geologist in me as a kid and Geo in the Field wasn't my first introduction to the subject.  Also, I like that eating rocks for every meal made it on my list.

In which my high school French came in handy for something other than crosswords

Tonight at de Vere's Irish Pub Pub Quiz, my team placed 7th and actually won a prize for the first time:

Yes that is a single packing peanut in our shot glass.

Yes, we won one shot glass for five people and it was decided I should keep it and bring it to South Africa with me as a reminder of the 9 pub quizzes I will sadly miss.  But I will be on a ship on the ocean doing geology, so I think I'll be ok.  And there was a geology question tonight, albeit an easy one (what is the name of the super continent during the paleozoic? a super continent that apparently has a myspace?).  Anyway, pub quiz was a good time as always, but that much sweeter since we won something!

Straight floatin' on a boat on the deep blue sea

In a little less than three months, I will be on a boat.  Specifically the R/V Melville:

"During a career now in its fourth decade, Melville has cruised over almost all the World's oceans in the pursuit of scientific knowledge."

And why, you might ask?  Well a fellow Carleton AND Williams-Mystic alum is getting her PhD in marine geology at OSU and her lab needed volunteers for a dredging and mapping cruise of the coast of- get this- South Africa!  So at the start of February 2012, I will be flying to Cape Town and embarking on a two month research cruise, all expenses paid.  Hooray for science funding!

Among other things, I'm ridiculously excited to:

1. be on a ship (on the ocean!)
2. do geology again
3. see penguins in the wild (or at least I hope we're in Cape Town long enough for me to do so).

There will undoubtably be more blog posts on this topic as the trip gets closer and I get more information, so stay tuned!  I might have to change the name to A is for the Atlantic!